Clydesdale Trivia

Which former Harrier is the chief European Football agent for the SFX Sports Management Group? Which former Harrier played rugby for New Zealand despite being a full blooded Scot? Which son of a Harrier is a famous director of such movies as 'The BFG'?

The answer to the first one is Struan Marshall. Struan was a good standard 400 and 800 metres runner who ran for us in the late 80's on track and over the country. His father was the athletics correspondent for the 'Herald' in the pre Doug Gillon days and also at another point head of sport at STV. Struan started by doing boot deals with sports companies on behalf of such footballers as Eoin Jess at Aberdeen using the family phone and the career spiralled from there. Look him up on the internet and read about his high profile star studded wedding reception!

Rory Kerr was the club sprinter and long jumper who played rugby for the West Of Scotland and as a regular member of the Scottish squad although he never had a game for the 'big team'. His speed ensured that he played in many sevens tournaments around the world and on one occasion played for the Scottish Sevens team in Hong Kong. The team went out in the early rounds but there is a rule that if any team is in need of a player, they may co-opt one whose team has been eliminated. New Zealand chose Rory! His brother Jamie still holds the club U15 100 metres record and won the West District Under 15 100 metres title.

The Film Director is Gavin Millar. His Dad Tom was the man who wrote the Harriers Notes in the 'Clydebank Press' for approximately 20 years in the inter war years under the pen name 'Excelsior' (the club motto meaning 'the best'). Gavin has directed and produced many top rated films and done a lot of work for the BBC including the excellent Arena series of arts programmes and 'Foyle's Law' - a very popular mystery series set in war time Britain. You can Google his name and see what you get or just look him up in Wikipedia.

Bonus point: the great New York Times journalist James 'Scotty' Reston who interviewed many world statesmen and every American President for decades was the son of James Reston a Clydesdale Harrier who emigrated in 1920. Look him up in Wiki!