My serious interest in Hawick rugby did not begin until the end of primary school. I started laying rugby in Primary 7 at St Margaret’s School. I enjoyed it and began as a full-back, modelling myself on Jim Gray. I had seen rugby before then, but it was easier to put down a couple of jerseys in the Mote Park and play football. At Hawick High School, teachers like Ernie Murray, ‘Shorty’ Anderson and Bob Elliot soon got me focused. I had an after-school job at Michael Graham the Cobblers in Silver Street, where I met Jimmy Dearden, David Thompson and Jock Elliot. How they ever got any shoes mended beats me! One of my regular ‘drop offs and collects’ was at ‘Dummy’ Hogg’s. All that lot were rugby daft.
By the time I left school and moved to Hawick PSA, I was beginning to realise how much rugby meant in Hawick. People were starting to ask about me and how I was getting on. I joined Hawick YM and they had some big scary boys, I can tell you. You had to perform well, or you were out. One afternoon, we were getting changed for a game when Jack Hegarty of the Hawick committee appeared and spoke to our forward Kenny Lothian, who collected his playing kit and disappeared. It turned out that one of the Hawick players had been hurt in the warm-up and a replacement was needed urgently. I was dumbstruck that Hawick could just poach a player like that, but it showed to me how much the Greens were top of the food chain and their needs always came first.
My first game for Hawick was away at Musselburgh in February 1973 and it was on the morning of an international match. Jim Renwick was a regular in the Hawick side by then and we both lived at 32 The Loan. I went upstairs for him at 7.30 a.m., even though the bus was not until nine – I did not want to be late for my first game! I already knew a lot of the names in the team and now, here I was, I was running onto the pitch with them.
The following season, I played when Hawick were short of a prop, but the intensity of training and the demands on the players were very high. The coaching staff, in particular Derrick Grant and Graham Lyall, did not need to speak to you – their look was more than enough! It wasn’t that they disliked you personally, but rather they wanted the very best for Hawick. The standard had been set by those who went before. Those guys had a huge effect on me and to play with the likes of Jim Renwick, Alan Tomes, Colin Deans and many others pushed me on to greater heights.
Once, I got into a bit of a ‘dust up’ against Kelso in a mid-week Border League game. Back home, my dad, who was not even at the game, had a real go at me for brawling and making an exhibition of myself on the pitch. I was shocked and I did not know how he had found out so soon because our house did not have a telephone and there were no mobiles. Jungle telegraph, I suppose. Dad did not go to many games, but he cared deeply about what I was doing and how I was progressing.
One playing memory that had a profound effect on me was in February 1982 when we beat Gala at Netherdale against the odds. That was when Jim Renwick kicked his famous last second penalty. The dressing room before the game was deathly quiet. I could not look around the players and I knew that each one of them was lost in their own frame of mind. Derrick Grant came in and never said a word: he just went around and shook each player by the hand. My hair still stands on end thinking about it.
My time as a player passed too quickly, but Hawick rugby was not finished with T. A. Froud! I played one season for the YM, but my Achilles tendon did for me in the end. Then, Eddie Gilchrist claimed me as a coach for Hawick PSA. He said that I should give back what the PSA had given me, and I had no arguments with that. I asked Ronnie Wells to assist me – and thank goodness he accepted because Ronnie and I got on very well. I had two successful seasons with the PSA. We won the Border Semi-Junior League and a hatful of sevens trophies.
Sometimes on my walks to Burnfoot along the old railway line, I used to look down at Mansfield Park and I wondered if I would ever go back there. I spent a hard season as coach of the YM when we were just pipped in the Border District League. And then came a bombshell. I was asked if I would like to coach Hawick! Brian Hegarty was about to finish, and they tempted me with a place on the club tour of Holland and Germany in May 1988 – I was always easily bought! My assistants were Bruce Elliot and then Ronnie Wells again. In hindsight, I was probably too close to some of the players and short of coaching experience at the right level. Another season may have suited better. The job was difficult, and it ended in tears. Professionalism was starting to creep in, and Hawick were losing a lot of great players and natural leaders. But there were still plenty of guys who would have walked over hot coals for me.
My worst moment in coaching was in March 1989 when ‘Sally’ Campbell broke his leg in a match against Melrose. It finished his career, and he was a huge loss for Hawick because he was a superb talisman. Before one game against Gala, which we were not expected to win, I had to make an emergency call to Alan Tomes, who was working in Doncaster at the time. I asked if he could appear at training, which he did without complaint. I also asked Colin Gass, who was working in Ireland. He made it as well and we went to beat Gala thanks to their help. It showed how much playing for Hawick meant for the two of them.
After leaving Hawick, I went to Langholm for three seasons. There I learnt a lot about the administrative side of things, what it takes to get a team on the park and keep a club afloat. It was a real insight for me. Then, Robin Charters asked if I would come back to Hawick as a team selector. Robin’s knowledge of the game was unsurpassed, and he was all about Hawick, but I found him to be another scary man. During this time, we were reasonably successful, but did not achieve the dizzy heights that were expected of Hawick and I was ejected again. The next thing was that Ian Barnes was asked to be Hawick coach and he said he would only do the job if I was the team manager. I met ‘Barney’ at his mum’s house. She, Jean, was a smart lady and she asked if we were both daft! She said that the club will just dump you again and how right she was, but not before we made our mark by winning the Premier League and the Scottish Cup as well as making a successful club tour of the West Indies in May 1999. Some people might think it is easy for a club like Hawick to achieve success, but the truth was that it took a lot of hard work.
A couple of years later, Billy Murray was club president and he asked if I would like to be his vice president. I agreed but only if I was unopposed by anybody on the committee. I was on holiday in Tobago at the time of the Hawick AGM, sitting by the pool with a cold beer, when Billy phoned me to let me know that I had been chosen and was back in favour. I said thanks and went on the rum! It was a huge honour to be the club president. I enjoyed a lot of it, but not the inevitable politics that goes with the job.
I can safely say that over my long involvement with the Hawick club, I have always tried my best to be fair and to help whenever I could. It has not always been easy as some people are only in it for themselves, but mostly it has been a great pleasure. I have made many friends, including some of my old opponents, and I always enjoy meeting them, which is a testament to Hawick rugby. Thank you for allowing me to put these humble few words to paper.
