The AGM of 1946, on 27 March, noted that ‘the grounds would be put in order comparatively early’ with the exception of the tennis courts. It does not appear that the grounds had been turned over to food production during the War, as might have been the case, but simply that there had been neither labour nor finance to maintain the grounds. There is an implication that the hockey section, for instance, played elsewhere.

And, no doubt for the same reasons ‘essential work’ was needed to make the clubhouse wind and watertight.

By June 1946, there were 88 members; by the end of the year there were 230. At the beginning of 1948, 371 members were supporting three ladies and two gents hockey teams, two rugby fifteens, two association football sides, two gents and two ladies tennis teams, and it was hoped to have two cricket elevens. Dances had been held on 42 consecutive Saturdays!

And for good measure it was proposed to revive the dramatic section.

It was agreed in 1950 that the Club history should be brought up to date, with each of the sections nominating a member to produce the respective parts.

George Anderson, the gentlemen’s hockey representative, undertook to convene the history and to collect the reports from the various contributors. In May 1951 it is noted that the ‘missing period is now narrowed to three years’, and a month later that the list of officials now had only one year missing.

George Anderson’s enthusiasm for this task may have had something to do with the forthcoming celebration of the Jubilee of the hockey section of which he was a member, an event which took place in September 1952, followed by a Civic Reception for 500 guests.

31 May 1956 saw the passing of Sir John Stirling Maxwell who had been patron of the Club since 1897. Sir John’s relationship with the Club comes through the pages of the minute books only fleetingly, such as in the reduction of the Club’s rent by half in 1915, the organisation of a collection for the marriage of Anne Stirling Maxwell in March 1930, or in a resolution on 12 April 1937 to send a letter of condolence on the recent death of Lady Stirling Maxwell.

A proposal in 1954 to design a new club badge was to be based on Sir John’s family coat of arms, but this was vetoed by the Lord Lyon.

Sir John’s influence on many facets of Scottish life was, of course, seminal and is well recorded . He was, for example, a founder member of the National Trust for Scotland.

After resurrecting itself to something approaching its full glory following the Second World War the Club began to suffer, almost as it has done during the whole of the second half of the twentieth century, from acute financial problems, much of the difficulty being occasioned by heavy maintenance and repair costs, as well as loss of revenue due to the poor state of the grounds.

In February 1956, the annual accounts were not ready and ‘deep financial problems’ required the transfer of money from the Building Fund, which was being gathered up to replace the clubhouse.

This drain on the Fund continued in subsequent years, such that the 1958 AGM recorded that ‘Any thought of rebuilding or improving the grounds (was) out of the question’.

While the individual sections of the Club were doing well, social activities were ‘due solely to one or two members’ with organisation of the 1956 annual Fête being abandoned.

We should not be surprised that the Club saw its salvation (sic!) in alcohol! At a meeting on 16 December 1957, however, it was decided that acquiring a licence would raise too many difficulties and be too expensive. In any event, that meeting ‘came to an abrupt end with the arrival of members for the Xmas Draw’!

The administration of the Club appears to have been in a poor way, at least compared with the rigour which is evident in the minutes of earlier decades

In 1958 the lease had apparently not been renewed since 1950. This revelation led to an investigation which fortuitously, as recorded on 28 May of that year, not only turned up a lease but also the minute books back to 1912 which were ‘in the possession of a former office-bearer’. In addition, the President’s Lady ‘served excellent supper at the end of the meeting’. Oh, for the good old days!

A watershed occurred in July 1958 when resignations were submitted from 35 members of the gentlemen’s hockey section who, thereafter, played at the Clydesdale grounds at Titwood.

The events leading up to this dramatic action are proper to the history of that section. But briefly, the condition of the Dumbreck pitches – and contemporary readers will know what that meant for a winter sport – were so poor that the section had spent a season playing elsewhere, namely at Titwood.

Such was the contrast in the conditions they found there, that they resolved to make it their permanent home. Photographs taken in recent times serve as a lasting memory of the state of the grounds before the current redevelopment – and we can only empathise with the hockey players.

Cartha Ladies Hockey Club continues in being as an independent club, albeit not at Dumbreck.
By the time of the AGM on 29 February 1960, the President was saying that an increase in income was needed if the Club was to continue.

But survive it did – and indeed moved forward. In the Spring of 1960 members had ‘driven in the thin ends of several sectional wedges’ by playing and training on Sundays. Despite at that time prohibiting Sunday play to all but tennis and cricket – and then only after 2pm – by September of the same year the committee agreed to allow Sunday play and that ‘if it is unpalatable to members, their resignations will be accepted’.

The Club’s application for a liquor licence was rejected in early 1961 but in November 1962 it was successful. At the meeting of the committee on 9 January 1963 there were 55 applications for membership!

The bar was not an unalloyed success with the activity recording a 27% gross profit in the first third of the 1963/64 financial year, but no profit in the second period due to ‘poor security’, returning however to a 33% profit in the final third of the year.

Throughout the existence of the Club, the condition of the grounds has been a persistent problem. Flooding in 1921 was attributed to the widening of Dumbreck Road and a drain was subsequently laid by the Corporation.

Flooding remained a problem with concerns and correspondence recorded in each year from 1924 to 1927 when further drainage was put in. By 1930 Nether Pollok Ltd were to lay yet another drain along Dumbreck Road and asked the Club to lay drains to connect to the new pipe.

In February 1936, subsidence appeared in the outfield, a problem with which users of the roadside pitch in recent years have been only too familiar.

An interesting entry in May 1948 states that full drainage was not practicable ’as the ground was continually moving’. The cause became apparent when the bases for the new floodlights were being installed some forty years later. The water table is just eight feet below the surface, with the soil having the consistency and characteristics of quicksand.

The problem of flooding was exacerbated, according to an entry of 29 January 1962, when the Corporation drained Dumbreck Road by opening a pipe under the road to the river, causing flooding on the roadside pitch. Three weeks later it is recorded that the Corporation claimed that their agreement with Pollok Estate allowed them to drain on to the pitch!

Shortly thereafter, the Corporation suggested that new drainage on the hill opposite the clubhouse would resolve the problem. But as we know, that was a fond hope. Indeed, during the recent works, a selection of drainage pipes were found beneath the surface of the roadside pitch, including one which was running with crystal clear water, the source of which was never discovered!

At this point the minutes held by the author peter out. Fortunately, the rugby section minutes are available for around another decade. So it may now be opportune to summarise briefly the high and lows of the section.