Alex Bryce
Club Historian Gordon Sydney has paid tribute to Alex Bryce, who spent two seasons at Shawfield between 1964 and 1966.
All at the club were saddened to hear of the passing of former player Alex Bryce.
Alex joined Clyde from Third Lanark in May 1964, just after we had won promotion from the old Second Division.
He immediately took his place in the first team, playing the first of his 83 games for Clyde in our opening League Cup match of season 1964/65, on the 8th of August 1964, against Queen’s Park at Hampden, in a match that finished goalless. A couple of games later, against Albion Rovers at Cliftonhill, Alex scored the fourth in our 5-0 win, the first of his 15 goals for Clyde.
Alex’s contribution to Clyde finishing in an excellent seventh place in the League, and reaching the League Cup quarter-finals, although we did exit the Scottish Cup at the first hurdle was 8 goals from 46 appearances.
Alex’s second and last season with Clyde didn’t quite reach those heights, although an 11th place finish in the League was still welcomed. In the League Cup we failed to qualify from a section comprising Rangers, Aberdeen and Hearts, and the Scottish Cup again saw an early exit, this time to Hearts. Here Alex’s contribution was 7 goals from 37 games. His last appearance for Clyde came on the 4th of May 1966, in a 4-0 defeat at Ibrox.
Alex, who was usually to be found in one of the inside-forward positions, was a skilful, intelligent footballer, a playmaker if you like, with great abilities to beat a player, cross a ball and score goals. And, like so many of his day, tremendously consistent – those 83 appearances for the club came from a possible 94 games, so not a lot of games missed in there!
When I sat down to write “Unsung Heroes” I had it in my mind that Alex was part of that team of 1966/67, but it turned out that he had signed for Dundee in early June 1966, so obviously hadn’t been part of that squad.
However, given his transfer fee enabled the club to keep the rest of the team together that season, and bring Harry Hood back from Sunderland, a squad that gave us our most successful season over the last sixty years or so, it felt right to include Alex!
The thoughts and condolences of all at the club go out to Alex’s family and friends at this sad time.