tamthebam

The Eclipse of a few years ago- got lucky because the mist that descended on Arthur's Seat that morning acted as a nice filter. The Sky smiled that day- Edinburgh City won the Lowland League! I borrowed somebody's eclipse glasses and held them next to the lens for this one...

Stenhousemuir starlings!

various from Aberlady Bay a month ago

Borough Briggs hasn't changed much in 50 years- quite a good thing I suppose!

Donnez-moi beacoup de swally...!

Me and a mate used to drink Royal Dutch when we were skint. Don't recall it being too bad. Fortunately I've moved on to better things..

Dalbeattie Star's wooden grandstand- there's a good social club behind it. There are rickety steel steps leading up to it from the terracing! Kennoway Star Hearts' ground. Its like something out of "Field of Dreams". Build it and they will come....

Camelon v Newtongrange Star, May 2015. Referee Lorraine Clark and Assistants Hayley Irvine and Kylie McMullan take to the field. I believe this was the first time a men's match in Scotland had all-women officials. Lorraine Clark has refereed in SPFL Division 2 this season and Kylie McMullen is a regular Assistant Referee in the Premier Division.

"In 1886 two local teams Glencairn FC and Alpha joined forces to form Motherwell F.C. The new team played in blue until in 1913 the famous claret and amber colours were worn for the first time. It is thought that they were chosen to mark out the team as distinct from the many other Scottish clubs who wore blue and were taken from the colours of Bradford City who had won the F.A. Cup in 1911. City’s colours came from their rugby playing predecessors Manningham FC who switched codes to play Association Football in 1903. Manningham had played in claret and amber hoops since the 1880s and may have taken their colours from the colours of The Prince of Wales’ Own West Yorkshire Regiment (who fought against the Jacobites in the 1715 rising and at the Battles of Falkirk and Culloden in 1745...). A more romantic explanation for the adoption of the colours was that these were the racing colours of local landowner Baron Hamilton of Dalzell but the Bradford City connection seems more likely." from some twat's article* in an Edinburgh City v Motherwell programme. Motherwell effectivly stole their colours from egg chasers! (*the twat being me!)

In 1998 Whitehill Welfare had scooshed the East of Scotland League (as they did in those days) and were resting players ahead of a midweek cup final. This led to 50 year old Whitehill manager Mike Lawson and 48 year old assistant manager Bobby Ford taking to the field against Edinburgh City- they didn't disgrace themselves although City won 3-1.

Si Wallace has been posting a few of the Laird McPherson on Social Media recently... but they're too gruesome to re-post here...

The Kitten. Back in the 60s he was Mum and Dad's cat and before my time although Mum tells me he was a bit of a character. Dad took this splendid photo and flipped it over to produce two Kittens for the price of one!

I'm sure that pic was an Absolute Game cover once with a speech bubble from the crowd "Aye, try to float it over to the far post"..

aye, still got a great face for radio..

maybe she wants an ex-Pompey striker

I went to Adrossan Winton Rovers (good guys and worth a visit) for the first time a couple of months ago- I was taken with this floodlight as it looks as if its been nicked off a railway!

Pat Bonner's laddie playing for the Ants (St Anthony's) against St Roch's in 2013 at Jimmy McGrory Park. Packy himself was watching from the terracing. Probably the last time I saw I really good, down to earth muddy encounter- snowflake refs would probably rule that pitch unplayable now so fair play to the whistler who allowed the game to go ahead that day; 2nd pic showing the soon to be demolished flats in the background and the soon to be demolished "Flying Pig" in goals!

Karma will reincarnate him as a Morton fan if he's not careful.

if our Candy was anything to go by-this should read "ah, the long haired black and white.....a bloody hungry breed"!

must be a pisser when you score a hat-trick in a game but your team has been shellacked.

They've either been on their holidays or they're part of the new Hearts stand and Ann's just come up with the readies after emptying the plastic coo.

that looks like my late father's pal Jack who was Forfar's club photographer for many years! Driving through the posh estate near my slum last night I had to stop the car as there was a Maine Coon (it's a type of big hairy moggy, folks) trotting along the side of the road quite happily -I've seen it before around there so it must live in one of the big houses. I suppose a cat's got to roam where a cat's got to roam but I believe those pedigrees cost a bob or two so i'm surprised it gets to wander about.

The scenes at that cup final led to the Tories passing the act that banned alcohol from Scottish League grounds. James Kelly MSP, get onto that one then....

on a similar theme there was a play about the history of Hibs on at the Festival once. Russell Hunter was meant to be the lead star but he took a thespian strop and pulled out. This lead to the understudy taking his place but he was under rehearsed. So when I went to watch the play the main character was reading from the script on stage..