Cousar is a good old Irvine name. There have been Cousars living in the town from well over 250 years ago to the present day and Lex Cousar is one of the current crop. Lex is frequently to be found at Meadow games home or away, but it should be no surprise that Lex is a Meadow fan, because Irvine Meadow is in the blood of the Cousars, and vice versa.
Right from the start, Cousars were deeply involved with Meadow. The brothers John and William Cousar were founder members of the club in 1895 when, along with some other lads, they are believed to have left another Irvine juvenile club called Hill Rangers. Their new club, Meadow XI, had a mixed first season, although they did reach the semi-final of the Ayrshire Juvenile Cup, only to lose heavily to Kilmarnock Langlands Thistle. However, in their second season everything clicked and they went through their entire fixture list unbeaten. Both John and William were regulars in the forward line as Meadow XI won all three competitions they entered.
John Cousar was Lex’s grandfather and was recognised as a frequent goalscorer in his position at centre-forward. Andrew Wilson, who played at fullback in the Meadow team, before moving forward to replace John in attack, remembered him in a newspaper interview; “Our centre-forward was a big chap of the rushing type, the type that gets on in junior football, but just before our finals came on he got a job in London – he was a joiner – and we were left without a centre-forward.” John Cousar is believed to have been the record scorer for a single season until at least the 1920s. Unfortunately newspapers of the time often did not print the names of the goalscorers in their reports, so we don’t have complete goal scoring statistics for him. The Irvine Herald reported that: “John Cousar was presented with a travelling bag and a walking stick on the occasion of his leaving for London.”
John’s younger brother William, Lex’s great-uncle, was also a forward, but took on the dual role of Player/Secretary. When Meadow decided to turn junior in 1897, it was William Cousar, who, along with another player, Hugh Allan, was given the task of going to Lumley’s Sports Outfitters in Glasgow to buy a new set of royal blue jerseys. Up until that point the club had played in light blue shirts. In 1901 William Cousar was signed by Partick Thistle.
Co-incidentaly, Lex’s other grandfather, Alex “Sanny” McConnachie, also played for Meadow in1906-07 and later even helped out with coaching the team.
Robert Cousar, Lex’s Uncle Bob, who was a right half or inside right, signed for the Medda in 1936-37. After three seasons in the royal blue jersey, Third Lanark signed him from Meadow and put him straight into their five-a-side team for the Glasgow Police sports meeting at Hampden Park. However, his senior career was strangled by the outbreak of war. After serving as a sergeant with the Royal Artillery in Burma he was considered to be too old to start in senior football when the war was over, so in 1946 he was released by the Hi-Hi. He returned to Meadow Park and helped the club to a Scottish Cup semi-final, as well as winning the Irvine and District Cup, when Neilston was beaten 4-0 in the final. The following season they went all the way to the Scottish Cup Final at Hampden, where they lined up with Bob Cousar at right-
half, but lost 2-1 to Bo’ness United. The attendance at Hampden that day was 55,600.
When not playing for Meadow, the Cousars have been in the stand, the committee room, or on the terracing supporting the team. John Cousar’s son Jimmy was on the committee just after the war and even pulled on a jersey a few times when players were in short supply. Jimmy’s wife was pressed into action, too. She used to help take the gate money and then serve at the pie stall. Jimmy’s daughter Marion even married a Meadow player when she chose Robert Smallwood to be her husband.
Lex’s dad, Alex Cousar, was a season ticket holder in the 1960s and Lex remembers meeting up with other family members and friends at the flagpole before the kick off at home matches.
On 22nd February of this year Lex, came along to the Wednesday Club / Medda Memories and presented Irvine Meadow with some of the medals won by his grandfather, John Cousar, including the Ayrshire Juvenile Cup medal from 1897. It was awarded for winning the competition, when Meadow beat Hurlford Star 2-0 at Cochrane Park in Irvine. As well as the medals, Lex also presented historic team photographs and some season ticket books from the early 1960s to Meadow Chairman Robert Jeffrey.
Robert Jeffrey later said in the Irvine Herald; “These are fascinating items unique to the club’s history. They have been lovingly cared for through the decades and we are honoured to be presented with them.”