July 15th 2024
Nairn County Football Club can today announce the retirement of our Vice Chairman, Alex ‘Scoosh’ Mackintosh from all duties at the club.
To function as a football club, we rely on the huge generosity of a small number of dedicated, voluntary Management Committee members, matchday helpers and supporters from Nairn itself and beyond who dedicate a countless number of hours of their own time every year to keep the club going. And none can come close to the level of efforts in fundraising and promoting the club throughout an entire lifetime as Scoosh, the only man who can truly lay claim to the title ‘Mr Nairn County’.
Scoosh’s family connections to the club were strong from the off as his grandfather, Alexander Cumming, had been involved in helping the club as he repaired the goal nets at Station Park for two decades in the post-war era and Scoosh himself was first taken to Station Park by his father, also Alexander, at the age of 8.
That whetted Scoosh’s appetite and he set about his first fundraising event in 1963, completing a sponsored walk from Grantown to Nairn, raising £250 for the club.
His first official involvement in the club came in the late 1960s, when he took over running the Nairn County Development Fund.
In the 1970s, Scoosh operated the Go-Kart Track at the Riverside, which raised funds for the first ever set of floodlights at Station Park, which are being replaced this summer after almost half-a-century of use.
Social Club Manager is another role that Scoosh fulfilled, turning around the ailing business and raising enough funds along with his good friend and club legend, the late Stan Brown, to replace the building’s roof to prevent it falling into disrepair.
Scoosh harnessed the zeitgeist of the local scene in the 80s and 90s with his Lucky 3s and Lucky 7s predictor games, which grossed an estimated £400,000 for the club down the years.
Half marathons, tandem cycles from Lands End to Nairn and then again from John O’Groats to Nairn via a jaunt to Fort William to scale Ben Nevis in between, countless discos, dances and coffee mornings are all also on Scoosh’s fundraising CV.
He even sat on the bench for the team for a game in the 70s when we had no one else to fill in as a sub!
In recent years, Scoosh has been in charge of sourcing match day sponsorship, operating the turnstiles on match days, selling season tickets and generally being a good ambassador for the club, something he has done his entire life.
Chairman Mark Kelman added: “It is safe to say there will never be another Scoosh at Nairn County.
“He has dedicated his entire life to the club. He will most definitely be missed and match days will not be the same without him around in an official capacity.
“The work he has done for the club over the many decades is incredible.
“If you were to tally up all the funds that have been raised by Scoosh during his time with us then you would be comfortably over £1 million.
“He is respected throughout the league and I am sure he will also be missed in boardrooms by the friends he has made at all of the other Highland League clubs down the years as well as by us at Nairn County.
“I would like to wish Scoosh a very happy retirement and we look forward to welcoming him back to Station Park next season as a fan.”
We will announce plans to mark Scoosh’s contribution to Nairn County in due course.
