Andy_K_97

Two of Rugby Park in the late 1980s (I think these are from 1987). In the top photo you can see the recently closed Holm Quarry where the cars are parked. That became houses a few years later, and I find it very hard to comprehend the area looking like that! I only got the bearings due to the floodlight and the houses in the Grange Estate in the background. I don't know who these lads are in this one. They might be on here for all I know!

That's a quality photo Dougie. It's amazing how much Easter Road has changed since! Here's one of ER from a similar view before they built the new East Stand. And one of how it now looks from a closer angle to the 1992 photo.

Not quite old grounds, but old programmes here. Here's one from Killie's European Cup campaign in 1965, when the galacticos of Real Madrid graced the Rugby Park turf. I have a copy of this programme - but the previous owner (I presume a small boy in the 1960s) graffiti'd the front with a black marker pen. Whoever that was, you're a bad man. Here's the ones from the two legs of the 1967 Fair Cities Cup (which made way for the UEFA Cup soon after) when Killie played the mighty Leeds United. We were beat over the two legs, but the Scottish clubs more than held their own in Europe that year with Celtic winning the European Cup and Rangers making the final of the Cup Winners Cup.

One that Killie and Thistle fans will like - this dates from 1988 and our teams are playing at Firhill. I think the guy in the foreground with his face turned away from the camera may be my Dad, but he's not convinced it is him since the Killie fans are opposite in part of the shed. There's a high likelihood he was at the game, but there's no sure way to tell.

It maybe could have and just passed my Dad's memories by, I'll do a bit of looking into it. Might surprise myself!

I don't think there was CB - I think we only used it as a running track for the players. It wasn't the right size for athletics events either - I've asked my Dad and he can't remember the ground being used for the dogs or the speedway. I think RP was bowl-shaped originally because the designers simply had the space to make it a large oval - we'd originally played at two other grounds called Rugby Park before the present one was opened, and these grounds were to the south of the ground and are probably occupied by houses and gardens now. Found this photo from 1967 of the East Terrace during a match - I wish I had a time machine to take it in just once, the noise in those days when a goal was scored must have been quite something.

Found some more Killie photos of a bygone era. Here's one of Tommy McLean working his magic in the sixties. Don't have a date on this but looks like a proper colour photo as opposed to a b&w one that's subsequently been colourised. 1960 - here's what I was talking about earlier when I said our current main stand was essentially an extension of Archibald Leitch's structure (which I think dates from 1899, but I can't be sure for certain).

Some more: 1944, and with the war on the army commandeered Rugby Park and turned it into a munitions dump. It took a while after the war was over to get the playing surface back to being one of the best in the country. 1955 - with the pitch back to normal, things resume. The Dundonald Road end has yet to get its classic Johnnie Walker advert painted on top of it, but has been there since just before WWII started. Two years later the East Terrace would get a roof over it, and in 1961 the main stand (an Archibald Leitch structure) would be built over to form what is the current Frank Beattie Stand. It's similar to what Motherwell did with their own main stand - take the existing structure and expand it a bit. I'll find a photo of that if I get some time later on in the day.

I love this thread. I'm collecting old photos for my football reminiscence group as the old guys that come to it absolutely love the old photos of the grounds - and so do I! I was first taken to a game of football around 1995 at Rugby Park and so I was just too young to go to old Rugby Park. I don't even have any memories of going past Rugby Road to my friend's house when I was 2 or 3 and the ground was still in its old state, which surprises me as I have some fairly vivid memories from being that age. Mind you, what I do remember from then are normal things like playing in my back garden or going to my Gran and Papa's house and getting my Gran's excellent soup for lunch. Anyway, here's some pictures that I hope haven't been included yet on the thread - apologies if they have, but it's always nice to see them anyway. The opening of Rugby Park in 1899 - new boys to the first division Killie (in white) played Celtic (in the stripes) and after going behind, managed to come away with a draw. 1929 - against the odds, Killie reach the Scottish Cup Final after beating Celtic 1-0 in the semis. Killie beat Rangers 2-0 with goals from Jock Aitken and Jimmy Williamson and Bring the cup back to Ayrshire for the second time. Absolutely staggering that this game had 129,000 people at it. 1938 - a rare colourised photo of the team that reached the 1938 Scottish Cup Final. We lost to East Fife that day - the only time a club from outwith the top tier has beaten a top tier club in a SC Final. Gretna, Queen of the South and Ross County are the most recent clubs to try (albeit unsuccessfully) to emulate East Fife's achievement that day. The crowd at the final was 138,000 - astounding that a game like that which had neither OF side competing had such a big gate.

I've started running again. Thanks to the persistence of my friend I've registered for the Elginton park run and I'm planning to do it a week on Saturday before going to Firhill for the fitba. Went out on Monday and did a bit more than my usual circuit and tonight I ran for half an hour non-stop, so I'm pretty happy that I've been able to do that. My main aim in taking up the running again is to get rid of my belly, which is becoming noticeable given that I'm 6' 3" and have been fairly skinny up until the past 18 months or so. I'm still not too bad, but I don't want to chance anything at all and I want to make sure I don't hit a real low and have to work twice as hard to recover my position.

12/13 - I'll call that not bad for mostly guesses.

Richard Osman's put together a quiz about hings that happened this year. I managed a respectable 15/25. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/quiz/2013/dec/23/1

4/10. El disappointo. Am away tae hing masel.

On the subject of people being denounced, I found this on boingboing. It allows you to denounce people you dislike as traitors to the DPRK. I started off with Michael Johnston, see who you can denounce! http://boingboing.net/features/northkorea/?traitor=Michael+Johnston

Also, it's now time for the Guardian's yearly sport quiz. If you want to try it, here's the link http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2013/dec/18/sport-quiz-of-2013-live?CMP=fb_ot

7/10 - no too shabby given that over half of those were guesswork. Somehow I know the answer about the Wimbledon mens singles trophy though, feck knows why I would.

No Quarter by Led Zep. Their back catalogue going onto spotify over the last week has been one of the best things to happen to me for a long time, forgot how many good album tracks they had.

Yeah, I saw that, think I'll do that. Better not get too pished at it since I'm working the stiles at the fitba the next day and I think it's frowned upon to stop to whitey. I was in Bakers for John Power last night, he was brilliant. Saw him there in July and him and his guitarist Jay knew how to put on a show with two acoustic guitars. Bakers is turning into a very decent small venue, the owner and the promoter are sound as and they're doing a good job getting decent names into the place. I'm playing in there the night after The View, supporting the Sunshine Underground - even though it's just a DJ set I'm pretty excited for it! I was at The View gig as well the last time they played the Grand Hall, was a brilliant gig. Just remember having to avoid getting caught up in the pint-flinging war that was going on with the arseholes in the upstairs seating section!

Got tickets for The View at the Grand Hall in Killie on December 20th. Saw them in there before and they were brilliant, they've been consistently brilliant over the past few times I've seen them. Managed to get tickets for Maximo Park in Newcastle for March next year, cannot wait as I've never been to Newcastle and been told it's good for a night oot. Might see if I can get tickets for Newcastle v Crystal Palace the next day too, that'd be a decent weekend.

Moustachioed Pig from Angry Birds Rod "Phree Munney" Petrie

No snow here in Killie. Blue sky in the west, north and east so I think we'll have to wait until later. I have no idea why, but I really want it to snow because snow excites me in the same way the Vic Reeves' old sidekick Les got excited by spirit levels.

"It gives me great pleasure to be here today..." "Naw it doesnae" "...with great admiration I've watched the community of Craiglang grow and flourish..." "Naw ye huvnae" "...my father grew up here in Craiglang and he always had the greatest respect for his home..." "Naw he didnae" "I only wish that he could be here today to see this..." "Naw ye don't" "I'm sure he would join me in congratulating Craiglang today as we open this wonderful facility, for this building is a magnificent addition to a caring, thriving, forward-thinking community..." "Naw it isnae"

I take it she's got the best gear then?

Hotel

A kid at my school got called Osram because he had a heid shaped like a lightbulb. My pal got his nickname of Stan because as he was walking away one day my other pal started shouting random names at him and Stan was the one he turned round at. We all then decided to call him Stan, and even though nobody thought it'd last he still gets called that 8 years later.