Aberdeen 1 - 1 Morton

There was a peculiar game at Pittodrie, where, in a perfect gale, Aberdeen and Greenock Morton shared the points by a draw of one goal each. About 3000 witnessed a game which was completely spoiled by wind and blowing sand. At times the sand clouds completely obliterated the players from view, while in the case of the side playing against the wind the game was one continuous procession of corner kicks and goal kicks. No fewer than three balls were in use, and at one time all three were out of the ground, and the game was delayed several minutes. It was not a day for football, the wind rendering the control of the sphere impossible. In the course of the second half Fulton, the left back of the visiting team, had the misfortune to sustain a fracture of the left forearm, as the result of a fall. He was assisted to the pavilion, where Dr. Ellis Milne attended to the injury. Prominent absentees from the team were Colman, Aberdeen, and O'Hagan, Morton. Aberdeen won the toss, and had the advantage of the gale in the first half. In that period they seldom left the Greenock goal, but a resolute defence will post to them, and failure by themselves to utilize the wind two advantage, so the Morton citadel holdout till the closing minutes of the half. Then Soye, well over on the left, sent in a shot which the visitors' goalkeeper allowed to slip between his legs into the net. Corner after corner fell to Aberdeen, and although they came near to scoring on several occasions, they had to be content with their solitary goal lead at the interval.

MORTON'S TURN

The state of matters was exactly reversed in the second half, when with the wind behind and Morton did all the attacking work. In 5 minutes they were on level terms through a ground shot by Chalmers. Then they applied very severe pressure, but, just as Aberdeen had done, the experienced great difficulty in gauging the wind. Inspected numerous narrow escapes of the home goal there was no further scoring, and the game ended in a draw of one goal. There were many amusing incidents in the course of the game eccentricities of the wind playing havoc with the spectators' headgear. Under the circumstances football was out of the question, and the game was what the conditions made it wretched.

Source: Aberdeen Daily Journal, 8th April 1912

At Pittodrie. For the fourth successive Saturday Aberdeen's League team were at home. Morton providing the opposition. A strong gale swept the pitch, and it was found necessary to utilise three balls to save time. Playing with the wind, Aberdeen got a goal through Soye, which was the only scoring during the first half. On resuming, Chalmers speedily secured the equaliser from a pretty bit of work. Fulton thereafter had the misfortune to sustain a fracture of his left fore-arm, as a result of an awkward fall. Aberdeen defended well. Result:- One goal each.

Source: The Scotsman, 8th April 1912

Effects of the Gale in Aberdeen

A fierce gale from the north and north--west was experienced in Aberdeen on Saturday afternoon. Various sports were greatly interfered with, especially on the golf links in Aberdeen and district, where frequently a perfect blizzard of sand was experienced , on the football field, and even a quoiting match at Stoneywood had to be put off, as it was considered the throwing of quoits in such a gale was dangerous , and certainly not conducive to match play . A large hoarding in the vicinity of Summerfield Terrace , King Street , was greatly shaken , and lest it should collapse while the football crowd from Pittodrie passed , two policemen were placed near the place to give warning. Stalls at the Castlegate market were overturned, and what might have proved a serious accident occurred in the overturning of a car on the Strabathie light railway.

From a report furnished to the Harbour Commissioners by their engineer, Mr R. Gordon Nicol, C .E., as to the damage caused by storm to the sea works at Aberdeen , it appears that scarcely had the repairs to the south breakwater necessitated by the January gales, been completed, than the storm or Tuesday , 19th March , inflicted more injury, and, indeed, demolished some of the repairs recently executed. The work of repair is again proceeding with expedition. Mr Nicol mentions that, in addition to the work of repairing the holes in the sea-face of the breakwater, a now method has been adopted in dealing with cracks in the concrete of the lighthouse tower. Hitherto these have been cat out to various depths to reach sound material. Now, however, liquid cement grout in large quantities is being forced by pneumatic pressure into the structure until it "bleeds" all over at the cracks, and by this means (the engineer says) the whole mass is being consolidated and bound together in a way that should add greatly to its life. Another portion of the works that was much damaged was the north pier. During the storm of the 19th March a steam trawler in attempting to enter the harbour went ashore at the north side of the navigation channel. Before settling down the vessel struck "the apron" of the pier several times, doing great damage to it in two places. The most serious occurred opposite the old flaghouse, where the concrete apron was practically destroyed over a length of about 60 feet, the masses of concrete being broken and tumbled outwards. The other damage was about 200 feet west of the former, the outer portion of the apron over a length of about SO feet being completely broken off. Mr Nicol also reports that the waves broke with great violence on the stone pitched slopes at the south side of the navigation channel, and scooped out the stones and embankment over a large area. At one point the depth of material excavated by the waves is about 8 feet.

Source: The Scotsman, 8th April 1912