Retro Nostalgia 1974: Ice skating quartet joins national team

Brian Reid, John Forgan and Roy McFarlane are in the Scottish team to skate against England at Aviemore today (Saturday).

And another local skater, Tom Dawson, will travael north as reserve for the Scottish line-up.

Roy is the only member of the quartet who has not represented his country before while Tom Dawson, at 32 the oldest of the four, can look back on a memorable career.

Tom represented Britain in the 1964 Olympic Games and is a former British champion but now he is quite happy to make way for the younger skaters.

Brian (20) and John (21) will be heading for Holland later this year where they will spend three or four months training outdoors. In fact, they have just returned from their first visit to Holland.

The future of speed skating in Falkirk is fairly bright according to Jock Caldwell, secretary of the local club. He said: ‘‘We are finding it pretty easy to recruit youngsters.’’