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Seasons To Savour
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1962/1963
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Season 1962-63 was a dreadful one. The only saving grace was that although Forfar were second bottom of the 19 team Second Division, Brechin City finished bottom, a good 14 points behind Forfar. Forfar also did well against Arbroath, beating them on both occasions that they met. Sadly the good news for Coach Andy Irvine stopped there.
It was of course the beginning of the era of the Beatles. The Establishment looked on in amazement as the four lads from Liverpool with the dreadful Scouse accents took over the cultural life of Britain and words like "fab" and "yeah, yeah, yeah" became current. Prime Minister Harold McMillan had seen a certain degree of prosperity in his Premiership, but there was the niggling worry of inflation as money began to be worth less and less. At the start of the season, Hollywood film star Marilyn Monroe was found dead. They could not hide the fact that it was suicide, although it was not until a few years later that the involvement of President John F. Kennedy in her unhappy private life became known.
Early 1963 will be remembered as the time of the big freeze when hard packed snow rendered football more or less impossible throughout Scotland from the middle of January until a spectacular thaw brought floods in early March. Forfar’s last game before the freeze was against Hearts in the Scottish Cup on January 12th. Hearts thought that the pitch was unplayable (and they had a case) but they still beat Forfar 3-1 in Siberian conditions of a weak sun and freezing ground. Thereafter, Forfar managed to play one game on January 26th at Dumbarton (which they lost 0-1) but not again until St.Johnstone at Muirton Park on March 9th.
October of 1962 had seen a rare phenomenon. Football was displaced as the main topic of conversation as the Cuban Missile Crisis threatened the end of the world. On October 27th , it must have felt like that for Forfar fans as they were thumped 2-8 by Greenock Morton on the same day that Hearts beat Kilmarnock to lift the Scottish League Cup. It would be another 36 years before the boys in maroon would again lift silverware.
Forfar’s form was mainly bad, but there were one or two bright spots. Early season had seen home wins over Brechin (7-1), Berwick Rangers (6-0), East Fife (4-2) and Stenhousemuir (4-1) and hopes were expressed that this team might be going somewhere. But a sad home defeat by Stranraer (0-3) in mid October meant that "the wheels cam aff the cartie" – and were never really found again..
Yet there were some good players. The veteran Doug Berrie was still around and there were couple of good forwards in Bruce Reid and Archie Scott (Scott ended up playing for Australia in the World Cup – at centre half!), and, following a certain amount of local pressure, the club engaged Don Kichenbrand, a South African who had played for Rangers, only falling from grace there when they found out that his wife was a Roman Catholic! He had become "mine host" of the Queen’s Hotel, declared himself available and eventually after a painful delay he joined the club. Sadly, he was long past his best.
When the weather at last eased, Forfar were rewarded with what they had deserved – apathy as the crowds dipped to well below 1,000, even on occasion to below 500. In fact, far more local interest was generated by the progress of Dundee to the Semi Final of the European Cup. With Ure and Gilzean still on board, the Dens Park men beat Cologne, Sporting Lisbon and Anderlecht before falling bravely to eventual winners A.C.Milan. Elsewhere, Rangers won the Scottish Cup and the League, Everton won the English League and Manchester United, now packed with talented Scotsmen, won the English Cup.
By April, Forfar’s fans were yearning for the cricket season – not without cause for Nigel Hazel was going strong for a fine Strathie team – for April saw home thrashings from Queen’s Park and Stirling Albion as the season finished with nine straight defeats. The season closed with a whimper on May 15th as Forfar lost to Morton. It was the infamous night of the Scottish Cup Final Replay when 50,000 Celtic fans left the ground in disgust half way through the second half as their team went down 0-3 to Rangers. Doubtless, Forfar fans would have done likewise from Station Park – if there had been any there in the first place!
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David Potter
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Forfar Athletic Football Club
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