Description
Edinburgh born wing half John “Jock” Grieve had been with Irish League Belfast Distillery in 1904-05 but joined hometown club Hibernian in 1905, where he became club captain and scored 5 goals in 91 appearances over 4 seasons at Easter Road. He joined Southern League Watford in July 1909 making his debut at Queen’s Park Rangers that September and during his 2 seasons at Cassio Road he scored once in 68 appearances. Together with Frank Cotterill and Peter Kyle he was suspended sine die by the club in February 1910, for what a local paper described as “utterly disgraceful and demoralising conduct”, but unlike the others Jock Grieve was reinstated a week later.
In April 1911, (then Southern League) Stoke paid £200 for his services, of which £100 went to Hibernian, and on his departure one journalist dubbed him “probably the best wing-half the club has ever had”. He had a single season at The Victoria Ground, scoring once in 23 appearances. He finally moved to South Shields in July 1912 before retirement.