Rugby club marks 40 years in county

Jan 15 2009 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

FOR 40 years Livingston Rugby Club has been the cornerstone of the sport in West Lothian.

It is the beating heart of rugby in the county and provides opportunities for youngsters and veterans alike.

The club’s home is at Almond Park where the players are fortunate to play on an immaculate surface on match days. Off the park the club boasts a fully kitted out clubhouse, four changing rooms with shower facilities, gym equipment and a 300-seater grandstand.

It’s a far cry from the early days of the club when it shared its park with cattle and sheep and the posts were four trees.

Livingston RFC is now an established and successful club but the seeds of success were sown in 1968 by three local rugby enthusiasts.

At the time the only rugby club in West Lothian was Bathgate but due to a shortage of local pitches they played their home games in Airdrie.

However within the corridors of power at West Lothian County Council change was afoot.

Youth Officer Jack Nixon was charged with helping to set up clubs and organisations for newcomers in the county.

As a rugby fan he knew what he wanted to bring to the region and the wheels were set in motion.

Alwyn O’Neill and Jim Irvine answered Jack’s newspaper appeal and the three helped lay the foundation stone for what would soon become Livingston and District RFC.

One of the main obstacles was the lack of suitable pitches and the new club struggled through a difficult first season in which it was forced to play all its games away.

Unfortunately, this is still a problem and four decades on there is still a dearth of training and playing facilities within the county.

All 13 club teams must train and play fixtures on the same two pitches and several rugby pitches in the West Lothian area have disappeared in the last 10 years.

The early days weren’t easy for the club but Kenny Campbell, one of the original members and former skipper, insists it was an exciting period.

He said: “We were given a disused field and two derelict farm cottages at Bankton Main Farms. Without that assistance I doubt the club would have got off the ground.

“But part of the deal was that cattle and sheep could still use the fields for grazing during the week.

“It was quite funny to be talking tactics at training and to see a cow hovering behind you listening intently.

“And some of the other clubs didn’t want to play on fields where they could be cow mess hiding in the long grass.

“It was a great adventure to build a rugby club from scratch together. It was great for morale and team spirit and we progressed on and off the field pretty rapidly.”

Showers were installed in the cottages for the players with the all the work completed by voluntary labour.

The rugby posts were four pine trees that were donated by the Livingston Development Corporation.

Kenny remembers the building process well and he reveals his labourer was vastly overqualified for the role.

“Everything seemed to just turn up and come together pretty quickly. It was a whole community effort and it brought us all together,” he recalled.

“We had as many people off the field as we had on the field and there was a great atmosphere.

“My labourer was the local doctor, Dr Munro, and he used to pick me up in his car and the two of us would spend the day mixing sand and cement. He was highly qualified for the role!”

Kenny can still be spotted regularly on the sidelines at Almond Park and he admits the facilities the players have now are a world away from when he was lacing up his boots.

“I never thought we’d reach the heights we have.

“Almond Park is something that was beyond our wildest dreams. We have first-class facilities and all we need now is a first-class team but I believe that’ll come.”

The first team from outwith Scotland to visit Livingston was Irish side Potllaoise who came over in 1969.

The match-up was hotly anticipated but due to heavy snow the game was called off.

But Livi did cross sporting swords with their Irish visitors in a hastily arranged game of water polo at West Calder High School.

Livingston began to make inroads in Division Three of the Edinburgh and District Union earning promotion to Division Two. But they ended up jumping two leagues following league reconstruction and were awarded a place in Division One.

By 1975 Livingston Rugby Club was really beginning to take shape. The club continued to play at Bankton Mains while negotiations aimed at delivering the new ground and clubhouse.

Talks with the Livingston Development Corporation took place over a period of two years with George Smith representing the club. George was in some ways negotiating with himself as he was also the Assistant Legal Secretary of the L.D.C.

The end result was the club were allocated the land at Almond South on a 35-year lease.

The clubhouse was enlarged in 1987 when a full-length extension was added to the west side of the building.

Throughout the 1970s the club enjoyed a series of title triumphs as they navigated their way through the leagues – which had again been restructured. In 1978 Livingston were promoted to the National Leagues and finished fifth in Division Seven.

However a year later they were champs and promoted which is something they repeated in 1981 when they won Division Six.

One of the recurring themes in the history of the rugby club has been last-day triumphs. Teams have always seemed to enjoy leaving things to the last minute and keeping the fans on tenterhooks.

This tradition began in 1992 when Livi earned promotion to Division Four on the last day of the season. In a winner-takes-all clash Livingston edged out Lenzie 15-12 on a day when Neil Gibson starred on the wing. The fact he played at all was a surprise as he had been evacuated from his flat the night before when his block caught fire.

Fast forward twelve months and there was another last-day decider as Livingston escaped relegation but condemned opponents and West Lothian neighbours Linlithgow to the drop.

In an interesting sub story to the match the first clash between the two was abandoned due to Linlithgow players going down to hypothermia.

In 1995 another last-day decider pitted Livingston against Duns for promotion from Division Four but there was heartbreak instead of joy this time.

A place in National League Division One (following yet more league reconstruction) was up for grabs.

The match ended in a 19-19 draw with Duns stand-off Stuart Barton converting from the touchline in the last minute to secure their promotion on points difference.

Livingston finally did secure promotion to National League Division One in 1998 in what turned out to be another nailbiting final game of the season.

The county stars pipped Dalziel to promotion after a narrow 5-8 victory.

Livingston went into the final game of their 2001 campaign knowing that a bonus-point win over Trinity by scoring four tires could be enough to secure their place in National League One.

The lads gave it their best shot and scored three ties to win the game, but it was not quite enough, and they were relegated for the first and only time in their history.

It proved to be a painful season for the club which also lost the Scottish Shield semi final to Edinburgh Accies 20-18

Rowen Shepherd scored the deciding try for Accies having resigned from professional rugby a matter of days before the match.

Current Scotland captain Mike Blair was also on the scoresheet for Accies that day.

Livingston bounced back and regained its place in the top league in 2001 as a result of Glasgow Southern and Hutcheson/Aylestonians merging.

And within three years the club reached the peak of amateur rugby when it was crowned National League Divisions One champions and guaranteed premiership rugby for the first time.

2005 also heralded a historic occasion for the club as they graced the home of Scottish Rugby for the first time.

The club reached the Scottish Bowl Final at Murrayfield but unfortunately lost out to Murrayfield Wanderers.

Livingston came close but to date it remains their only cup final appearance at the famous home of Scottish rugby.

As we mark the 40th anniversary of Livingston Rugby Club the squad is in a period of transition, propping up the rest at the foot of Premier Three after losing the services of nearly all their promotion winning and cup final side to other Premier One and Two sides.

But the future of the club is strong and the majority of the current squad are Livingston and West Lothian lads. Most are still in their late teens and early twenties and should provide the backbone of the squad for many years to come.

Another key factor in the future of the club has been the hard work of Youth Development Officer Craig Bollan.

Craig took over the reins following earlier inroads made by Millan Browne, and he has increased the youth section to in excess of 160, having reintroduced rugby to the Livingston High Schools for the first time in over 20 years. He is also organising and running coaching sessions throughout the primary school system.

This has had an immediate effect and Deans Community High School reached the final of the U15 Scottish Schools Bowl in 2006 with a team made up of S2 players. Their achievements are even more impressive considering not one of the four high schools in Livingston have rugby pitches.

National honours have also come for some of the county’s most promising rugby players with a phenomenal five under-15 players in the current Edinburgh Chargers pathway side and five U16 players in their rep side.

And last year u16 prospects Ewan Naysmith and Liam Black were invited to attend the Edinburgh Integrated u16 squad camp at Fettes College.