PICTURES: Today marks a centenary of football action on the hallowed turf of Elgin City's Borough Briggs, where legends like Sir Matt Busby, Bill Shankly, Sir Stanley Matthews and Stan Mortensen once played and 12,608 supporters witnessed history being made
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
EXACTLY 100 years ago today, Elgin City played their very first match at the Borough Briggs ground they still call home today, writes club historian Robert Weir.
The iconic north sporting arena has staged every home match played by the Black and Whites since, and many more games beside.
Numerous Scottish Qualifying Cup finals, Highland League Cup finals, North of Scotland Cup finals, as well as many Highland League representative matches have been played on the hallowed Elgin park.
Morayshire F.A. Cup finals and Charity Cup finals, Morayshire Junior F.A. Cup finals and North Regional Junior representative games and cup finals, local welfare and amateur games - Borough Briggs has seen the lot.
There have also been transatlantic and European visitors, as well as a handful of wartime internationals’ between Scotland and England, when such giants of the game as Busby, Matthews, Mortenson and Shankly graced the Borough Briggs turf.
European youth championship matches were held there in 1970, and even the Scotland under-21 international team against Republic of Ireland in 1999.
Although primarily a football ground, the venue has also staged the Morayshire Farmer’s Club (who had contributed half the finances to build the original grandstand), annual agricultural show in July of each year from 1921 till 1939, though the club referred to the ground’s old title of 'The Public Park'.
The Elgin Highland Games were staged at Borough Briggs from 1925-31, the world famous Iowa Girl Highlanders Music and Dance troop, music festivals, political rallies - Borough Briggs has seen them all.
As well as some of the biggest matches played by Elgin City, it also housed most of the largest attendances at a north football venue.
That first match on August 20, 1921 was a Highland League fixture against the long lamented and defunct Inverness club, Citadel F.C.
The 'Maroons’ who just four days later would open their own enclosed field at Shore Street in the Highland capital, were no strangers to Elgin, having been the first club to visit Elgin on the Black & Whites’ Highland League debut on September 28, 1895.
On that historic day, a young lad from Forteath Street by the name of Robert C. Hamilton netted four of the City’s goals in remarkable 7-2 win.
‘Bob’ later played for Queen’s Park, Rangers, Fulham, Morton, Dundee and of course was capped by Scotland 11 times, and netted 15 international goals in dark blue.
Back to 1921 and the opening game with Citadel, Elgin kicked towards the Lossie Green end in the first half and Willie Raitt secured the first goal at the new ground after 20 minutes.
Second-half goals from ‘Twinkle’ Mitchell and the redoubtable ‘Chatter’ Taylor completed a comfortable 3-0 win.
The teams lined up as follows:
Elgin: Allan, Asher, A. MacKenzie, P. MacKenzie, Raitt, Simpson, Clayton, MacLennan, Taylor, Mitchell, W. MacKenzie.
Citadel:- Cameron, McKinnon, Fraser, MacDonald, Smith, MacGillivray, MacGregor, MacKenzie, Imlach, MacKintosh, Hay.
Referee :- W. Gardiner (Inverness).
Elgin Lord Provost, David Forsyth, a former president of the club, performed the official opening of the ground at half-time.
Little over 18 months later the ground held its first Scottish Cup tie when St. Mirren were the visitors, the Paisley side running out 3-0 winners before a near 5,000 crowd, with one of the oldest recorded instances of a match programme being published in Scotland.
In 1927, Albion Rovers became Elgin’s first Scottish Cup victim, when a ‘Lossie’ Duncan goal sent the Coatbridge side out of the cup.
There was much celebration at the ground in 1932 as Elgin secured their first Highland League title.
April 1935 saw the first major crowd disorder at the ground, as a District Cup final between Elgin and county rivals Forres Mechanics ended level at 1-1 at full time.
Extra time was due to be played, but after a pitch invasion by Elgin fans, none-to-happy at some of the Forres tackles, the refereeing the match was abandoned.
A pre-war record crowd watched the Wasps’ of Aberdeen sting Elgin 6-1 in a Scottish Cup tie before 8,403 spectators.
Among the visitors' marksmen was Matt Armstrong, who in post-war football hit a Highland League record 52 goals during the 1947/48 season for the Black and Whites’ - he also became the first player to net 100 goals for the club in the Highland League from only 58 appearances.
The ground record attendance was smashed in 1948, when some 10,163 watched the Scottish Qualifying Cup final replay between Elgin and Caley, with the Blues’ winning a remarkable match 4-3.
The first real development at the ground since it was opened in 1921 occurred in 1953, when after much fund raising by the Supporters Club (formed in 1951) led by J. R. McNab, the construction of the centre section of the enclosure took place.
There would be extensions to the east in 1960 and west in 1962 to complete cover for 4,000 spectators.
In between the additional cover, the ground attendance record was again on the rise with 11,207 present for the Scottish Cup tie with Celtic in 1960.
New City signing Willie Grant fired the first of 348 goals for the club in 67 minutes and the ground erupted. It would be the 84th minute when the Glasgow side scrambled an equaliser through Divers, then just when a replay at Parkhead looked on the cards, Smith scored a 88th minute winner to break Elgin hearts.
After this Scottish Cup defeat, Borough Briggs became a fortress in cup football, and it would be 1972 before Kilmarnock left Borough Briggs victorious in a Scottish Cup tie.
In between all the cup excitement, Elgin took eight Highland League titles in 11 seasons, with coaches such as Stewart McLachlan and Innes MacDonald.
In 1967 it became only the third Highland League ground to have floodlights, the inaugural floodlit match being a 2-0 Scottish Cup win over Hawick Royal Albert, thanks to goals from Keith Rattray and ‘King’ Willie Grant before over 5,000 fans.
The grandstand was reconstructed with a cantilevered roof with new dressing rooms and boardroom, during the 1967/68 term.
The ground record attendance was pushed up to an incredible 12,608 who watched Elgin defeat Arbroath 2-0 with goals from Jimmy Anderson and Bryan Thomson on February 17, 1968.
This famous win sent Elgin into the Scottish Cup quarter finals, still the one and only Highland League club to achieve this feat.
For the match with Arbroath, Elgin replaced their old wooden goal posts, with new tubular steel ones which are still in place to this day, probably the oldest steel goal post still in use in Britain.
In March 1969, the Scotland international team manager Bobby Brown opened the spacious Elgin City Social Club at Borough Briggs.
It was still Scottish Cup matches that lived in the memories of the Moray fans. A cup run in 1976/77 when Elgin made it to the fourth round, the dramatic 3-2 third round replay win over Stirling Albion, when the long serving Keith Nicol crashed home the winner with minutes left on the clock, before a 3-0 defeat to Rangers at Ibrox.
The Social Club was extended during 1978/79 season with games room and restaurant.
In September 1979, Elgin’s upgraded UEFA standard floodlights were switched on by former Rangers manager Jock Wallace, as the Leicester City side he managed at the time were held to a 1-1 draw, with Gary Lineker equalising for midlands club, after Chico McHardy had put the home side ahead before over 2,000 of a crowd.
It would be 1990 before the Highland League title returned to Borough Briggs under the guidance of Steve Paterson.
Another title was secured in the club's centenary year 1993, with John Teasdale in charge.
History shows that this title was withdrawn by a Highland League management committee who claimed that the wool had been pulled over their eyes, when Elgin asked for their last fixture of the season be brought forward.
It would the summer of 2000 before any more development took place at the ground, with terraces constructed behind both goals, as well as the demolition of the much loved pillbox behind the east goal towards the enclosure, where many a young Elgin loon would climb to get a better view of the game.
The floodlights were also upgraded in 2000, as the ground prepared to host Scottish League football.
The turn of the century also saw the end of one of British football’s longest ground sharing agreements, when City’s long term tenants, junior outfit, Bishopmill United were asked to vacate the ground after 45 years.
A crowd of 1,552 watched Elgin’s first home game in the Third Division with Hamilton Academical, the Lanarkshire side being 2-0 winners - but do you remember the low-flying tigermoth aircraft before the kick-off?
Life for Elgin in the lowest level of national league football has been tough, but over the last seven years, firstly under Jim Weir and later Gavin Price, City fans have seen some of the best football played by Elgin in years.
During the summer of 2019, a fully fledged sprinkler system was installed, and gave a half-time display during a League Cup tie with Hibernian, when the rain came on of course!
Over 100 years the grand old ground of north football has served Elgin well, and despite some of it being rather elderly, it is still a much better facility than many of the other grounds Elgin play at regularly in lower division football.
Happy Birthday, Borough Briggs!
