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Shortest time between games

invergowrie arab

By invergowrie arab
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invergowrie arab

invergowrie arab

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I made a half serious suggestion that the rearranged Queens v United fixture should be a Saturday/Sunday double header.

It happens in ice hockey and baseball all the time and double header away trips are a great laugh.

Obviously it will never happen but I imagine back in the day playing consecutive days would have to happen due to fixture backlogs.

What is shortest time between games or maybe most games in 7 days?

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HibeeJibee

HibeeJibee

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If we're talking first-class level then Celtic played Raith Rovers (H) and Motherwell (A) on the same day in 1916; plus Clyde played St Mirren (H) and Third Lanark (A) on the same day in 1917. There will have been numerous cases of 2 games in 2 days (often full cards e.g. when Boxing Day or New Year fell on a Friday), and 3 games in 3 days/more when catching-up in the old days.

In 1978-79 Rangers & Aberdeen met in the Final of the Second XI Cup and QF of the Reserve League Cups, both of which were 2-legged, and played the 4 games in 3 days:
* Mon 7th May ... Rangers 1-1 Aberdeen (2nd XI)
* Tue 8th May ... Rangers 0-2 Aberdeen (RLC )
* Wed 9th May ... Aberdeen 2-3 Rangers (2nd XI - afternoon); Aberdeen 2-0 Ranger (RLC)
so Aberdeen lost the 2nd XI Cup Final but won convincingly in the Reserve League Cup, going on to lift the trophy.

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smpar

smpar

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Galatasaray vs Juventus restarted on a Wednesday afternoon after being abandoned the night before in 2013. It was weird watching a live Champions League match at lunchtime on a Wednesday afternoon. 

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HibeeJibee

HibeeJibee

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It would be a laborious task to check league records - especially now "Statto" is defunct - but you would do well to surpass the famous Broxburn v Beith tie in the 1908-09 Scottish Cup, which produced 4 games in 4 days:

Wed 3rd Feb ... Beith 1-1 Broxburn Athletic (aet - at Ibrox) (R2 2nd replay)
Thu 4th Feb ... Beith 1-1 Broxburn Athletic (aet - at Ibrox) (R2 3rd replay)
Fri 5th Feb ... Beith 4-2 Broxburn Athletic (at Love Street) (R2 4th replay)
Sat 6th Feb ... St Mirren 3-0 Beith (R3)

Both of them were non-league clubs. Broxburn Athletic actually won 7-1 at home to Dunblane in the Midland League on the Saturday :lol:!

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HibeeJibee

HibeeJibee

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Presume something happened to whoever upkept it. Pretty gutting as it had other competitions loaded in - like the Texaco Cup, Full Members Cup, Spring Cup and so on - plus you could view a club's whole season's fixtures, with dates, on 1 page; or all results for any given date, broken-down by competition, on 1 page.


At the end of 1946-47... badly disrupted by poor weather, and a midweek football ban due to the 'productivity crisis'... East Fife finished with a schedule which included a gruelling fortnight of Wed-Fri-Sat-Mon-Wed-Sat-Wed-Thu-Sat. That's 9 games in 18 days - including two occasions with games on consecutive days, two of 3 games in 4 days, and an instance of 4 games in 6 days.


Although not in first-class football there have been some incredible finishes to the South of Scotland League just recently (widespread application of 3G and floodlight having likely ended the phenomenon). In 2001-02 Tarff Rovers had already played Sat-Mon-Wed for 4 consecutive weeks and then finished Fri-Mon-Wed-Fri-Sat (i.e. ending with 2 games in under 24hr) and won it.

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HibeeJibee

HibeeJibee

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That almost happened a few seasons ago - Dundee + Livingston rings a bell? Under the cup rules, once a tie has been tried twice and not completed (i.e. through 1 draw & 1 postponement or 2 postponements) it has to try twice per midweek. Normally this is Mon & Wed bit clubs can agree Tue instead of Mon if desired. Often they do this, to give the normal 2 clear days after the Sat league games - but in the case of a tie already postponed twice, it leaves a chance the Tue game will end in a draw forcing them to replay 24hrs later... Hasn't happened for a long time, though.

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lionel hutz

lionel hutz

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I remember in 2004/05 we played a league game on the Saturday before playing Gretna in a postponed cup match on a Monday.

DUFC Archive is down so it's hard to check when it was

Correction:

We played Gretna on Mon 17th January and won 3-4, before playing ICT on Wed 19th and drawing 1-1.

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HibeeJibee

HibeeJibee

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There were cases of clubs playing 2 games simultaneously, but not with the same players (obviously!) unlike the 2 league games in 1 day mentioned earlier. Until the 1920s lower league clubs - and a few top division - had to play the Qualifying Cup and sometimes fielded their reserves against weak opponents or after passing the necessary round, to save cancelling league games.


In 1945-46 occurred:

Tue 1st Jan ... Dundee Utd 2-3 Dundee (league)
Wed 2nd Jan ... Cowdenbeath 2-2 Dundee (league) + Montrose 0-3 Dundee (Forfarshire Cup R1)


Another bizarre incident involving Dundee and 2 games in 2 days occurred in 1958:

Fri 2nd May ... Fraserburgh 2-3 Dundee (Dewar Shield Final - 1956-57 edition)
Sat 3rd May ... Buckie Thistle 1-1 Dundee (Dewar Shield Final - 1957-58 edition) [Dundee won on toss of coin]

So they won the same tournament twice in less than 24hrs :thumsup2 :lol:.

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invergowrie arab

invergowrie arab

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Well it's a piece of piss then. Bring the double headers back.

For my own part I played for Invergowrie v Alyth in the Perthshire Cub Scout league cup final on Friday night and then we played them on the Saturday morning in the final league game barely 12 hours later.

We had to wear old itchy 1970s kits on Saturday morning.

I also used to play school rugby on a Saturday morning and club rugby on Saturday afternoon.

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Distant Doonhamer

Distant Doonhamer

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Not aware of us having played 2 game on the same day, though that`s not to say it hasn`t happened.

I guess festive period fixtures and cup replays would be a good source of successive days fixtures. Both of these occurred for us in Janaury 1968 when we played on successive days twice within 11 days and ended up playing 7 fixtures in a 15 day period.

Saturday December 30th East Fife (home) in League. Won 2-1.

Monday January 1st Stranraer (away) in League. Won 4-2.

Tuesday January 2nd Ayr United (home) in League. Won 4-0.

Saturday January 6th Clydebank (home) Scottish Cup. 2-2.

Wednesday January 10th Clydebank (away) Scottish Cup replay 1-1.

Thursday January 11th Clydebank (neutral venue- Firhill)  Scottish Cup 2nd replay 0-0 (QOS won 1-0 after extra time)

Saturday  January 13th Stenhousemuir (home) in League. Won 1-0.

Quite a run of fixtures with QOS unbeaten throughout :thumsup2

 

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HibeeJibee

HibeeJibee

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You've got the 2 archetypal examples there - holiday games and cup replays.


Down south I know there were examples in the 1930s of entire cards 3 days running at Christmas (i.e. Christmas Day = Thursday, Boxing Day = Friday, then Saturday); and it was common for them to have 3 games in 4 days at Easter (i.e. Good Friday, Saturday, Easter Monday). These phenomenon were not seen in Scotland to the same degree: Christmas Day caught on as a holiday much later here... also, being a Presbyterian as opposed to an Episcopalian nation, there was little tradition of Easter observance - indeed Easter Monday has never been a public holiday here.

My recollection is that January 2nd was only introduced as a public holiday here in the 1970s - however it was already a local holiday in many places so it might provide our equivalent for 3 in 3.

Football League clubs played derby doubleheaders on Christmas Day in 1940 with some remarkable examples of teams getting thrashed in the morning then taking revenge in the afternoon.

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KarlMarx

KarlMarx

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Although not SPFL level a not too lomg example from my team in 1991/92 was

Not sure of dates just remember the way it happened in final week of season.

Mon Cumnock 2 Beith 4 in Ayrshire semi

Wed Beith 3 Meadow 0 in Ayrshire final

Thu Beith 2 Glenafton 2 in league 

Sat Beith 2 Auchinleck 4 in league

Last game was played at 11am which wasn't good for my hangover!

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HibeeJibee

HibeeJibee

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What will probably be among the most recent cases of 2 games in 2 days at first-class level, and certainly one of the harshest, involved Clydebank and East Stirlingshire in 1973-74.

Their tie in Scottish Cup R1 having been postponed on Saturday 15th December they'd to try again a week on Monday - which was Christmas Eve.

Ending 0-0 at Firs Park, both teams were required to turn out again the next day - Christmas Day - when Clydebank prevailed 1-0 at Kilbowie.

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David W

David W

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I'm sure a few years ago (about 2010/11) that Elgin and Clyde wanted to play two matches on consecutive days (they were completely meaningless end of season games, both at Borough Briggs). I think the idea was that it would be easier/cheaper to stay over night than get the team to take time off work on a Tuesday. Weren't allowed to do it for whatever reason. 

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