Whitehill Welfare lost 4-1 to Jeanfield Swifts in an East of Scotland League Cup tie at Ferguson Park, as the Rosewell, Midlothian club continues its search for new volunteers to help run it. Welfare, who sit 11th in the East of Scotland League First Division, were beaten by Swifts, who are second in the Premier Division.
Andrew Renwick, who turns 82 next month, has been involved with Whitehill Welfare for 47 years and now serves as the club's adviser on rules and procedure. "My role is much reduced at the club now," he said. "I am the adviser on rules and procedure."
Last month Whitehill Welfare issued an appeal for help, with the committee stating its intention to step aside at the end of this season. Renwick said the response had been positive. "There have been a dozen people who have expressed interest in helping out so the statement has done its job," he said. The club has a strong financial base and the committee seems ready to plough on with the help of a new cadre of willing hands.
Club history and Celtic ties
Renwick arrived at the club in 1979 when Whitehill moved from the juvenile leagues to the East of Scotland League. Whitehill Welfare is the most successful club in East of Scotland League history, winning sixteen titles and lifting the Scottish Qualifying Cup on 11 occasions, leading to Scottish Cup ties against Stirling Albion, Peterhead, Stenhousemuir, Queen of the South and Celtic.
The club held an anniversary dinner marking 30 years since that Celtic tie, which was moved from Ferguson Park to Easter Road, where Welfare lost 3-0. Renwick named a different match as his most memorable. "The most memorable match for me was the game against Fraserburgh," he said. "We drew here and then went up to Fraserburgh knowing that the winners would play Celtic. That was nerve-wracking. But we did it."
The Eddie Thomson Lounge
Renwick sits every home Saturday high behind one goal, a spot he insists is his no matter what. He pointed to the Eddie Thomson Lounge, a building near the dressing rooms funded partly with the help of Celtic. "The Celtic money and a very good sponsor got us that," he said. "The Eddie Thomson Lounge was once the reception area at a caravan park. We heard it was being knocked down so we went up and salvaged it and rebuilt it here."
The lounge walls display an Olympic medal and an Oceania Football Association medal donated by the family of Eddie Thomson, who was born in Rosewell and played for Whitehill before moving on to Hearts and Aberdeen. Thomson later managed the Australian national team through two World Cup campaigns and two Olympic tournaments, in 1992 and 1996. He earned the Olympic medal as a losing semi-finalist at the 1996 Atlanta Games and the Oceania medal after leading the young Socceroos to victory in the 1994 tournament.
Seats from the Munich Olympics
The stand seating at Ferguson Park has its own history. "There is a story there," Renwick said. "It was once just a shelter and a ref asked one day if we ever thought of putting seats in. I said we would if we could get cheap seats. He said the Edinburgh Tattoo was refurbishing and we could get them. It turns out that the Tattoo got them from the Olympics in Munich in 1972."
Renwick was joined pitch-side by Thomas Ward, 70, who has helped out at Ferguson Park for 50 years. Ward said a committee member brought him to the club as a boy after he kept getting into trouble for playing football in the street. "I have run the line, cut the grass, painted the posts and now attend to putting the nets up and flags out," he said. The pair also recalled when concrete bollards were laid to build a fence at the ground decades ago. The floodlight towers came from Lasswade Rugby Club and the lights from Spartans FC.
As full time approached in the 4-1 defeat, Ward asked Renwick: "Are you coming back next season?" "Aye, I'll be back," Renwick replied.
Chairman hopeful of new volunteers
Club chairman John Quinn believes the appeal for help may be working. "I have been here eight years and people outside don't quite know the difficulties involved in running a club in the modern era," he said. Quinn's wife, Nicola, serves as the club's secretary, and Quinn, who works as a railway supervisor, said the roles amount to almost a second full-time job for both of them.
Quinn was careful not to sound as though he was complaining. "It has been our choice to do this but we feel fresh blood could help enhance the club," he said. Whitehill Welfare, a founder member of the Lowland League, now competes in the second tier of the East of Scotland League. "I don't shy away from that," he said. "The junior clubs in this area came into the Lowland and the East of Scotland leagues and with their financial power we were outgunned. But this will allow us to find our level. New people with new skillsets could help us with that."
Quinn said the appeal had prompted an outpouring of support. "People were calling us to say how well we had done with the club. This is an operation with a sound financial basis. We are not rich but we are not in financial difficulty," he said. "We just need a wee hand."
At half-time, committee member Darren Bald pointed out a team photograph to his nine-year-old daughter, Ella, telling her: "That's your granda."
