Hawick Royal Albert Football Club is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club based in the town of

Hawick Hawick ( ; sco, Haaick; gd, Hamhaig) is a town in the Scottish Borders council area and historic county of Roxburghshire in the east Southern Uplands of Scotland. It is south-west of Jedburgh and south-south-east of Selkirk. It is one of ...

in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders ( sco, the Mairches, 'the Marches'; gd, Crìochan na h-Alba) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Midlothian, South Lanarkshire, West Lothi ...

. The club was founded in 1947 as Hawick Royal Albert and in 2019 merged with amateur side Hawick United to create Hawick Royal Albert United. The club plays its home matches at Albert ParkInformation – Hawick Royal Albert
, East of Scotland Football Association. Retrieved 30 March 2013.Albert Park
''footballgroundmap.com''. Retrieved 30 March 2013. and currently competes in the . For the 2022/23 season, they dropped the name "United" from their title and incorporated a revised club badge. Before the East of Scotland League was split into two divisions, Hawick Royal Albert won it three times and finished runners-up once. The club reached the final of the Scottish Qualifying Cup South on three occasions, winning it twice, before it was abolished in

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

. Hawick Royal Albert now qualifies automatically for the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (also known as the SFA and the Scottish FA; sco, Scots Fitba Association; Scottish Gaelic: ''Comann Ball-coise na h-Alba'') is the Sport governing body, governing body of association football, football in Scot ...

(SFA), its best result reaching the second round on five occasions.Football Results Summary for Hawick Royal Albert
''londonhearts.com''. London Hearts Supporters' Club. Retrieved 30 March 2013.

History

Hawick Royal Albert was formed in 1947 after breaking away from Hawick Railway F.C., who were founded a year earlier.
, Scottish Football Historical Football Archive. Retrieved 30 March 2013. The club name is derived from another

Scottish football Association football ( sco, fitbaa, gd, ball-coise) is one of the national sports of Scotland and the most popular sport in the country. There is a long tradition of "football" games in Orkney, Lewis and southern Scotland, especially the Scot ...

club, Royal Albert, who are based in Larkhall, where William Bunton, the co-founder of the Hawick club was from. The other co-founder was Harry Weir. ''Royal Albert'' was a ship, which the original club is named after. Hawick Royal Albert first competed in the Border Amateur League, which it won in the 1947–48 season. The club joined the

East of Scotland Football League The East of Scotland Football League (EoSFL) is a senior football league based in the east and south-east of Scotland. The league sits at levels 6–9 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the Lowland Football League. Fo ...

, a senior non-league competition for the 1953–54 season. In its first year, the club was ranked 11th from fifteen, before the season was declared null and void due to a backlog of outstanding fixtures. Two seasons later, the club finished runner-up behind Eyemouth United. In 1966, the club applied to join Scotland's main national league competition – the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km south ...

– when it was seeking to increase its membership by one. Hawick Royal Albert applied for election along with

Gala Fairydean Gala Fairydean Rovers Football Club are a Scottish association football club based in the town of Galashiels in the Scottish Borders. The club competes in the , after joining from the East of Scotland Football League in 2013. At the same tim ...

, but both lost out to

Clydebank Clydebank ( gd, Bruach Chluaidh) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Mil ...

.Scottish Football League – Elections 1893-2008
, Scottish Football Historical Archive. Retrieved 30 March 2013. Remaining in the East of Scotland League, they won the competition for the first time in the 1966–67 season, and defended the title the following year. As a result of winning the league, the club qualified for the

. Its inaugural match in the

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

was in the first preliminary round against rivals

and ended in a 4–1 victory, before losing to Elgin City in January 1967 in a replay by two goals to nil. This replay match was played at Borough Briggs, the home of Elgin City FC, and it was the first competitive match played under the newly installed Borough Briggs floodlights.Hawick Royal Albert
''www.fchd.info''. Football Club History Database. Retrieved 30 March 2013. The following

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

they won 8–2 on

aggregate Aggregate or aggregates may refer to: Computing and mathematics * collection of objects that are bound together by a root entity, otherwise known as an aggregate root. The aggregate root guarantees the consistency of changes being made within the ...

against Tarff Rovers in the Scottish Qualifying Cup South final to qualify for the Scottish Cup again. The club went on to win two preliminary round matches to reach the first round proper, losing 3–0 away to

St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland which is a member of the Scottish Premiership for the 2022–23 season. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun ''aka'' Saint Johnstoun – an old ...

in January 1968. The club finished third in the East of Scotland League in 1969–70 and 1972–73, before winning it for the last time in the 1973–74 season. Hawick Royal Albert applied to join the Scottish Football League for a second time in 1975, when the league was restructured, along with seven other non-league clubs, but was eliminated in the first round of voting. Ferranti Thistle, which later became

Livingston Livingston may refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North American custom ...

, was the club elected. In 1980 and 1981, the club reached the Scottish Qualifying Cup South final in successive years, losing to Whitehill Welfare and beating Gala Fairydean respectively, to qualify for the Scottish Cup. In the 1987–88 season, the East of Scotland League was split into two divisions of ten clubs; the Premier Division and First Division. Hawick Royal Albert competed in the first season of the Premier Division, but finished 9th and were relegated to the First Division. From the 2007–08 season, the Scottish Qualifying Cup was abolished which was the only way for non-league clubs, such as Hawick Royal Albert to qualify for the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Junior clubs enter Scottish Cup

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

. 1 June 2007. Retrieved 31 March 2013.Hawick deny betting allegation
''

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Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through Warner Bros. Discovery Sports#Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe properties, its international sports unit, it operates two ...

''. 1 October 2009. Retrieved 31 March 2013. A new format was introduced, which allowed all clubs with

Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (also known as the SFA and the Scottish FA; sco, Scots Fitba Association; Scottish Gaelic: ''Comann Ball-coise na h-Alba'') is the Sport governing body, governing body of association football, football in Scot ...

membership in the three senior non-league competitions to qualify automatically for the first round of the tournament.Scottish Cup First Round Draw

. 28 August 2008. Retrieved 31 March 2013. Through the new rules, the club competed in the Scottish Cup in 2007–08 for the first time in ten years. In the 2009–10 competition, Hawick Royal Albert was accused of being part of a

match fixing In organized sports, match fixing is the act of playing or officiating a match with the intention of achieving a pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law. There are many reasons why match fixing might take place, ...

scandal following betting irregularities in a first round match against

Huntly Huntly ( gd, Srath Bhalgaidh or ''Hunndaidh'') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, formerly known as Milton of Strathbogie or simply Strathbogie. It had a population of 4,460 in 2004 and is the site of Huntly Castle. Its neighbouring settlemen ...

, when it lost 7–0.Cup match-fixing probe launched

. 29 September 2009. The club denied any wrongdoing and no action was taken by the police or SFA.

Grounds

Hawick Royal Albert first played its home matches at Wilton Lodge Park near the village of

Wilton Dean Wilton Dean is a village in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland, on the Cala Burn, and close to the River Teviot. Along with Stirches and Burnfoot, Scottish Borders, Wilton Dean is now often considered to be a suburb of Hawick which ...

. In 1963, the club moved to Albert Park in the town. The ground is located on Mansfield Road on the northern bank of the

River Teviot The River Teviot (; gd, Abhainn Tìbhiot), or Teviot Water, is a river of the Scottish Borders area of Scotland, and is the largest tributary of the River Tweed by catchment area. The Teviot is an important river for wildlife, especially the A ...

and is adjacent to

Mansfield Park ''Mansfield Park'' is the third published novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1814 by Thomas Egerton. A second edition was published in 1816 by John Murray, still within Austen's lifetime. The novel did not receive any public reviews unt ...

, a rugby union ground. Shortly after moving to the ground, it was inspected and passed criteria to allow the club to become a member of the

. The opening game at the ground was a

friendly Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States * ...

between Hawick Royal Albert and Hibernian. The spectator stand at Albert Park was constructed from the steel remnants of the Wilson and Glenny woollen factory, which was destroyed by a fire in 1959.Hawick Royal Albert – Ground
,

Vale of Leithen F.C. Vale of Leithen Football Club is a football club based in the town of Innerleithen, Scotland. They play in the East of Scotland Premier League and their home games take place at Victoria Park. The team's motto is "Keep Faith", and features o ...

Retrieved 31 March 2013. Floodlights were installed at the ground in 1981, and were first used in a friendly against

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

. Included in Celtic's squad was future Scotland internationalist, Charlie Nicholas and future

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

manager,

David Moyes David William Moyes ( ; born 25 April 1963) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player. He is currently the manager of Premier League club West Ham United. He was previously the manager of Preston North End, Everton, Manches ...

Honours

League *

East of Scotland Football League – Final tables 1923-date
, Scottish Football Historical Archive. Retrieved 30 March 2013. **Winners (3): 1966–67, 1967–68, 1973–74 **Runners-up (1): 1955–56 Cup * Scottish Qualifying Cup SouthScotland – List of Qualifying Cup Finals
''rsssf.com''.

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around the ...

. 15 December 2004. Retrieved 30 March 2013. **Winners (2):

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

**Runners-up (1):

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

* East of Scotland Qualifying Cup **Winners (4): 1964–65, 1967–68, 1974–75, 1977–78 * King Cup **Winners (3): 1966–67, 1981–82, 1983–84

References

External links

* {{East of Scotland League Hawick Royal Albert F.C. Football clubs in Scotland Association football clubs established in 1947 1947 establishments in Scotland Hawick Lowland Football League teams East of Scotland Football League teams Football clubs in the Scottish Borders