As has been mentioned earlier, the Paton brothers owned a Whippet Racing Track which was a most popular venue and drew large crowds.   The first record found of this sport is on the 23rd April 1923.   This was a 10 Handicap race and the winner was a dog called Ansolum.   On the 25th May in the same year a race of 14 heats was eventually won by a dog called Miss Maud.   By this date the West End Track had been affiliated under the Sports Promoter's Association and was on the same footing as Carlin and Powderhall.   Another momentous race was the meeting held on the 31st August of that year.   This was an 8 Handicap and was run over 190 yards (175 metres).   There were 18 heats and the semi-finals were won by dogs called: Ragged Dan, Broken Lip, Good Work and Molly Bawn.   Ragged Dan, owned by Mr A. Hamilton, went on to win the final.   The racing continued until the late 1930's with sometimes as many as 24 heats being run with 8 dogs in each, the scene of 192 hounds and their owners and the 'slippers' must have provided quite a spectacle.   It is a great pity that this almost weekly entertainment has disappeared from village life, along with many of its contemporary pastimes.

Billiards was another popular pastime and two 'Village Teams' were based in the Institute.   The first record found of their activities is a return match at Stoneyburn against Bathgate on the 11th November 1921 for the Bathgate District Leagues' 'Strathclyde Cup'.   The local team revered a previous defeat by winning by 36 points.   The scores were:  Willie Nolan - 81;  D. Stenhouse - 112;  R. Armstrong, D. Dirk, T. McLean, J. McMorran and J. Lally - all with 150 and M. Earner with 107.   On the 13th January 1922 a friendly match was played between the local No 2 team the No 2 team from Addiewell, which the locals won my 207 shots.

The scores for this team were:  George Bowman, James Menzies, James Dewar, William Elliot, Thomas Gibson and Frank Stafford all scored 150 with George Fowlds getting 128 and James Russell 126.   A highly commendable total of 1,154.   The last record found about the Billiards Team is in July 1932 when it seems to have ceased to exist.

The game of golf came to the village in 1924 with the opening of a 9-hole course set up by the colliery.   Some of these holes were on the north side of the Main Street (opposite the Community Centre) and the others were where the Glenview houses now stand, and carried on down the hill to the burn.   Very little information is available about the course of the 'Club', but it existed until the 'pre-fabs' were built.   The Captain's Prize was son in the first year by John Graham with a score of 68 and the other scores in that match were:  James Dewar - 72;  James Orr - 72;  Peter Strickland - 79;  William Lees - 86;  John Orr - 90;  William Smillie - 94 and M. Earner - 98.

With the opening of the Miners Welfare and its other amenities, new sporting pastimes arrived.

Tennis, Badminton, Putting and Bowls being the most popular.   Badminton was played in the Bowling Green Pavilion, or, more commonly named, the Badminton Hall.   It is now played in the Community Centre which offers three courts instead of just one.   The Putting Green and the Tennis Courts have now disappeared.

Bowling is still a summer favourite for old and young alike.   The Club has a long tradition of having a good 'green' and some fine players have emerged.   The first ever 'Jack' was thrown by Mr John Findlay, General Manager of the United Collieries and this was followed by him bowling the first pair of bowls.   Thereafter a match was played, and won, by the rink from the 'Foulshie'.   The Club is no longer a municipal green as it was leased from the Council in 1989, and is now run as a private venture.   The Pavilion has been completely refurbished and has a licence to run as a Social Club.

Rugby has never been part of the village scene, so it is a singularly unique situation that one of the village lads, Alex Moore, has distinguished himself at the game.   He and his twin brother Sean were, like all the other boys, football daft.   They both played in teams at St Kentigern's Academy at the age of 15 but, whereas Sean kept up his interest and played with Stoneyburn Juniors from 1982 for four seasons, Alex was encouraged by his sports teacher to try his hand at rugby.   Alex proved to be every bit as good with the oval ball as he had been with the round one.   At the age of 19 he followed some of his friends to play for Livingston Rugby Club and, after two years with them, he was chosen to play for Galashiels, where he quickly won a place in the first team.   Travelling to Galashiels proved to be a problem and, two years later he was invited to play for Edinburgh Academicals at the age of 24.   He played a brilliant game in the 'Melrose Sevens' with his remarkable turn of speed and the Rugby World raised a few eyebrows when he was not selected for the Scottish Pack that year.   However, in June 1990 he was picked for the first time to play for Scotland while on tour against New Zealand and won his first international 'cap', and scored his first international try.   His determination and aggressive play earned him the nickname of 'Mad Dog Moore'.   Alex then went on to play for Scotland against Argentine in November 1990, France and Wales in January and February 1991, but it crown of his success was to be chosen for Scotland's Grand Slam Squad against the 'Old Enemy', England in the same February.   During the 1992/93 season he played for the Barbarians in their tour of Russia and also against Wales.   Alex is still playing for the 'Accies'.

There are now three youngsters from the village, Keith Mark (17), James Petrie (14) and Colin Peden playing with Livingston Junior Rugby Club and it is hoped that one day they may follow in Alex Moore's footsteps and each earn the right to wear the prized Dark Blue Jersey.   James Petrie also trains at Murrayfield with the Scottish Team under the sponsorship of 'Scottish Life Assurance' in the Young Scots' Rugby Squad.

The village has produced only one swimmer of note.  Swimming was very much a seasonal thing in the district as the only place to practice the art was in the Breich Burn, or the colliery pond near the Blackburn road-end.   One young boy, J.L. Kerr from Garden City who, whilst at the local school, had suffered hearing problems and had finally become totally deaf.   Acting on advice from the Education Authority his parents decided to send him to the Edinburgh Institution for the Deaf and Dumb.   He then took up swimming very seriously and was soon being coached by a professional and, by 1930, was part of a four-man team who won the School's Championship.   He then went on to gain Bronze medals and later, the Silver Medal of the Royal Life-Saving Society.

Boxing was another popular spectator sport and, in Stoneyburn, the 'noble art' has become synonymous with one family, the Carmichaels.   Donald Carmichael was a member of Armadale A.B.C. and was trained by Joe Connelly.   Donald fought in a total of 90 official bouts, winning 74 of them.   In 1948 he won the Scottish Miners Featherweight Championship by defeating d. Leslie of Sparta A.A.C.   In a special outdoor meeting held in the football park in the village, Donald delighted the home crowd by winning the Eastern District Featherweight Championship by knocking out his opponent, W. Prentice of L.M.S. Rovers in the first round.   Donald took this title again the following year.   In 1951 he became Lightweight Champion and also become the Miners Lightweight Scottish Champion.

In 1977 his eldest son, Robert, was serving in the Royal Navy and, following in Donald's footsteps, became the Light Middleweight Champion of HMS Mercury.   Two years later he became the Light Heavyweight Champion of the Fleet, winning 12 bouts and only losing 1.   Tragically, in 1980, both his boxing and his naval career came to an end after a swimming accident, when his neck was broken and he became paralysed from the waist down.   He is still in a wheelchair but has continued to excel in the world of sport for the disabled.   He competed in the disabled ex-servicemen's sport held in Annarbor, Michigan, in 1987, where he won the Gold Medal for Table Tennis.   He also entered the weight-lifting, on the spur of the moment, and to his amazement, won the Silver Medal in that event.   He next travelled to Seoul in South Korea in 1988 to take part in the bowling, but for some unexplained reason, the officials for that event did not turn up and it was cancelled.   Donald's youngest son, Andrew, also took up boxing and, in 1982, became the Scottish Junior Welterweight Champion.

In recent years another youngster has taken up the sport and is now starting to show real potential.   William Mitchell started boxing seriously in late 1991, aged 17, and has so far had seven fights, winning five of them and losing the others on points decisions.   He boxes with the Baron A.B.C. at Coatbridge and is strongly tipped to win the Western District Championships later this year.

 

A weightlifting club was founded in the village in 1978 by John Singleton, better known as 'Sheb'.  The first honour for the club was when 14-year-old John Reidy took 3rd place in the Scottish Junior Championships in 1980, and even competed against grown men whilst he was still a schoolboy.   John became the first Club Champion that year and won the title again the following year.   Alex Moore trained with the club for two years but left to follow his rugby career.   Two great years for the club came in 1983 and 84, with Robert Gilfillan winning the Scottish Junior Bantamweight title in the first year and the Featherweight title in the following year.

He became Club Champion also in that year.   'Sheb', the club coach, won the Scottish Masters title in 1983 and went on to win the British Bantamweight title.   In 1984 he won the Scottish title for the second time and was then chosen to represent Great Britain in the World Masters' competition, held in Melbourne, Australia, where he won a  Bronze Medal, after which he retired from the sport.

The running of the club was then taken over by a committee and has gone to win even more successes.   Sonny Constance, the Club Secretary, has won several Scottish Titles at Light-Heavyweight and four British titles, lifting 90 and 100 Kilos.   Sonny went on to win a Silver Medal at the World Championships held at Oxford, and came second in the World Masters competition in 1992.   The highlights of the club's short history was in 1992 when Dean English won his Gold Medal at the World Championships.   He has also won several Scottish and British titles at Heavyweight and is, in addition, the Commonwealth Champion.   He has been the British Masters Champion for the past five years, but has now returned to his home in America.

Both the Brian Stedman's', father and son, train with the club, but 'Dad' is hard pushed to emulate his offspring who won the Scottish Schoolboys Championship at the age of 16 in 1992.   Brian Sir., was a 'power lifter' at 75 and 90 Kilos, but his competitive days were virtually ended when he was severely injured in a car accident.   His is a coach with the club and one of his protégés is Colin Morgan, who suffers from Down's Syndrome, but has competed in the 'Special Olympics' and has won Silver and Bronze Medals at the British Championships.   The Chairman of the Club, Ronnie Ross, has been Student Champion several times and was also the Scottish Junior Champion at the age of 16.   He was also a former British Champion at Strand Pulling.

Other member of the club who have done so much hard work in making the Stoneyburn Weightlifters Club the respected name that is today are:  Mark Wardrop, Robert Gilfillan, George Smith, Frazer Smith, Douglas Mallow, Steven Black, Les Sayce, Peter Bakhsh and Brian Reidy.   A newcomer is now making surprising progress despite getting a fair bit of 'stick' from the other club members.  She is Jennifer Daly, who has joined in order to improve her proficiency in her other sport of Womens' Rugby.
As in all mining communities both north and south of the border, two other great pastimes in the village have been that of fishing and pigeon racing.

Stoneyburn Angling Club was formed in 1919 and is first recorded in the press of 2nd May of that year, when the Club and friends went to Peebles for their first competition.   They left the village on the Friday afternoon and, despite heavy rain overnight, had a good catch and returned home on the Saturday about 5:00pm, after a journey of five hours by car.  In May 1927 the Club again held a competition at Peebles.  23 members took part and the following catches are recorded:  1st - Mr Watson - 9lbs; 2nd - Mr Bonnar - 5lbs 4oz; 3rd - Mr Taylor - 3lb 8oz; 4th Mr W. Smith - 1lb 8oz.   The prizes were donated by Messer's Geddes, Bishop, Maucine and Dymock.   The Club survived until the late 1980's with a membership of about 20 still facing the elements to see if they could come home and talk about the 'one that got away'.   One o the heaviest fish caught by the Club was a 'Brownie' of 3lb 12oz taken by Rab Russell.

A second Club, The Bentswood Inn Fishing Club, started up in 1987 with Charles Ovens, Robert 'Coey' Elliot and James 'Tanny' Fairley as its founder members.   The Club has now a regular membership of eight men and eleven youngsters.   The best fish caught so far was a Brown Trout, weighing 4lb 2oz, caught in 1990 by Bill Fairley.

Stoneyburn Homing Club was founded in 1926 with Guy Paton as its first President, and the follwing members:  Rab Ewing, 'Lanky' Orr, Jimmy King, 'Lucky' Irving, Bob and Allan McMillan, Duncan Ealker, Christie Logan, Jim Meek, Jim Bannerman, Jim Robb, 'Sonny' Baxter, Jim Brown, Willie Yokis, Jim Bryce, Jim Logan, the Haggarty brothers and the McGuire brothers.   In September 1927 the Club held a novel race to help raise funds.   The lofts were all opened to the public and they could then choose a pigeon in the face for the princely sun of 6 pence (2.5p).   There were 40 birds liberated from Lockerbie.   Only members of the Club could win medals, but the public could, or course, win prize money and the 'pools'.   The medals were won my G. Paton and Mr McKenna while the pools were won by J. Robb and the Orr brothers.   Apart from racing through summer months, the Club held Pigeon Shows, which were extremely popular and were well supported by other local clubs, particularly the one from Fauldhouse.

Today the Club has about a dozen members with only eight of them from the village.   Ian Lumsden (Secretary) and his wife Agnes, father and son 'Chuck' and Ronnie Smillie, Peter Curran and Jimmy Mark - and Adam Bryce and Alex Hop (President) are the four home teams.   The racing season starts on the last Saturday in April and all the major races are entered:  Lockerbriggs - 51 miles, Penrith 90 miles, Lancaster 128 miles, and Leyland - 152 miles are for the young birds.  Stafford - 220 miles, Worcester - 260 miles, Cheltenham - 280 miles, Fareham - 360 miles and Sartilly in France - 500 miles, are for the older birds.   The Club also enters the three races from France held by the Scottish National Flying Club - Sartilly; Tennes - 541 miles and Nantes - 603 miles.   The fastest bird in the Club's history belonged to 'Chuck' in 1979 and made it home from Sartilly in under 10 hours.

In recent years two men have made names for themselves in the increasingly popular sport of Marathon and 'Fun' running, and have taken part in many run all over the country.   What is most interesting is that neither Jimmy Martin nor Tommy Baxter can be classed as 'young men', having taken up the sport in their late 30's.   Both have produced many runs in excellent times, putting many of their younger rivals completely in the shade.

Tommy's first serious run with the Edinburgh Marathon in 1982.   Other major runs have been Glasgow, in '83 and '85, Edinburgh in '84, Motherwell in '85 and half-marathons at Bloackpool in 1986.

Jimmy has taken part in a great many other runs, notably 50 events at 10 miles and 10 Kilometres, taking around one hour for the former and about 38 minutes for the latter.   He also competed fifteen half-marathons (12.5 miles) in times around 1 hour 25 minutes.   His events have ranged from as far affield as Inverness and Selkirk.   It is the ambition of both these men to be chosen from the thousands of applicants each year to run in the highly prestigious London Marathon.

Turning back the clock to the 1920's, another Stoneyburn man was making a name for himself as a track runner.   Martin Fitzgerald gave a good account of himself in middle distance events, using his 'turf' name of 'Cassels', Edinburgh.    He was at his peak in 1929 but sadly died after a tragic accident at the colliery when he was dragged into a scraper conveyor.

The ancient medieval sport of falconry came to the village with the arrival of the author in 1977.   Although very much a 'one-man-show', it became quite a common sight to see a procession of his 'friends' vehicles outside the Post Office at weekends, containing an assortment of wonderful and unusual birds - Goshawks, Sparrow Hawks, Falcons of several types - and even magnificent Golden Eagles.   He had been training birds of prey since 1959 and had owned almost all of our native species.    His speciality was Golden Eagles, having owned six, and the one he brought to the village with him certainly raised a few disbelieving eyebrows.

He was chairman of the Scottish Group of the British Falconers' Club, which he founded in 1973, and served as Falconry Advisor  on the Secretary of State for Scotland's Advisory Committee for Bird Protection for ten years.   Everything about this 'new man' seemed unusual.   Apart from his strange sport, he had been a professional taxidermist in several museums since 1959 and had given up  the 'city life' to bring his family to live and work in the village.

In 1989 a totally new and unusual sport appeared on the village scene with the arrival of two newcomers and their 'strange family'.   Alex Laidlaw and Sandra Henery moved into the Garden City with their racing team of Siberian Huskies.   They have been consistently at the top of this relatively new and exciting sport and compete at events all over Britain.   In 1993 their four-dog team has set the new course speed records for the Siberian Huskie Club of Great Britain at Glenmore Forest, Aviemore;  Killour Forest, Perthshire and Keilder Forest in Northumberland.   During the summer months the dogs pull a wheeled 'sledge', but of course in the winter, if they are lucky, then they are completely at home pulling a real sledge over their natural element, snow.   The dogs are capable of running a seven miles forest route in under 24 minutes.   When the dogs are not training or racing, Sandra takes then on the Show Ring Circuit, where they are judged by Special Breed Experts and have done exceptionally well in most of their classes and most are now qualified for 'Crufts'.   There is now a second team living at the new houses at Mansgrove owned by Kenny and Lindsey Sutherland.   They run a four-dog team and have one dog as a spare.   They too have taken part in many of the above events.   It may be that if the village gets snowfalls like in days gone by, it could give rise to sledge-dog racing on the Main Street.

One other sport has had a short connection with the village and it is almost ironic that this, the youngest village in the county, was the one in which the oldest established sport in the country was to be discontinued.   This was fox-hunting - and the Stirling and Linlithgow Hunt was founded in the late 1700's.   Over the years it has hunted all over the two counties but in recent years it has been curtailed by the building of two motorways across its territory and with the increase in both volume and speed of traffic on all the other roads.   This problem finally proved too dangerous for hounds, horses and riders and the Hunt finally decided to call it a day and cease operating in 1980.   Billy Taylor, the last Master of the Hunt, had come to live in the village just prior to the Hunt's demise and so this very short-lived association came to an end.