Fifty years of sporting life

Welcome to the latest instalment of the East Kilbride News series Our People. This week Mark Pirie speaks to Angus McConnell from the town’s sports council.

Angus McConnell has seen East Kilbride grow from a new town to a home for tens of thousands of people.

Having lived in East Kilbride all of his life, he has seen the town develop and expand since his days as a schoolboy at The Village Primary.

Angus is perhaps most proud of his work with East Kilbride Sports Council, of which he was a founding member.

As the organisation marks its 50th anniversary Angus can remember the first meeting of the group in 1967 in the Stuart Hotel, with former district council leader Gordon Marshall heading it up.

The sports council was formed as so many new clubs were clamouring for facilities.

Angus remembers being part of the EKYM football club and fighting for the one pitch.

He recalled: “You had to be at the council chambers at 9am. If you were in second or third place you just went home.

“We had very few pitches in the town at this point and the council helped us organise who would have the pitches for their home games.”

The first major infrastructure for the sports council was the football pitch in The Murray and a running track. Then in Kirktonholme one pitch was replaced by two by turning them around.

The Dollan Aqua Centre and the John Wright Sports Centre added to the facilities as the sporting demand in the town increased.

The Heritage Loch opened up watersports.

Angus said that over the 50 years of the group their role has changed, with numbers dwindling.

“Volunteers have fallen off a bit but the sports council is still very active,” he said.

“A lot of other sports councils in Scotland have suffered much more in that respect. They have a shortage of volunteers and finance.

“We are not filled with hard cash but we have a good set of volunteers who really support us.

“We were all very keen at the start. It was a new town and everyone wanted to help each other. There was a really good spirit in the earlier days. That was tremendous.”

He continued: “There are not the teams today there used to be.

“There was a huge amount of teams but kids don’t seem to want to play in the same way they used to.

“There is so much more to do and it seems to have taken away the desire of kids to kick a ball.”

In the early days the sports council centred on football teams and bowling clubs. However, the John Wright Sports Centre changed all of that.

“We got sports that we had never heard of before,” said Angus. “Squash, handball, these sorts of things appeared out of the blue and we had no idea what they were.

“They were strange to us but were very well supported and were very successful clubs.

“There was a new breed of sports person in the town and we tried to help where it was necessary.

“The trends seem to go up and down from time to time.”

Angus is confident that the role of the sports council will continue to be at the heart of the town.

“We are still developing and progressing,” he said.

“There is still life in the sports council yet. We have been here for 50 years and I’m sure we will be here for another 50.

“There is still plenty to do in East Kilbride. Clubs are always looking for folk. If anyone has skills at all just get in touch with the sports council and we will help out.”