Sharkie McClements and the wee Green Ball.
About a month or so ago, on a Friday morning after the previous evening’s communal applause for NHS and frontline workers, I received a message from an old friend and former workmate of mine. He wrote to tell me that whilst out in his street for the weekly ritual the night before in Bangor, he had got talking about football to one of his neighbours.
In the middle of the conversation, his neighbour had informed my friend, that his grandfather had played for Glentoran, but he wasn’t sure during which era. One thing he was certain of though was that all his grandfather’s winners medals in the red, green, and black were still in the possession of the family.
Right away, my old mate knew I’d be interested in the story. Within hours I was receiving beautiful images of the medals of Hugh McClements, Glentoran half-back from 1929 until 1932. The collection is undoubtedly the most complete and one of the oldest medal hauls I had ever seen, each and every one of them in beautiful condition. One photograph from the Hugh McClements series intrigued me just as much as the Irish Cup and League Championship medals though, and that was one of a small green ball, the paint long since cracked, adorned with a red stripe around it. What could this be? and why did it form part of Hugh’s story?
In order to find out the answer, my friend suggested that I make contact with Hugh’s son Brian. At the end of our journey, Brian sent me this lovely message.
“Hi Sam,
Thank you for your recent phone call about my father playing for Glentoran. You started something I have been meaning to do for some time - which is to put together some material about my father's career. I now attach quite a lot of stuff!!”
“It is nice to send you this on Father's Day - my Dad was a nice, gentle soul. I loved him dearly.”
And that is the kind of message that warms the heart and makes you glad that you followed the story.
In making contact with Brian McClements, I was in turn able to unlock the mystery of the “wee green ball” and get to know a player, pivotal in the success of one of our finest sides.
If you have ever visited the Westbourne Glentoran Supporters Club on the Newtownards Road you may have noticed, amongst all the other Glentoran memorabilia framed on the clubroom walls, that there’s a small linen handkerchief which carries on it the photograph of a very famous Glentoran side of the 1930’s.
The handkerchief was produced by the Glentoran Supporters Committee to help raise funds for the building of a new pavilion at the Oval, one of the first examples of the inventiveness of the followers of the Glens, in generating money to keep the heart of the club beating.
In the line-up on the handkerchief, are iconic players of a bygone age, including Fred Roberts and Johnny Geary. Amongst their number though stands one of the greatest Glentoran half-backs of the pre-WWII era, Hugh McClements.
“Sharkie” as he would become known, was a native of Newtownards and a fine player in his youth, first creating a name for himself in the summer league’s before taking the King’s shilling and joining the British Army where he would serve in the 1920’s as a gunner with the 2nd Light Brigade. Throughout his military career Sharkie McClements would gain many football honours. His first club on his return to civilian life was Portaferry, for whom he played in the Belfast Combination, afterwards going on to Ards United. It was here that he came to the notice of Queen’s Island. when the Island failed to gain re-election to the league Sharkie transferred the short distance across the railway line to the Oval.
McClements arrived on Mersey Street with a raft of other Island players, signed to compliment the emerging genius of another Island man, Glentoran’s star forward Fred Roberts. Hugh McClements would help provide the ammunition for big Fred’s blistering assault on the opposition in the early games of the 1929/30 season, with the Susan Street man bagging thirteen goals in the first five games.
Roberts and Geary
Roberts dovetailed perfectly with another mystic of the east Johnny Geary and with players of the calibre of Hugh McClements in the engine room, it would only be a short time before Sharkie received the first of his medals with Glentoran. Glentoran won the Irish League in 1931 in cruise control. It was the campaign that saw Roberts bag an eye watering and all-time record breaking ninety-six goals in a season.
In reading old reports of the time, there appears to have been a remarkable atmosphere around the club, with the supporters passionate about the refurbishment of the stadium, hosting whist drives, fireworks displays, concerts, dances, jumble sales and producing souvenirs such as the collectable Glentoran handkerchief.
Hugh McClements and his team mates would take to the Oval pitch before every game, accompanied by the strident tones of the G.W.Wolff Glentoran supporters band. He was undoubtedly a player instrumental in hauling the Glens out of the doldrums of the late 1920’s.
The County Antrim Shield was added to the league title and a year later, during Glentoran’s jubilee season Sharkie would win yet another honour in the shape of the Irish Cup medal, secured after a 2-1 victory over bitter rivals Linfield.
“And that’s where the wee green ball comes in,” explains his son Brian. Before the final played at Celtic Park, each Glentoran player was presented with this little green ball with the red stripe,” he recounts.
Mascots and good luck charms were quite prevalent in this era, before the Irish Cup semi-final of 1929, once again versus Linfield, the Glentoran captain was presented with a black cat wearing a red, green and black rosette, whilst in 1932, before the Irish Cup final, Harry Boreland is pictured attempting to restraint a fairly substantial canine mascot.
In this context, it makes perfect sense that Hugh McClements and his teammates would take to the field with a good luck charm pinned to their shirts. It worked a treat.
Sharkie McClements also lifted the Belfast City Cup with Glentoran, thus securing almost ever honour achievable in the local game.
His Glentoran contract for the 1932/33 season, once again beautifully maintained by his son, shows that he accrued an £18 signing on fee, alongside £2:10:0 per week and travelling expenses to and from Ards.
Hugh “Sharkie” McClements left the Oval just before the arrival of a Peruvian and Chilean touring squad to mark the opening of the new pavilion, they were undoubtedly, the most exotic team to play at the stadium since the club’s formation. He signed for Bangor where he would play out the rest of his career, becoming a firm favourite of the Clandeboye Road faithful, before taking the reins as team trainer. Brian remembers his father’s long lasting friendship with the iconic Glentoran trainer Bobby McGregor in the 1950’s and 1960’s and of the aroma emitted from the contents of Bobby’s magic elixir on their visits to Bobby’s surgery deep in the bowels of the Oval.
In speaking to his son, it is very apparent that Hugh McClements was not only a smashing footballer, but also a lovely man, held in the highest of regards and with the greatest of affection by his family. His family also cherish the time he spent at Glentoran and talk of the club in the fondest of terms.
His complete medal collection with Glentoran is quite simply beautiful to observe and it is a credit to his family that each and every one of them remain in the family, in fact Brian still wears one of his father’s medals to this day. There is one puzzle though that hopefully someone out there can solve for us. In the photograph of Hugh’s honours, you will notice a smaller version of the Irish League medal. As we sat in Brian McClements garden in Bangor discussing his father’s career, we both jokingly agreed to differ on the reason for the issue of this particular award. Hugh’s son, is of the opinion that his father won this medal as a member of the Glentoran 2nds team that lifted the Intermediate League whilst I am more inclined to believe that young McClements may had been given the medal as a member of the runners up Glentoran team in the Irish League. We are both hoping that an expert out there somewhere can provide the definitive answer?
It was in the garden of Brian’s home that I finally had the opportunity to exam the wee green ball at close quarters for the first time, and in staring at the cracked green paint, there it was, appearing to both of us through the mists of time once more, the words, written in gold, Good Luck Hugh. I watched the discovery of the words and of the memory of his father visibly move Brian. It was a privilege to help shine new light through old windows.
Equally so, now and again, a unique piece of our story rises once more to the surface and in Hugh McClements wee green ball we have unearthed an artefact almost ninety years old, that now takes its place in what to my mind, remains the greatest story ever told.
With thanks to Brian McClements & family and Taff Ferris.
Sam Robinson.