Norman Blount
Encyclopedia
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
former chairman of Queen of the South
Queen of the South F.C.
Queen of the South Football Club is a Scottish professional football club founded in 1919 and located in Dumfries. The club currently plays in the Scottish First Division, the second tier of Scottish football. They are officially nicknamed The Doonhamers, but usually referred to as Queens or QoS...
football club. Blount was instrumental as the new broom that swept through the Dumfries
Dumfries
Dumfries is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth. Dumfries was the county town of the former county of Dumfriesshire. Dumfries is nicknamed Queen of the South...
club in the mid and late 90s replacing the previous regime under which the club had gone into stagnation and decline from the late 1960s. Blount was the first of the three chairman who combined have rebuilt Queens to the position the club is in today.
Pre Queens
Norman Blount was owner of a successful pharmacyPharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
business in Dumfries. His son Mark was part of the Queen of the South youth team that made the 1986 BP Youth Cup final against Aberdeen
Aberdeen F.C.
Aberdeen Football Club are a Scottish professional football club based in Aberdeen...
. The Queens side had beaten Celtic
Celtic F.C.
Celtic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, which currently plays in the Scottish Premier League. The club was established in 1887, and played its first game in 1888. Celtic have won the Scottish League Championship on 42 occasions, most recently in the...
on the way to the final.
Queens Chairman
Norman Blount became chairman of Queen of the SouthQueen of the South F.C.
Queen of the South Football Club is a Scottish professional football club founded in 1919 and located in Dumfries. The club currently plays in the Scottish First Division, the second tier of Scottish football. They are officially nicknamed The Doonhamers, but usually referred to as Queens or QoS...
in April 1994. Very quickly new ideas came along that showed that the club was in a new era:-
- The new stand was built within 1 year of Blount becoming chairman
- The club became the first senior club in the UK to establish a club museum
- Queen of the South became the first club in the world to deploy astro turf on the outside of the touch line on a grass pitch (for linesmen to run along). Initially the Scottish Football AssociationScottish Football AssociationThe Scottish Football Association is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility for the control and development of football in Scotland. Members of the SFA include clubs in Scotland, affiliated national associations as well as local associations...
agreed this as a 12 month experiment. However such was the success of the astro turf that the SFA brought the experiment to an early close and sanctioned use of this idea for any other club interested - The first senior club in the UK to use a lottery scheme to decide the annual shirt sponsor. Such was the success of the idea that the club became inundated with calls from other clubs enquiring on the best way to set such a scheme up
The highlight on the pitch of the Blount regime was Queens making it to the final of the Scottish Challenge Cup for the first time. This was in 1997 where a battling Queens side lost out by 1-0 to Falkirk
Falkirk F.C.
Falkirk Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in Falkirk. It is one of two professional football teams from the town, the other being East Stirlingshire...
. Man of the match was Queens' Tommy Bryce
Tommy Bryce
Tommy Bryce is a Scottish former association football player. Bryce had a playing career spanning 21 seasons from 1980-81 with Scottish Football League clubs Kilmarnock, Stranraer, Queen of the South of Dumfries, Clydebank, Ayr United and Arbroath. Bryce also served as player-manager of Partick...
. However in November 1999 Blount candidly announced that he felt that he had taken the club as far as he could and resigned from being chairman.
Two time divisional player of the year Andy Thomson was transferred for a Queens record fee of £250,000 in 1994. As Thomson was to say on his return over a decade later, "Things have changed quite a bit while I've been away - a new stand, a completely new set-up and a more modern type of training system". Thomson added, "Norman Blount was an excellent chairman."
Players to have signed for Queens during the Blount regime include Jamie McAllister
Jamie McAllister
James Reynolds "Jamie" McAllister is a Scottish international professional Association footballer currently playing for Bristol City. He plays usually as a left back.-Early career:...
, Derek Townsley
Derek Townsley
Derek Johnstone Townsley is an English former professional footballer. His clubs included Gretna, Queen of the South, Motherwell, Hibernian and Oxford United...
, Jim Thomson, David Lilley
David Lilley
David William Lilley is a Scottish professional footballer who usually plays at centre back but also has also played at right back. Lilley was the club captain at Queen of the South from August 2009 until May 2011...
, David Mathieson
David Mathieson
David Mathieson is a retired Scottish professional association footballer. A goalkeeper, he played for Queen of the South and Gretna and made three appearances for Scotland at under 21 level.-Queen of the South:...
and Andy Aitken
Andy Aitken (footballer born 1978)
Andrew "Andy" Robert Aitken is a Scottish professional footballer who made over 300 appearances for Queen of the South. A left sided central defender, he also played for Gretna and Ayr United...
. In a later interview for the club website reflecting on his time at Queens McAllister said, "Norman Blount, the chairman at the time was different class".
Queens after Blount
The chairmanship was taken over by Ronnie BradfordRonnie Bradford (football chairman)
Ronnie Bradford was the Scottish former chairman of Queen of the South football club. Bradford was the second of the three chairman to re-build and revitalise the Dumfries club from the mid '90s replacing the previous regime under which the club had gone into stagnation and decline from the late...
who continued the progressive ambition started under Blount. Bradford left due to ill health in June 2003. It has been under Bradford and then succeeding chairman Davie Rae
Davie Rae
David 'Davie' Rae is the Scottish Chairman of Queen of the South in Dumfries. Rae is the third of three chairman to rebuild and revitalise the Dumfries club from the mid 1990s, replacing the previous regime under which the club had gone into stagnation and decline from the late 1960s.-Queens pre...
that the seeds sown by Blount have really come to fruition on the pitch. Since the turn of the millennium Queens have enjoyed both league and cup success by:-
- Winning the 2001-02 Scottish Second Division to return to the top half of Scottish football
- Winning the 2002-03 Scottish Challenge Cup
- Progressing to the 2006-07 Scottish CupScottish CupThe Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,, commonly known as the Scottish Cup or the William Hill Scottish Cup for sponsorship purposes, is the main national cup competition in Scottish football. It is a knockout cup competition run by and named after the Scottish Football Association.The...
quarter final before losing 2-1 to HibernianHibernian F.C.Hibernian Football Club are a Scottish professional football club based in Leith, in the north of Edinburgh. They are one of two Scottish Premier League clubs in the city, the other being their Edinburgh derby rivals, Hearts...
- Usurping the 2006-07 Scottish Cup run by progressing beyond the quarter finals and then eliminating Aberdeen in the 2007-08 semi final. In the club's first ever Scottish Cup final Queens went down 3-2 to RangersRangers F.C.Rangers Football Club are an association football club based in Glasgow, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Premier League. The club are nicknamed the Gers, Teddy Bears and the Light Blues, and the fans are known to each other as bluenoses...
but still qualified for the 2nd qualification round of the UEFA CupUEFA CupThe UEFA Europa League is an annual association football cup competition organised by UEFA since 1971 for eligible European football clubs. It is the second most prestigious European club football contest after the UEFA Champions League...
.
Retirement
Norman Blount enjoys his retirement playing golfGolf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
and watching Queens as a spectator. He was among the Queens fans to make the trip in August 2008 to see Queens in the UEFA Cup
UEFA Cup
The UEFA Europa League is an annual association football cup competition organised by UEFA since 1971 for eligible European football clubs. It is the second most prestigious European club football contest after the UEFA Champions League...
2nd qualification round game away to FC Nordsjælland
FC Nordsjælland
Football Club Nordsjælland is a professional Danish football team from the North Zealand town of Farum, Denmark. Founded as Farum Boldklub from the merger of the town's two football clubs Farum IK and Stavnsholt BK in 1991, the club changed its name to F.C...
in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
. Blount is among the organisers in the events for the Queen of the South testimonial season of Andy Aitken.