Press & Journal - 25 September 2003

At The age of 46, Billy Urquhart is still terrorising defences. It may not be on the hallowed turf of Ibrox, where he played for 2 years, but on the pitches of his native Inverness.

Urquhart made his name in the North game and enjoyed top-flight European football during his time with Rangers. However, he returned to his Highland roots to score many more goals in the blue of Caley before turning his attentions to Inverness amateur football, where he still turns out regularly for the British Legion and the well-known veteran select, the Bankers.

Reflecting on more than 20 years in senior football, Urquhart revealed his top-class career took off minutes after notching a double for Inverness Caledonian in a pre-season friendly against the mighty Gers at Telford Street in July, 1978.

He said: "It all happened so quickly after the game in which I scored a couple of goals.

"I was enjoying a pint in the Caley Social Club when I was whisked off to the Lochardil Hotel to meet Rangers manager John Greig, Willie Waddell and, if I remember correctly, Campbell Ogilvie, who was secretary at the time.

"I had always been a Rangers fan and when I was told the clubs had agreed a £16,000 transfer fee - a Highland League record at that time - and all I had to do was sign on the dotted line, I was delighted to sign.

"A week later, I was a full-time professional at Ibrox.

"They had just won the treble and there I was rubbing shoulders with the likes of Sandy Jardine, Derek Johnstone, Colin Jackson, Tom Forsyth, Derek Parlane, Gordon Smith and, of course, the late, great Davie Cooper.

"Cooper was a wonderful player and, in terms of pure skill, was the best footballer I've seen. He could do anything with a ball."

Urquhart's introduction to life in Glasgow was not without incident, however.

"As a raw youngster from the Highlands, I was the butt of some good-natured banter in the dressing-room," he said.

"The lads felt my Inverness accent sounded a bit like the voice of the Swedish chef from the Muppets, so you can imagine the jokes at my expense every time I came into view.

"However, the fact I had already spent some time in Glasgow while I was at college certainly helped me to settle in as I knew my way around the city.

"It was a huge change for me and within a fortnight I found myself sitting on the bench in Turin against a Juventus side packed with seven of the Italian international side.

"Although I didn't get on in either of the Juventus games, we beat them before taking PSV Eindhoven in the next round to reach the quarter-finals of the European Cup."

Urquhart revealed his only regret was his Ibrox break hadn't come earlier in his career.

He said: "I was 21 by the time Rangers signed me and if I had been younger it would have been better. However, in the quarter-finals of the European Cup, I came on as a substitute with 20 minutes to go in Cologne.

"The second game back at Ibrox has become infamous due to the two or three good chances I missed. Cologne beat us 1-0 over there, while the Ibrox game finished 1-1. Thankfully, I didn't carry the can for the defeat and even went on to win a League Cup medal later that season when we defeated Aberdeen."

After 2 years at Ibrox, Urquhart felt it was time for a change.

He said: "At the start of my second season, in 1978-79, I broke my wrist in a training accident and was out for 16 or 17 weeks, but I came back into the first team and played against the Argentinean World Cup hero Mario Kempes in Rangers' European Cup-Winners' Cup tie with Valencia.

"After that I didn't really feature much in the first team. Not long after the start of the next season, I asked John Greig for a move and Wigan Athletic manager, former Ross County legend Ian McNeill, took me down there.

"But, within six weeks, he was sacked and former Liverpool centre half Larry Lloyd took over. He didn't fancy any of the squad, particularly the Scots.

"There were three of us and we were made to train with the youth team and he even tried to take us in morning, noon and night. I had a two-year contract and decided to see it out as they had to pay my wages. "Thankfully, Caley got wind of my situation and bought my contract out to take me back."

BORN in Inverness, Urquhart went to Central Primary School before moving to Inverness Royal Academy.

Although it was a rugby-playing school, Urquhart said: "Football was the only thing in my head as a bairn.

"Although I wasn't all that big at primary school, I always had a competitive edge. I still remember being in the primary 4 team and playing against primary 6, whose star player was Alastair Black. Tichie, as he was known, went on to become an Inverness Thistle great."

Urquhart also had an early introduction to Highland League football.

He revealed: "I lived within 100yd of Caley's Telford Street ground and my father, Willie, who previously played for Inverness Thistle, was the club trainer when I was about seven or eight-years-old.

"I used to get to go on the team bus to all the away games and I recall the late Chick Allan putting me up on the luggage rack on the way to one game.

"There were a lot of characters in the Caley team, such as Alan Presslie, Graeme McInnes, Davie Bennett, Harry Smith and Freddie and Bobby, the Nield brothers from Kingussie."

Urquhart's first foray south didn't last too long.

He explained: "While at school I didn't work quite as hard as I could have, but I still got enough qualifications to allow me to enrol for Jordanhill PE College in Glasgow. When I went to Glasgow I signed amateur forms with Queen's Park along with two other Inverness guys, Andy Smith and Geoff McDonald, brother of Kevin, who was later to go on to play for Liverpool and is now a coach at Aston Villa.

"I must admit I didn't really enjoy myself at Queen's Park. "Within six or seven weeks I left and started to play for the Jordanhill College team in the local amateur leagues.

"That really toughened me up and gave me a good grounding, while I did my pre-season with Caley before returning to college for the next term in October.

"However, by that time I had broken into the Caley first team, I was coming home to Inverness at weekends to play, scoring a few goals. To be honest, I wasn't putting the work in at college so decided to give it all up and move back home after about 1 years in Glasgow.

"I got a job as an apprentice quantity surveyor when I came home during the 1974-75 season and continued to play for Caley. "After two or three months, I was converted to a midfield player.

"When Caley signed former Rangers and Dundee midfielder Andy Penman in the February of the 1975-76 season, I played alongside him for a short while.

"Andy was certainly the best passer of a ball I've ever played with, although Tommy McLean at Rangers came close."

FATE was then to play a hand in granting Urquhart the forward role with which he was to make his name.

He said: "The last matches of that 1975-76 season was the two-legged Bell's Cup final against Lossiemouth.

"When one of our forwards failed to turn up for the second game at Lossie - when we were already 2-0 down from the home leg - I was put up-front alongside Raymond Mackintosh.

"We both scored to tie the game and our centre half Bob Summers notched the winner with about five minutes to go for a memorable victory."

The Mackintosh-Urquhart partnership was soon to strike fear into every defence in North football. Urquhart said: "We won three trophies in the next season, while Ray and I finished top scorers in the league and did the same the season after. "Although we had totally different styles, Ray and I seemed to gel perfectly and we could read each other's games so well. He was a fantastic player who was very athletic and it is a crying shame he never got the chance to show his skills at a higher level."

After his spell at Wigan Athletic, Urquhart returned to Inverness to enjoy more success.

He said: "Caley got me on a free transfer in 1981 and I continued to play until the beginning of Caley's last season in the Highland League.

"I was 37 and if I had known it was going to be their swansong, I would have kept going until the end of that season.

"We won heaps of trophies over that period and had some right royal battles with the likes of Keith.

"For the first couple of seasons, I still had that full-time fitness."

Nowadays, Urquhart and his business partner, Robert Smith, run a busy builders and roofing merchants in Inverness.

Old habits die hard and Urquhart still finds time to attend every Caley Jags home game and most of away matches.

He and his wife, Trish, live happily in Inverness, while daughter, Michelle, has just started university and son, Ewen, is in primary 7 at school.

Urquhart, who will be 47 in November, said: "I wouldn't change a single thing about my life, although these days my knees are beginning to give me problems. How long I can continue to play football is in the lap of the gods - but, hopefully, I've not scored my last goal yet."

Last update 16/11/03