Hawick Royal Albert F.C.

Hawick Royal Albert F.C. is a Senior football club based in Hawick, currently playing in the East of Scotland Football League.

Founded in 1947 following a breakaway from Hawick Railway FC, a number of players in these early “Albert” days were from Denholm Village team and they initially competed in the Border Amateur League. The founder members of the club were Harry Weir and William Bunton, the name “Royal Albert” was derived from Bunton who hailed from Larkhall, Larkhall Royal Albert were founded in 1878 and nicknamed “The Royalists”, the founder of the football team was the owner of a mine who owned a ship called “Royal Albert”.

Hawick won various amateur competitions including their first ever silverware in 1947/48 with the Border Amateur League Championship. The first team captain was Andy Cameron, he was a prolific goalscorer, and bagged most of his goals poaching in and around the 6 yard box.

The club played its home matches at Wilton Lodge Park before moving to Albert Park in 1963, they were subsequently inspected and became full members of the Scottish Football Association a short time later, Hibernian F.C. were the visitors when Albert Park was officially opened that year. The stand at the ground was constructed from the steel remnants of the once 5 storey Wilson & Glenny woollen factory which was destroyed by fire in 1959. The Club installed floodlights at Albert Park and Celtic F.C. were the visitors when the lights were officially unveiled in November 1981, included in the visiting team that night were players such as Charlie Nicholas and David Moyes.

Brian Stavert has joined Rob Shiel as co manager for the start of 2007/08 season. Bruce Hughes and Malcolm Cooper are the assistant coach's while Davy Aitkin has joined the squad as Goalkeeping coach. A new look team for the 2007 season made up of local players and two from the city. Prospects are starting to look up for the Scottish Borders team as they have brought in a lot of new signings.

[http://www.hawickra.com Hawick Royal Albert F. C. Site]