At the outset the writer would like to acknowledge his indebtedness to all, within and without the club. who have helped in the following account with files, facts, figures and photographs and who have searched garret and attic for records and reports concerning the 'Shire of yesterdays 100 years. Not the least of these were W. Wallace Porter and A. J. M. Edwards.

Team games involving the skilful use of a ball have long been played. Indeed the Romans enjoyed a game which had some of the handling aspects of rugby football. We have no less an authority on passing than L. Annaeus Seneca, the younger, who wrote almost 2.000 years ago in De Beneficiis "... a good player will throw a long pass to a man at a distance quite differently from his short pass to a man standing near. If we are playing with a skilled and well trained performer, we shall throw the ball with greater abandon; for no matter how it reaches him, he will return it with swift and agile hands. But if we are playing with an unskilled beginner, we shall not throw so hard or so wildly but more gently, lobbing the ball lazily right into his hands." Today, he would surely appreciate the service from a skilled and well trained scrum half or the lobbed throw-in at a line out.

Many years later, Scots were applying themselves to a ba-game which emphasised kicking and rucking as well as some handling. Their over enthusiastic involvement to the detriment of archery and other weapon training attracted Royal attention and sundry vain attempts were made to put an end to the practice. 380 or so years ago, that wise King James VI made the sage comment that the game was "meeter for laming than for making able the users thereof."

In 1823, William Webb Ellis entered the lists of immortality. He became the amalgam that fused the techniques of kicking, handling, and passing together in one game when, playing football at Rugby School, he caught the ball and instead of passing or kicking, as was the practice, ran forward with it. This new football game developed in complete isolation and for many years it was only played at Rugby.

In the early 1850s, this form of football, known as the Rugby game, was adopted as a game for the boys of many of the Edinburgh schools. During the 1860s, there

were little more than half a dozen clubs beside the schools playing rugby. What was to greatly increase its popularity, however, was Scotland's 1871 victory over the Auld Enemy by a goal and a try to a try in the first international match.

The Scottish Rugby Union was formed two years later and in 1875 Aberdeenshire Rugby Football Club came into being as the successors to the Aberdeen Football Club which had been formed in 1872. In Aberdeen, 'Shire is second only to Aberdeen University R.F.C. in seniority. The 1870s also saw the formation of a Rugby Union in Aberdeen and on Monday October 17, 1877, the city's Daily Free Press reported that 'Shire's representative at the inaugural meeting. Mr. C. W. Sleigh, seconded by the University club's Mr. L.M. Scott, proposed the main object of the Union was to be the protection and furtherance of the rugby game in Aberdeen and the North.

It is pleasing to note that some 10 years later, 'Shire's representative was still associated with the club. The Aberdeen Bon Accord of October 29, 1887, reported: "The Aberdeenshire played an opening match last Saturday with the University Wanderers at the Holbum ground. Mr. Sleigh has again got a good team in hand and the form they showed was not by any means what it will be. Behind, his combination is decidedly strong but we hope his forwards are not yet finally settled. Some of the Saturday's men would deserve their places better if they even endeavoured to keep their feet in the maul. As it was, the match proved a draw; however, valuing the team opposed to them, some can be pardoned for saying the 'Shire might have won."

This must have been an era of great local enthusiasm for the game as 'Shire had over 20 Aberdeen opponents - Aberdeen Rangers Football Club, Aberdeen Thistle, King's College Football Club, Chanonry House, Aberdeen University, Gymnastic Club, Marischal College, Grammar School, Ashley, Gordon's Hospital, Albion, Eldon, Union, Nomads, Standard, No. 7 Battery R.A., Silver Street Academy, Collegiates, Walker Football Club, Alliance, Bon-Accord. and Crescent. Even with so many clubs, there was no guarantee of a match every Saturday for would-be players, so the keener and of necessity fitter enthusiasts made sure of their weekly game by joining as many clubs as possible. Difficulty of travel for away matches may have played some part in this proliferation of local clubs. Away games, however, were played against Dundee Institution, Dundee, Brechin, Montrose, Perth Wanderers, Stonehaven, Echo of Stonehaven, Aboyne, Ellon, and Nairn. 'Shire today still play four of these opponents from the distant past - Aberdeen University, Aberdeen G.S.F.P., Gordonians, formerly Gordon's Hospital F.Ps., and Montrose.