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Favourite quirks of Scottish stadiums.


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1 hour ago, The Mantis said:

I've got 2 editions of FGoGB, the 1987 one with a predominantly white cover, and the 1996 one (mainly green). Even in that short span the grounds have changed a lot. Both of them appear to be on eBay for just a couple of quid.

A real cracker of a coffee table book is Football Grounds From The Air (2006) by Ian Hay. It was priced at £20 but I'm sure I got it at one of those bargain books places for £6. A few guys at work went and got it too, including legendary groundhopper on here, Rab B Nesbit :lol:

I had both too - although the first one may have been "the Football Grounds of England and Wales" (maybe an earlier edition?) - and flogged them and the European edition for about £40 a couple of years back. You can normally pick up "Football Grounds from the Air" for about £5.99 in garden centres for some reason.

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4 minutes ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

I had both too - although the first one may have been "the Football Grounds of England and Wales" (maybe an earlier edition?) - and flogged them and the European edition for about £40 a couple of years back. You can normally pick up "Football Grounds from the Air" for about £5.99 in garden centres for some reason.

Aye, just checked and the England & Wales version is 1983. Garden centres? My wife's tried that one a few times :P

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22 hours ago, HibeeJibee said:

Celtic Park in its early days with open banked ends, a pavilion, and the outrageously expensive grandstand which as you can see was glazed when it first opened. Seemed like a great idea but of course the problem was that in winter they steamed up

Restricted view even in those days?

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On 30/12/2016 at 11:44, topcat(The most tip top) said:

 

While looking for a photo of the new vista of the Tynecastle main stand that is briefly visible  in the interim between demolishing the other buildings that obscured it and demolishing the stand itself I found this and thought some of you might like it.

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There's a few of them...

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111553-134a1914896e45718033ddf5f681cadd.

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1 hour ago, Arch Stanton said:

I've seen this model before and also actual photos of Cathkin P:ark, always a bit puzzling that the roof covered an unterraced section at the back and fell short of covering the terraced section at the front.

I suppose they may just have decided to cover the walkway behind though that strikes you as a bit of a luxury if so.

I've had a flick through "Life and Death of the Hi Hi" by John Litster and while I didn't spot anything directly explaining it there were a few things which could account for it.

At one point it's mentioned the intention was to increase that side from 30 steps to 45 - the ends from 30 steps to 60 - so possibly it was built to accommodate that depth. Later it's mentioned that contractors for the floodlights had said they would need to raise the height of the roof, but given it's symmetrical it seems unlikely they did this then extended the back to ground level. One of the stands was also intended for relocation to East Kilbride.

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That's right. Various football grounds in Scotland hosted greyhound racing - and briefly cheetah racing! - between the wars and again in the 1990s. I remember it being discussed in a previous thread like this and have a list somewhere.

I'm right in saying Firhill was only ever curved at one end, though?

firhillpast1.jpg

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That's right. Various football grounds in Scotland hosted greyhound racing - and briefly cheetah racing! - between the wars and again in the 1990s. I remember it being discussed in a previous thread like this and have a list somewhere.

I'm right in saying Firhill was only ever curved at one end, though?

firhillpast1.jpg&key=bed88172d90aa52891f11340a923dc15674ea1781e0b0e3af6f00d93941ec49e


Wait Cheetah racing? [emoji15]
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I'm fairly sure there was cheetah racing 1 or 2 places - Ochilview and/or Firs Park, Falkirk rings a bell - in the 1930s.

EDIT: Apologies, wrong bit of Stirlingshire. It was in actual fact Forthbank, Stirling.

Edited by HibeeJibee
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7 minutes ago, HibeeJibee said:

That's right. Various football grounds in Scotland hosted greyhound racing - and briefly cheetah racing! - between the wars and again in the 1990s. I remember it being discussed in a previous thread like this and have a list somewhere.

I'm right in saying Firhill was only ever curved at one end, though?

firhillpast1.jpg

 

Yes, only the North Stand was covered until wind damaged the roof in the early 60s.  Apparently that is where the bookies had their pitches for taking bets. I'm not sure if this was the original reason for pitching the roof though. 

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