Few players become a legend in their own time in Scottish
football. Even fewer are those who spend their whole career in Junior
football and can truely claim this distinction. One such player was Alex
Querrie, Kilsyth Rangers centre forward from 1954 till 1959. He became
their top goal scorer by a very wide margin and claims the record of
being only one of two players to have scored four goals in a cup final
at Hampden Park. The other was Ferenc Puskas, Hungarian and Real Madrid
superstar, he is in very distinguished company!
Alex began his career
at Duncansfield early in the 1953-54 season, Rangers had the makings of a
very good side at that time but lacked a real goal scorer to the extent that
they had tried out five different players at centre forward in as many games
at the start of that season. At the end of the previous season an inter
county cup competition, the R S McColl trophy, had been won by Stirlingshire
with a side dominated by Kilsyth players but led by Alex Querrie, at that
time playing for Grangemouth side, Forth Rangers. He had begun his
footballing career with a local Juvenile side, Dalgrain Thistle, after
leaving school at 15 and started work as a marine engineer with BP. A year
later he moved to Forth Rangers where he briefly played alongside Hibernian
star, Eddie Turnbull. After a dispute with Forth Rangers he moved to
Bo'ness United for a season but by his own admission was hardly the star
player in the team. A couple of years at sea followed and on his return he
returned to Forth Rangers and began to establish a reputation as a prolific
goal scorer. He was brought to Kilsyth and celebrated his move by scoring
in all of his first six games. Rangers went on to a season of unprecedented
success winning all competitions open to them apart from the Scottish cup,
in which they exited in the first round largely due to injury problems. By
the end of that season Rangers had five trophies including the Central
League championship and had scored one hundred and ninety goals with Alex
claiming sixty for himself.
If this had been a season to remember then
the following one was arguably even more so; with a largely rebuilt side
many of the previous years personnel having gone senior the target was the
only trophy to have eluded them in 1954. Rangers Scottish cup run began
with a 7-0 victory over Blairhall Colliery with Alex claiming five goals.
The run continued throughout the winter months with some difficult games at
Thornton Hibs, Dundee Violet and Blairgowrie but the crucial factor in all
of them was the goals kept coming from Alex Querrie contributing at least
one in every round. In the semi-final, played at Ibrox in front of very
large crowds, Rangers needed two games to dispose of Armadale Thistle who
had eliminated them in the previous seasons competition. Alex kept up his
record by scoring all three Kilsyth goals over the two games. On to the
final against Duntocher Hibs, arguably in that era Rangers greatest
rivals, played before a crowd of 65,000 spectators the first game ended
goalless. The replay took place on the following Wednesday evening, also
at Hampden Park and attracted a crowd in excess of 30,000 even although the
first game had been rather a dull affair. This time the crowd were treated
to an exciting match between two evenly matched teams, evidently out to make
up for the rather disappointing first match. At halftime Rangers were quite
fortunate to be on level terms at one apiece with the goal almost inevitably
coming from Querrie. Second half was another matter altogether with Rangers,
and Alex in particular, running riot and adding another three goals to win
4-1, Alex Querrie scoring all four, three of them from headers. His total
for the tournament was eighteen goals, also a record which stands to
this day.
The following seasons brought more success to Duncansfield
and in 1956- 57 it looked as if the Scottish cup was once again destined to
come back to Kilsyth, but in the final, once again at Hampden Park, Rangers
went down by one goal to nil to Aberdeen Banks of Dee, although Querrie
had what many critics reckoned to be a perfectly good goal chalked off.
That season he set yet another new club scoring record with sixty one
goals to his credit. He was to remain at Duncansfield for another two
years finally calling it a day near the end of the 1958-59 season. In
his six years at Kilsyth he had been top scorer every season with a
grand total of 260 goals scored. He made a brief comeback with his old
club, Forth Rangers, but decided enough was enough after only two
games.
After his retirement from the football field he continued to
work at BP, Grangemouth until his retirement but seldom watched a game of
football although he was a guest of honour at Rangers second Scottish
cup win in 1967. He took up bowls as his main recreational pursuit and
played until quite recently. His last days were spent at Strathcarron
Hospice where he died on 16th June aged 79. He is survived by his wife
Elizabeth who continues to live in his home town of Grangemouth
