Blairgowrie Amateurs Football Club, known as Blairgowrie from 1923, was a football club from Blairgowrie in
Perthshire
Perthshire (Scottish English, locally: ; ), officially the County of Perth, is a Shires of Scotland, historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore, Angus and Perth & Kinross, Strathmore ...
, Scotland.
History
The club was founded in 1912 at the suggestion of Harry Christie of Duncrub Park under the name Blairgowrie Amateurs.
The club had a considerable rivalry with the Stanley club in the 1910s, with matches affected by violence and pitch invasions, apparently provoked by a Blairgowrie man (James Rutherford) replacing a Stanley man on the
Scottish Football Association
The Scottish Football Association (; also known as the Scottish FA and the SFA) is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility for the control and development of football in Scotland. Members of the SFA incl ...
's committee. The most outstanding example being a general mêlée in the Perthshire League game on 28 March 1914, in which the sending-off of Blairgowrie's Andrew Richardson, and his attempt to assault the referee, provoked a mass fight that saw Richardson prosecuted and fined £2.
As a senior football club, it was entitled to enter the
Scottish Qualifying Cup
The Scottish Qualifying Cup was a football competition played in Scotland between 1895 and 2007. During that time, apart from a brief spell in the 1950s, it was the only way for non-league teams to qualify for the Scottish Cup. The Qualifying Cu ...
, a competition which acted as a feeder into the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1920–21 and 1938–39. In the 1923–24 competition, it survived a protest from Arbroath Athletic for infringing professional regulations, but the fall-out from the successful defence was that the club was forced to drop the Amateurs from its name; the club was henceforth known simply as Blairgowrie.
For the latter part of the 1920s, the club was more or less defunct, its only fixtures of note being in the Qualifying Cup. The club was resuscitated in 1931, briefly using the Blairgowrie Amateurs name once more, thanks to the efforts of Francis Balfour of the Perthshire Football Association.
Its best performance in the Qualifying Cup itself was in 1935–36 and 1937–38, both times reaching the final of the northern section, but losing both times to Elgin City; the first time by 4–2 at
Grant Street Park
Clachnacuddin Football Club is a part-time, senior Scottish football club based in the city of Inverness, that currently plays in the .
Clachnacuddin have won the most Highland Football League championships in the competition's history: a tota ...
, having taken an early lead the second time 6–3 at
Victoria Park, Buckie
Victoria Park is a football ground in Buckie in north-east Scotland, which is the home ground of Highland Football League side Buckie Thistle. It is located at the junction of Midmar Street and South Pringle Street, from the town centre. The g ...
, again having taken an early lead.
The Berrypickers lost in the first round of the Cup proper on 6 of the 7 occasions, the most notable of those being a 14–2 defeat at
Rangers
A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to:
* Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...
in 1933–34. Only the excellent performance of Malcolm in goal kept the score down; Jimmy Fleming scored 9 goals for the home side. Blairgowrie however was consoled with a share of match receipts of £100.
The one exception was in 1938–39, when Blairgowrie pulled off a shock victory over
Dumbarton
Dumbarton (; , or ; or , meaning 'fort of the Britons (historical), Britons') is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven, Dunbartonshire, River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. ...
, with a Linton penalty after 3 minutes, Roland making it 2–1 on the hour, and Linton forcing the ball home in the 84th giving Blair a 3–2 victory; it was sweet justification for Malcolm in goal, chaired off as man of the match by some of the 1,500 in attendance. The club was unlucky in the last sixteen, in being drawn against one of the few other non-league sides left, Buckie Thistle; Buckie missed two penalties, one of which was saved by Malcolm, and Blair was 3 minutes away from a place in the quarter-finals when Malcolm could not hold a cross and Ross made the score 3–3. As the replay had to take place in midweek because of Buckie's league commitments, Blair had difficulties in raising a team as a result of work commitments, and duly lost 4–1, although Malcolm saved another penalty. The club at least enjoyed a record home crowd of 1,880 and had a share in the £180 receipts for the 3,900 crowd at Buckie.
The club won the amateur Perthshire League five times between 1919–20 and 1936–37, the last four consecutively. The club was also a 7-time winner of the
Perthshire Cup
The Perthshire Cup was an association football cup competition for clubs in the county of Perthshire, Scotland. The competition was founded in 1884 and was last competed for in the 1974–75 season.
Format
The competition was a knock-out tourname ...
, between 1919–20 and 1938–39.
Blairgowrie did continue after World War 2, being put into the short-lived Midlands section of the Qualifying Cup in 1946–47. The Berrypickers brushed
Burntisland Shipyard
Burntisland Shipyard Football Club are a Scottish football club based in the town of Burntisland, Fife. The club competes in the and play their home matches at Recreation Park. They are full members of the Scottish Football Association.
Histo ...
aside 7–2 in the first round, and was drawn against
Babcock & Wilcox
Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. is an American energy technology and service provider that is active and has operations in many international markets with its headquarters in Akron, Ohio. Historically, the company is best known for their stea ...
in the second, The match did not take place and the club seems to have disbanded, being replaced in the town by the new
Junior
Junior or Juniors may refer to:
Aircraft
* Ekolot JK-05L Junior, a Polish ultralight aircraft
* PZL-112 Junior, a Polish training aircraft
* SZD-51 Junior, a Polish-made training and club glider
Arts and entertainment Characters
* Bowser Jr., ...
The club wore blue shirts with maroon facings in its first season, and maroon shirts with blue sleeves until 1920. Its colours afterwards were black and white striped shirts and black shorts and socks, although for the Qualifying Cup final in 1935 the club wore white shirts with a black horizontal band.
Ground
The club's original ground was Altamont Park; it lost access to this ground after World War 1, but secured a private ground at Lower Haugh Park in 1920. By 1924 it was playing at Ashgrove Park.
After its revival it played at Davie Park. As a public park ground, the facilities were spartan, with half-a-dozen lorries making do for grandstands for the Cup tie with Buckie. The club committee had hopes for using the proceeds of the 1938–39 Cup run to secure a private ground, but those plans were scuppered by World War 2.
Honours
*Scottish Qualifying Cup
**Runners-up: 1935–36, 1937–38
*Perthshire League
**Champions: 1919–20, 1933–34, 1934–35, 1935–36, 1936–37
**Runners-up: 1937–38, 1941–42
*Perthshire Cup
**Winners: 1919–20. 1923–24, 1933–34, 1934–35, 1935–36, 1937–38, 1938–39
**Runners-up: 1920–21, 1921–22, 1936–37, 1939–40
*Perthshire Consolation Cup
**Winners: 1931–32, 1932–33, 1941–42