Glenbuck Cherrypickers F.C.
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Glenbuck Cherrypickers were a football team in the village of Glenbuck in South Ayrshire, a district of Scotland.
The Glenbuck Cherrypickers were notable for the high number of professional footballers that they produced, despite only existing for around fifty years. Between their creation in the early 1870s, and their demise in 1931, the team produced some fifty professional footballers. This is despite their home - the mining village of Glenbuck - having a population of around 1,000. On a per-capita basis, this is equivalent to a city the size of London producing 50,000 professional footballers every year for half a century.
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[edit] Club History
The club started its existence in the early 1870s as Glenbuck Athletic, founded by Edward and William Bone, with a strip of white jersey and black shorts. The name "Cherrypickers" is of obscure origin, beginning as a nickname in the first years of the 20th century, but may have derived from local men from Glenbuck or Muirkirk serving in the 11th Hussars (The "Cherry Pickers") in the Boer War. The club's last entire season was 1930-31, and it folded following the closure of the town's coal pit, which was almost the sole source of local employment. The town of Glenbuck itself was abandoned thereafter, and no longer exists.
[edit] International Honours
Seven players from Glenbuck were chosen to play at an international level for Scotland: William Muir (vs Ireland in 1907); Alec Brown (vs England in 1902 and 1904); George Halley (vs England in 1910); John Crosbie (vs Wales in 1920 and England in 1922); Bob Shankly (vs Ireland in 1938); Bill Shankly (capped thirteen times between 1938 and 1943). Alec McConnell was selected in a squad to play against England, but signed for an English team, Everton, two days later. At the time, this made him ineligible to represent Scotland.
[edit] Notable Players
The club is associated with Bill Shankly, although it closed before he played a game for the Cherrypickers' 1st XI. Shankly went on to captain Scotland in 1942, and is best known as the manager of Liverpool. All four of Shankly's older brothers appeared for Glenbuck, and each went on to play professional football in Scotland or England. One, Bob Shankly, also managed at a profession level at several clubs, including Dundee, who he took to the semi-finals of the European Cup in 1962-63.
Alec Tait and Alec Brown both played for Glenbuck before going on to play for Tottenham Hotspur F.C., with whom they won the English F.A. Cup in 1901. Their roles were considered sufficiently important to merit the display of the cup itself (the original, made of gold and later stolen from Aston Villa in 1905) in the Glenbuck shop window the same year.
The five Knox brothers - Hugh, Alec, Tom, William and Peter - played together extremely successfully as a team in five-a-side tournaments. Their most successful season saw them win all but one of the 41 tournaments that they entered. The usual prize in these tournament was a barometer or a clock, and they amassed so many that they would often simply hand them to friends on the touchline as gifts rather than carry them home.
