Hawick United and Hawick Colts joining forces for next campaign in rejigged Border Amateur Football Association B division

​Hawick United and Hawick Colts’ merger will see their new combined team go with United’s name and that of the latter, only formed in 2021, is to disappear.

That move will reduce the number of amateur football teams in the town from four to three, with, following a reorganisation agreed this week cutting the number of divisions making up the league from three to two, Hawick Waverley and Hawick Legion playing in the top flight and the new United side in the other 13-strong table.

The two teams’ managers, Geo Shepherd and Alan Campbell, will be joint gaffers of their amalgamated squad, overseen by a committee comprising co-chairmen Kevin Strathdee and Stuart MacKenzie, treasurer Dougie Leithead, secretary David Slight and match secretary Steven Ellins.

Strathdee – a former player for both teams, though for Colts of late and their top-scorer last season with 23 goals – believes pooling resources will help overcome the demographic difficulties that had been besetting both, namely United’s lack of experience and Colts being short of young players coming through.

“The merger’s down to quite a few things, mainly a lack of numbers at training and at Colts we’ve got nobody between the ages of 18 and 25 coming through anymore,” he said.

“United have basically got a young team and Colts had a couple of young boys but we’re a fairly ageing team.

“Between the two squads, we’ve got a mixture of youth and experience and that’s a good blend to have.

“We also share ownership of the Derek Ramage Pavilion at Wilton Lodge Park so we’re already almost as one anyway and a lot of the guys at Colts had been at United for over 20 years.

“Looking at the pool of players we’ve got, this is the right time to do it.

“We’re all United men and we want to build a stronger United and we’re sticking with the United name because of the history associated with it.

“It’s all about keeping the history of Hawick United going and building them back up to where they should be.

“They were formed in 1962 so they’ve been going for 60-odd years.

“Four amateur teams is definitely too many for Hawick as, apart from Legion, we’re all struggling for numbers as there’s not the same will to play amateur football on a Saturday that there used to be.”

Colts and United met three times last season, with the former winning each time – by 4-0 in the Wright Cup’s quarter-finals last August and in the association’s B division by 6-2 in November and 4-0 again in February.

Colts ended up fourth in the table, on 35 points from 18 fixtures, and United second bottom with nine, leaving the six-time A division champions facing relegation to the old C division had it not since ceased to exist.