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Over the years the history of Ayr United has been told in print.

During their jubilee year of 1960 'The Ayr United Story' was published by the Ayr Advertiser reporter Billy Hannah under the name of 'Carrick Hill'. The 52 page booklet, which covered the years from the formation of Ayr United until the end of the 1959/60 season, was printed on shiny paper with small black and white type with a scattering of pictures included.

There was a joint foreword by Chairman Matt Pollock and manager Jack Cox.
The publication has been out of print for some time although more recently some copies have come up for sale at auctions.

When Ayr United won the 2nd Division Title in 1988, Jim McSherry, former Ayr United player and journalist with the Ayr Advertiser published a magazine entitled ‘How the League was Won - The Full Story of 1987-1988:  A Glorious Season for the Honest Men of Ayr United’.

The title was nearly as long as the publication which was 40 pages long and contained a detailed examination of United’s Title winning season in picture and story.  Well worth the £2.50 for any Ayr supporter at the time. 

The publication was under the auspices of the Ayr Advertiser.                               Local football historian Duncan Carmichael then wrote and updated history of the club which was published in two volumes - Volume 1 in November 1990 covering the years of 1876 to 1939, and Volume 2 for the years covering 1939 to 1990 in November 1992. 

Both volumes were published in both hardback and softback and both were introduced by Robert A. G Loudon, Chairman of Ayr United at the time.   The books are a superb record of Ayr United’s fortunes over these years with much insight into some of the backroom wrangles and they are rich with pictures of players, managers, league tables and views of Somerset Park.

Volume 1 contains 232 pages with a blank page at the back for autographs.

Volume 2 contained 318 pages.

The history was well written and researched by Duncan Carmichael.

This publication has sold out and is not available to purchase. Once again second hand copies may be available through the auctions  (ebay) and second hand bookshops.

However, Duncan Carmichael was not finished there and his new ‘History Of Ayr United’ was published in August 2001. This book is a superb compilation of pictures from the archives

Another publication during this period was a second magazine type history, 24 pages in length published by Ayrshire News Limited.

The publication entitled Black and Blue was an excellent history and contained narrative, statistical and pictorial ( black and white pictures only ) coverage of ten 'famous' derbies between 1970 and 1992 each covered separately

The magazine was very well priced at £1

The cover of Duncan Carmichael’s third book on the club - ‘Fifty of the Finest Matches’ has a now very familiar picture of Yogi's celebrations after Ayr's semi final win over Hibs last year and timed to perfection to include Ayr’s histori League Cup Final match.

The 128 page  book, published in September 2002, was well priced at £12.00 and could be bought from Ottakers book store in Ayr or from the publishers Tempus Publishing Ltd, The Mill, Brimscombe Port, Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2Qg.

Another Classic from Duncan Carmichael.

The irrepressible Duncan wasn’t finished there.  two more classic publications followed in very quick succession in 2004 and 2005.

In 2004, he published a book which included the definitive view of a long held debate within the Ayr united fraternity.  Who were the 100 greats ever to grace the black and white of Ayr United? 

Duncan revealed all this in another 128 publication from Tempus Publishing entitled ‘100 greats - Ayr United Football Club’.  This provided full page portraits of the greatest 100 players ranging from the legendary Peter Price, Jimmy Smith, Jackie Cox the more recent Cutty Young and Henry Templeton. £12.99 was again the price of a now revered book.

Duncan, and Tempus Publishing, continued a short while later with a pictorial history of the club with a publication entitled ‘Images of Sport - Ayr United Football Club’.  This again was 128 pages long and a bargain at £10.99.

The book contains some excellent pictures from the past and present.

Another classic from Duncan ‘Walking Down the Somerset Road’ covers some of the ground from his previous history but updating it to take the story forward to 2006.  Duncan says in this book that anyone reading this will already have affinity with the club and exhort those who do to continue to support Ayr United to ensure its survival.

You would think that having written many books already there would be nothing new for Duncan Carmichael to write about his beloved Ayr United. But his latest imaginative ‘Miscellany’ has explored a wealth of interesting facts and occurrences which have presented themselves during the football exploits of the club and superb story’s steeped in social history throughout the ages.

The book is well written and researched as you expect from a man well steeped in the Honest Mens history. It is creatively split into various sections relating to all aspects of footballing endeavour with extreme examples of heroism, or otherwise contained under the heading of Scotched myths, interesting coincidences and interesting stories headed as 'The Victorians'. It was in hear that I enthused over early attempts at floodlighting which ended in a downpour of rain and the early ways in which fans travelling home from away matches updated themselves of important other scores resulting in mis-information filtering through. Thank goodness for current day wi-fi and mobile devices that bring instant information.

I loved the idea that local press sometimes could be found being economical with the truth or providing direct fabrications of stories in those early 1900's. It made me wonder how much has actually changed over the years? Well what has changed is the way in which both team and supporters travel to and from matches. Teams in private sallon coaches on trains far removed from the supporters crammed into smelly coaches!

The younger supporters of today will find this book captivating when trying to understand the lot of the previous day supporters which may even make them realise how well of they are today by comparison. For the older supporter - dare I say like me - this was more than a collection of stories and interesting facts, it was in many cases an trot down memory lane but not just for what was in the book but also for what was not included. Because for every memory that Duncan describes there are a dozens more similar memories that I also conjour up making this book almost a catalyst to many other memories which will lead to endless fun remembering past incidents such as the raging ayrshire rivalry and the monumental local battles between Ayrshires finest - well Ayr United anyway as we do have to remember that there is only one team in Ayrshire!

I thoroughly enjoyed another superb read. Thanks Duncan for another epic walk down memory lane. I would say I look forward to the next one but surely there cant be anything else for Duncan to write about!

The book is published by : AMBERLEY PUBLISHING, The Hill, Merrywalks, Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 4EP, www.amberley-books.com

Publication: June 2011, Price: £12.99, ISBN: 978-1-4456-0496-1, Size: 235 x 165mm, Binding: Paperback, Extent: 128 pages, Illustrations:  51 b&w , Rights:  World, all languages.

There is no doubt about it that without Duncan Carmichael, the published history of Ayr United Football Club would be a sad tale indeed.