RobM wrote:
Meanwhile 50 years ago this week.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2kuouPV_Fk&...ure=player_embedded#!
Warning, contains pigeon racing.
When I saw your link last week I bookmarked it. I knew it had to be savoured like a 21 year old malt should- making the time to sit down in peace and enjoy every last drop. And boy oh boy is this an absolutely marvelous find, for all sorts of reasons.
Firstly, the Old Firm game is fascinating- September 1963 and the Scottish domestic game is on the eve of, if not dominating, then having an impact on the European game way beyond what it should- population, amount of clubs etc.
What is doubly fascinating is the line ups- AMMS if you are reading please correct me. Rangers line up looks like the settled line up that saw the club through the 60’s, an absolutely cracking side- Baxter, Henderson, Greig, Provan etc that should have dominated the domestic game if Stein hadn’t driven across the A8 from Easter Road to Celtic Park.
Celtic’s line up is fascinating- Frank Haffey in goa!l I thought he’d been driven out the country to Australia directly after the infamous 9-3 gubbing at Wembley, but no he held on at Celtic for another couple of years. Celtic of course were in the doldrums in 1963 and its interesting to see the players in this underachieving side who would become legends with the arrival of Stein- Gemmell, Clark, McNeil, Chalmers and Lennox. Stein is sitting in the away dug out at Tynecastle as is Ronnie Simpson in the away goal in the other televised game.
The commentator with the Kelvinside accent straight from the douce BBC Scotland HQ in Queen Margaret’s Drive is brilliant- Baxter is “Bexter”, Chalmers “Chelmers” etc. And I love the after match analysis- “In spite of the appeals made by the chairmen of both clubs and the Lord Provost of Glasgow, there were 15 arrests for rowdyism”
As for Archie Macpherson’s monologue analysing the Kilmarock game. This was de rigeur for the BBC at the time wasn’t it? If it wasn’t AJP Taylor explaining directly to the camera (without notes or autocue) that Hitler’s foreign expansionism was not unique but was in fact keeping with German foreign policy objectives all the way back to Bismarck, then it was Archie sonorously and fluently elucidating to “young” Hugh Brown of Kilmarnock EXACTLY what he has to do to win back the fans. Stop being so unorthodox apparently.
It’s not just Archie talking monologue that's ace, Alastair Stuart on the Falkirk- East Stirling game- “it was like a British Rail sandwich, not much of it and what there was, was pretty poor quality” but the killer quote comes next-
“Both teams still don’t realize that football is a thinking game and that mere physical effort without brain work is going to get them absolutely nowhere”.
Could someone please pin this up outside the entrance of every Scottish league club and Hampden Park tomorrow?
This.Is.How.We.Used.To.Expect.Our.Game.To.Be.Played-For.Fuck.Sake.
Also notable (to me) is that Archie Macpherson and David Francie at Tynecastle sound exactly the same in 1963 as they did to me as a kid growing up listening to them in the late 70’s/80’s.
This clip should be taken by courier to the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh and put on permanent loop for our world visitors to watch. THIS is a prime slice of Scottish later 20th Century social history- when a small country that really had no right to was about to loom large over the European game. With pigeon racing at the end.
My heart was breaking as much as I was enjoying it.
Rob, thanks again.
