Gordon Laidlaw

Club steward Gordon Laidlaw has been a member of Boroughmuir since he first joined the club as a player twenty five years ago. The former prop spent much of his childhood travelling around the world after having been born in Singapore but once he arrived at Boroughmuir he never left. 

After retiring from his playing duties in 1983, due to a virus, Gordon took over a coaching role. During his eight years as a coach, he was in charge of both 2^nd and 3^rd teams before taking on his current position of club steward in 1991. His duties now involve “basically everything”. “My current job involves things like looking after the clubhouse, the bar, the cleaning, the strips and getting on with the members as well as I can - and 98% of them are very good”.

With having so many roles to fill at the club, Gordon dosen’t always get the chance to witness the continuing revival of Boroughmuir, “Obviously I get to see home games but when the 1^sts are playing away its more difficult. Then it depends on how many teams are playing at home. If there’s only one then I can usually get away but if both 2nds and 3rds are at home then its just impossible”. The steward is also optomistic about the clubs chances of creating history by being the first side to retain the BT Cellnet Cup. “Why not? We did it last year when we were major underdogs and if Hawick get to the final then we will be underdogs again which will suit us fine”. Boroughmuir, as with any amateur club, could be in a better position though, “A new clubhouse would be nice. When I took on the job I was basically told that I would have a new clubhouse to work with in two years which would benefit the club and me financially. Unfortunately though that’s not been possible”.

Gordon is another voice in the ever growing crowd concerned about the district set up. “The clubs would be much better without the districts. The districts have had five years to prove themselves and they have completely failed to do so. I think its time the SRU subsidised the club game instead. If the top ten clubs in Scotland were given £5M between them then we would do much better, you can see that in the way the clubs have become a community whereas the professional teams are just lumped together”. Gordon also believes that this lack of spirit in the district setup is having a negative effect on the national team, “You look at the game against England and only nine of the players were Scots. The resr were foreigners and it showed in the passion. I’ve seen Scotland lose like that before but it didn’t matter as much because they played with passion and cared. There just didn’t seem to be any of that against England. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against foreigners playing for Scotland full stop, but they have to show some commitment to the country. A player like Calvin Howarth I have no problem with because he has moved here, plays here and wants to stay here, whereas someone like Gordon Simpson played just to get an international cap and he cost the SRU a lot of money”.

Having been at the club for quite a while now, Gordon has seen some good teams play in the green and blue, “The best team I saw here, apart from the 1991 league winning side, was the team of 1977. We were just pipped by Hawick that year. We drew 6-6 at Meggetland and if we had of won that game we would have won the league. The 1991 side has to be the best though for the success of winning the league”. There have been many changes at Boroughmuir since Gordon joined, “When I first came here we were running seven teams each week and now we’ve got three at a push. Obviously we’ve got a good youth system but I’d like to see more players coming through that system into the senior teams”.

The highlight of Gordon’s club career was a tour to Texas in 1990. “It was a great effort by 48 of the members, both players and committee, to raise something like £30,000 towards the trip and to me that is what amateur rugby is all about. I don’t think anything like that will ever happen again because its difficult to get the people interested in the fund raising now”.

Gordon Laidlaw is one of those members who sums up the spirit of a friendly amateur club such as Boroughmuir. Never afraid to criticise or praise people when needed, Gordon has been as much a part of the club’s revival as anyone. Every club needs people like Gordon so that the sense of reality and fun is never lost. 

Gordon's All Time Boroughmuir XV Since 1975

Simon Furnivall