Old pitches from yester-year

Was out for a walk this evening and walked through the queen's Park recreation ground.

Reminiscing about playing bb football there 35 years ago, I was a good player back then.

About how the 7 pitches would be full from saturday morning until the afternoon and the same on Sundays. In summer you would sometimes get midweek games there. Remember playing a cup replay there on a Wednesday night and winning 3-1.

Was few better sights than a summers day with every pitch with a game in progress.

The old changing rooms are still there but the pitches are sadly long gone as has any football talent I once had.
Aerial pic from 1954, a couple of the pitches have a game going on.

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The Plots black ash pitches in Kinning Park. I remember going there as a lad one afternoon and it was mobbed with folk on the sidelines. A 3pm kick off would see loads of folk go along to watch the like of Plantation Hearts after the pubs shut at half two.

I was too young to play on them with a team but I'm sure @Jan Wyck is a Plots veteran.
 
The pitches inside Springburn Park were the BB's choice of character building at the Balornock end for Football

The only other Ash pitch over the other side of Springburn Road was in The Carn Scheme which the locals from Memel St/Hawthorn St would claim as their own different gangs as well added to the fun .

The Broomie pitches Broomfield Road in Barmulloch/Balornock East had loads of pitches tight as a drum between each pitch it's actually annoying that GCC let these pitches go to rack & ruin becoming a flooding problem they were regularly used as we grew up now it's virtually grassed off along Bromfield road ditto Springburn park.
 
Played on Rugby Park
Glasgow Schools v Ayrshire, won 3-0.

Best Park I've played on, great grass pitch, there never was a game postponed through snow, frost or waterlogging. Stupid decision to make Scotlands best weatherproof pitch plastic.
Thats why we now have their Groundsman.
 
Our BB played at Croftfoot Recs. 2ash pitches one grass. A few amateur teams played there too. Croftfoot AFC used it as their home ground and King's Park Rangers and Park Royal used it occasionally. There was a fence separated it from the Spittal pitches which were both grass. Our school played there(Spittal) ,which was strange since the pitches were in Rutherglen and our school was in Glasgow.
Croftfoot Recs is now houses and I think the Spittal pitches are part of the same development.
Randomly my abiding memory of playing there was finding an almost pristine pair or Chris Woods Reusch gloves propped against a post before a game, they were snagged. Makes up for all the pairs i lost over the years.
 
January, in the wall waiting for a free kick to be hit, BANG!! He hits the free kick......... as it comes straight towards your head you instinctively duck to get your head out the way, you breath an enormous sigh of relief as it misses your ear by a baw hair..............3 seconds later....... it hasnt missed, its skiffed your ear on the way past....."YA BASSSSSTTTTTAAARRRRRDDDDDDDDDD" o_Oo_O
Try being the keeper o_O
 
Westwoodhill pitches in EK was the central point between my mates houses and my own so we always met up there as kids. Old blaes pitches where we'd always play. Either at one of the goals or if it had been raining heavily, we'd use the changing pavilion windows for target practice. Usually at least 3 or 4 amateur games there on a weekend and we'd stand and watch.

Only ever played 2 proper games there myself as my club tended to play our games at nearby Dunedin pitches or Brancumhall on the other side of town. On one of the occasions we played at Westwoodhill I curled a belter into the top bin with my left foot.

Pitches and pavillion are still there but are overgrown with weeds now. Shame as used to be very well used back in the day. Incidentally, I believe they can still be booked - not sure the council have actually seen the pitches in the last 20 years :eek:
Lived in Rockhampton Avenue and the Westwoodhill pitches struck fear into me with the black ash.Rip you to shreds!
Played there with the BB and Claremont.Saturday nights was fight night down a Westwoodhill.Meeting point of Greenhills,Westwood and the Murray.Ah the good old days
 
Played in quite a few pitches in and around Glasgow - Springburn Park, Broomfield, Cowlairs, Glen Connor, 50 Pitches, Glasgow Green, Pollock, Nether Pollock, Lincoln Avenue, Colston ++

All those memories of one shower per dressing room, alternating between freezing cold or scalding water!!

Beyond Glasgow - Huntershill, Mavis Valley, Kenmure Mens Own (when standing on the penalty spot at bottom goal you where 2 foot above crossbar!! Twechar, The Luggie
 
Lived in Rockhampton Avenue and the Westwoodhill pitches struck fear into me with the black ash.Rip you to shreds!
Played there with the BB and Claremont.Saturday nights was fight night down a Westwoodhill.Meeting point of Greenhills,Westwood and the Murray.Ah the good old days
Rockhampton Ave, lived there for a few years late 70s early 80s. The Westwoodhill pitches were a meeting ground for every c*nt from the surrounding area, great days.
 
Kirklandneuk pitches in Renfrew. The parks were lined on a Friday night with sawdust and the nets put up for the games the following day. I used to love scoring a goal into the nets, not that I did it very often!
 
King George v pitches at Boydstone Rd, only if the tide was out!! always flooded at the top end. Remember you had to go up to the school to get changed then going down the hill with metal studs, good slide going.
WATP
 
Played churches football for Blairbeth Rutherglen we had grass pitch but you had to wash in the burn at time up as hall had no facilities. Frosty day you had to break the ice to wash, also still got ash in my legs from sliding tackles as someone said THOSE WERE THE DAYS
 
Anyone remember the red ash pitch down in govan next to the shipyard?

im sure it was called strathalmond or something like that. Played there many a time with my boys club
 
Used to be two cracking pitches at Seedhill in Paisley where they used to play a lot of finals there.

I only played in one lol
 
Our BB played at Croftfoot Recs. 2ash pitches one grass. A few amateur teams played there too. Croftfoot AFC used it as their home ground and King's Park Rangers and Park Royal used it occasionally. There was a fence separated it from the Spittal pitches which were both grass. Our school played there(Spittal) ,which was strange since the pitches were in Rutherglen and our school was in Glasgow.
Croftfoot Recs is now houses and I think the Spittal pitches are part of the same development.

Had a wee burn behind one of the goals if memory serves me right.
 
Used to play there quite often as a kid with the Glasgow Amateurs. Always seem to remember it being wet and full of puddles.

Played most games on the ash at Toryglen. There was one grass park but the only youth teams that got to play on it was the RSABC & them.

Even back then you could look on in awe as the Rangers boys would turn up in club blazers
 
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Our BB played at Croftfoot Recs. 2ash pitches one grass. A few amateur teams played there too. Croftfoot AFC used it as their home ground and King's Park Rangers and Park Royal used it occasionally. There was a fence separated it from the Spittal pitches which were both grass. Our school played there(Spittal) ,which was strange since the pitches were in Rutherglen and our school was in Glasgow.
Croftfoot Recs is now houses and I think the Spittal pitches are part of the same development.
Played for Croftfoot Primary on the Recs also we used the ash pitch at Netherton in Castlemilk.Sad to see the pitches all used for housing now.Played on pitches all over Glasgow for Kings Park Secondary and a number of games for Croftfoot Amateurs.
Loved playing for the school even on the freezing Saturday mornings at Toryglen on the red ASH with a mouldy.
 
Anyone ever play at Busby. Two cracking grass pitches side by side but a massive Hill behind the goals that took about 10 mins to get the ball back?
 
Cowan parks borrheid , absolutely horrendous if you were on the slope and the changing rooms with the stone floor and shower

Character building stuff :)
 
Knightswood pitches next to the golf course, been turned into a place for mountain bikes /skate board freaks,
Black Ash. I remember going home and having to get the nail brush into the gravel rash. My school had their own piches at Blairdardie. Red ash BB played where they could hire a pitch which was normally Knightswood or Whiteinch. Big memory was at Knightswood for an away game so their referee. I went for a ball and took it round a player. He just took me out where I glided across the black ash. I had a gravel rash over most of my thigh. The referee came up to me and said " You were just a bit too quick for him son. Great!
 
Played for Croftfoot Primary on the Recs also we used the ash pitch at Netherton in Castlemilk.Sad to see the pitches all used for housing now.Played on pitches all over Glasgow for Kings Park Secondary and a number of games for Croftfoot Amateurs.
Loved playing for the school even on the freezing Saturday mornings at Toryglen on the red ASH with a mouldy.
im sure netherton were one of the few primary schools with 2 pitches,nitshill had 2 or 3 from memory
 
Greenock High School BB games. Seemed like it was always frozen. Played in goal, split my elbow diving onto a stone, but didn't really feel it as until I got home as it was so bloody cold.

If you were in goal at the IBM end, there was nothing behind the goal (or any nets in the goal) so any shot at all resulted in the keeper spending more time running to retrieve the ball than actually playing the game :oops:

Bayview in Gourock was perched on a hill where the wind would cut you in half.

Shudder to think of the "Mitre Tattoos" :oops:

The good old days.
 
Think it was Dunedin where I played a match against East Kilbride district BB - I was playing for Cathcart district - think we won 6-1.

Playing for the district team felt like you were playing for Scotland - we even had dark blue tops.

We had three really outstanding players in that team - two guys from the 83rd BB (which was my BB) and one guy from the 231st BB.
83rd was my company section captained by the magnificent Mr Walls who incidentally booked me playing for Croftfoot many years later. Neil "Cuno" Connell managed the morning team which I played for and I think Burnsy ran the afternoon team. Brilliant memories.
 
Black Ash. I remember going home and having to get the nail brush into the gravel rash. My school had their own piches at Blairdardie. Red ash BB played where they could hire a pitch which was normally Knightswood or Whiteinch. Big memory was at Knightswood for an away game so their referee. I went for a ball and took it round a player. He just took me out where I glided across the black ash. I had a gravel rash over most of my thigh. The referee came up to me and said " You were just a bit too quick for him son. Great!
Played on Black Ash/Coals many a time as a youngster. You didnt really care what the surface was back then as the game of football was everything. Spoilt little brats nowadays.
 
All our primary school games were up at Nethercraigs, I reckon I've still got some of the red ash under the extra layers of skin on my arse!
Used to get it out with a scrubbing brush in the bath after a game :eek: (mid 1970's). Not something I'm likely to forget.
 
im sure netherton were one of the few primary schools with 2 pitches,nitshill had 2 or 3 from memory
Might have been mate,I played a lot of games on Castlemilk pitches.I remember playing against Grange a guy called Alex O'Hara tripped me up off the ball,that introduced me to the dark arts of the game,he went on to play for Rangers:)
 
Our BB played at Croftfoot Recs. 2ash pitches one grass. A few amateur teams played there too. Croftfoot AFC used it as their home ground and King's Park Rangers and Park Royal used it occasionally. There was a fence separated it from the Spittal pitches which were both grass. Our school played there(Spittal) ,which was strange since the pitches were in Rutherglen and our school was in Glasgow.
Croftfoot Recs is now houses and I think the Spittal pitches are part of the same development.
Used to play there. I remember the black Ash pitch well.
 
Red ash was easier in the rain, or if it had been raining. If it was dry and hard the ball would be harder to control. Wet red ash was okay, if a little mucky.
 
Having grown up in Perthshire and never played on red ash pitches, are they all gone now?
Presumably in and around Glasgow there is now a fraction of the numbers of pitches for kids to play on that there used to be
 
Having grown up in Perthshire and never played on red ash pitches, are they all gone now?
Presumably in and around Glasgow there is now a fraction of the numbers of pitches for kids to play on that there used to be

Pretty much redundant now with synthetic/ 4G pitches coming in. The ash pitches where I grew up are overgrown with weeds. A few of them look to be converted to a grass in fact.

Problem with the synthetic pitches though is that they can get easily damaged with vandalism and are expensive to repair. Consequently, they get locked up thanks to wee fannies.
 
Parklea in Port Glasgow. 6 red blaze parks were full every saturday and Sunday. Hated the blaze, think I still have the scars to show from them
 
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