The King of Hearts came up trumps in Tynie's Terrible Trio

OVER the years many a great player has graced Hearts' famous maroon jersey, but only one can lay claim to the title "The King" - and he is legendary striker Willie Bauld.

The Edinburgh-born star, a self-confessed Hearts fan, is widely regarded as the greatest player ever to turn out for the Tynecastle team and played a pivotal role with the club during its halcyon days.

With new kid on the block Bauld in the side the Jambos would go on to end a 48-year trophy drought by lifting the League Cup in the 1954/55 season and then go on to pick up a further League Cup, two league titles and a Scottish Cup before he finally hung up his boots in 1962.

But Hearts', and indeed Bauld's history, could have been significantly different with the player coming within a whisker of playing for then English giants Sunderland, rather than his home-town team.

Born in Newcraighall in 1928, Bauld first showed his natural goalscoring instincts playing for his local Boy's Brigade team and his eye for goal at that level persuaded junior side Musselburgh Athletic to offer him terms. Bauld quickly agreed but before he had even had the opportunity to turn out for his new side Sunderland offered him an exciting package to move south of the Border.

The young striker was eager to try his luck in England and actually agreed terms with them but a last-minute intervention from Hearts, and a contract mix-up, meant Bauld was Tynecastle bound.

"What I do know is that I did sign a Sunderland form which said I would have £5 a week under certain rigorous conditions," Bauld later recalled. "But I also signed for Hearts! How it was all sorted I don't honestly know and I put it all down to the scramble of the immediate post-war years."

Sunderland's loss would prove to be Hearts' gain, however, and in 1946 Bauld completed a boyhood ambition by putting pen to paper on a move to Tynecastle under manager David McLean.

Initially farmed out to Newtongrange Star and Edinburgh City, Bauld returned to Hearts in 1948 where he had to content himself with a spell in the reserves. But his goalscoring exploits in the club's second string made him impossible to preclude from the top team and he was finally included in October of that year in a League Cup tie against the holders East Fife.

And if Bauld was nervous he didn't show it, announcing his arrival on the big stage with a debut hat-trick in a 6-1 thrashing. More notable than the result perhaps was that the game marked the birth of a partnership that would come to be known as "The Terrible Trio" with Bauld, Jimmy Wardhaugh and Alfie Conn all featuring together for the first time.

In the next decade the players would go on to score more than 500 goals for Hearts and become one of the most feared strike-forces in the country.

Bauld said: "I'll never forget our first game together. Hearts hadn't been doing too well with only three points from six games. We were due to meet the cup holders East Fife, quite a power in Scottish football then. Alfie Conn and Jimmy Wardhaugh had been doing an up and down between the reserves and the first team but in my debut we all just clicked.

"Alfie got two goals, Davie Laing got one and I was lucky enough to get a hat-trick. From there we developed the Conn-Bauld-Wardhaugh partnership that worked so well. I'll never forget our first game together.

"It paid dividends over the years because we weren't just on-the-field partners. We were partners in every sense of the word, working together and socialising together. We never had a cross word and I owe a great debt of gratitude to Jimmy Wardhaugh and Alfie Conn." If any critics felt that Bauld's first senior game for the club was a flash in the pan they were made to quickly eat their words as he followed up those goals by grabbing another hat-trick in his very next game against Queen of the South.

Seventeen goals in that debut campaign marked Bauld out as a youngster of some potential but it was the next season and his 40 goals in all competitions that ensured he became a mainstay of the Jambos side.

He helped to guide the club to third place in the championship and raised the bar of expectation at Tynecastle way beyond anything that had been experienced in previous years.

In April 1950, Bauld's excellent form for Hearts was rewarded when he was called up by the national side after a spate of injuries decimated the pool.

The opponents were none other than England in a match at Hampden that would decide the destination of the Home Nations competition, Scotland having disposed of Northern Ireland 8-2 in Belfast and Wales 2-0 in Glasgow. It had been decided that this would act as a qualifying group for the 1950 World Cup finals in Brazil that summer, and Scotland needed only a draw to pip the Auld Enemy to the title.

What should have been one of the proudest moments of Bauld's career ended up turning into of his biggest regrets.

Bauld said: "I can make the rather unenviable claim that I was the man who stopped Scotland going to South America.

"England went ahead in the first half but twice I had chances to equalise and twice I failed.

"The second one left me exasperated. I was clean through and crashed a shot off the crossbar. Although I tried to get the rebound the ball bounced past me and with it bounced Scotland's chances of going. That was the one goal, above all others, that I would have loved to have scored. It was a terrible disappointment."

Scotland finished second in the Home Nations and would have qualified but the SFA chose to decline the invite, which rankled with Bauld.

"Of course Scotland could have gone to the World Cup had the SFA relented, for England had already decided to go whether they won the championship or not. But they didn't relent and Scotland played no part," he explained.

Bauld would only go on to win a further two caps in his career.

"There was never any question of me not wanting to play for Scotland," Bauld said. "Apart from the generous fees, I would have regarded it as the greatest of honours to play for my country. What Scot wouldn't?"

But, if the international selectors didn't recognise Bauld's achievements, he continued to command the respect of all those at Tynecastle who revered him as a living legend.

With him leading the line, Hearts fans were beginning to believe that the side could finally end a long wait for silverware.
THE FACTS

1928: Born in Newcraighall.

1946: Signs for junior side Musselburgh Athletic.

1946: Without having played a game for Musselburgh he wins a move to Hearts.

1948: Bauld marks his debut against holders East Fife in the League Cup by helping himself to a hat-trick in a 6-1 win.

1950: Bauld makes his Scotland debut in a 1-0 defeat by England in Home Nations tournament. He only makes a further two appearances for his country.

1954/55: Bauld helps the club to its first piece of silverware in 48 years as Hearts defeat Motherwell 4-2 in the League Cup final. Bauld bags a hat-trick.

1955/56: Hearts lift the Scottish Cup thanks to a 3-1 win over Celtic in the final.

1957/58: The Jambos lift the League championship for the first time since 1897.

1958/59: Two goals from Bauld help Hearts to a 5-1 thrashing of Partick Thistle in the League Cup final.

1959/60: Hearts clinch a League and League Cup double. They defeat Third Lanark 2-1 in the latter competition although Bauld doesn't feature.

1962: Bauld finally decides to hang up his boots at the end of a career that spanned some 14 years. He only ever played with Hearts during his professional career.

1962: Is awarded a testimonial against Sheffield United but when the cost of the match ball is deducted from his pay-day it sparks a 14-year rift between the club and Bauld. He doesn't return to Tynecastle during this time.

1976: Eventually returns to Tynecastle for the first time and is given a standing ovation by the home support.

1977: Bauld dies suddenly. Thousands line the streets of Gorgie to watch his funeral cortege pass by.

Taken from the Scotsman