There are several instances of footballers claiming to be younger than they were, usually in an attempt to lengthen their career, but I have never found a case as extreme as this.
   The legendary Scottish goalkeeper Jimmy Lawrence, who was capped against England in 1911 and holds Newcastle United’s appearance record, can be revealed as having knocked a whopping six years off his age.
   All documentation including registration forms and travel documents gave his birthdate as 16 February 1885 and that is the date that appears in the record books. However, his deception came to light when I checked his death certificate. He died while undergoing heart surgery on 21 November 1934 in Glasgow’s Victoria Infirmary but his age did not tally with 1885 so I searched further. To my astonishment, while the day and month were correct, he was actually born on 16 February 1879 in Partick, forty-five minutes after his twin sister Margaret, to Mary and Alfred Lawrence.

A tinsmith before he became a full-time professional, Lawrence was a passionate trade unionist and was a leading light in the Players’ Union, eventually becoming chairman in 1921 for the last year of his playing career. He contributed a column to the Yorkshire Weekly Record which helped to put his views across.
   Having hung up his boots he was immediately appointed manager of South Shields (from 60 applicants) but the job only lasted six months. He then had a couple of years with Preston North End, and in 1925 began a successful spell in Germany with Karlsruhe.
   Outside football, there is an episode in Lawrence’s life which is less well known. In February 1913 he secretly married Barbara Murray in Newcastle, not even telling her parents for a while, but within two months she was dead. Her death was reported as appendicitis at the time, but sensationally her body was exhumed that summer and the doctor who treated her, who happened to be her brother-in-law, was prosecuted for performing an illegal operation. In court it came out that she had suffered a miscarriage and when the doctor was called to treat her he had been drinking heavily and seems to have made things worse. However, he was acquitted after a two day trial.
   Lawrence never remarried. When ill health forced his return from Germany he settled in Stranraer and became chairman of the football club there, but angina and heart disease led to his premature death while visiting his sister in Glasgow. After his funeral he was cremated at Western Necropolis, Maryhill.

In autumn of 1946 a select team of footballers from the southern Polish region of Silesia embarked on a four match tour of Scotland which helped Polish football on the road to post-war recovery.
   The players, mainly from clubs in Krakow and Chorzow, had just emerged from years of wartime hardship, with several of them having been held in concentration camps. When Poland resumed international matches against Norway the following summer, seven of the players from this tour were in the team.
   The games at Dundee, Morton, Ayr and Hampden also added an attractive new dimension to the domestic scene in Scotland. The tour was scheduled to start on 9 October, but a travel delay in Berlin forced a short postponement. When the players finally trained for the first time, they were described by a curious reporter from the Dundee Courier: 'Fifteen well-built young men, clad in snappy training suits, yesterday lapped Hampden Park and went on to reveal slick ball-control. They were the Silesian footballers having their first trial spin since their arrival in this country. Their names read like anagrams.'
   He added that only one had been in Scotland before: Michalski had served in the Polish Army and left Britain just nine weeks ago to be repatriated. Five had been in concentration camps, while others took part in the underground war in Poland.
   Managed by M. Kiesielinski, Director of Physical Education in Poland, they were based in Glasgow, where they were entertained by a visit to the cinema, a tour of the city including Ibrox Stadium, and watched a League Cup tie between Queen's Park and Morton. 

For their first match, versus Dundee, they travelled by bus and it turned into quite a festive occasion, starting with lunch at the Royal British Hotel hosted by the Dundee directors, then before the game the players were presented to Lord Provost Sir Garnet Wilson, followed by the national anthems.
   The match attracted over 10,000 spectators to Dens Park on a Monday afternoon, including 13 truckloads of Polish Army soldiers, and they saw the home team record a comfortable 2-0 win. Then in the evening there was a reception where the players were presented with plush Scotch terriers, decorated with a tartan ribbon.
   Incidentally, the same day Sparta Prague met Rangers at Ibrox and they faced Hibs later that week.
   The Silesian tour continued two days later in Greenock, and this time the visitors showed their worth by racing to a three goal lead by half time. Although Morton pulled one back, and Garth missed a penalty, it was a good win.
   Then on Saturday, there were 8,000 at Somerset Park. Ayr took the lead before Cieslik quickly equalised, and the Silesians scored what proved the winner after the break, although it took a brilliant penalty save by Brom from Smith to retain the lead.
   The tour ended where it began, at Hampden Park, where 15,000 turned out to see a Third Lanark and Queen’s Park select face the Silesians. The visitors recorded their third successive win, although it was a close match.
   Despite Cieslik and Brom apparently being offered professional contracts by Scottish clubs, all the tourists returned to Poland where they were greeted as heroes when they finally arrived at the railway station in Katowice, and taken for a festive breakfast.
   However, it would not be long before Scottish football gained a Polish flavour. There was a large Polish Army base near Fraserburgh and inevitably some of them were decent players and decided to remain in the country when demobilised. The first to move to a Scottish League club was Feliks Staroscik, who signed for Third Lanark in May 1947, and he was soon followed by Alfie Leszcz (shortened to Lesz) at St Mirren and Konrad Kapler at Celtic.

Silesian squad
Walter Brom (Ruch)
Erwin Michalski (AKS)
Antoni Barwiński (Tarnovia)
Stanislaw Flanek (Wisla)
Mieczyslaw Gracz (Wisla)
Bak (right half)
Tadeusz Parpan (Cracovia)
Antoni Andrzejewski (AKS)
Jan Wapiennik (Wisla)
Stanislaw Baran (Ruch)
Gerard Cieślik (Ruch)
Mieczyslaw Nowak (Garbarnia)
Marian Jabłoński (Cracovia) captain
Maksymilian Baranski (AKS)
Stanislaw Różankowski (Cracovia)
 
In the first match at Dundee, the Silesian team was Brom; Barwiński, Flanek; Wapiennik, Andrzejewski, Jabłoński; Cieślik, Nowak, Gracz, Różankowski, Baranski. For the other three matches, Parpan replaced Andrzejewski, and Baran replaced Baranski. Michalski and Bak did not play.
 

Results

October 14, 1946
Dundee 2 (Turnbull 4, 75), Silesians 0 
Dundee: Bennett, Follon, Ancell, McKenzie, Gray, Smith, Gunn, Pattillo, Turnbull, Ewen, Hill.
 
October 16, 1946
Greenock Morton 1 (McInnes 51), Silesians 3 (Cieślik 2, 12, Różankowski 41)
Morton: McFeat, Maley, Kelly, Mitchell, Aird, White, Cupples, Divers, Jones, Garth, McInnes.

October 19, 1946
Ayr United 1 (Morrison 30), Silesians 2 (Cieślik 32, Gracz 57) 
Ayr: Paton, Monaghan, Henderson, Smith, McNeill, Nesbitt, McGuigan, Harkness, Morrison, Wallace, Beattie. 
 
October 23, 1946
Third Lanark/Queen's Park Select 1 (Ayton 61), Silesians 2 (Nowak 9, 79) 
Third Lanark/Queen’s Park: Hamilton, Carabine, Kelly, Letham, Whigham, Harnett, McCulloch, Mason, Aitken, Ayton, Mitchell.

Fifty years ago today, Third Lanark took on Berwick Rangers at Cathkin Park in Glasgow, in what turned out to be their last season. This rare colour image of the team in action - never published before - was taken by football historian George Campbell, who was years ahead of his time in documenting some of Scottish football's lesser known teams and stadia.
   There is just a sparse crowd watching Thirds (in scarlet) and Berwick (in black and gold stripes). Some of them are sitting in the fine-looking, but uncompleted, grandstand, the rest of them scattered around terracing which had once held over 40,000. The crowd for this game was around 1100, and as the club continued to decline it was the last time a four figure attendance was recorded at the ground.
   Although times were hard, nobody realised at the time that Third Lanark were on the brink of extinction, the victims of years of corrupt mis-management which was orchestrated by club chairman Bill Hiddelston (often mis-spelled as Hiddleston), who took control at the end of 1962. The sad story has been told many times, notably in great detail in John Litster's book 'Life and Death of the Hi Hi'.

As so often in football, the main people to suffer were the supporters. who ended up losing their club. Third Lanark had a particularly active Supporters' Association, founded in 1946 and which produced the club's match programme and annual handbook, making substantial donations from the proceeds to back the club they loved. Despite not seeing eye to eye with Hiddelston and his directors, they were still going strong up to the end. This membership card for 1965-66 was the last one issued, and inside is stapled a sheet with the details for 1966-67.

8 October 1966
Scottish League Division 2
Third Lanark 3 (Fyfe 5, Henderson 25, Stewart 87)
Berwick Rangers 0
Third Lanark: Russell, Connell, Baillie; McLaughlin, Little, McKay; Kinnaird, Stewart, Fyfe, May, Henderson. Sub: Kilgannon.
Berwick Rangers: Tait, Haig, Riddle; Craig, Coutts, Rodgers; Lumsden, Forsyth, McLaren, Boyce, Veitch. Sub: Stewart.
Referee: RD Henderson (Dundee)

On the same day, the SFA sacked Scotland manager John Prentice after just six months; Celtic maintained their 100 per cent record at the top of Division 1 with a 5-3 win at Hibs; and the league's new club Clydebank maintained their own 100 per cent record with a ninth successive defeat at home to Albion Rovers to remain rooted at the foot of Division 2.