Down Memory Lane

Apr 1 2010 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

Down Memory Lane

HAMILTON Caledonian Bowling Club directors decided to open the final season on the ‘old’ green on May 5. Two new greens were to be built on a site secured from His Grace the Duke of Hamilton on the Edinburgh Road, and work was to start immediately so that the turf would be ready for May, 1911.

AN incident on the railway which “caused the hair of Carluke travellers on the 9.14 train to stand on end with vague notions of Anarchist outrage” was simply explained. A too vigorous swipe of an improvised bat by a “frolicsome apprentice” playing cricket during the breakfast hour caused part of it to break off and strike a carriage window as the train passed. Although it went through both windows of a first-class compartment, nobody was injured.

WHILE it was too early to describe it as “cause and effect”, the County Police reported that during the first week of a new 30mph limit restriction, total road accidents in the county fell by half.

SEVERAL people in Hamilton who received handwritten postcards from Milan, Vienna and Berlin, extolling a performance of ‘La Tosca’ at the Opera House, Milan, the Tzigane band’s performance in Vienna and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, signed by an unknown ‘friend’ called Charlie, found out it was a clever marketing ploy by a tourist agency. One Hamilton family, however, who received an anonymous gift of theatre tickets for an opera in town, accompanied by a note inscribed with “guess who frae”, attended the show and returned to find their home had been ransacked by housebreakers.

A COUNTY teacher, with some hilarity, reported that he had to tell one of his young pupils that the child’s resignation wouldn’t help the school’s problem of overcrowding.

A RARE and somewhat unexpected honour came to the quiet village of Wiston, almost hidden deep in the Upper Ward. In a letter from the commanding officer of one of Britain’s new ultra-modern minesweepers, Rev. Martin Simpson of Wiston and Roberton Church learned that the ship had been named HMS Wiston. A group from the village was invited to witness the commissioning of the vessel.

MOROCCO won the individual championship at an international cross-country race over Hamilton Racecourse. England won the team championship and Scotland came fifth.

MURDO Grove’s visit to his brother and his wife took an unexpected twist – 20 minutes later he had delivered a baby boy. Mr Grove (Labour) of Auldton Terrace, Ashgill, was to oppose his brother William (SNP) at the next District Council elections, but when he visited his Netherburn home the pair worked together when Willie’s wife went into labour.

A CROWD of just 500 turned up at Hamilton Town Hall to watch Deep Purple, described as “one of the country’s best-known progressive groups”. Promoter Andy Lothian was undaunted and although he admitted the attendance at the 1200-seater hall was disappointing he said the band – who by this point had played huge concerts in America – were pleased with the response. Mr Lothian planned another concert at the Town Hall by a band called Tyranosaurus Rex!

AFTER 13 weeks the steel strike was over... but the return to work didn’t bring peace to Lanarkshire. Local strikers were “bitterly disappointed,” and a spokesman said they would have stayed out for another month.

At Ravenscraig over 1000 craftsmen returned on Wednesday with the 9000-strong steel workforce returning the next day. Each man was paid £50 by the BSC, while an extensive inspection of the blast furnaces began on Wednesday after being damped down for three months.

AN UDDINGSTON couple, both pensioners, were told by a Government agency to restore to its original state the roof of a byre adjoining their 200-year-old Easter Farm home, to be in keeping with the rest of the listed building.

DETECTIVES were hunting a man who attacked passengers with an axe on a bus in Hamilton. It occurred on the No. 67 Blantyre-Motherwell bus as it was travelling down Clydesdale Street. Police said a man stood up as if to get off the bus and – for no apparent reason – spat at another passenger. A scuffle developed and other passengers, among them two Motherwell College students, tried to assist the man who had been spat at. At that point, the attacker began swinging a small Stanley-type axe which he had pulled from a holdall. One 16-year-old student received a small cut to his hand which needed five stitches.

ANGRY Hamilton Accies fans demanded the resignation of controlling shareholder Jim Watson after Saturday’s players’ strike heaped further humiliation on the beleaguered club. The walk-out over unpaid wages was the last straw for supporters, who were already bitter at Watson’s running of the club and an on-going new stadium debacle.

The first-team squad failed to turn up for a Second Division match at Stenhousemuir on Saturday – meaning the club was likely to be punished by the Scottish Football League – and a match at Alloa on Tuesday only went ahead when wages were paid. The Scottish Professional Footballers’ Association said the strike resulted from “the fifth occasion in six months when wages were not paid on time.”