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:
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:
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?