Linton Hotspur
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Linton Hotspur
FOOTBALL CLUB
In West Linton there’s an amateur football club who has approached
its centenary and its 10th anniversary … all will become clear!
Linton Hotspur is one of the Border’s oldest amateur
clubs with records dating it back to the 1920s. Locally
known as ‘The Hotspur’, their history has seen them
play at various venues in the village but, as with most
amateur clubs, facilities and funding were always
problematic. Nevertheless, The Hotspur always seemed
to find a way to carry on but despite everyone’s best
efforts they were eventually forced to call it a day in
1971 after a particularly sobering 12–2 defeat to Ferranti
Thistle, who later evolved into the current day SPL side
Livingston. Sliding doors? Perhaps …
Yet many locals, particularly those with family
connections, remembered The Hotspur fondly and in
2008 a public meeting was called in The Gordon Arms
Hotel to gauge the level of interest in resurrecting
Linton Hotspur Football Club. The interest was indeed
substantial and genuine, so a new committee was
formed and, spurred on by the traditions and history
associated with both the village and club, The Hotspur
has not looked back since.
Fundraising and sponsorship raised around £20,000
which allowed the club to purchase changing facilities
which were installed adjacent to the former school
playing field at Deanfoot Road in West Linton. In 2009
the senior team was admitted into the Border Amateur
Football Association and played their first game since
1971 in front of around 350 local supporters. At the same
time the previously informal youth set-up in West Linton
was brought under one umbrella to create a ‘community
club’ with playing opportunities from pre-school ages
upwards. But once again there was a problem looming.
In 2010, plans were announced for the new West Linton
Primary School, and its impending construction on the
school playing field would effectively render Linton
Hotspur homeless …
Driven by a committee who saw this as a challenge
rather than a problem, and having raised another £11,000,
the club was able to move their changing facilities into a
new and, hopefully, permanent home at New Moor Road
46 Issue 86
in 2012 where they immediately set about constructing a
new pitch. This was made possible by the very generous
assistance of a local landowners, Mr and Mrs Jim Clark,
who granted the club an annual rolling lease over one of
their fields to create the pitch.
Four years on, the club was presented with an
opportunity to set down permanent roots on the site
of this pitch, which we will touch on later in the article.
In the interim period, the club continued to expand the
footballing opportunities for locals by introducing a
range of under-age boy’s teams in addition to the senior
side. Linton Hotspur U13s, will be playing competitive
games next season in the South East Region Youth
Football Division 3, while all of the other age groups
will play non-competitive games in the Borders Football
Development set-up.
The club’s Youth Section has achieved both ‘SFA
Community Club’ status and the ‘SFA Quality Mark’,
has fully qualified coaches at all levels and formalised
player development pathways. In terms of participation
and community engagement then, Linton Hotspur
is undoubtedly a success story providing sporting
opportunities to over 100 boys, girls and men in the West
Linton area, with plans under consideration to include
specific girl’s teams too.
But there are always challenges in running a
community organisation, particularly one which
depends on herding 15 or 16 young, and not-so-young,
men together for Saturday and midweek fixtures,
not to mention training sessions on cold, dark, winter
evenings! Everybody involved in amateur sport in
Scotland will recognise the problems – can’t get time off
work, holiday commitments, illness and injury, domestic
duties, childcare – and they’re only the ‘genuine’ ones!
Add in prima-donna behaviours – “I don’t want to be
a substitute”, sleeping in, hard night before – and it’s a
wonder any games get played!
Yet the clubs survive because enough people do
take things seriously and are committed to providing