A PROUD HISTORY

the history of cambuslang rugby club

the early days

On 7 August 1903, a meeting was held under the Presidency of the late H. Shepherd, Esq., at which it was decided to form a Rugby Club at Cambuslang.

The Club commenced playing at Greenlees Farm, and under the guidance of Mr. Shepherd and the benevolent auspices of the late Dr. T. D. Laird, its Honorary President, went from strength to strength until the beginning of the 1914–1918 War. During this period, the Club progressed to the extent of running two teams and of raising funds and building a small Clubhouse.

During the same period, there was in existence, the Cambuslang Cricket Club, which was then under the wing of the late J. S. Paul, esq. For some time the two Clubs worked together, but owing to the difficulty of finding a field which the farmer did not require in the summer time, no permanent arrangement was made and indeed the Rugby Club itself had, latterly, to change its ground to a field at Eastfield.

All through this period the Club took a leading place in sport in the West of Scotland, and was a member of the Old Football Union. It was only natural that after the Armistice, the Club should revive. For a short period the club played at Greenlees Farm but in 1921 a lease of the ground at Coats Park was arranged and the Club took up residence in what was to become its permanent home. At this time, with a ground of its own, the Club joined up with the Cricket Club, and was re-constituted as the “Cambuslang Athletic Club.” In addition to Rugby and Cricket, there were sections for Hockey, and at one time, Association Football. The Cricket Club, under the guidance of C.W.Gibb, Esq., progressed from strength to strength and was only eclipsed by a halcyon period in the Rugby Section’s history when stalwarts such as G. Marquand, Dan Spence, the Lairds and other illustrious figures brought much credit and kudos to the Club’s name.

the history of cambuslang rugby club

the post-war years

In 1947–48 the club was back at Coats Park with two XV’s again playing their traditional round of friendly games. The area at the back of the wooden clubhouse around the bath was completely rotten and this was replaced by a brick building.

In 1953 a memorable dinner was held in the former Cambuslang Golf Clubhouse in Clydeford Road to celebrate 50 years of the club.

The whole of the old clubhouse, a 1914–1918 ex-army hut, was becoming increasingly dilapidated and required more and more maintenance. In 1957 a former player Kenny Walker enlisted nine senior club members and each of them loaned the club £100 each and with this £1,000 the shell of a new clubhouse was built.

The internal divisions were built by the players themselves. It was very basic. At one end there was a large dressing room for the home teams and two smaller rooms for visitors, in the middle there was a tea room with the kitchen off it and at the other end a changing room for the ladies hockey team with a toilet and shower.

The brick extension at the rear housed a couple of showers and a sunken team bath. This bath had originally been tiled but over the years the tiles had broken and been removed leaving a rough concrete surface. For some obscure design reason there was an open roofed area which housed a unique urinal, composed of a length of ogee guttering with a household tap at one end. It was primitive but it worked. Water was heated by a coal boiler, which had to be lit and stoked on match days. After four teams had washed in the bath the consistency and colour of the water was similar to that of the pitches muddy and black. Being last in was no fun.

When no rugby was being played the hockey girls used the team bath much to the delight of the groundsman who had a peep-hole through from the kitchen ostensibly so he could control the filling of the bath.

What is now Langlea Road was only a farm track leading to Whitlawburn Farm and bounded with a high hawthorn hedge. The balls convener was kept busy as the thorns were always puncturing balls. Sometimes four were required in the course of a single game.

In 1957 Coats Park Colliery, which was situated on the site of the present 3rd XV pitch, closed. This area was an industrial wilderness with a massive bing, railway lines, rusty machinery and derelict buildings. However in time this was all removed. The Whitlaw Burn which ran at the back of our pitches was piped in and the bing was bulldozed and grass sown.

Around this time there was an upsurge of interest in the club and the number of players increased until the club was regularly fielding four senior XV’s. It was felt that the clubs traditional strip of claret and amber horizontal stripes was too similar to that of Glasgow High School and West of Scotland so the present jersey based on an old established tie design was adopted.

the history of cambuslang rugby club

the present day

When the national leagues started in 1973 the club narrowly escaped being in the District rather than the National League. We slowly managed to improve our playing standard from Division VI in 1975/76 to Division V in 1977/78, to Division IV in 1980/81, (when Currie were in the VII Division), then in 1983/84 the giddy heights of finishing fourth in Division III which is the highest we have ever managed.