Castlebrae internationalists attend basketball reunion

October 4, 2023 7:00 am

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Five girls from Castlebrae who had the distinction of being on court at the same time when representing Scotland in a schools basketball international against England met up again at a reunion held in London Road Foundry Bowling Club

The star five are Pauline Sharp (now Jackson), Caroline Myles (now Leslie), Yvonne Strain (now Cairns), Lorraine Nichol (now Robertson) and Sonya Steedman (now Hall).

Not only did they share the Meadowbank spotlight in their under-15 international but they also helped produce a winning result for Scotland back in those heady days of the early 1970s.

Scottish Cup victories were a regular event at Castlebrae during schooldays and afterwards successes continued.

· Pauline (front row, far right) is now a maths teacher and Depute Head at Drummond School.

· Yvonne, (middle, 3^rd from right) concentrated on volleyball and gained international honours.

· Lorraine (back row, left) played basketball for Scotland but retired early and switched to rugby union, playing for Scotland B.

· Caroline (middle, front), played for Scotland Juniors.

· Sonya played for the Scotland senior basketball team.

At the same time the Castlebrae boys reached the final of the Scottish under-15 cup with a side including Gordon McCubbin and Stuart Baillie (pictured back row) who went on to play senior club basketball

Not present for the re-union were Monty Montgomery also in that team, and the Cropley twins David and James who were in the Scottish Schoolboy under-15 squad.

Former coach Toni Szifris recalled: “Castlebrae was a hotbed of sport in the ‘70s. The PE department was open morning, lunchtime and night. Basketball, volleyball , table tennis, football and badminton were all popular and successful.

· Keith Rodgers and Norman Love went on to play table tennis for Scotland seniors and Charlie Rodgers played Junior level.

· Willie Davitt went on to play for the Scotland senior basketball team.

· Alan McLaren (Hearts) played football for Scotland as did Keith Wright (Hibs).

Teachers in the photo are Brian Findlay who coached football and basketball and Toni Szifris who later

moved to Portobello High School where they coached basketball and the teams there won many trophies at all age groups with the boys winning the Senior Cup six years on the trot as did the senior girls.

There was also a re-union for an older (1972) Castlebrae age group held at the Jewel Miners Club this year and organised by Wayne Hutchison and Kim Sharp, sister of Pauline.