King of Cappielow , livre ebook

Title Page






THE KING OF CAPPIELOW







John Riddle

Foreword by
Sir Alex Ferguson CBE




Publisher Information


First published in 2008 by
Apex Pu blishing Ltd
PO Box 7086, Clacton on Sea, Essex, CO15 5WN
www.apexpublishing.co.uk

Digital edition converted and published in 2011 by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com

Copyright © 2008 by John Riddle
The author has asserted his moral rights


All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition, that no part of this book is to be reproduced, in any shape or form. Or by way of trade, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser, without prior permission of the copyright holder.


Production Manager: Chris Cowlin
Cover Design: Siobhan Smith




Dedication




I would like to dedicate this book to two people who have in recent years departed this mortal coil.

My mother Lena who died in 2005.
She was the inspiration behind everything I did in my life. She supported and encouraged me when others gave up. I miss her companionship and wicked sense of humour.

and

Alexander Mitchell Blake, my partner Lorna’s dear father.
He lived in Albert Road, Gourock, next door to The Spinnaker Hotel, and encouraged me in most things I did.
To me he was always ‘The Monarch of the Glen’.
After his funeral in Greenock, Alistair, as he was better known, was laid to rest in his beloved Tarbert, Loch Fyne, in July 2007.

May they both rest in peace.




Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following people for their assistance and guidance in writing The King of Cappielow .

Ronnie MacKay - sports writer - Scottish Sun.
Elizabeth Ritchie - Andy’s mum.
Chris Anderson - Greenock Morton fan. Alan Hay - Greenock Morton fan. Graham Barnstaple - Motherwell FC. Mark McGhee - Motherwell FC.
Jonathan Mitchell - Greenock Morton Albert Hotel
Supporters Club, Gourock.
Stewart McCartney - Th e Spinnaker Hotel, Gourock.
Neil Brown - Statistician - n eil brown@newcastlefans.com.
Jim Sinclair - photographer.
Ken Richardson - Gourock & District Magazine .
The Family of Morton Fans.
Lorna Young (née Blake), my long-suffering partner from Gou rock.
Other people too numerous to mention.

And last but by no means least:
‘The King of Cappielow’ - Andy Ritchie




References

Vincent P. Gillen - Greenock Morton 1874-1999 (McLean Museum & Art Gallery, 1998)
Tim Gallagher - The Independent
The Sunday Herald
The Scottish Football Writers’ Association
The Celtic Fanzine
Graeme Ross - Morton Greats (Breedon Books, 2004) and More Morton Greats (Breedon Books, 2005)
Martin Tyler - Sky Sports Television
The British Broadcasting Corporation
The Curator - McLean Museum & Art Gallery
Roy Dyer - fan now living in Australia
The Daily Record
Chick Young - BBC Scotland and Dukla Pumpherston
Craig Brown - The Game of My Life (Blake Publishing, 2001)
Arthur Montford - broadcaster and lifelong Morton supporter
Jim McLean - Hamilton, Clyde, Kilmarnock and Dundee United
John Mullin - journalist and Morton fan
Ronnie Miller - policeman and Morton fan
Andrew M. Cubie - football supporter
Allan McGraw - Hibernian and Greenock Morton
Peter Livingstone - football writer
Roger Graham, sports editor, Greenock Telegraph
Benny Rooney - Morton Manager 1976-83
Mike Jackson - assistant manager, Morton, 1976-83
Ian Archer - writer and Morton fan
Statistical information, Copyright © 1998-2007 Statto Organisation Limited




Foreword

It is a pleasure to write the foreword to this book ‘ The King of Capplielow ’.
Andy Ritchie was the bane of my life when I was at Aberdeen. He would continually score free kicks against us. So much so that we spent a whole week training in ways to defend against his great ability to score from all sorts of different positions at free kicking.
We tried everything to stop this, we tried two players on the posts, we tried leaving a gap in the wall so that our goalkeeper could see the ball.
We tried everything but two goalkeepers which was unfortunate that the rules did not allow it.
Andy had a great talent and I can vouch for that as no one suffered more against it.
In closing, I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did!
Enjoy the book!

Sir Alex Ferguson CBE




Introduction

Andy Ritchie was the first Celtic player to graduate from the Celtic Boys Club and he later became Scottish Footballer of the Year.
That may be a precis of Andy’s career, but lovers of the beautiful game, who stand on the windy terraces at Cappielow Park, tell a very different story.
Andy Ritchie was born in a small town two miles north of Motherwell. He is just one of a plethora of famous sons and daughters from this North Lanarkshire town. In the world of politics Robin Cook and Dr John Reid immediately spring to mind, and from the world of entertainment Sheena Easton and the Soup Dragons.
But, of course, football was the name of the game in Bellshill and other great names from the world of soccer include Sir Matt Busby, Barry Ferguson, Craig Brown, Peter Grant, Ally McCoist, and the King of Cappielow - Andy Ritchie.
Although Andy Ritchie played for Greenock Morton from 1976 to 1983, scoring 133 goals for the club in just 246 games, he is still worshipped by the fans more than 25 years later. You can still buy the legend’s shirt in the Morton Club shop today.
So where did the legend start? Where did it all go wrong? And, above all, where is Andy Ritchie today a quarter of a century after he abdicated his role as ‘ King of Cappielow ’?

John Riddle



The Early Years

Andy Ritchie was born on 23rd February 1956 in Bellshill, a town of some 20,000 people. Bellshill is about two miles north of Motherwell where Andy also made eight appearances, scoring once after his glory days at Cappielow Park.
Andy’s parents, Andrew and Bessie - or Elizabeth, to give his mum her Sunday name - had three children, Liam, Jan and Andrew. The family lived happily in the council house at Bellshill and Bessie Ritchie still lives there today, Andy’s dad having died in 1996.
Andy Ritchie is immensely proud of his family. He loves his mother, naturally, his children Mark and Stephen and his granddaughter, his little princess, Keira. He’s a real family man, despite what you may have heard.
Andy was educated at Belvedere School, where the headmaster was Craig Brown, the former Scotland manager. He then moved up to the ‘big school’, which seems appropriate for a lad who dwarfed his contemporaries. He continued his education at Bellshill Academy, eventually leaving with three ‘O’ levels including the all-important one in Geography. This would serve him well in later life as he travelled around the Scottish Premier League (SPL) as a delegate, touring Europe in search of talent as a scout at Celtic, Villa and Watford and, who knows, maybe one day as a UEFA delegate.
In the evenings, and because his mates all attended the Bellshill YMCA, Andy went along with the crowd. It was whilst at the YMCA that Andy was spotted by Celtic’s chief scout, John Dempsey, and he was invited to join Celtic Boys Club. Dempsey’s son Jimmy also played professional football at Hamilton.
Celtic Boys Club, founded in 1966, has never been affiliated to Glasgow Celtic FC, if you believe one statement that was issued in 1996. It may not have been, but its past President was Jock Stein CBE. In the details relating to the Celtic Boys Club history, in a match between Celtic Park and Dundee St Columba on 13th May 1972, which resulted in a 2-1 win for Celtic, the players who eventually signed for SPL team Celtic are highlighted with an asterisk (*) and Under-16s players’ names highlighted are the team captains: McCluskey , McCafferty , *McAleer, O’Hara , *Kelly, Hughes , Headley , *Lee, *Ritchie, *McKee, *Little, Sub: McGuire .
So Andy Ritchie is there - playing for Celtic Park in 1972 - and he was the first player to graduate to Celtic FC.
In Scottish Football Today in 1990, in an article by Charles Stewart on The Celtic Boys Club, which was written at a time when Aberdeen and Dundee United were on the lips of all young Scottish fans.
The ‘New Firms’ as opposed to the ‘Old Firms’ were putting in place youth schemes to develop and produce more home- grown talent. This was to stop the drain of good Scottish talent south to England.
Celtic Boys Club from the East End of Glasgow can claim to have produced many quality players of outstanding skill who later would pull on the famous hooped jersey of Celtic. In fact the Celtic side that beat Dundee United in the semi-final of the Skol Cup contained five Celtic Boys Club players, all Scotland internationals: Paul McStay, Peter Grant, Derek Whyte, Steve Fulton and Gerry Creaney.
Those that were thought to have slipped through Celtic’s fingers included Joe Miller, John Collins, Alan Brazil, Pat Nevin and Tom Boyd. The reasons for the slippage may be explained much later.
Jock Stein, manager of Celtic FC at that time, to