Serving SRU President and former Dumbarton AAC athlete Ed Crozier retakes to the pitch to referee the Glasgow Accies v West / SRU Founder Members XV
The match marks the 150th Anniversary of the Glasgow Academicals FC a founder member of the Scottish Football Union aka SRU
Other founding clubs Edinburgh Academicals ,Merchistonians ,West of Scotland ,Royal High School FPs Edinburgh University and St Andrews University are to be represented at the occasion

The fitness required for modern refereeing is not missed on the current SRU president who can boast an impressive athletics pedigree

On Eddie's CV there appears to be a small but notable omission namely his athletics career Some may see this is as irrelevant but maybe not when you consider the long relationship the two sports have enjoyed By coincidence two of the rugby clubs Eddie once represented when in a previous role West of Scotland FC and Glasgow Accies were both founder members of the Scottish Amateur Athletic Association in 1883
The thread that began back then continues to this day at Scotstoun Stadium where Warriors share a home with Victoria Park Glasgow AAC on Danes Dr and is consolidated by the fact that Rugby Sevens and Athletics are both Commonwealth Games core sports as we witnessed in the summer of 2014 at Hampden and Ibrox and Rugby has just rejoined the Olympic family  This particular link was personified by one Ming Campbell of Hillhead HSFP who began his track career at Scotstoun went on to captain the GB Athletics Olympic Team and win a Twickenham Sevens runners up medal with Edinburgh Wanderers
The iconic link between the two sports is of course The Chariot of Fire and Scottish winger Eric Liddell capped after a trial held at New Anniesland who then won Olympic Gold over 400m the same distance that Eddie performed over although maybe not quite at the same level.In more recent times we have had Olympian 400m athlete Brian "one shoe"Whittle playing with GHK and sprinter Derek Stark on the wing for Hawks

However of more poignant significance is that his year of office coincides with the centenary of the Battle of the Somme where the Scottish Regiments suffered horrific losses Scottish rugby in particular endured a higher proportion of losses than the other Home Nations with 31 Scottish caps making the ultimate sacrifice
Maybe not so well known in rugby circles is that Ed was a producer on The Big Picnic by Bill Bryden an epic World War 1 production played out in the Harland and Wolff Engine Shed at Govan based on the tragedy of The Somme  The production was recently replayed on BBC 2 TV to mark the centenary of WW1
Ed's term of presidency takes him from Gallipoli to the Somme on both fronts Scottish rugby suffered grievously as young players led the way and faced The Sterner Game that was so vividly portrayed in that shipyard setting in Govan
Ed's term of office also covers the 150th anniversaries of two of his old constituent clubs West of Scotland 1865 and Glasgow Accies 1866 both founder members of the SRU in 1873 and both reached their Golden Jubilee in the dark shadow of Gallipoli and the Somme  The Gallipoli campaign claimed three Scottish Caps Eric Young and Willie Church of Glasgow Accies both killed together on the same day 28th June 1915 with the 7/8th Cameronians at Gully Ravine and West's famous David Bedell Sivright who as a field surgeon gave his life trying to save theirs

Good luck and thanks to Ed on Saturday as he puts to whistle to mouth once again on the Elysian Fields of New Anniesland