- You’ll Have Had Your Tea? In the pub last Sunday, an English friend told the tale of his teenage journey to the Edinburgh Festival, hitchhiking up from the Midlands to sleep rough in Princes Street Gardens. He was woken from his newspaper-wrapped slumber not by a rapist, a mugger, or the Lothian police, but by a friendly Scotsman handing him […]
- Nostra Who? Mad Christian Harold Camping was reportedly “flabbergasted” that the Rapture didn’t take place last Saturday, May 21, as he had confidently predicted. I am similarly flabbergasted that Kilmarnock weren’t relegated, as I assuredly stated on August 12: “I can’t see them anywhere other than last place.” Camping is now saying the Rapture was spiritual, not […]
- What’s the Hampden? (Part 1 of a very very occasional series) Billy is still on his travels this week, although he probably found somewhere to watch Rangers get gubbed by Celtic for the second time in as many weeks. To cheer him up here is a ‘classic’ article where Billy looks at some memorable games in Scottish football history that all ended 4-1.
- Bald Men, Blackman, and Bye-Bye Sky It’s a sad sign of the times when the main drama of the January transfer season is an alleged tug-of-war between the Old Firm to sign a Championship winger. No offence to Kris Commons – he’s decent enough, though he wouldn’t be in my first Scotland XI – but this seems like a case of […]
- State of the SPL – Part Two Last week I reviewed the state of the bottom half of the SPL – this week, let’s look up top. Dundee United “Dundee United will do well to retain third place,” I had boldly asserted back in August, and for once I appear to have been talking sense. As a Rangers fan, Tannadice was a […]
- The Glorious Twelve Today is the Glorious Twelfth – the beginning of the shooting season for red grouse. There’s no equivalent name for the start of the Scottish football calendar – Sensational Saturday? – but this weekend sees the twelve powers of the Scottish Premier League re-align for another smashing season of soccer. Read on for a dozen […]
- Going on Holiday? Pack Your Replica Shirt Back in the mid-90s, before Mrs Williamson was a snowboarder, we’d often spend the Martin Luther King long weekend (mid-January) flying down to Miami and hanging out in South Beach. It was a fine break from the freezing New York winters and allowed me to transform my pasty white skin into a marginally less pasty […]
- What’s the Hampden? (Part 1 of an occasional series) This is the first in an occasional series where we will take a match result and look at memorable games in Scottish history with that result. This week: games that ended 4-1: 1882 Scottish Cup Final: Queen’s Park 4 Dumbarton 1 (after 2-2 draw)
- If A Week Is A Long Time In Scottish Football, How Long Is A Season? Saturday evening, 9pm local time, and life is good. Celtic are 2-1 down to Hibs with 12 minutes to go, I’m already a bit drunk, and I am heading out for more, sans Mrs Williamson, who is sleeping off an afternoon session. If all goes to plan, the following evening will be spent celebrating both […]