⁃ So you’re a friend of Matt’s then?
⁃ Yes, we met at Uni.
– And are you a rugby player like him?
⁃ Yes.
– Out-half?
⁃ Wing.
⁃ Where did you play back home?
⁃ Ballyclare.
⁃ Ballyclare? My goodness, Ballyclare. That takes me back.
We are on the 6th hole of a beautiful golf course in Fife. Members of the Irish Golf Society of Scotland. Me, 71 years of age and my playing partner, a young man of around 30 who arrived late. He was supposed to play in the first group, but has been relegated to join the old folk in the last group. I welcomed him when he arrived with a quotation:
– The first shall be last and the last first.
He looked puzzled.
– Clint Eastwood ?
– The Bible.
After the first few holes of golf, as you walk down the fairway together, it is customary to ask the other player a bit about himself. Maybe you find out that he went to the same school, or played the same sport as a lad. But you don’t expect someone forty years younger than you to know all about the most important day of your sporting life – an event that occurred long before he was born.
– Ravenhill. St Patrick’s Day 1973. My school, the Royal Belfast Academical Institution (Inst for short) in the Ulster Schools Cup Final. I was Vice-Captain. 17 years old. I’ll never forget it.
– We haven’t forgotten it in Ballyclare either. They still talk about it. First and only time we were in the Schools’ Cup Final. In Ballyclare they’ll tell you there were a hundred thousand people there.
– I remember that there were seventeen thousand. Still that’s a lot. And it was shown on TV as well. The biggest crowd I ever played in front of. Of course we were expected to win.
– Yes. Belfast Inst was often in the final.
– But we lost. We lost. 13 points to 8. Mind you we scored two tries to your one. Your kicker was on form that day. Oh, do I remember it! Our scrum-half, Colin Patterson – he later played for Ireland and for the Lions – scored a cheeky try. And Haggis – he was a Scot – Alan McGovern – made a solo break. Ran all the way across Ravenhill for a try under the posts. When the whistle blew for the end of the match I couldn’t believe it. It was over so quickly. My adrenalin was flowing. I could easily have played another half. In the changing room afterwards one of our players was in tears. But our coach Davy Haslett was a hard man. You weren’t meant to show emotion in those days.
– In Ballyclare they still talk about it today. A small town of 5,000 people. Beating the mighty Belfast Inst.
– I’ve an old photo. Published on the back page of the Belfast Telegraph. Your scrum-half, Win something…
– Wincup.
– That’s him. He is executing a diving pass – they don’t do that anymore. I’m behind him, with my eyes fixed on the out-half. There’s your wing-forward Gilmer, and your Number 8, what was his name, Cleghorn ?
– Andy Gleghorne.
– That’s right. I think they both played for Ulster Schools. Our second row Gibbo and the Number 8 Coppock are in the photo. And our out-half Glenn Aiken, who was also playing soccer for Crusaders, and full-back Alan Irwin. His younger brother David played for the British and Irish Lions. One of our wingers, also an Irwin, broke his collar bone in the second half but played on. There were no subs in those days.
– They have that photo too in Ballyclare.
– I have it hanging in the cupboard under the stairs. I must dig it out and send you a copy.
– Good shot. That’ll go.
– Nice shot. Pin high.
Back in Edinburgh I google Ballyclare 1973 and find out that in 2023, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the match, the whole Ballyclare team met up at the Titanic museum in Belfast. They were addressed by Willie John McBride, the captain of the greatest Lions team ever. As for Inst, I attended a school reunion in 2023, and was touched when the speaker mentioned the 1973 St Patrick’s Day match, in passing. But as I looked round the table of the Inst pupils from that year, I was the only one who had played for the 1st XV on that fateful day. Since 1973 Inst has been in the final and has won it many times. Davy Haslett, the coach who took us to Ravenhill that year, died a few months ago.
I sent this blog post to my old friend Tony who lives in Canada. He left Inchmarlo/ Inst to study at Belfast High School. These days he is still running half marathons.
Tony: I’m very jealous! But sadly, the High School teams in my day (’71 and ’72) never got anywhere near Ravenhill. Great story!
WH: If you’d stayed on at Inchmarlo/ Inst I’d probably never have made the team.
Tony: We would have made the finest Back Row ever – they’d still be talking about us in Ballyclare!
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