Sport and Leisuretime Activities

Coming soon ...

In the meantime here's a picture from an old cigarette card from the 1930s of the Vale OCOBA football team. this was provided by Graham Lappin. The Vale OCOBA was the forerunner of the Vale Juniors (OCOBA is an acronym for Old Church Old Boys Association).

PLACE MOUSE POINTER OVER IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Information on the Card

Ardath Tobacco Co. Ltd
Vale OCOBA
L to R back row:— D. McCrimmond (trainer), J. Babes, J. Burns, J. 
Dunlop, W. Colquhoun, F. Wrethman, W. Ferguson (Captain).
Front row:— G. McCorquodale, S. Banks, J. Boyd, J. Wood, R. Allan.

"Vale Ocoba F.C. plays in both the Scottish Combination League and the West of Scotland Amateur League.  In 1933/34 won the Dumbartonshire Cup, the Scottish Amateur Charity Cup, and were Champions of the West of Scotland League.  The club repeated its success in the Dumbartonshire Cup in the following season."

We also came across an interesting YouTube clip of the match between Keith FC and Vale OCOBA in the 1936 Scottish Qualifying Cup final.

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuaNt_Xzy20.

While this chapter is being written we shall use this page as a repository for any old documents or images that we come across.

VALE OF LEVEN FC - Scottish Cup Winners 1877

We received an email from Robert Lindsay, an expat now living in the south of England. Robert tells us that his father was Lawrance (Lawrie) Lindsay who was a Valeman who worked in the RNTF before moving to Garelochhead as the MOD presence was built up in the area. Lawrie also played for Dumbarton FC.

Robert sent us the image below, which is of the "Vale of Leven Stalwarts" football team who won the Scottish Cup in 1877. His Uncle David is pictured in this famous team.

Place your cursor over the image to view a larger version

Robert points out that "The Vale" beat Vale of Leven Rovers in the second round. This link is to the Wikipedia website where that full results from that year's competition are listed. The importance of this area in the development of football is very much in evidence on this list.

Richard Turner is a collector of football memorabilia who found the medal pictured below in a jewellers shop in Glasgow about 6 years ago. It was being sold simply as a 9ct ladies brooch.

The medal is engraved
Challenge Cup
1876-7
Won By
Vale of Leven Club
J. McDougall

Richard says, "As soon as I saw it's inscription I knew what it was as I like to read about the early history of football and knew about The Vale of Leven's early football achievements.

As for John McDougall I only know what I have read, he was the first ever International to score a hat-trick in the 7-2 win Scotland v England in 1878, he played in all 3 winning  finals of 1877-78-79, he captained the Vale team that travelled down to London in 1878 to play against the Wanderers (5 times winners of the F.A. cup) and won 3-1. He was certainly an outstanding player of his time."

Seasons that fixed a place in History for the Vale of Leven. (Evening Times >)