West of Scotland Cricket Club Fundraising Dinner

Sunday the 17th of September

The Double Tree Hilton Glasgow Central - Cambridge Street - Glasgow.

Guest Speakers - Alex McLeish, Frank McAvennie, Gordon Sherry and Angus Fraser. Hosted by Dougie Donnelly.

Table of Ten - £750

3 Course meal with welcome glass of Champagne!

Live Auction and Raffle with Silent Auction.

West of Scotland Cricket Club’s ground, Hamilton Crescent, in Peel Street, Partick G11 was the venue of the first ever FIFA recognised international football match between Scotland and England on 30 November, 1872, as well as these matches in 1874 and 1876. In addition, internationals in cricket, hockey and rugby have taken place there - as were the Scottish Cup football finals in 1875-6 and 1876-77. As the latter was the first contested by Rangers FC, the ground features in the club’s Founders Trail tours.

Among cricketing visitors were the All England XIs in 1865 and 1866, an Australian XI in 1878, WG Grace’s XI in 1891 and 61 Scotland internationals between South Africa in 1907 and Pakistan in 2003, including a crowd of over 5,000 to watch Scotland v Australia in 1989. Very few grounds anywhere in the world have held such important international matches in four different sports.

West Cricket Club dates its formation from 1862, though there were two other clubs played on the ground prior to that, and the West of Scotland Football Club (rugby football) was formed there in 1865, moving away after the 2nd World War. The club plays in the Western District Cricket Union Premier League and has produced a number of Scottish internationalists. Club professionals have included Salahuddin (Pakistan) and Australian Trevor Bayliss, the England coach when winning the World  Cup in 2019.
The club runs two other senior teams in Saturday leagues, a Women’s team in the Scottish Women’s Premier League and several teams at Junior age groups. There are Men’s XIs also involved in a midweek league, a Sunday league and in several cup competitions. There is an Indoor Practice facility as well which was opened in the 1950s and is still well-used by members and by various other clubs which hire the facility.
The club also enjoys positive relationships with the local community and local schools. There is community use of the ground (eg Primary School Sports) and their aim is  to extend community use of enhanced club facilities in the future.

During lockdown in January 2021, a major water ingress caused considerable damage to the Pavilion, which is 100 years old this year, and the club now faces extensive costs to renovate and modernise that building as well as other aspects of the ground. The overall cost will be at least £750,000, with the project being approached in several phases.
Clearly it would be a major tragedy for this historical venue to be lost after such a long and illustrious history and a fundraising programme is underway, including this major Fundraising Dinner on Sunday 17th September in the Hilton Doubletree Hotel, Cambridge Street, Glasgow : 7 for 7.30pm.