West of Scotland League

Division 3

Saturday 26th July 2025

Kick Off 14.00 Actual 14.03

Girvan 0 Kello Rovers 0, attendance 110

@ Hamilton Park

Vicarton Street

Girvan

KA26 9HF

£6 Admission

No Programme.

I rounded off the trip to Scotland with a game on the coast of South Ayrshire. Girvan played in the South of Scotland League up until 2004 and as full members of the Scottish F.A. entered the qualifying rounds of the Scottish F.A. Cup. They then switched to the Scottish Junior F.A. and the West of Scotland League, but were one of a select few clubs to retain their place in the national cup competition. Hamilton Park certainly doesn’t disappoint. There’s a stand, with bench seating, on the right hand side as you look from the entrance/car park, with the club room and tea bar (hot and cold food/drinks) just beyond. The pitch, which was absolutely immaculate, is railed off and surrounded by a cinder track. Grass banking runs around the far side, where there’s a couple of modern dugouts and there’s even a memorial garden, commemorating the war dead, set against the wall running along the perimeter. The ground is also floodlit, which looks to be a relatively new addition. If all that’s not enough, you’ve got the scenery, as well as the occasional train to spot too, with Girvan Station being just behind the stand.

Unfortunately, the game was a let down. Apart from the last five minutes, when it was frantic end to end stuff, there was little of note happened. There was plenty of effort and it was fully committed, but it was as if they’d been told the two goal areas were out of bounds. If they were still playing now they wouldn’t have scored. On this showing, neither of these two will be challenging at the top end of the table and it was probably a better point for Kello, having just been promoted, than it was for Girvan, but I may be wrong…..

So, that rounds off another successful trip north of the border. I managed to get 16 new ground visits, seeing 70 goals and just the one nil-nil, as well as a bonus speedway meeting at Glasgow Tigers. The seven hour slog back south was on schedule, until getting back to the M25, where it was shut at J10, but wasn’t shown on the overhead signs or picked up by the SatNav, which added half an hour to the journey.

And the war memorial…..