Ardrishaig Kharki Rangers – an epic tale
QUITE how it came to be stored in the loft of a house in East Lothian is not yet known – but the mystery of a fantastic old football photo has been solved.
Thanks to readers of our sister paper the Argyllshire Advertiser, the story can now be revealed of the Ardrishaig Kharki Rangers and their unknown 1901 trophy.
As reported in a recent edition of the Advertiser, it was Bill and Christine Young who found the photo while clearing out their loft in East Lothian and sent it to the paper.
The original photo had been kept in good condition by being wrapped inside a tattered 1977 edition of the Advertiser, which also featured an article requesting information on that self-same photo.
Reading the story, Ardrishaig woman Grace Clifford approached the paper with the full story. Her mother, Margaret S Annan, had kept a newspaper cutting from the time in which players and officials are named.
The 1977 information came from reader Mr Robert Bruce of Ardrishaig. He provided the paper not only with the names, but a bit of detail about the trophy and the match in which it was won in 1901.
The trophy was the Nicol Challenge Cup, presented to the Mid Argyll Football Association at the turn of the century.
During the first five years of its existence, it was won by the Kharki Rangers in 1901, 1902 and 1905. Tarbert were the winners in 1903 and 1904.
Mr Bruce also recalled that it was not easy to assemble a team around the turn of the 20th century. The two Law cousins, for example, were fishermen and walked from Lochgair to Ardrishaig to meet up with team-mates for that 1901 Nicol Challenge Cup final, which was played in Tarbert.
His own father, said Mr Bruce, cycled from his job as a gardener at Arduaine for the game.
After the match, which Kharki Rangers won 1-0, the players were so dirty that they ran to the sea and jumped in. No showers in those days.
Mr Bruce also remembered Ardrishaig Kharki Rangers reaching another, very different, final. The lads were beaten by a mining team in the final of the Scottish tug-of-war championships.
The trophy was still around in 1977, at the home of Miss Flora Law in Glen Fyne Park, Ardrishaig. It would be fascinating to know whether the Nicol Challenge Cup is still in Mid Argyll today. The cup run was famous enough to have a poem written about it, according to Grace Clifford, who was kind enough to hand in a copy of it to the paper.
The teams involved in the match described in verse were Ardrishaig Kharki (or ‘Khaki’ in the poem) Rangers and Lochgilphead.
The epic was kept by her mother, and Grace said: ‘The poem is by JE Scott, and many of the players, both in the Ardrishaig and Lochgilphead teams, are named and – as was the custom in those days – mostly referred to by their nicknames.’
Grace added: ‘I wonder who JE Scott was. Obviously he was an educated man who could rhyme and scan competently. Is there anyone able to tell us who he was?’