Brian Reid RIP

The phone call came at 7:15am on Sunday and I knew right away it wasn't normal. Brian was not a morning man, very few of our tee-off times were set before 10am and a phone call at that time, between even good friends, was always likely to be unusual.

At first I thought he had pressed my number accidentally as at midnight on Saturday he had been comparing the anomalies of Eurovision voting to my infamous 4-ball over at Poloc a week ago and we both laughed heartily at the good-natured abuse.

My counting and his propensity to hit trees on golf courses were a major source of the banter that flowed freely back and forth between Brian and me, it was always in the best possible spirit even when I threatened to report him to the Woodland Trust for damage to Oaks trees on his home course at Duff House in Banff.

We had gone there for a weekend in the spring, golfing at Cullen and Duff House Royal, football at his beloved Princess Louise Park where he had been goalkeeper, director and trophy winner for Deveronvale in the Highland League, and everyone, everyone in Banff knew him! It might have been the permanently stationed baseball cap on his head or maybe it was just because he was such a genuinely good guy.

In the take away, at least four pubs, the golf club and at the football ground people would call over to him and ask how he was, how his family were and how his cricket was going! He somehow managed to have time for them all and they all made time for him, just to have a chat as he was in town.

He had played cricket up north in between his football career, Deveronvale, Queen of the South, Dunfermline Athletic, but is best known to us here as being a member at Stenhousemuir, close to his home in Carronshore where he was also born and went to school, winning the Scottish School's Cup with Larbert High School and beating all those "huge Glasgow schools of tims!"

You spent an hour with Brian and yet suddenly you thought you knew him for years, he had a incredibly genial manner and was always ready with a story, usually a long one! He even persuaded me to go with him to watch Raith Rovers v Dunfermline in January, The Pars won, he met up with his old mate Jim Leishman and it was hard to tell which one had the better tales to regale you with, and everyone went home happy as Dunfermline had won.
 
He could see through people yet he could also gauge your faults and go beyond to release the inherent good in you and he was supremely loyal and supportive in tough times, he knew what people were really like and he earned their trust, their respect and their love.

I didn't answer his phone call, I texted back, just in case, and when Corrine his wife called again, I still couldn't imagine the terrible news she was about to give me, it still hasn't really sunk in and I'm not sure it will anytime time soon, he is a terrible loss to our umpiring community and there is a massive hole in my life.

Frank Johnstone