sfha

Border League results grids and final tables from 1896-1953 are now 99% complete. I'll be looking at the remaining season, 1893-94, over the next couple of days. Border League Competitions (sfha.org.uk)

Re polling... I've been on this Earth for 57 years and have never been polled on anything. I asked my wife, who is a year or so older, the same question and she was also flummoxed. I believe my son and daughter are in the same position as are their partners. Who are these pollsters asking?

Thank, HJ, I'll look at the 27-28 competition but I doubt if that was completed either! I'm currently working through the last four Border Senior League seasons prior to WW1. Reports for league during this time are somewhat sketchy and appears clubs saw the competition of somewhat secondary importance, many of the fixtures being left unfulfilled. However I've uncovered most, if not all, of the results of the short lived 2nd Division (1910-1912). I'll repost the updated BL and Paul Shield pages in the forthcoming days.

We've done the hard work in winning the first 5 matches, wanting another team to help us over the line is a tradeoff I can live with

I've checked through Alan's excellent site and updated my grids (including the Border leagues), also finding a number of cup results I was missing. As you say, HJ, a couple of errors, mainly surrounding dates but in all a great piece of research. Sfha.org.uk/eoslresults.htm

That has been a bugbear of mine for a good few years, why do these sites go to the bother of recording all the results to scrub them all come August instead of archiving them? Another thing that irks me are league sites that don't bother finalising the season's results and leave the fixtures and tables unfinished.

Alan's site is excellent, I haven't been on it for a few years but will compare his records with what I have.

I think more so from 1956. As the league had been struggling to complete the fixture list due in part to the cup-ties (replays et al) taking precedence, it was decided that year that EOSQC and King Cup ties would, where possible, double as League matches. This was dependent upon who was the home club but I've come across at least one example where the venue of the cup-tie was actually switched to accomodate this rule.

This work was actually carried out pre 2018 but personal circumstances explained elsewhere meant it was put by the wayside until I recently "rediscovered" the files!

1955-56, including other EOSFA cups, now added

I've added results grids for seasons 1923-1952 plus 1954-55 and am in the process of bridging the 1952-1954 seasons. There are still a number of missing results, either fixtures not being fulfilled or not being found in contemporary press reports so any additional info is most welcome. http://sfha.org.uk/eoslresults.htm

Alex had written to me many years ago about his site which covers the years up to 1920

Although it's often cited that Hearts and Harp merged, Harp had actually disbanded as the majority of their players as well as the secretary had joined the new senior club. Hearts continued until WW2... [https://alexwood.org.uk/2012/08/04/brechin-city-the-early-years/] "The juniors, particularly Harp and Hearts, had been doing so well in their sphere, that was urged that here was the nucleus of a first class organization.” The initial public meeting to launch Brechin City FC, held in the Temperance Hall on 25th May 1906, indeed considered that, rancour between Harp and Hearts notwithstanding, “difficulties in the way of amalgamation were not insurmountable”. Brechin Harp and Brechin Hearts may indeed have provided the personnel for the nucleus of Brechin City but there was no amalgamation. Mr R.N. Clift, secretary of Brechin Harp became secretary of the new senior club when the office-bearers of the new Brechin City FC were elected at a committee meeting on Thursday 31 May 1906. As well as Clift, the office bearers of the new club were Alexander Potter, president, James Johnstone, vice-president and George Cumming, treasurer.[41] These men were artisans and tradesmen. George Cumming, aged thirty five and originally from Fraserburgh, was a self-employed printer. Alex Potter, thirty two years old and born in Friockheim, was employed as a Linen Cloth Stamper. Robert Clift, aged twenty four and born in Brechin, was a linen factory worker. The annual general meeting of Brechin Hearts FC however, took place on the following evening[42] and while Brechin Harp, which provided the new club’s secretary and the largest single contingent of its players, seems to have ceased to exist very shortly after this point, Brechin Hearts continued an active and reasonably successful existence until during the First World War. In fact Harp’s last recorded game, the disastrous replayed cup semi-final on 3rd August 1906, was a defeat at the hands of Brechin Hearts."

This is why there was a plethora of Junior teams in the 19th and early 20th Century called the likes of Ibrox XI (Rangers), Clune XI (PGA), Rugby XI (Kilmarnock) etc. These names soon disappeared and names like Morton Juniors and East Fife Juniors became fashionable until the 1930s when the SJFA began to frown on Junior clubs with Senior connections.

I think it would have been apt to have included the surviving original members taking part in a preliminary round.

1980-81 European Cup, 2nd rd, 2 legs Played on 22 Oct and 5 Nov 1980 Aberdeen v Liverpool 0-1, 0-4 (agg 0-5)

Exactly. Any less than 4 OF matches per season and Sky et al would simply walk away.

I don't believe my comment should be taken that literal but tinkering around the edges doesn't amount to reconstruction. More or less, the current set-up has been around for nearly 50 years and I don't think anyone sees this changing in the foreseeable future.

Out of those four suggestions, none will ever happen, I'm afraid.

That's the one!

This has been eating at me over the weekend. I'm sure Hot Chocolate's song featured in an advert in the late 1970s or early 1980s for MFI, or a carpet shop, or something else to do with furniture. Anyone else remember it?

The Celts was one option that was considered by Queen's Park but with Highland connotations

They were SJL members but wanted into the Central League. The club was closed down in May 1939, immediately reformed as Harp and applied for a place in the CL. At the AGM, however, they were surprisingly denied entry so had to go grovelling back to the SJL. They eventually got in when the SJL closed down in 1941

I saw the first three episodes last night and its safe to say Justified is back with a bang.

I remember the Tom Hanks character in The Green Mile cosying up to his missus at the sink. Whether she was doing the dishes though I can't remember that....