"Others Sleep, We Dream"

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After my initial wanderings, I followed Tweed Street towards Netherdale in pursuit of my bed for the night. The sun was still shining and I was keen to get to Netherdale with good daylight. My bed for the night was in a student village. Heriot Watt University from Edinburgh have a Borders Campus, which conveniently has accommodation in the form of the Jean Muirhead Student Village. The princely sum of £35 gets you bed and breakfast with private facilities in the pristine halls of residence across the road from the college campus. I believe that is year round, so the thought of studying textiles in the Borders has perhaps not caught the imagination. Anyway my home for the night was spot on and directly over the car park from Peter Wormsley's other gift to Gala..... The Stand at the 3 G Arena, Netherdale, Galashiels - home of Gala Fairydean Rovers Football Club. The rolling green hills is a strange setting for a brutality concrete block, not least of which because it's owners are a club of modest stature currently playing in the Ferrari Packaging Lowland League of Scotland football pyramid. The aspirations have been higher, but a number of failed attempts to get voted into the Scottish league has left Fairydean and local rivals, Rovers to stop squabbling to form Gala Fairydean Rovers 2013 F.C. The result is the current incarnation from 2013, which possibly fails to live with the burden of playing at the San Siro of the Borders.



I initially spent a good half hour taking photos of all aspects of The Stand - one of only 2 listed structures in all Scottish football. The other is the Archibald Leitch Main Stand at Ibrox Park, the home of Glasgow Rangers. Yep ... a slightly more famous representative of Scottish football. I hear you saying ........ but it is an ugly concrete block. Yes, but ........ architecturally significant and built to a Wormsley design by British / Danish design engineer, Ove Arup. I know - never heard of them - they Arup also collaborated on a more celebrated world site. The Sydney Opera House! Arup was actually born in Newcastle and contributed to the Mulberry Harbours in World War 2. On his death, he chose to have his ashes scattered from another of his creations in Durham.



I paid my £5 and wandered through the turnstile, designed to match "The Stand". The identical one at the other end remained closed. A group of away fans tried to get into the bar for a drink, undeterred by the sign stating all entry by my way of the turnstile. My first taste of Lowland League football. A 4 sided colour programme was free. A bonus. The Other Half loves it when I bring home another programme to clutter "her house". I secured a pin badge, which programme man procured from the depths of the Stand. It was a little big for my taste, but I took it anyway - beggars cannot be choosers. The pitch is 3G plastic, but then the clue was in the name - 3 G Arena. The twitter feed suggested the first 25 minutes was more perspiration than inspiration. A group played 5 a side on the training pitch behind one goal, totally oblivious to the game going on. The game itself was quite close, but the visitors from Whitehill Welfare always had the edge in a bad tempered affair. Familiarity breeds contempt. The referee decisions came under some close scrutiny "what you looking at here, pal. Call yourself a referee ?



"Others Sleep, Whilst We Dream" states the Gala motto. They slept early on alright in this match - dozing off long enough to allow Whitehill to get their noses in front. Whitehall scored a thunderous volley to take the points with a 3 -2 win. The visiting fans had the phones on the go filming and within minutes the world could also see via Facebook. A crowd of about 150 meant the world had neither come to see "The Stand" nor the football! It is their loss. I chose not to venture back into town and had a quick venture into the bar under the ground. A series of framed shirts were aligned on the wall - the centre piece were those worn by famous son and patron, John Collins. I texted the Other Half with the news. she got excited having miss-read it, thinking I had just seen the man himself! I retreated back across the road to Jean Muir's student village for an early night.



After a hearty breakfast - "can I get you anymore toast?" - I was back across the road taking stadium snaps. The disproportionate world of sport in Galashiels is highlighted next door to the Wormsley structure at Fairydean Rovers. Netherdale is home to Gala Rugby Football Club. The modern concrete Wormsley stand is contrasted by a more traditional structure - the 1912 Main Stand of the Maroons. I had tried to wander inside the night before, but the hall underneath was being unoccupied by the local weigh in for the Gala Weight Watchers group. The meetings seemed under attended, but I wasn’t tempted. The prestige of rugby in the Borders was summed up by the fact that entrance to their league games is £12 - football next door, a mere fiver! The fields beside the stadiums running down to the River Tweed were occupied the previous night by youth coaching for rugby. This morning, the fields were the domain of dog walker and folk taking casual photographs. “Are you a professional”, queried a dog walker. If only!



I retraced my route back into town. The kids were back at school in Scotland and the roads seemed quite busy, compared to the night before. The school run was in full flow and then possibly the mad dash northward for work. Meanwhile, the older pupils sauntered independently to Galashiels Academy. In the case of many, they didn’t quite make it and were hanging around the Town Centre well after start time. I noted that there was quite an extensive modern shopping development on the site of an old mill down by the river. In addition to the 24 hour Tesco where I had got some Lotto tickets the previous evening, there was an Asda, a Boots pharmacy, a New Look, a Next with a Costa coffee



Old Gala House didn’t open until 10 am, which didn’t leave me a great deal of time to appreciate it before making my way back to the Interchange. I had chosen not to risk a later train to make my connection at Edinburgh Waverley, as I had seen a couple of cancellations in previous days on the tracker feeds. I made a purchase for lunch on route – 2 scotch pies for a £ - from the Pound Bakehouse. Value indeed, although it was noted that some items were indeed more than the £1 price tag. I had a look at the railway posters in the Interchange – reminders of the great age of the train, which ultimately are destined to be classics. The train pulled in from Tweedbank with a hefty patronage on board. Two stations later, it was standing room only. The rush to shop or work or in my case just wander in Edinburgh was on. The sun faded on the way. Edinburgh was it’s cold and windy self in comparison. Full of tourists, all missing out on hand stitched kilts in Gala. I waited at Waverley – the only main line station in Britain named after a novel – and decided on the basis of my trip, that Galashiels was a better place than a glance of TripAdvisor suggests. My scotch pies went down well, as I stared out of the train at the ever appealing Northumberland coastline. Edinburgh to Newcastle – one of the great railway journeys

Appendix 1



Ferrari Packaging Lowland League


Date: Wednesday 31st August 2016 @ 1945 Hours


Venue: 3G Arena, Netherdale, Galashiels, Selkirkshire

Gala Fairydean Rovers FC 2 - 3 Whitehill Welfare FC

Attendance: Est 150


Scorers: 0-1 Osborne (Whitehill Welfare) 25 Minutes, 1 - 1 Smith Pen (Gala) 46 Minutes, 1-2 Mc Gregor (Whitehill Welfare) 60 Minutes, 2 - 2 Watson (Gala) 66 Minutes, 2 - 3 Osborne (Whitehill Welfare) 86 Minutes

Gala Fairydean Rovers

Kieran Wright, Lee Stephen, Scott Main, Kevin Waugh, Ben Herdman, Ross Aitchison, Darren Smith, Dean McColm, Jack Hay, Danny Simpson, Adam Watson Subs Michael Allan, Ross Lamb, Ashley Langford, Kyle Murray, George Windram, Shane Bonnington, Jamie Newman

Whitehill Welfare

Bryan Young, Dale O'Hara, Nikki Murray, John Williams, Connor McGregor, Steven Manson (Trialist 82), Callum Connolly, Scott McCulloch (Kevin Keane 64), Michael Osborne, Harvey Swann, Charlie Denton (Frankie Arthur 71) Sub Not Used Ross Jardine

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Photos

Gala
Sponsors of Gala Fairydean Rovers FC & Gala Rugby Football Club

Gala
Sir Walter Scott Statue