Shawfield Stadium

Stadium in Glasgow City, Scotland, UK

Shawfield Stadium is a venue in the Shawfield district of the town of Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, located close to the boundary with Glasgow. Originally a football ground, Shawfield was home to Clyde F. C. from 1898 to 1986. Greyhound racing was introduced in 1932, and the stadium hosted the Scottish Greyhound Derby from 1970 to 1985 and from 1989 to 2019. The Glasgow Tigers speedway team were also based there, from 1988 to 1995 and 1997 to 1998, with the Scottish Monarchs also racing there in 1996. Other sports including boxing and athletics were also staged at Shawfield. On 19 March 2020, an announcement was made to suspend racing because of the COVID 19 pandemic. In the following two years the majority of trainers moved their greyhounds to other venues as the track became derelict. During October 2022, the stadium's owner Billy King died, ending the likelihood of it ever reopening. but were experiencing financial difficulties by 1930 resulting in the need to find new income streams. The club had tried previously to allow greyhound racing to take place at Shawfield but the Football league was opposed to the idea. Finally an agreement was reached with the chairman John McMahon and the Shawfield Greyhound Racing Company Ltd (SGRC) was born. The track opened on 14 November 1932 in the North Rutherglen area of Glasgow and was a big galloping circuit of 473 yards with 125 yard straights with well banked bends and it became a very popular venue. When Shawfield opened for racing the city of Glasgow already hosted four other National Greyhound Racing Society affiliated tracks in Albion, Carntyne, White City and Firhill. In addition there were the independent tracks of Clydeholm, Coatbridge and Mount Vernon which totalled eight tracks in Glasgow at the time. The first recorded winner was 'Swordmanship' receiving six yards in a 303 yard handicap race, the time was 18.45 sec. The SGRC bought the stadium from Clyde FC in 1935. In 1975 a devastating fire at the track resulted in the loss of the majority of facilities for the public. To combat this an investment program that included a state of the art totalisator system, ray timing and photo finish equipment was planned and this period also saw the GRA arrive on the scene as they acquired the track under their GRA Property Trust. The track made the National Intertrack final in 1976.

It was the last remaining licensed track in Scotland until its closure in 2020. The venue then remained unused for two years following the COVID 19 pandemic. In October 2022 the owner Billy King died of a suspected heart attack, ending the likelihood of the stadium reopening. In October 2023, plans were unveiled for the redevelopment of the site, involving the demolition of the stadium and its replacement with a mixed use development including housing and retail.

Clyde F. C. took over the site, previously a trotting track, in 1898, During the Second World War, Clyde almost had to leave Shawfield because the owners demanded the use of the stadium on Saturday afternoons. Eventually a compromise was reached where the stadium would be used for dog racing on alternate Saturday afternoons, allowing Clyde to play their home fixtures. In addition to this, many of the heavily populated tenements surrounding Shawfield (Oatlands, Hutchesontown, Dalmarnock, Bridgeton and central Rutherglen districts) had been cleared in the 1960s, reducing Clyde's support base. The club proposed to move to the new town of East Kilbride in 1966. this collapsed when four of the Hamilton directors secured a lease on Douglas Park. A very large crowd of 27,000 had been allowed into the stadium to see the fixture (involving the team which had just won the League Cup and the team which would go on to lift the Scottish Cup at the end of the season), with reports of the time describing Shawfield as "bursting at the seams"; crushing was experienced among some of the spectators prior to kick off. At the time this issue was a fairly common occurrence at popular events, and it was also normal for children in the crowd to be passed over the heads of the adults out of the terracing. In this instance the juveniles were passed over the high terracing boundary wall onto the greyhound track and sat on the track to watch the match, with their backs to the wall. Players stopped to help the injured,

A total of 50 persons were injured, almost all of them children, with 13 detained in hospital suffering serious injuries and one fatality among them: a nine year old boy named James Ryan from Bridgeton whose chest was crushed. in 1911 versus the Southern League, 1921 versus the Irish League XI, and 1954 and 1956 versus the League of Ireland XI; the Scottish side won all four matches. The venue also hosted the annual Glasgow vs Sheffield Inter City match in 1901, 1954, and 1956. Both Harry Haddock and Tommy Ring played in the two latter matches, with Ring scoring in both. the Scotland XI vs British Army international trial, the Scotland under 23 against Auld Enemy and then tenants Clyde, A Scotland Junior XI vs Scotland 2nd XI was played in 1961. It also hosted three Scottish Junior Cup Finals, in 1909, 1942 and 1943 (two of these went to a replay, held elsewhere). It annually hosted the (Evening Times Trophy) Central Junior League Final between 1944 and 1964. Additionally, it held the 1953 Central League Cup final, with Ashfield beating 2–1 Kilsyth Rangers. Rutherglen Ladies, one of the leading women's association football teams in Britain in the 1920s and 30s (when they were officially banned from participating in the sport) played several exhibition matches at Shawfield.

The Glasgow Tigers, returning to their home city in 1988 after a year's exile in Workington, became the new tenants after Clyde FC. The Tigers raced there for a decade, apart from the 1996 season when they were temporarily in abeyance and replaced by the ill fated Scottish Monarchs who had a team but no track due to the closure of Powderhall. When the venue opened, the racing could be viewed from two straights and the third and fourth bends but over the years the viewing area was reduced to a small part of the stadium in front of the stand. They departed to Ashfield Stadium ahead of the 1999 season.

Benny Lynch, the first Scottish boxing world champion, had his first title defence and the first world championship match held in Scotland at Shawfield on October 13, 1937. A convincing win over Peter Kane saw Lynch retain his flyweight title in front of 40,000 spectators.

Historically, the boundary between the county and city of Glasgow and the county of Lanarkshire passed right through Shawfield. During World War II, when the gathering of crowds in areas deemed "unsafe" were severely restricted, this meant Shawfield was allowed to accommodate 20,000 spectators, whereas Celtic Park, less than a mile away but wholly located in Glasgow was permitted only 10,000 people in a much larger venue. In the 1966–67 season, Clyde's third placed finish in the Scottish League should have earned them a place in the Inter Cities Fairs Cup, however a one club per city rule applied to the competition, and second placed Rangers had precedence to represent Glasgow. Clyde attempted to argue that Shawfield's location actually meant they were from the separate town of Rutherglen, however the organisers of the tournament cited Clyde's membership of the Glasgow Football Association and participation in the Glasgow Cup. Local government reorganisation in 1975 meant that Rutherglen, and Shawfield with it, was now incorporated entirely into an expanded Glasgow district within Strathclyde region. Further changes in 1996 created the new unitary authority area of South Lanarkshire, with Shawfield now lying entirely within this area and no longer even partially in Glasgow.