Frosty

John Sludden’s goal to make it 2-0 at home to Dunfermline in our first season back in the First Division after the magnificent 87/88 campaign. Made by Henry Templeton with a typical driving run from just outside our box to the edge of theirs and then a slide rule pass for Sludden to take round a defender and the keeper to score. Cally was injured shortly after that and they came back to snatch a 2-2 draw and from looking like we could be going for back to back promotions we lost our momentum and never really challenged again under Ally.

Unless we’ve got any centenarian fans who were around to watch the main stand being built in 1924 this is the most significant development at Somerset any Ayr fan still drawing breath will have witnessed. While the covering of both ends behind goals, the original and replacement floodlight installations and the family stand and current hospitality constructions were all sizeable fixed asset enhancements this trumps all of those by some margin. It’s difficult to see how anyone could have an issue with what’s being proposed as it looks to retain the character of the North Terrace and the standing option that so many of us want for our viewing experience with cover to deal with the Scottish weather and a hospitality offering that isn’t an eyesore all included in a building that from the pictures and video appears hugely sympathetic to the existing ground. Construction isn’t my game so I’d presumed the existing terracing would need replacing but it is Smith’s game so if he says it is still fit for purpose than that’s good enough for me. If it had needed replacing then suspect it would have upped the costs very considerably as would changing the level of the slope. Not sure how the proposed hospitality capacity compares to the current facility’s. It must be high for our current requirements but will have been pitched for where they hope we’ll be playing our football in the future. The current economic environment isn’t a friend for hospitality packages so hopefully things will have improved when it’s completed. The big question I have is how it is being funded. I understand Smith/Ashleigh are “providing” it but how is that being done. Is the club going to be paying for everything presumably by way of a loan from Smith or Ashleigh or is everything going to be paid for by Smith individually or by Ashleigh and then “gifted” to AUFC? I understand the land behind the NT was purchased by Smith/Ashleigh rather than the Club but this Development is obviously on the Club’s land. Understanding the financials behind the development is something I’d be keen to hear more about - would have thought that was a more relevant question to ask on Thursday night than ones to Smith about how we want to spend his money next. As a club we have been hugely fortunate to have owners in recent times in Barr, Cameron and now Smith who have all had the club’s best interests at heart. While they have had pockets of different depths they’ve been able to keep us away from the situations a number of our peer group have got themselves into as well as not poncing off the taxpayer as a certain club without a sea view about 14 miles away did. Exciting times - we now just need a team on the park that can provide something worth watching from the new Stand.

Unfortunately the damage an AR-15 does to a body especially when it’s a head shot as appears to have been the case in most of the victims here isn’t going to be something the media puts on general release. This is from the BBC today: Uvalde paediatrician Dr Roy Guerrero also spoke to the committee to describe the fatal injuries he witnessed. "Two children, whose bodies had been pulverised by bullets fired at them, decapitated, whose flesh had been ripped apart. That the only clue as to their identities were the blood-spattered cartoon clothes still clinging to them," he recalled.

Tomi’s agent better hope the clubs he’s touting him to have memories like goldfish because if you look at his career prior to his season with us it makes you realise we took one hell of a risk on a striker who’s best return was 4 goals in any of his other seasons at pretty mediocre levels. If I’m reading his stats right he more than doubled his career goals stats in his season with us. Dipo’s stats make him look like Gerd Muller compared to Tomi. If no-one does fancy meeting the wage demands of a 26 year old who’s been a one season wonder to date based on his stats I wonder if our offer is actually still on the table now that we’ve got Dipo signed up. In case there’s any doubt I’d have initially liked him to stay and think it would have been good for him and us in the long run but I’d be concerned now that the dynamic has changed. Dipo certainly comes with a better pedigree although we’ve still to see that he can translate that to results on the pitch.

Arkells

From memory we signed Henry Templeton on the morning of our first League game against St Johnstone in the 87/88 season. That campaign didn’t go too badly.

We were lucky to have Cameron around to take the club on from Barr at that time. He was a genuine fan and one with deep enough pockets to maintain and run the club if not deep enough to fund meaningful capital expenditure on the ground or a realistic challenge much beyond making the Championship play-offs. Cameron was hardly inundated with bids to take the club off his hands during his ownership and he rightly batted away the occasional fantasist that did appear. The achievements on the park during McCall’s time were beyond what I believed could be achieved with Cameron’s resources and the revenue that our current attendance levels generate so for me his legacy is a positive one although not one that warrants our club bar being named after him - for me it should be McLeod’s Bar.

I’ve always seen the tax bill issue as being down to Cameron. It was nothing to do with a Rangers type arrangement and there was never any suggestion anything was hidden when the club changed hands. It’s difficult to see that it wasn’t a failure at the due diligence stage or that the ball was dropped regarding paying the tax bill afterwards. Not sure how bankrolling the best Ayr team we’ve seen since the mid Seventies and taking us to our first major Final was shafting the Club. Barr’s obsession with AUFC and also the Ayr Scottish Eagles along with what in hindsight was actually a far too lenient approach to debts from the likes of Airdrie were factors in his business getting into trouble and Barr losing control of it. As the club was a Barr subsidiary at that point it was fortunate that Barr ensured the club was passed to Cameron rather than the banks being allowed to maximise a return from the asset by potentially looking to sell the ground for housing which might have been a possibility. I think we’d have all liked to see a more tangible legacy from the Barr years but we shouldn’t forget the entry rules to the top division that applied at that time and the focus on a new ground that not unreasonably seemed be an essential requirement to meet that criteria and provide an income stream for it. Barr certainly spent a huge amount of money but it was his/Barr Construction’s money and while we may have wanted him to spend it on different things when you are the one doing the spending you are the one who decides what it goes on. Anyway it’s all ancient history now and in respect of Airdrie it was a David Murray company not Barr that started the insolvency process which was the catalyst for everything that followed for that now dead club.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money/ Usually a good place to start when weighing up the various options of cards/pre-pay cards/cash etc

Care to elaborate?

South East surely?

Hopefully we’ll see you back posting next season - a rare voice that knows what it’s talking about (usually).

If all the contestants took a minus offer and won and then won the final chase would they have to pay the Chaser?

Utter bollocks which the fact that City hold the English domestic attendance record proves. Embarrassingly for the red scum their attendance record is at Maine Road as well so two of the three top English club attendance records were set at Maine Road.

The Money Saving Expert site (Martin Lewis’s one) is usually a good place to start for most things like this. Here’s the link to their current recommendations for pre-paid travel cards which is probably what you are after given the age of your daughter: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/prepaid-travel-cards/ I go to the States every year to play golf and use a combination of US cash, a pre-paid travel card which also allows for further loading when out there and cash withdrawal from any ATM and a credit card that doesn’t charge for foreign currency transactions - the Money Saving Expert site can advise on the best credit cards for this too. Not sure if a 12 year old can have a credit card or be an additional card holder - suspect not. If you’re ordering currency weigh up the benefits of getting large bills - $100s - which are easier to carry versus getting $10s and $20s which get bulky quickly if you are carrying a decent wedge. A few singles make sense for tipping purposes as well before you’ve started to break the tons.

Can confirm it’s free

Used the VeriFLY app for our US trip and can recommend it. Didn’t have to show any of the individual test/vaccination details just the VeriFLY approval and there were specific VeriFLY check in desks that meant you went straight to an agent rather having to wait in the general check in queue.

Come Together Helter Skelter While My Guitar Gently Sleeps Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds Real Love

Thanks for your reply. I live down south so am not flying down from Scotland therefore our check in/security will be at Heathrow. From memory you can change terminals at Heathrow and stay airside which means you don’t need to go through security again. Think that’s the same for anyone connecting at Heathrow as opposed to the States that makes you collect and then re-check your bags and then go through US Security for any connecting flight. Presume it’s because the yanks don’t trust any non-US security checks. We’re flying to Charlotte and then down to Myrtle Beach and while it’s a BA booking the flight is a code share with American Airlines. It’s definitely Terminal 3. It doesn’t depart until 12:15 and am aiming to get to Heathrow for about 7/7:30 so hope that should allow sufficient time. Also have to contend with the M4 being shut which affects Terminal 3 worst of all the Heathrow terminals. After all this and the negative COVID test that still needs to be obtained within 24 hours of US flights I’ll be very glad to get in the plane.

Interested in your Heathrow experience - flying out of Terminal 3 on Wednesday to the States.