Favourite quirks of Scottish stadiums.

[Caledonian1]

On 21/09/2020 at 20:48, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

I quite like my minor league baseball, theres a few teams like Round Rock express and Nashville that share/shared their grounds with real football teams. 
 

-nashville

 

-round rock texas , massive Latin American fan base so the stadium is pretty rowdy for Football games. Only stadium ive been to with its own swimming pool. 

 

A few years ago a flight I took from Buenos Aires to Paris had to have an emergency landing and I ended up with 20 hours to spare in Sao Paulo.  I asked the hotel concierge if there was any football on and it turned out that Palmeras  were playing Basiliense that afternoon (incidentally it was the return of Juninho....and I saw him play at Pittodrie just a couple of months earlier)  The ground was fantastic and had a diving pool behind one of the goals......quite a distraction from the game as a couple of bikini clad beauties climbed the steps to the top board.  I se they now have a brand new stadium - suspect in place for the World Cup a few years ago

[NFL12]

8 hours ago, Ranaldo Bairn said:

Is that pool the reason why Rangers wingers are always good at diving?

The Splash my father wore?

[Sergeant Wilson]

11 hours ago, Steve Finan said:

As quirks go, a paddling pool sunk into the Ibrox pitch is quite hard to beat!

Turnstiles Vols 2 and 3 are out now guys. And you can get both books — large format hardbacks, 360 pages each, 700 never-before-seen pix of Scottish football grounds — for less than £30 with this  offer. Free p&p. Roll up, roll up . . . (and other salesman-type talk that I'm not very comfortable with)
Enter code SPORT15 for 15% off (until November 14^th) 

https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/books/non-fiction/football-books

I'd fill the rest of it with water.

[HibeeJibee]

13 hours ago, Ranaldo Bairn said:

Is that pool the reason why Rangers wingers are always good at diving?

 

5 hours ago, NFL12 said:

The Splash my father wore?

Up to their knees in the shallow end.

[aaa]

5 minutes ago, HibeeJibee said:

 

Up to their knees in the shallow end.

It is cold but it is beautiful

[HibeeJibee]

Incidentally my assumption is that's actually a steeplechase pit from the annual Sports Day that used to invariably open Rangers season?

    



    

[Sergeant Wilson]

Maybe it was a late response to The Inquisition. Somewhere to drown Catholics.

[Steve Finan]

It is, indeed, the steeplechase water jump. 
It is in a chapter titled: Things You Don't See Any More, which includes Invacars, massed pipes and drums . . . and Firhill's pitch-side vegetable patch.

[Kyle Reese]

Not been here long, and this thread is far too long for me to sit down and read before posting, so after ten pages at the start and end of the thread to date, I’ll offer my reply, hoping it’s in keeping with the point of the thread:

What I remember most about the “old” Tynecastle Park/stadium, was my first visit there. I was seven years old, and I walked down the Shandon steps with my nostrils full of the yeasty distillery smell. Before that point, when I’d bussed it in to town, I’d always got off the bus later, at the west or east ends of Princes Street. 

I walked with my old man to the pub, and had a glass of coke, and he had a beer or two. We then went to a paper shop on Gorgie Road and I got sweeties and a carton of juice.

When we went through the turnstiles I was buffeted around as folk hurried to the terraces. We started climbing the steps at the school end, and two things hit my senses at the same time (this is on top of the aforementioned smell from the distillery):

1) the stadium opening up in front of me more panoramically as I climbed the steps, and at the exact same time…

2) the noise of the crowd getting louder as my head got closer to the top of the steps, and less sound was nullified by the concrete.

I’ll never ever forget that first time. I was seven years old, and I can smell, see and hear every single second of it, if I close my eyes, and think back.

[Boghead ranter]

On 10/11/2021 at 13:17, tamthebam said:

Training pitch for away matches at Boghead....!

No fucking idea what you're inferring.

[Hawkeye the Gnu]

On 10/11/2021 at 08:30, Steve Finan said:

As quirks go, a paddling pool sunk into the Ibrox pitch is quite hard to beat!

Turnstiles Vols 2 and 3 are out now guys. And you can get both books — large format hardbacks, 360 pages each, 700 never-before-seen pix of Scottish football grounds — for less than £30 with this  offer. Free p&p. Roll up, roll up . . . (and other salesman-type talk that I'm not very comfortable with)
Enter code SPORT15 for 15% off (until November 14^th) 

https://www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk/books/non-fiction/football-books

I heard they got it installed in preparation for signing Water Smith and John "Polaris" McDonald..

[tamthebam]

I rather like the autumn colours at Newtongrange's New Victoria Park, which is built on top of a landscaped coal bing.

[Eednud]

On 10/11/2021 at 19:00, Steve Finan said:

Turnstiles Vols 2 and 3 are out now guys. And you can get both books — large format hardbacks, 360 pages each, 700 never-before-seen pix of Scottish football grounds — for less than £30 with this  offer. Free p&p. Roll up, roll up . . . (and other salesman-type talk that I'm not very comfortable with)
Enter code SPORT15 for 15% off (until November 14^th) 

Decided to take advantage of the discount offer, although no free postage for me. Ordered last Thursday and they arrived about an hour ago. They books arrived in Sydney on Monday but it must have been road transport to Adelaide. Recently ordered Vol 1 through Amazon and that took 12 days to arrive so really impressed with DCT and FedEx. Still to finish Vol 1 before enjoy looking through 2 & 3.

[Ranaldo Bairn]

I ordered mine on Saturday and they arrived on Monday.

Glorious stuff, and pleased to see Brockville get lots of love (quite right too).

One quibble for the next edition @Steve Finanis that the last game at Brockville was in May 2003, not 2004 (we went to share Ochilview for the following season). And yes, I am still utterly seething at the referee for allowing the winner.

Edited November 17, 2021 by Ranaldo Bairn

[tamthebam]

10 hours ago, Ranaldo Bairn said:

I ordered mine on Saturday and they arrived on Monday.

Glorious stuff, and pleased to see Brockville get lots of love (quite right too).

One quibble for the next edition @Steve Finanis that the last game at Brockville was in May 2003, not 2004 (we went to share Ochilview for the following season). And yes, I am still utterly seething at the referee for allowing the winner.

I'm still seething that Brockville ran out of pies before kick off when you hosted the 1991 Scottish Junior Cup Final.

As a neutral I was in the ICT end for the last game at Brockville so get it right up ye!

[GNU_Linux]

New stuff at Civil Service's Christie Gillies Park

[Flybhoy]

Annfield Park, Stirling. 

Hard to believe it has been gone 30 years now, a place I watched a lot of football as a kid and for a ground at that level of Scottish football it was definitely one of the best even if I am biased being a Stirling lad. Only drawback was it's last five years the horrendous early version of a synthetic surface, played on it regularly and it had a bounce like a basketball court and the slightest overhit pass would go skidding by you or out of play, for those too young to recall look on YouTube for games involving Luton Town or QPR in the same era who had virtually identical surfaces. 

As a ground though I loved it and get very nostalgic for the place when I see images of it on social media or get called out to do any work at the houses and flats that sit there now. 

Edited March 28, 2022 by Flybhoy

[Aylo vanal]

On 11/11/2021 at 09:57, Steve Finan said:

It is, indeed, the steeplechase water jump. 
It is in a chapter titled: Things You Don't See Any More, which includes Invacars, massed pipes and drums . . . and Firhill's pitch-side vegetable patch.

Think they've gone retro this season! 

[tamthebam]

On 28/03/2022 at 22:54, Flybhoy said:

Annfield Park, Stirling. 

Hard to believe it has been gone 30 years now, a place I watched a lot of football as a kid and for a ground at that level of Scottish football it was definitely one of the best even if I am biased being a Stirling lad. Only drawback was it's last five years the horrendous early version of a synthetic surface, played on it regularly and it had a bounce like a basketball court and the slightest overhit pass would go skidding by you or out of play, for those too young to recall look on YouTube for games involving Luton Town or QPR in the same era who had virtually identical surfaces. 

As a ground though I loved it and get very nostalgic for the place when I see images of it on social media or get called out to do any work at the houses and flats that sit there now. 

The first away game I went to was Stirling v Meadowbank in May 1987. Meadowbank lost 3-1 but got promoted thanks to results going our way elsewhere. In the first half we stood on the open terrace and it started snowing. In the sunny second half we swapped ends to the covered terrace....

What the photos don't show is the 6 foot nettles growing out of the urinals you found at Annfield. As Meadowbank fanzine AWOL commented "Watch yer wanger.."

[GNU_Linux]

The Rockworks current home of North Caledonian League Orkney FC. Orkney previously played at the decidedly more functional Pickaquoy Centre in Kirkwall before moving a few miles up the road to Holm this year.

Edited November 24, 2022 by GNU_Linux