The following post was kindly submitted to us by Gordon McCreath, who is a keen Ayrshire junior football historian.
There are photographs of Irvine Meadow XI going all the way back to the beginning of their step up to the Junior ranks in 1897. In fact, there is also a photo from their days as a Juvenile club which is even older. It is dated 1895. The one thing that all those old photos have in common is that they are team groups. The oldest action photos I had seen were from the late 1940s.
Then a few months ago, I was doing some research for a programme article and in a sports newspaper which no longer exists called The Scottish Referee, I found a match report for a game against Kilwinning Rangers which featured action photos of the game.
Meadow had sailed through the first two rounds of the Scottish Junior Cup, beating Cumnock Craigmark 2-1 and Annbank Thistle 5-1. When the draw for the third round was made, the pairing of Irvine Meadow with Kilwinning Rangers created great interest and was seen by Ayrshire football fans as the plum tie of the round. The Buffs had beaten a team from Kilmarnock called St Joseph’s Hibernian 5-1in the first round and Tayleurians, a team from Dumfries, 5-2 in the second.
The photographs were taken at the third round Scottish Cup replay which took place at Meadow Park on 2nd December 1911, following a drawn first match. The first game had taken place the previous Saturday and attracted a large crowd to Woodwynd Park in Kilwinning. Several hundred of the fans had travelled from Irvine by special train.
The Kilwinning captain won the toss and made Meadow face the sun in the first half. The players in both teams seemed to be nervous from the kick-off until Allan scored for Kilwinning after 20 minutes. The goal seemed to settle the Meadow and the Buffs players. With ten minutes to play before the break, Meadow equalised with Samuel Smith, on the left, giving the Buffs’ ‘keeper, Hodge, no chance when he scored with a fast drive.
The second half was ‘strenuously contested’, according to The Scottish Referee, with little in the way of good football being played, though this was partly blamed on the greasy playing surface. As there was no scoring in the second 45 minutes, the final score of 1-1 meant that there would have to be a replay.
The replay took place the following Saturday at Meadow Park and attracted a record crowd of 3,000 in spite of the bad weather. Wind and rain no doubt affected the game and certainly made spectating uncomfortable for the fans.
Kilwinning Rangers took the kick-off with the wind at their backs and went on the attack right from the start. Menzies had two good attempts at goal: the first just missed; the second was saved by the Meadow goalkeeper. The Buffs had further chances but the interval arrived with the game still goalless. The Scottish Referee reported that: ‘With the change of ends it was confidently expected that the ground team would put a different complexion the affair.’ Meadow, the “ground team,” swarmed round the Buffs’ goal, raining in shots, but Currie and McKean were outstanding in the visitors’ defence. However, Meadow kept up the pressure and after a series of corners Samuel Smith shot past the Kilwinning ‘keeper, Hodge, into the net.
Almost immediately, the two teams were back on level terms. ‘Great efforts were made for the equaliser, and excitement touched fever-heat when Captain Paterson put the teams level a minute or two later.’ (The Scottish Referee)
Both sides went for the winner, and it was Meadow’s MacKay who gave the fans something to shout about when he snatched the goal that edged Meadow into the lead and, ultimately, won the match.
The front page of The Scottish Referee on the Monday after the game carried a photo of players chasing the ball, and the actual match report on page 4 of the newspaper was accompanied by a single photograph showing a player of each team jumping to challenge for a high ball. It is not clear which team is which, but I think Meadow is the team in the slightly lighter jerseys.
In the fourth round Meadow beat Denbeath Star 3-1. However, their cup run ended in the fifth round, when after being held to a 0-0 draw by Dundee Fairfield at Meadow Park, they travelled northeast to Dundee and lost 3-0.
The Scottish Referee also printed the oldest action photos I have seen of Kilwinning Rangers. And they are over a year-and-a-half older than the ones taken at Meadow Park! In 1910 The Buffs reached the Scottish Junior Cup semi-final final which was played on 30th April and The Scottish Referee’s match report was enriched with three action shots. Buffs beat Port Glasgow 1-0 and reached the final. Again, The Scottish Referee used three action shots alongside their report of the cup final. Kilwinning beat Ashfield 1-0, but were forced to replay the final following a successful appeal by Ashfield regarding an ineligible player. The same publication used another three action photos to accompany the report of the replay, which Ashfield won 3-0.
As there is a gap of 37 years between that first Meadow action photograph from The Scottish Referee in 1911 and the next action photos I’ve seen involving the club which come from 1948, I would expect there are more lying around in cupboards and drawers just waiting to be found.