“In the early days of 1889, the year succeeding the Great Exhibition, there came to some young men acquainted with one another through the Young Men’s Christian Association and the Foundry Boys’ Society of Eglinton Street U.P. Church – familiarly known as Hill Dick’s – the idea of satisfying that common yearning of youth for outdoor exercise by starting for themselves an athletic club.”

The Early Days

So begins the first history of the Cartha Athletic Club, published in November 1905 and entitled ‘Cartha: A Retrospect’ by some of the founding members, who came to be known as “ the Auld Lichts” .

And as an account of the first decade and a half of the Club it is less a sporting reminiscence than a tale of determination to succeed and prosper, linked to a social chronicle of the day.

Before moving on to the remainder of the story, what of the name? In the 1905 publication it was noted that ‘the origin of the unique and suggestive name…has prompted many a query and puzzled not a few’. The ‘Retrospect’ tells us that the name was suggested by ‘the proximity of the River Cart’ – but without further explanation!

The name continues to puzzle ‘not a few’. There have been a number of theories propounded over the years. By far the most likely however is that Cartha is the Latinised name for the River Cart, in the same way that Clutha relates to the Clyde. In other words, it was the pre-existing name of the river as it would have been written down by, for example, the monks of Paisley Abbey in their land documents, the river Cart flowing round the grounds of the Abbey .

So Cartha Athletic Club, as it was known, set out on its path to become one of the largest, diverse and most successful sports clubs in the country, producing internationalists in a number of sports, for all of the countries of Great Britain, spanning the whole of the first half of the 20th century.

Beginning with cricket, the Club soon moved to embrace tennis and football in 1890. With a new constitution, which included the rather radical provision for lady members, it was soon over a hundred strong.

In 1891, a new avenue to Pollok House was to be cut through the grounds; the Club was re-located – taking its recently built clubhouse with it! – to Dumbreck, laying down four tennis courts and a cricket pitch.

During the 1890’s, the Club formed its own dramatic section to perform to raise funds, and a cycling section which attracted many lady members.

The new sport of hockey was started in the winter of 1902 and soon developed into separate men’s and women’s sections .

Thus by 1905, cricket, football, hockey and tennis were the core sports with ventures such as ‘ping-pong’, quoits, croquet and tether-ball, being regular features. Club Sports were introduced in 1893.

The social side included the dramatic events already referred to, as well as operatic performances, dances and the usual fund-raising activities. The first Club dinner – the ‘Cartha Auld Lichts’ Dinner’ - was held in 1898.

In 1901-02, when professionalism was gaining ground in association football, that section suffered badly and ‘for a year or two’ there were thoughts of playing rugby, but nothing came of this.

From our point of view, it is unfortunate that the published account of the early days of the Club took us up only to 1905, because introduction of rugby was just around the corner, although not at the expense of the round ball game.

It has long been thought that rugby at Cartha was begun in 1908, the year that membership of the Scottish Rugby Union was achieved , although logic would naturally suggest that the game must have been played for some time before such membership was sought.

Indeed, had the early history been extended by a year or so, it would have shown that season 1906/07 was a very full one for the new rugby section while by 1907/08 a complete set of fixtures was published in Rowan’s Guide .

For reasons which are not readily apparent, the rugby section remained over the years very much a poor relation in comparison with the other main sections, even although its members participated in summer sports and many held office in the Club.

The Club records are not available for the crucial period – crucial, that is, for the history of rugby at Cartha – from 1905 to 1912.

But during that period one notable event did take place, on 8 February 1908, when Cartha hosted the Scotland v. Wales men’s international hockey match at Dumbreck .

By 1912, however, we begin to learn more about the Club. The rugby section was fielding two fifteens ‘with 20 players over’.

In March 1914 hockey players McCallum and Farquhar were chosen for the ‘Scotch Team’ to play Ireland, the latter also against England, although the hockey section itself had only been re-admitted to the Scottish Hockey Union some eight months earlier, the reason for it having left the SHU not being explained.

Regular dances were being held, capitalising on the membership in 1912 of 101 ladies and 143 gentlemen. The Club had 46 Life Members.