One promotion, a cup win, five relegations, lots of basketball: Ten and a half years as a sports editor in Falkirk

So, 10 years and eight months, or 3897 days later it’s full-time. 480, mostly Falkirk, games. Four trips to Hampden. One cup win, one heartbreak. Loads of basketball.Five relegations, four cup semi-finals, one promotion. Well done Stenhousemuir.

And to think I’d seen Falkirk live just three times prior and never been to Brockville.

I’ve an eldest son who hasn’t followed any of his family allegiances and supports the Bairns, following them first through these pages - and my moods - and latterly in the stand.

Now, all this time later, it’s left a mark.

From following the basketball fortunes of Fury under John Bunyan - if there is ever a more committed coach in any sport I’ve yet to encounter them – to Hampden for the Commonwealth Games and watching Grant Plenderleith share the track with Usain Bolt a couple of months after I interviewed him through a car window in a Tesco car park, there’s many a highlight over the past ten and a half years.

A mistake or two too– and since we’re on athletics the biggest, literally, was failing to spot the results mix-up submitted for Jade Nimmo’s long jump and high jump distances. According to these pages she leapt the height of a double-decker bus... a sign of just how strong the sports activities in this area are, it was only picked up by a few after we did.
It’s been a privilege and a pleasure (most of the time) to follow them all over these years.

Highlighting them is important and so is reading them and no more so than in this digital age where every viewer and reader counts. Of course Falkirk FC was the main beat and all that happens at the Bairns never provided a dearth of clicks, or copy.

From the sublime, to the ridiculous at times. Hampden trips, near misses and then relegation.

I started covering the Premier League, I finished watching Peterhead, maybe it’s my fault? Infact, maybe I deserve that COYB Facebook group’s ban after all?

But over the last decade there have been a host of unforgettable moments, and unforgettable figures.
Peter Grant’s header. Sibbs’ header. Bob McHugh. Steven Pressley and Alex Smith too. Scottish football, nevermind Falkirk FC is worse off for his departure to Australia. Look at what’s happened, locally and nationally, since he left the Bairns for pastures new. 
But there’s more.

Great volunteers like Ian Kerr, Kenny Stoddart, Gordon Whyte, Sarah Scott, Gordon Macfarlane and Russell, Andy, Tony and Lewis on FalkirkTV.
Staff like Sharon McGuire, Ronnie Bateman, David White, Connor Park and Alex Totten. Of course, Kieran Koszary too. They keep the club ticking and most in the background don’t get anywhere near the credit they deserve.

There’s been great players too, from Farid to Sibbs to Will Vaulks and Tom Taiwo. Not to mention Cracks and BSLM.

Great fans but amongst the best of the people I’ve met has been Michael White. A press box companion and terrific columnist – not to mention supplier of wine gums and witticisms.

Falkirk are lucky to have all of these people and none more so than The Benchman and his encyclopaedic knowledge of the club and it’s history. His dry wit will be a miss on these pages when he hangs up his pen.

I’ll miss reading him weekly as much as I’ve missed seeing him weekly, and I’ll miss compiling this sports section weekly just as I’ll miss my colleagues, the hardest working people I know, when I take my unwritten captions and typos elsewhere.

But I won’t be far away and will be keeping an eye on the Bairns in the Premiership (I hope), the Shire revival and Stenny’s League Two success. And the basketball, of course.