“The cry’s gane thro’ the Borderland
The beacons bleeze on Dunion’s tap
For English knaves fra’ Cumberland
Ha’ crost the Fell by Carter Slap
Dear Borderland! Blench na’ nor fear!
Dear Borderland, Nae foe comes near!
Stand firm and sure; For Jethart’s Here!
Stand firm and sure; for Jethart’s Here!”
And Jethart’s here today and I am sure their team will show as much steely determination this afternoon as their gallant forebears did when they arrived late – there were roadworks on the A68! – to turn the tide in the famous skirmish which has come to be known as the Raid of the Redeswire.
We welcome President Gordon Leitch, Vice President John Evans, the Jedforest coaches and the players who will be taking on the Greens and the Force today. Recent results suggest that the boys from Riverside Park are coming onto a game but the Force, strengthened by the return of some “auld heids” are up for the fray while Matty Douglas’s men are sitting proudly at the top of the Premiership table and ready for their tenth defence of the Bill McLaren Shield. We are now undefeated at Mansfield since October 2019 – a great record we want to extend. A stirring Border derby is surely in prospect.
The sheep are in the fold, the cattle are in the shed and the land rovers and jeeps have come down from the hills for this is Farmers Day at Mansfield Park. A warm welcome to all our hardy sons of the soil but particularly to the “Howahill blackbird,” Life Member Henry Douglas, now on the mend after his operation, and to his daughter Evelyn and grandson Ben, at last back from New Zealand. We wish Ben well with his recovery from his serious brain injury.
Our two Clubs haven’t always seen eye to eye. Jedburgh historian, Norrie McLeish has just brought out a book called “Annals of the Jed Valley” which is well worth adding to your Christmas list. In a chapter entitled “Just A Game” he tells how at Melrose Sports the Hawick team took umbrage at a Jed try and walked off the field in protest. The following Saturday at Hawick sports the Jed players were “hooted and jostled” as they left the pitch. The Jed Secretary wrote to his Hawick counterpart complaining and demanding assurances of better protection for the Jed players. No apology was forthcoming and Jed vowed they would never again take the field at Hawick. How was this resolved – ee’ll hev ti get the book ti find oot!
This being Remembrance weekend we will be observing a minute’s silence before the game in tribute to “Scotia’s boast the Hawick callants” and “the brave, brave lad’s o Jethart” who paid the supreme sacrifice in the two great conflicts of last century and who lie today far from the Border rugby fields they once graced. Then on Sunday Hawick Captain Matty Carryer, supported by Vice Captains Shawn Muir and Andrew Mitchell, will march in the parade and lay a wreath at the War Memorial in memory of the Hawick boys who never grew old.
“At the going down of the sun
And in the morning
We will remember them”.
UPDATE
After much perseverance and with the help of many people I have at last found the elusive J. Norman G Davidson, first baby to be born in the Haig, who captained Scotland at both rugby and cricket. I have just phoned his Auckland home and had a grand conversation with him. At 91 he’s still sharp as a tack and has readily agreed to “put his thinking cap on” and send a contribution for our 150th book
