The draw for the preliminary and first rounds of the Kilmarnock Pie West of Scotland Football League Cup took place this week, and Lok were late out the bowl, being drawn at home to WOSFL new boys Campbeltown Pupils.

Pupils, as the badge below denotes, formed in 1919 though with the fuller name of Campbeltown Grammar School Former Pupils. The first 20 years of their existence was in Junior football, as members of the Campbeltown & District JFA, though they ceased playing at that level in 1939. World War II in fact saw the end of the club for a number of years, though they began playing friendlies in the late 1950s and joined the Kintyre Amateur FA in 1961, as Campbeltown Former Pupils AFC.

Pupils joined the Scottish Amateur Football League in 1977, and won multiple promotions early on and in 2000 won the top division title for the first time. They then merged with SAFL rivals Cambeltown Boys AFC in 2011 to pool resources in the town and establish a pathway for young players to progress through youth football to the 1st team.

They made the leap back into semi-professional football by being admitted to the West of Scotland League Division 4, a set-up that does not have promotion to the leagues above (to be formed from the conferences at the end of 2021-22) but will admit members to the new Division 3 once all criteria have been met.

They play their home games – and unfortunately for Pollok there is no trip there this time – at Kintyre Park, a venue that another Junior side, Cambeltown United, managed to fit 3500 people into for a Junior Cup tie in the 1950s.

You can learn a bit more about what it is like to be a Campbeltown Pupils footballer by watching the following clip from the BBC’s A View From The Terrace.

You can also read a fuller history of the club here.