SUNDAY was a sad day for the East Ayrshire village of New Cumnock, and for the local football team, with the passing, aged 80, of big Alex Jess.
Alex had been battling dementia for two or three years. I warned him, when his beloved Mary's failing health and his own advancing age caused him to move from his wee cottage, just across the road from my house and into sheltered housing in Cumnock. “Alex, I know you moving to Cumnock will double the average IQ down there, but, you going down there will be the death of you.”
Sadly, in very short order, he was diagnosed with dementia and the downward spiral began. He was up to see his cottage a few weeks back, but, it was clear then, he was not long for this world.
Alex was a passionate Novacumnockian, he loved this wee village, and for some years was an energetic Chairman of the Community Council. But, if he loved New Cumnock, he adored Glenafton Athletic. This was hardly surprising, he was born in Connel Park. The Glen's original playing field, simply called Connel Park, was at the end of the row where he grew up, he gave a lifetime to the club and was for many years club secretary, eventually becoming President.
He suffered the pain of Scottish Cup failure at the last hurdle, losing to irvine Meadow in 1963 and Auchinleck Talbot in 1992. But, a year later, in 1993, with Big Roughie as manager, the Glen finally landed the Holy Grail, that massive Scottish Junior Cup, beating Tayport 1-0 in the final at Firhill. This set the village off on a week-long bender, but, I vouch, nobody was happier that Sunday night, when the team brought the cup home, than Big Alex.
Even when off the committee he had graced for so long, Alex rarely missed a game. In a village where most of the natives are wee men, as broad as they are long, allegedly to fit into the narrow and shallow coal workings beneath the village, at six foot five, and with his bright red hair, Alex stood out.
His support for the club was absolute. I remember once, when some of the younger Glen fans were going off at the rival supporters during a match against Talbot, Alex cautioned them to calm down. “The Talbot fans are not your enemies,” Alex told them. Then dramatically pointing across Loch Park, he indicated a knot of Cumnock Juniors committee-men, up on a spying mission, since Cumnock would play the winners in the next round of a local cup. Alex said: “There's your real enemy over there – those Cumnock bastards.”
He had a sharp sense of humour when it came to football. One season, with the Glen in danger of relegation, he was delighted to see a former Glen player, turned referee, arrive at Loch Park to take charge of a veritable six-pointer. “I suppose, we'll be ok for a soft penalty tonight?” Alex asked of the official, to be greeted with a wink.
At half-time, with the Glen trailing, he again approached the official. “Hey Wullie – what about oor penalty?” he asked. The referee replied: “Alex, I cannot award you a penalty until you get into the opposition's penalty area.”
Things happened around Alex and football. He had a great story about selling Ted “The Tin Man” McMinn to Queen of the South. As he waited to go in for the vital talk about money with Willie Harkness, the Palmerston club's Chairman, two Doonhamers' fans arrived to get tickets for a forthcoming cup tie. Unimpressed by the professionalism of Mr Harkness and the club secretary, known to the fans as “Mrs Slocombe” after the character from the TV show 'Are You Being Served' – and also allegedly Harkness's nustress, one of the fans remarked: “What about that pair o' tits.”
Harkness immediately pulled himself up to his full five foot three or thereabouts and stood on his dignity, to defend the honour of the lady. Alex said, it was difficult to suppress the laughter when the fan told wee Wullie - “It isnae jist her, the baith o' ye.”
Although he never sat the official SFA exam, Alex was an expert on poor referees, and even worse linesmen. He had a seeming pathological hatred of the flag-wavers. One afternoon, at Meadow Park, after one hapless linesman had repeatedly caught the Glen attack offside, Alex louped the fence and had a serious word with the official.
The linesman immediately waved his flag furiously to attract the referee's attention, before pointing-out Alex to the man in the middle. The referee immediately went an spoke to the senior policeman present, a Sergeant almost as big as Alex. The big polis then approached Alex and the conversation went: “Now Sir, the match officials have made a complaint about you intimidating the linesman. I have to warn you, if you approach the official again, I will be forced to remove you from the ground. However, if you want to sort-out that referee, who I think is doing more to spoil this game, it's got nothing to do with me.”
One time, I said to Alex, who was then Chairman of the Community Council: “Look Alex, all this roaring you do at Glen's games, it's not a good look for the Chairman of the Community Council, could you not dial it back a bit?”
The reply was typical Alex: “No way, I'm there shouting for a lot of guys who are no longer here to support the Glen.”
His job, as a painter, often took him to building sites in Glasgow and its surroundings, where the Weegies would repeatedly ask him: “Aye, but whit team do you really support?” These mainly Old Firm fans could not get their head round somebody who did not share their obsession with the two Glasgow giants. But, that was Alex, if you'd cut him in half, he'd be the Glen's red and white colours.
As I wrote above, Alex was born and raised in Connel Park, before moving down to the village proper. But, in later life he came back to Connel Park, where he was a terrific neighbour, a proud father and a doting grand-father and great-grand-father.
We will all miss him, but I think particularly of his immediate family. This has been a bad time for the village, which has been hard hit by Covid, but, losing Alex will be a particular blow to the Glen, as they start the new season.
But, Alex went out a winner. He would have been over-joyed that they mowed the Meadow, at Meadow Park, just the day before he passed.
Rest In Peace Big Man – we will all miss you.
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