A Longish Rant

AN OLD 'HOT METAL' MAN HAS YET ANOTHER RANT

ACCUSATIONS OF hypocricy and of being a two-faced bar steward will be ignored, but, yes, former colleagues from my days on the tools, working at the coal face of journalistic liberty are well aware – I have yet to see a rule I never wanted to break; rules is for the little people, not special needs cases like me.

Back in the days when Journalism was, if not an honoured one, certainly a respected craft, when the people of Scotland bought newspapers at a rate elsewhere in the civilised world, each newspaper group had “The Style Book”.

To explain (and this bit is AI-generated): A newspaper stylebook is a comprehensive manual for writers and editors that standardizes grammar, spelling, punctuation, and usage to ensure consistency, clarity, and impartiality across a publication's articles. Widely used guides, like the Associated Press Stylebook, provide rules for journalistic style, which helps maintain a consistent writing style, making stories easier to understand for audiences.

In my own particular world of Sports Writing, while the various titles all had their own wee foibles around style, there were some standards; one of these was how a team line-up was published. For over 100 years, every Fitba team was listed in a 1-2-3-5 formation: one goalkeeper; right-back, left-back; right-half, centre-half, left-half; outside-right, inside-right, centre-forward, inside-left, outside-left.

This particular method of listing teams has survived from the late Victorian age, indeed, it is still widely-used today, when I can guarantee there are few, if any, teams lining-up is this formation. We are in the age of all sorts of formations: 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 3-4-3, 3-5-2, 4-5-1, 3-4-2-1 etc. can I here put in a word for my fellow always over-looked specialists, the goalkeepers. You will note, all these formations add-up to 10, the outfield players, we poor goalies never get a mention.

The 2-3-5 line-up worked back in the days when players were numbered. The numbering pattern was standardised post-World War II, prior to that, there was no general numbering system. For instance, the first FA Cup Final where the players were numbered was the 1933 edition, when Everton's team were numbered 1-11 – from goalkeeper to outside-left, with opponents Manchester City numbered 12-22 – but from outside-left to goalkeeper. This meant, the future Sir Matt Busby, at right-half for City, wore number 19, while legendary Wembley Wizards Captain, Jimmy McMullan, at inside-left, wore 13. The other Wizard on the park, Everton's Tim Dunn, wore what would become the standard number for an inside-right, number 8.

Then we got involved in World Cups, and the earth tilted on its axis. The SFA had to register and number 22 players and came up with. The first time this happened was in Switzerland, when the SFA selectors came up with the following squad and numbers:

1. Fred Martin (Aberdeen), 2. Willie Cunningham (Preston North End) (Captain), 3. Jock Aird (Burnley), 4. Bobby Evans (Celtic), 5 Jimmy Davidson (Partick Thistle), 6. Tommy Docherty (Preston North End), 7. Doug Cowie (Dundee), 8. John-Archie Mackenzie (Partick Thistle), 9. George Hamilton (Aberdeen), 10. Allan Brown (Blackpool), 11. Neil Mochan (Celtic), 12. Willie Fernie (Celtic), 13. Willie Ormond (Hibernian), 14. Jock Anderson (Leicester City), 15. Bobby Johnstone (Hibernian), 16. Jackie Henderson (Portsmouth), 17. Davie Mathers (Partick Thistle), 18. Alex Wilson (Portsmouth), 19. Jimmy Binning (Queen of the South), 20. Bobby Combe (Hibernian), 21. Ernie Copland (Raith Rovers), 22. Ian McMIllan (Airdrieonians).

Aside from Doug Cowie, who usually wore the number 6 jersey as a left-half, the starting 11 were numbered as per the ones they normally wore for their clubs. Scotland only actually took 13 players to Switzerland, those numbered 1-13.

Four years on, in Sweden, the squad and numbering system the SFA came up with was different. This time, they took all 22 registered players to Sweden. Having been criticised for taking too-few players to the tournament four years previously, this time round, they were criticised for taking too many. The numbering this time was:

Goalkeepers Tommy Younger Liverpool), (the squad Captain) and the then uncapped Bill Brown (Dundee), wore respectively, numbers 1 and 2. The four full- backs: Alex Parker (Everton), Eric Caldow (Rangers), John Hewie (Charlton Athletic) and Harry Haddock (Clyde), respectively wore numbers 3 to 6.

The half-backs: Ian McColl (Rangers), Eddie Turnbull (Hibernian), Bobby Evans (Celtic), Tommy Docherty (Preston North End), Dave Mackay (Heart of Midlothian), Doug Cowie (Dundee) and Sammy Baird (Rangers) wore numbers 7 to 13.

The nine forwards: Graham Leggat (Aberdeen), Alex Scott (Rangers), Jimmy Murray (Heart of Midlothian), Jackie Mudie (Blackpool), Johnny Coyle (Clyde), Bobby Collins (Celtic), Archie Robertson (Clyde), Stewart Imlach (Nottingham Forest) and Willie Fernie (Celtic) wore numbers 14 to 22.

Evans, Docherty, Cowie and Fernie, the four survivors from four years previously, all wore different numbers from their first tournament, while Coyle became a pub quiz answer as the only Scottish player to go to a World Cup Finals and never be capped.

Scotland has been to six subsequent World Cup Finals, plus four European Championship Finals, without as yet coming up with a consistent numbering system.

In 1974 they went with a more or less First XI, then the two back-up goalkeepers and numbered the remaining players alphabetically. Four years later in Argentina, there was again a virtual First XI, the back-up goalie wearing 12 and pot luck thereafter.

That was again the system in 1982, but it was tweaked slightly in 1986. Here we went with a First XI, then it was – second goalkeeper, back-up defenders, back-up midfielders, back-up strikers, third goalkeeper.

The numbering in Italy in 1990, other than the goalies wearing 1, 12 and 22, made little sense, while in France, eight years later, your guess as to how they came up with the numbering is as good as mine.

Perhaps the best bit of numbering ever was the system Argentina used in 1978, where their squad was numbered alphabetically.

The official SFA press release of the team for Monday night's game with Belarus listed the team in squad number order: – with a slight deviation around the two back-up goalkeepers: 1. Angus Gunn, 3. Andy Robertson, 4. Scott McTominay, 7. John McGinn, 8. Billy Gilmour, 10, Che Adams, 15, John Souttar, 16. Scott McKenna, 17. Ben Gannon-Doak, 19. Lewis Ferguson, 22. Max Johnston.

OK, I appreciate, with the modern fashion for putting players' names on the back of their shirts, it's a lot easier and more convenient to use them and list players accordingly. But, take away the numbers and list that team in the time-honoured 2-3-5 formation and it makes no sense. Using the numbers rather than names, Scotland lined-up: 1; 22, 15, 16, 3; 8; 7, 4, 19, 17; 10.

Mind you, we are still some distance away from the system in American Football, with their huge 40-plus players squads, there, what number you wear appears to depend on your position, here's the explanation:

Number Ranges by Position:

• Quarterbacks, Kickers, Punters: 0–19

• Defensive Backs: 0–49

• Running Backs, Fullbacks, Tight Ends, H-backs: 0–49 and 80–89

• Wide Receivers: 0–49 and 80–89

• Offensive Linemen: 50–79

• Defensive Linemen: 50–79 and 90–99

• Linebackers: 0–59 and 90–99

In Rugby, it used to be a free-for-all, best demonstrated by Bristol and Leicester, who used letters of the alphabet rather than numbers, except with Bristol, the full back wore A and the number eight wore O, at Leicester, the front row was famously ABC, while the full back wore O.

When I started playing Rugby at school, the full-back wore 1, with the backs going 1-7 and the forwards 8-15, but this system was far from universal. Today it is fairly standard – the full back wears 15, the backs then go out to the scrum half wearing 9, while the forwards wear 1-8.

However, some teams are listed backs first (15-9), then forwards (1-8), while others are listed forwards first (1-8) then backs (9-15), with the replacements listed forwards first then backs (16-23). Even here there are anomalies. Since every team now packs-down in scrums in a 3-4-1 formation, common sense might indicate if the front row is loose-head prop (1), hooker (2), tight-head prop (3), then the second row should be left flanker (4), locks (5 and 6), right flanker (7), but no – the locks wear 4 and 5 and the flankers 6 and 7 – the blind-side flanker wearing 6, the open-side 7 – except in South Africa, where it is the other way round.

Then we come to the replacements; logic might dictate, the back-up loose-head prop wears 16, the reserve hooker 17 and the reserve tight-head 18, but, no, the back-up hooker wears 16, the props 17 and 18 – it makes no sense.

Cricket, until very recently, managed without numbers for over 150 years, while I have a great deal of sympathy with the great James Aikman-Smith, who as player, referee, official, Secretary and ultimately President of the SRU effectively ran that game for over 30 years. Asked by His Majesty King George V why the Scotland team in a Calcutta Cup match were not wearing numbers, JA-S replied: “Because it's a Rugby match Sire, not a cattle market.”

I finish this post with a tale told me by the late, great Bill McMurtrie of the (Glasgow) Herald. Bill was covering the Border Schools Sevens for the paper and the final came down to Langholm Academy A v Langholm Academy B. It was suggested, to allow the spectators to tell which team was which, one would have to change colours – neither squad would budge: “We're Langholm – we play in rid” was the word from both dressing rooms.

“But, the crowd will not know which team is which” was the organisers' final throw of the dice.

“Maybes aye, but, we'll ken oan the park”.

The boys had a point, it's a player's game after all. Do we really need numbers?