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On to Hamilton Crescent.. Sunday, 16 May 2010 16:11

Following on from my visits to The Rangers old grounds at Fleshers Haugh, Burnbank and Kinning Park I decided to take a walk down to Hamilton Crestcent, the West of Scotland Cricket Clubs Ground in Partick. 

The ground is situated in a peaceful area, surrounded by lush green trees and stately homes.

 You wouldn't know it was there unless you had a reason, tucked in between new build houses and old town houses.

Amazingly I was able to just walk in, sit on a bench and wander around photographing, theres no graffiti or broken bottles, you'd think they'd stop people walking in, the pitch itself is very well maintained. 

I felt the place had an aura of history around it, maybe just because I know some of the matches that have taken place, or maybe because of the old walls, fences, pavillion and seating..

For those interested, the goals (posts) were facing north to south, one set in front of the pavillion, the others at the bottom of the hill. In the 1877 Scottish Association Challenge Cup Final matches, the Rangers started off the first game shooting down the hill, having gravity on their side. 

For the match report of the first game between Rangers and Vale of Leven, April 19th 1877 (North British Daily Mail) view my earlier blog post http://rangers1872.blogspot.com/2010/04/match-report-rangers-v-vale-of-leven.html

Now for some photographs, click thumbnails for bigger images.

(Text is written about image/s above it)



A panoramic from the seating area, this would have been the view the thousands of fans attending the games would have had, furthermore, note the steeple in the background, as I mentioned earlier, is in the background of the first drawing above of the Scotland v England international match in 1872.



Also a panoramic view of the pitch.

Some close up details of the fencing and seating, I like the vintage feel the place has.

The fencing, that was once all the way around the pitch (now replaced on 3 out of 4 sides by corrugated iron) that spectators would get a 'free view' of the matches from.



A view from the back of the pavillion, potentially the view players would get as they would walk out onto the pitch.

The seating, once again the white and light/sky blue colours, as in use by the Clyde Amateur Rowing club and one assumes the same blue as the star on the 1877 Rangers teams chest (see very bottom of this post). 







The Pavillion, this is in the photograph from the 1800's, but it just seems so well kept for something that one assumes is so old. I have yet to contact the cricket club about this, but I will find an answer soon.







The old gate to the lovely grass seating area and banks around the side of the pitch, I can imagine fans would once crowd here to watch cricket and football matches alike.

And finally, as already seen on this blog, the original team that played in those finals, on this ground photographed in the studio, firstly the original photograph, secondly a digitally coloured version I did last year.

McBoyd

This is where The Rangers played in their first Scottish Cup Final against The Vale of Leven in 1877, twice, the third and final match being played at 'Old Hampden'.

A photograph showing the ground on a (cricket) matchday in the 1880's shows how little the ground has changed in 130 years. I have yet to ask anyone at the actual cricket club, but from the image, it looks like the same Pavilion as well. (image, coloured in by someone else, below).



The site was also the place where the first Scotland v England international was held, here are a few images, drawn, of that match. You will recognise the city in the background, especially after viewing my photographs further below.

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