Cup final countdown: On the buses with ‘Benny’ Brazil

By AIDAN SMITH
Published on Thursday 17 May 2012 01:42

Hibernian cult hero recalls losing out in Hampden final saga

THE popular view of Ally Brazil is that he was one of one Hibernian’s more modest talents – a water-carrier for the artists Alex Edwards, Ally MacLeod and George Best – but, in his unassuming way, he’s been a something of a martyr. He’s suffered for his football so others don’t have to.

Never again will a team have to endure a three-instalment final stretching to 330 minutes, only to lose the Scottish Cup to an own goal. After the cruellest of defeats for Brazil and his fellow Hibees in 1979, it was decided the competition should be resolved at the first attempt. “I had a ticket for England v Scotland at Wembley but had to give it up,” recalls Brazil of the great saga with Rangers. “That blinkin’ final was still going after the Home Internationals had finished, after some fans had left for their summer holidays.” And never again, thanks to the one they call Benny, will a Lothian Transport bus driver find himself on duty for the shift-from-hell – the victory parade featuring the team he or she didn’t want to win. This was his fate in 2003 when Livingston triumphed in the CIS Cup. “My manager asked if I wanted to drive the open-topped bus. What if Livi win? Take it or leave it, he said. I couldn’t see Hibs losing but being Hibs they did. I still get teased about that.

“This year, though, two drivers have been picked out of a hat, one for Hibs and one for Hearts, so no one will have to grin and bear it like I did. That was pretty hellish even though in Livingston, being mostly roads and roundabouts, there was no one on the route until the team got to Almondvale Stadium. In Edinburgh we’ve got pavements. I should imagine there’ll be a fair few folk whoever wins.”

We meet in Currie, on the No 44 route, where Brazil has always lived. Now 53, he’s surprised to be invited to reminisce. “What made you pick me?” he says. But surely, given the generally unsung nature of this Hibs team, he’s a good choice. Even his critics would feel more confident about this final if there were four Ally Brazil clones in the green and white. He played 258 games for Hibs, none more dramatic than that final. But his career could have turned out differently. “This is a big Hearts area and I grew up as one. I was useless at school and only wanted to play football. The guys we all tried to emulate were Donald Ford and Cruickie – Jim Cruickshank – who lived along the road in Balerno. I was at the 7-0 game – murder. I saw all seven go in, too – well, I believed in getting my money’s worth. I played for Currie Hearts and was on an S-form at Tynecastle. They wanted to farm me out to the juniors for a bit but I didn’t fancy that. They let my form lapse and I ended up going across the city.”

Maybe Hearts wanted to toughen up the skinnymalink. He’s been shorn of both the haircuts he sported back then – bubble-perm and Marilyn Manson forerunner – but doesn’t seem to have put on even half a pound. “I’ve always been a bloody beanpole,” he laughs, “and they used to say about me that there was more meat on a butcher’s pencil. Eddie Turnbull was always trying to get me to fill out. He put me on Complan [food supplement for those at risk of malnutrition]. He made me eat lots of steak which I had to pay for. He sent me and Ralph Callachan and Willie Murray, both pretty skinny themselves, to sessions with the sprinter Drew McMaster, who introduced us to the speedball. None of it worked for me.” Brazil’s build or lack of, his inelegant running style, those haircuts, that nickname (wrongly thought to have come from Crossroads’ Benny, it was actually given him by his big brother, origins obscure) and the fact he had such tough acts to follow after the break-up of the Turnbull’s Tornadoes team, all conspired to make him difficult to love for a notoriously demanding support, at least initially.

“I used to get stick from what I’d like to think was a minority of the fans, even before the games started. ‘Yer shite, Brazil!’ was a favourite greeting. To be honest I had a bit of that right through my career. Listen, I know I wasn’t the silkiest, but it takes all sorts to make up a football team. You wouldn’t get very far with 11 silky guys. Did the moaning and grumping make me try harder? Not really, because I always tried my best anyway. Playing football for a living was the dream. It’s something I’d have done for nothing and I had a fantastic time. I was in awe of the skills of the guys round about me, like Ralph and Ally MacLeod and, of course, Bestie. The fact a great manager like Eddie picked me was all the approval I needed. But if I ever wanted any more then I’d look to a wonderful guy like Jackie McNamara. Choosing sides at training, he usually made me one of his first picks, telling me: ‘I know you’ll work your bollocks off, Benny.’”

Best and Brazil must be one of football’s more unlikely juxtapositions. Presumably he’d ask George about great goals and stunning girls. “Ach, I was a bit naive. Jim McArthur would have been your man for the Miss World stories.” Brazil did change from comedy turn to cult hero. He didn’t score often but once netted three against Celtic. There’s no point telling him this was a friendly or that some of the cheers greeting them might have been ironic. “Left-foot volley, diving header, penalty with the right – it was the perfect hat-trick.”

Like the rest in ’79, he was devastated that Hibs didn’t win. After Easter Road, his Scottish Cup story had another twist when he was among Hamilton Accies heroes who dumped Graeme Souness’ glittering Rangers out of the ’87 competition. He hasn’t seen much of Hibs recently while he’s followed the career of son Alan, currently unattached after a spell at Berwick Rangers, but has requested Saturday off from bus duties so he can be at Hampden. “The final is the only thing getting talked about round here,” he says. “The current lot may not be local boys, or know too much about what this trophy means to Hibs, but they’ve got the chance to become legends.”

He will however be back behind the wheel the day after the final, wherever the celebrations will be. “One of my routes is the No 1, which starts at the foot of Easter Road and goes through Gorgie. If Hearts win I hope I can be spared it!”

Taken from the Scotsman