You have to grow a particularly thick skin to be a Scottish
sports supporter. Individual Scots occasionally pull off marvels and I have
been watching Andy Murray win Wimbledon, a thrilling match and a tremendous
feat after 77 years waiting for a British Men’s’ tennis champion. Sir Chris Hoy
too is an eminent gold-medalled Olympian cyclist but like Murray he was flying
his own colours rather than those of his native Scotland.
Somehow when the Saltire flutters and the Lion Rampant
roars, the blue-shirted Scots fail to engage their top gear. Abundant talent on
paper does not easily translate into victories on the ground. Take football,
Scotland’s national game. Between 1950 and 1970 Scotland, in what in retrospect
was a Golden Age, produced players of surpassing quality. The dazzling Hibs
trio of Lawrie Reilly, Willie Ormond and Gordon Smith: towering centre half
George Young and later Jock Stein: deadly winger Graham Leggat and
crowd-pleasers Wee Willie Henderson and “Jinky” Jimmy Johnstone; uncompromising
midfielders Bobby Collins and Dave Mackay; playmaker John “The Ghost” White;
incomparable Denis Law: goal machines like Joe Baker and Alan Gilzean; dozens
of other masters yet their results were mixed. An admittedly fine English side
was hard to beat but England 7 Scotland 2 in 1955 was followed by England 9
Scotland 3 in 1961 - moments of acute pain and embarrassment.
 |
| Dave Mackay makes a point to Billy Bremner |
Scottish club sides won honours in Europe. Celtic
ecstatically beating Inter Milan 2-1 in Lisbon in 1967 to seize the European
Cup: wins for Rangers (3-2) against Dynamo Moscow in Barcelona in 1972 in the
EUFA Cup (followed by “the worst public disorder in Spain since the Civil War”)
and again for Aberdeen (2-1) against Real Madrid in Gothenburg in 1983, an
astonishing result under maestro-manager Alex Ferguson. But club glory was not
mirrored by national team success.
Scotland often
qualified for the World Cup but never progressed beyond the preliminary rounds.
A low-spot was the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. The Scottish manager Ally
Macleod unwisely hyped up his team’s chances and the nation licked its lips in
anticipation. In the event a 1-3 loss to Peru and a dismal 1-1 draw with lowly
Iran torpedoed Scotland’s chances though her final game, a 3-2 win over the Netherlands
was redeemed by a glittering goal by Archie Gemmill, dancing past three Dutch
defenders and then lobbing the Dutch keeper. It has been downhill all the way
since with Scotland struggling in fixtures against The Faroes or Iceland and
currently Scotland stands at a feeble 50th in the FIFA ratings
(England an unexciting 15th) some places below Albania, Australia
and Cape Verde Islands, for goodness sake! Scotland really should be in more
exalted company.
 |
| Denis Law scores again |
The Scots rugby union team has a similarly patchy record. To
be fair the Scottish selection pool is not deep. Rugby is not a national
obsession as in Wales and Scotland’s 5m population is dwarfed by England’s.
Mind you, smaller New Zealand produces world-beaters year after year. Suffice
it to say that when Scotland are good, they are very, very good and when they
are bad they are dreadful. Scotland seldom wins the 6-Nations championship but
often play at least one superlative game a season.
After a rather torpid time
in the early 1950s, Scotland had some excellent moments thereafter. The stars
included Gordon Waddell, Andy Irvine, John Rutherford, Roy Laidlaw, John Jeffrey,
Finlay Calder, Jim Telfer, Gavin Hastings, Craig Chalmers, Gary Armstrong and
Chris Paterson to name but a few. I recall a rare but memorable Grand Slam
clincher at Murrayfield in 1990 with a fancied England falling to Scotland 13-7
amid wildly enthusiastic scenes. So there are good days, the memory of which
later defeats by Italy and Samoa cannot entirely eradicate.
 |
| Andy Irvine makes a break |
 |
| John Jeffrey surges on |
We Scots rugby supporters just need to be satisfied with the
occasional wonder and not get too bitter and twisted that our only contribution
to the Lions’ heart-warmingly decisive Test win against Australia was a mere
cameo appearance from splendid Richie Gray about 10 minutes from time from the
sub’s bench.
Golf is a quintessentially Scottish game and certainly in
the mists of history many Scots from Tom Morris senior and junior onward
dominated the winner’s podium. Alas, times have changed; The Open was won by
George Duncan of Scotland in 1920 and a further 65 years had to elapse before
Sandy Lyle took the title again for Scotland in 1985. Sandy went on to win the
Masters and was a fine Ryder Cup player. Paul Lawrie delighted Scotland again
by winning the Open in 1999 but there are not many like him on the immediate
horizon – Northern Ireland is having its halcyon days instead.
 |
| Sandy Lyle dons the Masters green jacket in 1988 |
Luke Donald’s father was from Stranraer but Luke was born
and bred in England and is resolutely English and we Scots can only faintly
bathe in the reflected glory of his often very high Golf World Rankings
(currently ranked 9 but ranked 1 for many months in 2011/12).
So do Scottish sports supporters retreat from the outside
world and finesse the arcane skills of curling, caber tossing or
haggis-hurling? Not a bit of it! We compete globally with terrier-like
intensity, try, try and try again and dream that one day our great nation will
lift the World Cup, the 6-Nations Championship and electrify the Ryder Cup.
After all, Andy Murray has bravely shown us the way!
SMD
9.07.13
Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment