A time for reflection as players pay war tribute

STUART BATHGATE CHIEF SPORTS WRITER

THE morning was clear and bright, but the mood, inevitably, was sombre and overcast. Hearts’ annual Remembrance Day service at the Haymarket War Memorial is always a solemn occasion, and it would take a lot more than a little bit of autumnal sunshine to lighten the spirits.

The service has been one of the most important events in the life of the club since it began shortly after the First World War, in which seven Hearts players were killed. The Memorial, unveiled in 1922, now also commemorates the four players who died in the Second World War, as well as those many supporters who laid down their lives.

At 11 o’clock, silence reigned. The traffic was halted, the Salvation Army band were mute, and the crowd of just under 1,000 were left to reflect on the tragic past of a club who were top of the league when 13 of their number enlisted in the Royal Scots.

Wreaths were then laid on behalf of Hearts, the city of Edinburgh, various supporters’ clubs and Hibs, among others. The board of directors, players and coaching staff were all in attendance, with Mark de Vries showing a nice touch by wearing a Hearts scarf.

Then, at barely 20 past the hour, they were off, herded into the team bus and heading for the match in Aberdeen.

If the departure seemed to be in indecent haste, the blame for that can in no way be laid at Hearts’ door.

They had asked for the game to be postponed to allow them to make the day a proper Remembrance Sunday, but were told by the Scottish Premierleague it could not be moved back.

Correction. They were told it could not be moved back by any more than an hour. For some reason, this niggling nonentity of a league match was deemed to be of such importance that it had to be played yesterday at no later than four o’clock.

There were five hours and 120 miles between the service and kick-off at Pittodrie, sufficient time and distance for professional sportsmen to psych themselves up for a match, but that is not the point. Just because Hearts were able to get to Aberdeen and play does not mean they should have been asked to.

"We were up here in plenty of time," said head coach Craig Levein after the match at Pittodrie. "That was not the issue. It has not had a major effect on the players, but I just hope that as a club we are not asked to play on Remembrance Sunday again."

In a way it would have been better had the SPL refused to budge at all. At least then it would have been perceived to be sticking to its guns. As it is, the agreement to postpone the kick-off by just an hour came across as petty and begrudging, like those libel cases in which the judge finds in favour of the complainant, then awards him a penny in damages.

Perhaps those Hearts officials responsible for such matters could have alerted the authorities to the clash earlier. The fact the club had a UEFA Cup tie in Bordeaux on Thursday night complicated the matter, but the issue actually arose some time before Hearts reached the second round, when the BBC first selected the game as one of their live Sunday matches.

A harder line from Tynecastle at that early stage might just have brought about a more satisfactory resolution.

More militant supporters have argued that the club should either have gone ahead and played the game on Saturday, or simply refused to play it and conceded the points. But by adopting either path, Hearts would have handicapped themselves unnecessarily.

Their raison d’etre as a football club is to be as successful as possible, and they had every right to hope the SPL would allow them a level playing field. One can only hope that such insensitivity will be avoided should there ever be another such clash, for the Remembrance Day service means as much to the club as ever and should not be taken lightly.

In fact, rather than fading in significance, the whole issue has become more prominent in recent months.

A fundraising initiative to erect a memorial near the Somme battlefield is under way. Last month’s visit to Sarajevo, where the First World War began and where so many lost their lives in the bitter conflict of the 1990s, was a reminder to the club and its supporters of the legacy of war. And a newly-published book has uncovered the full story of the battalion in which the Hearts players enlisted.

In an age where our information about the big events of the last century invariably comes in a sanitised Hollywood package, it is important that we retain some awareness of what our own forebears did.

It was a point well made last week by Jack Alexander, the author of McCrae’s Battalion - The Story of the 16th Royal Scots. "Never mind America’s 101st Airborne," Alexander wrote in the Edinburgh Evening News. "The original Band of Brothers came from Gorgie, Broughton, Merchiston and Leith. It’s time we reclaimed them as our own."

Hearts remember their own every year. They should be allowed to do so in a dignified, unhurried fashion.

Taken from the Scotsman