Jump to content

Bobby Lawrie


robphil
 Share

Recommended Posts

on a cold, wet morning in troon, bobby lawrie (69 next month, a thistle legend and one of the nicest men ever to lace up a pair of boots) is to be found cleaning windows. i don't know bobby's circumstances but i do know that there are a host of players in scotland currently earning many thousands a week who aren't fit to carry his bucket...

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bobby Lawrie is up there with the very greatest of the Thistle players that I've had the delight to watch in my 51 years of following the Jags. At the 40 year League Cup celebration at Hampden a few years ago, he still displayed all the boyish glee that was omnipresent on the original great day.

 

I sincerely hope the wee man is in good health and happy these days. Maybe the windae cleaning is just something he does to stay physically active. I hope so anyway.

 

A true team player, he always looked for a pass to a fellow Jag at the end of one of his typically blistering runs where one or more opponent got truly 'skinned'. He was no slouch when it came to scoring himself if that was the best option for the team; his goal tally bears testimony to that.

 

Bobby Lawrie: indisputable Partick Thistle legend.

 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fantastic player. Best Bobby Lawrie memory for me (other than LCF) was him terrifying the St Johnstone full back (may have been the Great Lambini) in our 5-1 demolition of them in the QF of that same League Cup. In those days, we used to wait for the players coming out after the game so we could get an autograph or a few words. When Bobby came out one of us said "Hard game the night against that full back Bobby". Bobby just laughed and said "Aye - he's a good player".

 

Also, and it must never be forgotten, he sold his League Cup Winners medal and donated the proceeds to Save The Jags. Hero and Legend.

Edited by crazy davie
  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What's wrong with cleaning windows? There are worse jobs in the world and there are many older gents who prefer to keep working to save them from boredom and has as already been said, to keep active. My dad was one of them.

 

Does anyone know Bobby's circumstances? Thought not.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bobby Lawrie was maybe not the crowd pleaser that his winger contemporaries Denis McQuade & John Gibson were...they had the dribbling skills whereas Bobby relied more on sheer pace...but his ability to cross accurately after running past his full back possibly made him a more effective player.

 

He returned to the Juniors after leaving Firhill and played on until well into his 40's...I'm sure that he made appearances for every Junior Side in Ayrshire.

 

I think it was in 2001 when we played Queens Park at Hampden, there was a game at half-time between a Queens/SFA Select, including the late David Taylor v a Jags Legends side. A chubbier Alan Rough was still a brilliant keeper...John Hansen, Alex Forsyth & Alex Rae hirpled about...and I didn't immediately realise who the nippy wee guy up front was...I thought we had sneaked a 20 year old ringer into our side but it was Bobby Lawrie who would have been about 52 at the time.

 

He scored a goal at Hampden 30 years before too!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nothing at all wrong with cleaning windows. My wife's cousin does it and there have even been songs and films featuring it.

 

I think the point being made was that had Bobby played in the current era he may have been sunning himself on the Algarve post retirement age rather than working on the Clyde coast. That is all....

Edited by David Stevenson
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lovely guy - an understated hero - a wee story which I might have posted before:

 

Whilst in the buffet car on the train back from a game against Aberdeen in November 1974 (1-1 Eddie Prudham scored) a slightly tipsy Bobby Lawrie offered to sell me his, then well-known, greyhounds (I think they were called "Jaggy" and "Thistle" but can't honestly remember).

 

The team had just been fed and the travelling public had been temporarily excluded from the Buffet (it was a more civilised way to travel back then despite what people say about BR) but I well remember Bobby inviting Jags fans into the bar area after, and he seemed genuinely interested in our take on how the game had gone and to be honest we were delighted with the draw!

 

At the time Ronnie Glavin was a bit unsettled (he was sold later that week as I recall), Alan Rough (who had been utterly magnificent in the game) was trying to get along with the new manager (Bertie!) and it wasn't exactly plain sailing, Denis had a very glassy look in his eyes!, Eddie Prudham was a nice big bloke (despite having been sent off after the final whistle!) but was only there for a very short time whilst Bobby Houston was certainly the life and soul of the party and would speak to any and everyone (even Cellic fans who boarded at Dundee)! However, the player who stood out was Bobby Lawrie - he just appeared to me (as a slightly "star-struck" 15 year old at the time) to be the kind of decent (there must be a better word to descibe him but this is the best I can come up with for the sake of simplicity) guy who you wanted to play for the team you supported (and, as has been pointed out above, he did make it 2-0 in the 15th minute in a previous game some 3 years (and a few weeks) before!).

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My "Bobby Story" concerns the first leg of the 1971 quarters against St Johnstone which we lost 2-0. My good pal who is 6'5" and 20 stone was utterly indignant that Bobby would race away with the ball to the half way line then stop in his tracks because the tactics were obviously to keep it tight in these two leg encounters. My pal was apoplectic by half time.

 

When the whistle went (we were right at the tunnel) he grabbed Bobby by the shoulder as he ran off and roared in his face (massive hulk v tiny wee winger) "see YOU why don't you run!!?"

 

It's the most scared I've ever seen anybody look.

 

Glad that the wee Lawrie did it a couple of nights later and we prevailed 5-1. And the rest is history!!!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...