Scotsman Obituaries: Dave Firth, highly respected Selkirk rugby player who always led from the front

Born on 26 October 1943 at his parents’ Gillietrang farm on the small Orkney island of Burray, Dave was the youngest of Thomas and Isabella Firth’s (née Skea) four children. His siblings were Tommy, Elspeth and Roy. In 1945 the family left the island and moved to Bridgeheugh Farm, Lindean, on the outskirts of Selkirk. It was here Dave was to discover two of his biggest passions in life – rugby football and Border Common Ridings.

Educated at the tiny village school at Lindean and at Selkirk High School, he left the latter aged 15 to begin a motor engineering apprenticeship at a Galashiels garage. Unable to settle, he left to take a job at the Selkirk headquarters of the Southern Reporter newspaper, where he trained as a printer and worked there for the next 15 years. Dave then spent short periods working for the Hawick News and Ettrick & Lauderdale District Council’s Parks Department, before returning to Hawick for a 27-year spell as Pringle of Scotland’s in-house printer.

Unable to settle as “retired”, he was employed by the Glenvarigill motor dealership as a driver, before joining Hunter Cabs in Selkirk, where he was responsible for transporting children with additional needs to school – a role he loved and only finished at Christmas last year.

While he made a big impact on the rugby field, Dave didn’t start playing the game until he was 14. He spent three seasons turning out for Selkirk Youth Club, being selected at prop for the South of Scotland Semi-Junior XV against Durham Colts in 1962. His powerful displays at under-18 level saw him make the switch to Philiphaugh a season early, at the request of Selkirk RFC’s senior selectors. He made his 1st XV debut in 1963, going on to make over 250 senior appearances for the club, almost all at open-side flanker. A powerful player, supremely fit and highly competitive, in 1969 he was selected for the Scottish Border Rugby Club XV to play Durham County at Ashbrooke, Sunderland.

In 1975, at 31, he was a member of the first-ever Selkirk side to win the Hawick Sevens title, defeating Kelso 24-0 in the final. Earlier that year he had been persuaded to come out of retirement specifically for the spring sevens circuit, and after triumphing at Mansfield Park he and his teammates lifted the Earlston Sevens trophy the following day.

Selkirk’s most capped Scotland internationalist, John Rutherford, described Dave as an “incredible” rugby player. “Dave had amazing stamina, he just never stopped running,” said the ex-British & Irish Lions fly-half. “I heard lots of teams talking about Dave as being ‘a complete nuisance’, but in my book that represented a massive compliment to his effectiveness on the pitch.

“He captained the club in season 1973-1974, and was hugely respected by all the players. Like a number of good Border guys, Dave perhaps wasn’t the greatest speech-maker. However, you didn’t need that with Dave, because he always led from the front.”

It was also telling how many of Dave’s former opponents came to visit him at Borders General Hospital’s Margaret Kerr Unit in the final ten weeks of his life. One of these, former Kelso captain and Scotland internationalist Eric Paxton, had formed a special bond with his opposite number. “I was 17 when Kelso met Selkirk in that 1975 Hawick Sevens final, when Dave was playing at hooker. He was always a really tough opponent, and over the years we had some great games on the park, but just as importantly we enjoyed great banter off it,” said Eric, who was Kelso Laddie in 1976. “Dave was always a gentleman, and also a big supporter of the local festivals. I rode at Flodden last year, and remember seeing Dave standing at Cornhill watching the cavalcade. Although I’d passed him, I got off my horse and went back to speak to him. He was just a great guy.”

Dave met Linda Henderson in the early 1960s when she would stable her horse at Bridgeheugh Farm prior to Selkirk Common Riding. Their mutual love of jiving at the Gala Palais meant they soon became an item, and after a three-year engagement the couple were married at St Giles registrar’s office in Edinburgh on 15 May 1964. Later that year the couple’s son, Kenny, was born, with their daughter Aileen arriving in 1968.

Linda was an ardent follower of the Common Riding, not least because her father, Daniel “Kinny” Henderson, served as Selkirk Royal Burgh Standard Bearer in 1937. The family’s Common Riding tradition was continued when Kenny was appointed Royal Burgh Standard Bearer in 1991, while Aileen has inherited Linda’s love of horses, having rarely missed riding the marches since her schooldays. Kenny’s appointment was undoubtedly one of Dave’s proudest moments, another coming in 2017 when Aileen won the Retraining of Horses National Star Award at Doncaster Racecourse on her horse “Made In Time”. After his rugby-playing career ended, Dave continued with various coaching duties at Philiphaugh, including coaching the ladies sevens team.

In the early 1970s he and Alan Hulme were responsible for starting the club’s mini-rugby section, while Linda and Dave helped out with the Tote Double, family day, plus the over and under-18 disco fundraisers.

For two years Dave also coached the Selkirk Ladies hockey team, often doubling up as umpire, minibus-driver and fundraiser. His final outing in a Selkirk rugby jersey came at the age of 59, when he turned out for the club’s veterans XV.

It is perhaps fitting that Bill McLaren, "the Voice of Rugby”, should have the final word on one of the Border game’s most respected exponents. In his Glasgow Herald column, the legendary BBC commentator wrote: “The top accolade on the 1976 Border spring sevens circuit should go to the oldest player in this series. At 33 he ran himself to a standstill, tackling like a demon. No-one deserves a medal this spring more than the veteran David Firth, the ‘Durable Dynamo’.”

Predeceased by Elspeth and Roy, he is survived by Linda, Kenny, Aileen and extended family. His funeral service is at Borders Crematorium on 15 December at noon.

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