Recollections of the early post war days of Carloway FC by an old geezer with help from Massie, Jackie a’ Laochan and Malcolm [ John the Chemist] Macdonald.
Born and brought up overlooking The Pitch I suppose it was inevitable that I would take a keen interest in what went on there. My earliest recollection is of School being awarded a penalty in 1946 the year Carloway first entered the League. My cousin Jackie a’ Laochan the Carloway goalie was all strapped up having suffered cracked ribs some time before. The penalty was to be taken by Bill Young . Jackie could only dive to his right and when Young let fly that’s what he did. A magnificent save. Don’t ask me what the score was but the team sheet read Jackie a’ Laochan Donnachadh a’ Bhodich and Tiger Navaar, Massie Eno and Iain Beag Mhurd, Iain a’ Bhiodachan Calum a’ Bhraisich Murdo C Murachadh Aonghais Ruairidh and Alex a’ Bhlouse.
The Free Church Sunday School picnic in 1947 coincided with a match against Lochs and despite schoolboyish attempts to cut short the picnic and to hurry up the bus driver we arrived back just as the entire Lochs team were filing off the pitch. Lochs had earlier protested that a goal was given when they claimed the ball had entered the net by an unorthodox method but when a penalty was awarded to Carloway that was the final straw and off they trooped leaving Calum a’ Bhraisich to stroke the ball into the empty goal. The result was recorded as Carloway 5 Lochs 0.
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The first time I was allowed to go to Stornoway on my own [well not quite alone but without parental escort] was at the age of 9 and a bit to watch Calum Murdo Seonag [Eno] captain the Lewis Select against Arbroath in 1948. Although the Select lost 5-1 we must not forget that only a mere 63 years earlier Arbroath had beaten Bon Accord 36-0 in a Scottish Cup tie, a record that still stands today. Apart from Eno other ‘Internationalists’ of the 40s and 50s were Larry, Alex ‘Marco’ Macdonald, Calum Aonghais ‘an Bhain, DR, Iain a’ Phrobhast, Iain Blair and the writer.
Mainly due to the abysmal state of the pitch Carloway dropped out of the League from 1949 to 1951. The contract to re-develop the playing surface was awarded to Dollan Seonag and every youngster for miles around was willingly involved in the labouring work. The whole operation seemed to take forever and it was July 1951 before the Pitch was officially opened by Stornoway Athletic – too late for that season’s league. The football [only one in these days] was kept in Massie’s cruach [Peat stack] and it was the job of us young fellows to apply dubbin and repair the bladder when burst or blow it up if leaking and believe me it was one helluva job to get the tube back in and the ball laced up again.
If the measure of success is the number of trophies won, the 50s was undoubtedly the highest point in the history of the club to date. All the trophies ever won from open competition were won then, with three players, the late Neil Dan ‘Larry’ Maciver, the late Iain a’ Phrobhast and the still reasonably active and alert Domhnull Roddy ‘DR’ Neill Leod starring in all of them.
During this time the available trophies were the League Championship, the Stornoway Cup, the D’oyle Carte Cup, Tormod Mor Tankard and the Eilean an Fhraoich Cup.
In 1952 Carloway won their first ever Cup. As the match report in the ‘Stornoway Gazette’ said “The most attractive and the most surprising football match of the 1952 season took place last Friday night when Carloway, the lowest team in the league beat Point in the final tie of the Stornoway Cup. Point are the 1952 Champions but they never looked like champions against Carloway who produced an unbeatable brand of football”. The result, a 5-1 trouncing of the League Champions Point, was for this 13 year old spectator an unforgettable experience. As far as I know there is no team photo in existence but for the record the team on that historic night was:
Tormod Long, Murdigan a’ Phrobhast, An Tippan, Calum a’ Bhideachan, Massie, Iain Beag Mhurd, Duncan Phrailean, Larry, Iain a’ Phrobhast, Calum Dhomhnuil Mairi, Domhnull Roddy Neill Leod. Massie opened the scoring from the penalty spot, Iain a’ Phrobhast had a hat-trick and DR got one.
It was 1955 after a period of restructuring, retirements, etc before the next Cup Final was achieved, the first of three successive Eilean an Fhraoich Cup finals. By this time the 13 year old spectator of 1952 was playing for School helping them win the League in that year [and again in 1957] but as School, due to school holidays etc, were able only to play in the League he played for Carloway in the Cups. The EAF final was between ourselves and Back who had just been pipped for the League by School and who had won both the Stornoway Cup and the D’Oyle Carte Cup. After a 1-1 draw in the first game Carloway were leading 3-2 in the replay with 15 mins to go when Back equalised and before we knew it we had lost 6-3.
1956 was a really good year winning the D’Oyle Carte Cup beating Back 5-1 in the final [scorers Hamma [2], DR, Larry and Iain Locaidh] and beating the once again League Champions Point 4-1 in the Tormod Mor Tankard final. The later was a particularly outstanding effort as the goalie – Domhnull a’ Chiudan – was carted off to hospital after an accidental mid air clash with the great Stoodie while defending a corner and much of the match was played with only ten men. Once again disappointment in the Eilean an Fhraoich final losing to Back 4-3 after again leading with only a few mins to go despite once more being reduced to ten men with Iain Locaidh forced to leave the field injured. In these days before substitutions if you were badly injured you went to outside left unless you were really badly injured when you went to the doctor or hospital if someone had the time or inclination to take you
In 1957 on a wet and miserably cold night Carloway won the Stornoway Cup beating United [winners of both D’Oyle Carte and Tormod Mor Tankard] 3-1 in the final, thanks in part to a spectacular long range shot by Larry from the outside right position. In the Eilean an Fhraoich Cup for a change we met our nemesis Back in the semi final and avenged the previous finals defeats by trouncing them 6 or 7-1 at Upper Coll. As the other finalists were Ness who did not even have a team in the league we thought ‘third time lucky’. Unfortunately we lost this game in the Committee Room before the match when for some reason still unknown our stalwart Centre Half Iain a’ Phrobhast was dropped from the team which had just won the Stornoway Cup in favour of DM Safety. Now DM was undoubtedly the best Right Half in Lewis football at the time but he had never played for Carloway before and never played for Carloway since. He was played out of position, he didn’t know our way of playing and we did not know his. It was a disaster and although Ness had good enough players including the incomparable DM ‘Midas’ Campbell they had only played together as a team in that one competition. The result was 3-1 for Ness and I have nothing further to say on the matter except that within weeks I was called up to the Army and spent the 58 and 59 seasons fighting the IRA in Northern Ireland. Despite losing 13 men in as many months I survived unscathed until I came across a Rudhach at Goathill. No contest. I ended up in plaster for two months and never played again.
Apart from those who feature in team photos of this era there were others who played significant roles in the development of the team. They were usually at home from sea or university or on holiday during the Fairs and included twins Phrailean – Murdie and Duncan – Coinneach a’ Chiudan [one of only three players that Bill Young recommended to Scottish League managers, the others being Midas, who refused to take up an offer from Hearts, and Alasdair Stobbie who went on to play for Morton and Amateur Scotland], Bommy, Domhnull Pinch, Domhnull Iain Aonghais ‘an Bhain, Calum Aonghais Thormoid, Calum Iain Domhnuil Stuaman, Calum Iain ‘an Chormaig, Jimmy Craigie, John Murdo Mollan, Angus M, Lord Macaulay of Bragar [before ennoblement] and his brothers Alex and Colin, Toni, Bubble, Maois and twins Anna Ghircaidh – Donnie and Ronnie Mackinnon. Incidentally I think it is safe enough now to mention that both Donnie and Ronnie were signed Carloway players [having been released by Glencairn Thistle and Dunipace Juniors respectively] when they signed for Partick Thistle and Rangers. At that time -1959- the SFA season ran to 30 June but the Stornoway Football Association which was affiliated to the SFA had special dispensation for the Lewis season to continue to 30 Sep as it was a Summer League. So when they signed soon after the Glasgow Fair they were in fact Carloway FC players. I remember being at a club meeting where some were all for asking Rangers in particular for a transfer fee or a donation to keep quiet. The wiser heads prevailed and it was decided to let the matter rest otherwise Ronnie might not have gone on to play 473 games for Rangers and gain 28 Caps for Scotland. However after 50 years I think this secret can safely be revealed.
Throughout the 50s the team language was, as one would expect, Gaidhlig. The only English to be heard was ‘Penalty’ [rare], ‘Foul’ and ‘Hey Ref’ The songs in the bus were ‘Carlabhagh’, ‘Saoil an till mi chaoidh’, ‘Air bharr nan tonn’, ‘Fiullaigean’, Sgiath na h’oidhche’, ‘Eilean mo ghaoil’, ‘Faili horo’, ‘Eilean beag donn a’ chuain’ ‘Fail o ro mar dh’fhag sinn’ and ‘Gruagach dhonn Bhrunail’ to name but a few and sung with feeling accompanying Aligan ‘an Philip, his brother Fionnlagh, Coinneach Locaidh and the bard himself Domhnull Iain Chalum Debhil.
The playing system in the 50s was the W formation where you had a three man defence of two agile backs and a commanding centre half, two half back ball winners who fed two powerfully engined inside forwards, fast wingers who hugged the touchlines and a centre forward whose job was simply to score goals. The ball was leather and laced and particularly on a wet muddy pitch became very heavy compared to the party balloon type ball of the present day. Peter Craigmyle the internationally renowned referee of the time opined after a Lewis Select match which he had refereed that he had never seen players who could hit the ball as far into the wind as the Select players. Passing the ball sideways or backwards was a foreign concept rarely seen as was a pass to a centre forward with his ‘ton’ [backside] to the opposing goal; the pass ideally was in front of an already forward running teammate who had then the advantage over his opponent. There was no shirt pulling, very little obstruction, and the present high art of diving had not yet been discovered but there was plenty of manly shoulder charging and if you ended up flat on the ground dignity and honour demanded that you get back on your feet just as quickly, pretend such an indignity had never happened and got on with the game. It was no coincidence that Carloway played their best football on the relatively vast expanse of Goathill Park as they had the players of the required skills. Of course at that time only Carloway and Back had their own pitch all the rest using Goathill and while we in Carloway spent quite a bit of time burning off luachair [rushes] and digging up tomans [small hillocks] at least the playing surface was flat. Not so at Upper Coll where there was a 6 foot drop from the roadside touchline to the opposite one and in between a veritable plethora of rabbit holes.
Team colours were Blue as had been the case since the formation of the club until Back, who had till then played in Yellow, usurped our colours while Carloway were having a sabbatical from 1949-1951.
When Carloway rejoined the League in 1952 there was an annual heated discussion with Back about the colours as no team could afford both a home and away strip and although Back usually got their own way relations were in no way soured. In fact there was a very close affinity between the clubs due in the main to the fact that the bus from each area stopped at the Royal Hotel. When mine host of the Royal [Macdonald] moved to the Star Inn he had the foresight to place a former Back stalwart, Angus Macleod in one end and Lachie from Tolsta in the other and took the customers with him. Furthering cementing the close relationship was the diversion to the Back Hall of one of the busses on the way back home for their dance after the ‘Danns na’n Copanan’ [Cup Winners Dance] in the Town Hall.
The home changing room at Cnoc a’ Chailich was Garage an Dottar unless you lived within range of the pitch and after the game hot water was available for both teams from a large cauldron in the Drill Hall followed by tea and sandwiches before the Dance. The Dance which was eagerly awaited especially by the visiting teams started around 10 or 11 o’clock at night and continued until daylight. Music for the Scotch Reel [Carloway version], Eightsome, Military Twostep, St Bernards Waltz and Excuse Me Waltz was usually played by Calum Alex from Brue on the accordion. On a warm evening with a large crowd the big doors were opened and I remember the Ministear Ruadh, [Rev Maclennan] whose manse was barely two hundred yards away, appearing about 2 o’clock one morning clad in his pyjamas, overcoat and wellies to complain about the noise. The musician stopped as if shot as did the hollering and after a word or two hundred of prayer received in total respectful silence he departed, the doors were shut the dancing resumed and the whooping moderated
No record of the fifties would be complete without mention of the Committee, men such as Am Bear, Massie, Vellich, Tormod Long and Domhnull Gerry or the girls Morag Gerry, Mairi and Manna a’ Geoidh, Clann nighean Nelson, and Clann nighean Phrailean who followed the team with fervour, washed the strips and took care of the hospitality arrangements.