Hill Of Beath Hawthorn

Kelty Hearts share a birth year with Hill of Beath Hawthorn, both clubs formed in 1975, and the fixture between them has carried more weight in Fife than the size of either ground would suggest. Jock Finlayson put the club together that year, and it took just over a decade to find its footing: the first Fife League title came in 1987, then again in 1989, and by the mid-1990s the championship was arriving most seasons. The high point came earlier than either of those, though. In the 1989–90 Scottish Junior Cup final, played at Rugby Park rather than at home, The Haws beat Lesmahagow 1–0 to take the biggest prize in Scottish junior football.

Keir's Park holds 1,080 on its seats and benches, a number the club exceeded by nearly double when 2,000 people packed in for a tie against Kilwinning in 1998, still the highest attendance the ground has recorded. Red shirts with white flashes have stayed the identity throughout, with an all-black kit for away days.

Domestic silverware from Fife and the Lothians piled up through the 1990s and 2000s — league cups, county cups, the Cowdenbeath Cup won often enough that it stopped being an event — the kind of consistent, unglamorous winning that builds a club's reputation locally without ever making national news. That run had gone quiet for two decades before this year gave it a new chapter: Hill of Beath Hawthorn were crowned East of Scotland Premier Division champions for 2025–26, their first league title at that level, and the club now carries the extra scrutiny that comes with defending a step up in class rather than a return to the Fife League it once dominated.