Saturday 15th March 2025 ko 16:30

East of Scotland League- Second Division

BATHGATE THISTLE 0

EASTHOUSES LILY MWFC 3 (Leslie 44 Dyer 53 Elliott 72)

Att 307

Entry £7

Programme £2

Sat on the coach heading from West Calder to Bathgate I checked social media and was a little surprised. I knew we’d lose a few hoppers for the middle two games, despite our normal attempts to minimise this form of drift. I spotted a few (and I do mean a few) hoppers had opted to miss West Calder and Bathgate in favour of one SPFL game. I allowed myself a raised eyebrow but no more.

I get it, I really do. Prioritise the 42 club over all else, but as Chris Powell once said at Ballast Bank former home of Inverkeithing,

 “Would I spend 5 hours in a car for this place? Probably not, but would I as part of 4 in a day? Of course I would!”

And I did think we’d found a quite exceptional ground in Creamery Park too. Bathgate does boast Dr Who actor David Tennant as a famous son, also Sir James Young Simpson who discovered the anaesthetic properties of chloroform, Ryder Cup golf captain Bernard Gallacher and Indy Car racing champion Dario Franchitti.

And added to that Bathgate FC played Scottish League football between 1893 and 1932. When that club folded in 1932 you could argue Bathgate Thistle Juniors were their direct replacements in 1936. The team took up residence at Creamery Park next to the Co-operative Creamery in Hardhill Road, and have been here ever since. The ground is grand enough to have been once home to Rangers reserve and youth sides.

It’s grand old Junior ground, with a re-roofed enclosure, and huge grass banks to relax on. I intended to do just that, but quickly discovered we were a linesman light. As if by chance we had a fully qualified Scottish official in the crowd; Alan Mair had run the line at Stockport Georgians and Abbey Hey on the North West Counties Hop a couple of weeks earlier. He volunteered his services, but his accreditation was and is English… A club official ran the line for the first part of the game!

We were both touched and surprised at half time when the league presented GroundhopUK’s Chris Berezai with a certificate to mark 10 years of the Scottish Hop and the milestone of 20,000 spectators across those events. Its fair to say we didn’t expect either of those figures back at East Kilbride and I do wonder what the folks who’d attached themselves to the Highland League back then would say now? Someone predicted we’d only get the 20-or-so that attend the Swedish Hop! For the avoidance of doubt, the only league in Scotland I cannot see us organising events in is the Highland…

The game did surprise me, in the sense that I expected a home win. But Easthouses were clearly the better team on the day and deserved their 3 goal victory. We strolled back to the coach and I checked social media again… A nil nil at St Johnstone, double ouch!