The following post was kindly submitted to us by Gordon McCreath, who is a keen Ayrshire junior football historian.
Now that the dust has settled after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, it seems appropriate to consider the contribution that Irvine meadow XI has made to the biggest football tournament on Earth.
To be realistic, the “contribution”, such as it was, made little or no impact on the World Cup. But in 1954, one member of the Scottish squad learned his trade in the royal blue shirt of Irvine Meadow XI, even though he was only a non-playing reserve in the dark blue of the national team.
If George Hamilton, a high-scoring inside-forward, had played Scotland might have done better than losing 0-1 to Austria and 0-7 to Uruguay. At any rate, Hamilton was the sort of player who was admired and respected by opposing players and fans alike, not only for the quality of his football but also for the way he played the game. In fact, he was widely known as “Gentleman” George.
Certainly, George was highly thought of during a relatively long career lasting 22 years. In his book Ayr United at War, for example, Douglas Carmichael describes Hamilton as “an inside forward of sublime skill.” Douglas Lamming went into more detail in his book, A Scottish Soccer Internationalists’ Who’s Who 1872-1986. He describes Hamilton in glowing terms: “An established player before the War. George gained all his honours, both representative and club, after it. Admired for his boundless enthusiasm and adherence to sporting principles. He was skilled in passing and footwork, but his greatest asset was his exceptional heading ability.”
George Hamilton was born in Irvine on 7 December, 1917 and was still only sixteen years old when he put pen to paper and signed for Irvine Meadow XI for season 1934/35. It didn’t take young George long before he settled into the team at inside-right. Towards the end of that debut season he won his first medal. Meadow had reached the semi-final of the Ayrshire Charity Cup by beating local rivals Irvine Victoria and Dreghorn Juniors, both in replays after 1-1 draws. Meadow faced Glenafton Athletic in the semi-final and won 2-1, setting up a cup final against Dalry Thistle.
In the final at Recreation Park in Stevenston, Dalry took the early initiative, but Meadow went into the lead through right-winger Axford against the run of play. Dalry fought back and forced a corner from which Hand hit the equaliser. With Meadow pressing for a winner, the Dalry ’keeper made good saves form Harry Axford, Sammy Donnelly and George Hamilton. The Meadow took the lead again before half time when Jim Hamilton scored from a penalty. After the break play became rougher and the tackles flew in. Donnelly set up Jim Hamilton who made the final score 3-1.
Meadow fielded the following team in the final: Dunlop; Meek and Lindsay; Hill Plenderleith and McInally; Axford, G Hamilton, J Hamilton, Donnelly and Dalziel.
The following season, 1935/36, there was another cup final appearance, but not a successful one. Meadow sailed through the opening rounds of the Irvine and District cup then beat Kilwinning Eglinton 3-1 in the semi-final. In the final against Ardrossan Winton Rovers, a Clarkson double in the second half put Meadow into a winning position, but Rovers came back strongly and ended up winning 4-2.
Following much speculation, George Hamilton signed for Queen of the South in 1937, but the Senior club allowed him to continue playing for Meadow until the end of the season.
George played 31 league games and scored 9 goals for the Dumfries club in the 1937/38 season, before transferring to Aberdeen for a £3,000 fee. It turned out to be money well spent for Aberdeen, although the first of his two spells with Aberdeen was interrupted by the Second World War.
During the war years George returned to his native Irvine to work in a reserved occupation at the local shipyard. Wartime travel restrictions allowed footballers to guest for local clubs and George was keen to keep playing. Ayr United saw their chance and signed him on loan from Aberdeen. During his loan spell, George played for the Honest Men in the 2nd XI Cup final, ironically enough against Aberdeen, drawing the first game 1-1 at Pittodrie. On the way to Aberdeen the train carrying the team had a breakdown causing an hour’s delay which resulted in the players having to get changed into their strips in their carriage. United went on to win the 2nd leg back at Somerset Park. Although this was nominally the 2nd XI Cup, the participating clubs by and large fielded their first teams in the competition, simply because the clubs didn’t have enough players to run reserve teams.
After the war, George returned to help Aberdeen win the League Cup in 1945/46 when they beat Rangers 3-2 in the final. The following season Hamilton was on the scoresheet as Aberdeen beat Hibernian 2-1 in the Scottish Cup final. Other highlights of 1946/47 were his four goal performance in a 5-1 win against Celtic in Glasgow, and his hat trick in a League Cup semi-final against Hearts.
In December 1947 Hearts offered £8,000 and a player for Hamilton’s transfer. Aberdeen accepted. In the half season he was with Hearts he played 13 league matches, scoring 6ix goals, but he failed to settle and went back to Aberdeen for a fee of £12,000.
In his second spell with Aberdeen the club reached two more Scottish Cup finals, losing both. The Dons won the league championship in 1954/55, but George had made way for younger players and played only a small part in the success.
In 1955 he moved again, this time to Hamilton Academicals, but a few months later he retired. He was 38.
But where does the World cup come into this? Well, George Hamilton had already been selected in the travelling party for a 14-match tour of USA and Canada in 1939. He played in seven of the matches, none of which were classed as full internationals, and scored five goals. Then in 1946, he played in two unofficial Victory Internationals against Northern Ireland and England. He also played in five full international matches for which caps were awarded. In the second of these games he scored a hat-trick in the Heysel Stadium in Brussels as Scotland beat Belgium 5-0. He also scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory against Norway at Hampden in 1954.
George Hamilton’s 5 full international matches were as follows:
Opponents Date Result Venue (Attendance) Goals
N Ireland 27 Nov 1946 0-0 Drew Hampden Park, Glasgow. (98,776) –
Belgium 20 May 1951 5-0 Won Heysel Stadium, Brussels. (55,135) 3
Austria 27 May 1951 0-4 Lost Prater Stadium, Vienna. (65,000) –
Norway 5 May 1954 1-0 Won Hampden Park, Glasgow. (25,897) 1
Norway 19 May 1954 1-1 Drew Ullevaal, Oslo. (25,000) –
1954 was of course a World Cup year and George was selected in the original 22-man squad. Amazingly, however, the Scottish Football Association made the decision to travel with only 13 players and George was one of the players cut from the squad. However, Bobby Johnstone of Hibernian had to pull out of the 13-man squad after getting injured, so George was brought back in and travelled to the World Cup in Switzerland, but did not play at all.
Incidentally, there was another Scotsman at the 1954 World Cup. He was the perfectly named Charles Faultless and was one of the referees. Mr Faultless took charge of two games, including the high-scoring one between Austria and tournament hosts Switzerland. The Austrians fought back from trailing 0-3 to win 7-5, setting a record which still stands for the highest scoring match in the World Cup finals.