He won two full caps with the Scotland national football team who he also represented in an unofficial war time match.

As a teenager, he represented his home town at both cricket and rugby and one of his first jobs was as an assistant golf professional, a sport in which he retained a keen interest, eventually playing off a handicap of three.

Ancell[3] helped Dundee lift the Second Division championship in 1946–47 and their first season back in the top flight ended in fourth spot.

In season 1948–49 he left the Dark Blues to join a side managed by a fellow native of Dumfries, Dave Halliday's Aberdeen.

The Pars had been without a manager during the previous season and, having released no fewer than eighteen players at the end of it, Ancell had to rebuild the squad with very little money.

The upheaval led to a mediocre season but Ancell was happy to develop young talent and shape them into the kind of players he wanted.

[3] Motherwell was Ancell's next port of call in 1955 where he appointed ex-Dundee teammate Reuben Bennett to his training staff.

[3] After a year working as reserve team coach at Dens Park, he acted for Nottingham Forest in a scouting role before finally retiring from the game to spend more time on the golf course prior to his death on 5 July 1987.