Crawfords & Football
Partick Thistle
Football Club began in 1876 when James Crawford was only 9 years old. During the
first 33 years, the team moved premises but they were still the team which would
be supported by the Crawford's living at Maryhill.
It seems that all
the senior members of the family believe that James' and his son John both played for Partick
Thistle. As so many have some recollection of that, there must be some truth to
it. The football team would have been at Firhill by the time John was old enough
to play for them.
A brief history of
Partick Thistle can be found here
http://www.ptfc.co.uk/v2/
During 1921-1922 Partick Thistle were 6th
in the Scottish First Division and John Crawford had 5 appearances but
scored no goals during this one and only season.
The record shows that John Crawford played at
No 11 (left wing) on 5 occasions.
Seems to back up the anecdotal evidence from
the ‘auld yins’
(further information can be found at the site
listed above as well as their book)
James' son Robert
was shot in the leg during WW1 when he was only about 17 years old. This would
have ended any potential football career when he came home. However, he trained
local teams when the family moved through to Devonside, Tillicoultry,
Clackmannanshire. The Tillicoultry juvenile team was called Devonvale.
Robert was a great singer - what has that to do with football??? After the wars
money was tight but the team had enough money to pay for a bus to take them to
Bridge of Allan to play, but not any left to bring them home again. Robert took
to the streets singing. There was then enough money to bring them all home and I
think there was mention of chips as well ! I guess the team had won the match
which made the singing cheerier!!! Robert had family members in the Cowdenbeath
area and he used to visit them as well as having some connection to the football
in that area as well. It is known that Allan McFadyen used to
cycle all the way through from Maryhill to Tillicoultry to play football - he
must have been very fit and remember, bikes were not what we have today!
 This
is the Devonvale Team which won the County Juvenile League Cup in June 1934.
They beat Tulliallan Thistle 4-3 at the 'Recs' Ground in Alloa.
Back row
(left to right) — Jimmy Hughes, Bob Borland, Morris Dewar, To, Cook, Alan
McFadyen, Bob Crawford (trainer).
Seated —
Alex Leishman, Tom Forsyth, Davie Smith, Jackie Gray, Ian McKinnon and Jimmy
Drummond.
Alan
McFadyen was from Maryhill, Glasgow and was the one who cycled through to play!
Davie Smith went on to play for Plymouth Argyle's when war broke out. He joined
the Argyll's and played against other forces teams.
(Now that
I have a dateline to work from, I will be looking for any other information on
the teams around this period)
Robert's son James
played for Carlisle during the war. The team were depleted due to members on war
duty and James was in the area due to being in the RAF. He earned something in
the region of 10/- a week for playing for them - wow all of 50p - still a fair
bit of money then but not a patch on player wages these days.
If anyone has any
stories about the Devonvale and Glen Albion Football teams, I would love to know
about them.
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