J Boyd of Stirling Albion in 1962

[HibeeJibee]

Over the course of May and early June 1962 the British Army embarked on a tour of Asian hotspots: visiting Aden, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Vietnam, Malaya and Singapore. They played 11 games - only losing to the Malayan national team - using a squad of 16 players: including the likes of Gerry Baker, Mel Scott, Dave Gibson and Jim Baxter. All of them were with professional English or Scottish clubs except for Ron Murray of Arbroath and a mysterious "J Boyd" of Stirling. I can't find any reference to Boyd's career. Anyone?

[craigkillie]

The RSSSF page for that team lists "J. Boyd" second on the list, after Fred Ryecraft, who was a goalkeeper. Stirling Albion had a goalkeeper called James BROWN at this period, so I wonder if it's possible that he was the back-up goalkeeper for the squad and there has been a typo on the list. No idea if there's a way of checking if he was in the army.

[HibeeJibee]

2 hours ago, craigkillie said:

The RSSSF page for that team lists "J. Boyd" second on the list, after Fred Ryecraft, who was a goalkeeper. Stirling Albion had a goalkeeper called James BROWN at this period, so I wonder if it's possible that he was the back-up goalkeeper for the squad and there has been a typo on the list. No idea if there's a way of checking if he was in the army.

Nope it's definitely Boyd. He's listed as goalkeeper in programme lineups of Guildford City v British Army in Nov 1961 and Coventry City v British Army in Feb 1962.

 

2 hours ago, gogsy said:

East Stirling had a goalkeeper named John Boyd in the period 1958-61

http://www.neilbrown.newcastlefans.com/eaststirling/eaststirling.html

Sounds more promising. What was his age?

If late teens/early 20s (i.e. born around 1943) that'd fit National Service. Then again playing for 'Shire sounds good going to be 2nd-best 'keeper in the British Army...

Edited November 6, 2019 by HibeeJibee

[bluedragon]

On 06/11/2019 at 19:44, HibeeJibee said:

Nope it's definitely Boyd. He's listed as goalkeeper in programme lineups of Guildford City v British Army in Nov 1961 and Coventry City v British Army in Feb 1962.

 

Sounds more promising. What was his age?

If late teens/early 20s (i.e. born around 1943) that'd fit National Service. Then again playing for 'Shire sounds good going to be 2nd-best 'keeper in the British Army...

John Litster’s records have two possibilities that could be the same player:

1) John R Boyd signed for East Stirlingshire in February 1958 from Maryhill Juniors. From then he appears to have played in virtually every league and cup game up to and including the 1959/60 season. In the 1960/61 season he only makes a solitary league appearance. That could tie in with him going on National Service.

2) There is another goalkeeper, John Boyd, who signed for Stenhousemuir in August 1964 but did not play any league matches. He signed from ES Clydebank.  That could be the same player.

[bluedragon]

Another piece of information - The People (7 July 1963) reported:  “And [Bristol] Rovers have added 23-year-old John Boyd from East Stirling to their goalkeeping staff”.

[Jacksgranda]

He was a Russian spy.

[HibeeJibee]

2 hours ago, Jacksgranda said:

He was a Russian spy.

You jest...

[MAGYAR1]

Not the answer but here is a photo from the Leicester player Davie Gibson's book.

 

 

[MAGYAR1]

Here are 4 images that, I think, proves that J.Boyd is John Boyd the ex-East Stirling keeper as suggested.

The first image is from the archives of the Singapore newspaper called the 'Straits Time'. It appears on 18th May 1962 edition of the paper and states that J.Boyd played for Stirling Albion but I doubt this is correct. You can see a small image of J.Boyd (fifth from the left) as well as Jim Baxter etc.

The next three images come from a book on East Stirling that came out about 40 years ago.  The photo is from 1959 and you can see that J.Boyd (third from left at the back) looks like guy in the Singapore newspaper photo.  Similar hairline?