covenanter

Tom English will leave the Hootsmon with a good pay-off and remain firmly as a pundit on BBC Scotland. Pacific Quay CSC has a policy of only allowing one hack from each publication access to broadcast. Thus, with English going freelance, they can offer Glenn Gibbons, Andrew H Smith, Aidan Smith, ................................. etc a position to vent their hatred.

I saw Alex Harvey at ra Piggery, summer of '75? The ticket was priced £5 and the 12 hour long line up was : Widowmaker, the Streetwalkers, The Outlaws, Little Feat, SAHB, The Who. I admit I trapped to see Little Feat, a truly outstanding band. I was impressed by Harvey and the soulful Steve Ellis, the then lead singer of Widowmaker. Oh, and we buried a catering tin of tangerines a couple of feet under ra Piggery turf. See undergraduate humour, still it keeps mw warm thinking about it.

During WW2, ra Piggery was ordered closed for several months by the authorities, because of constant singing in support of the Nazis.

The comments reference the Barca cathedral. I had never heard any commentary on the cathedral in any of the many years after the final until 15 years or so ago. When Cosgrove was awarded the status of Daily Record columnist, one of his first pieces(it may have been his first) set a marker on how he viewed the Rangers support. He recalled Barca'72, Villa'76, and Old Trafford'74. He included a couple of lines about Rangers supporters wrecking the cathedral in Barcelona. I suspect that piece of deliberate misinformation has been eagerly grasped by the usual suspects and is part of the story.

Yep, Di Canio for Ibrox. I am sure there is room for another cabinet in the trophy room. The goose-step over winger can be placed behind glass with the appropriate plaque attached, 'Ian Ferguson's bitch'.

There is a story often related to that night reference the Guardia Civils attack dogs, I wonder if it's apocryphal? They released 12 Alsatians into the fray and only 3 returned. Apparently, the other 9 dogs returned to Scotland and were to be found in Castlemilk, Kilwinning, Larkhall, ...... only obeying commands in Scottish attempts at Spanish.

The ECWC final in Barcelona in 1972 was an explosive cocktail demanding initiation. Spain was still a fascist country ruled by Il Caudillo, General Franco. He was the victor of the Spanish civil war(1936-39). Spain was/is a loose coalition of warring tribes, Franco subjugated the Basques, Catalans, Galicians, ..... etc. Castilian Spain dominated absolutely for 35 years. Spain had three police forces, local, national, and Guardia Civil. The last mob were a paramilitary force, hopelessly over-armed ie light machine guns, mortars, grenades, and assault rifles. They existed to dominate the civilian population and protect Franco's legacy. Rangers opponents, Moscow Dynamo were the KGB team. The KGB were the Communist Party equivalent of the Guardia Civil. No supporters from Moscow were allowed to travel, Dynamo's supporters that night were Russian embassy and consular staff. Further, a few dozen communist party members from France, Germany, and Italy attended. The game was televised live around Europe, although not in Scotland(the SFA refused permission, only allowing a 2 hour delayed transmission because Scotland were playing Wales at Hampden the same evening). It was the live TV aspect that caused the battle on the pitch. The Spanish authorities were determined to be seen to be in control, given the KGB element in the equation. A minute before the final whistle, the referee blew up and raised his arm. The Rangers support(30,000) invaded the park to celebrate. This was quite normal in those days(Scotland at Wembley, ra Sellik in Lisbon, Chelsea after their FA cup win over Leeds at Old Trafford). It was not the end of the game, the ref was blowing for a free kick. The Bears could not fully return to their seats because of fencing and a moat surrounding the pitch. A further minute and this time the ref's whistle signalled the end, again the Bears rushed on to the playing surface. I should point out I was an eye witness, as a secondary schoolboy, my old man took me to the game and we were seated in the upper tier. Several thousand Rangers supporters celebrated on the pitch, Spanish national TV relayed concerns about how the country's authorities were being portrayed on screen across Europe. The Guardia Civil were ordered in to restore 'order'. Dressed in their ruritanian green uniforms with capes and packing machine pistols, they formed two diagonal extended lines and proceeded to march across the pitch swinging batons. They forced the Bears back into the last third. The TV was continuing to broadcast. The Bears reaction was very Scottish and very working class. They stood toe to toe and battered the fcuk out of the Guardia Civil. The lines broke and paramilitaries were being chased around the field. The live TV plug was ordered to be pulled, transmission went down because the Fascists could not be seen to loose control. The locals in the crowd cheered wildly. It was the first time in four decades that Catalans had seen their oppressors taking a pasting. The Catalans respected the Bears' reaction so much, they extended an invitation to Rangers to come back to the ground three years later(after Franco stood down) to play in their celebratory international tourney, (involving Bilbao, Ajax, Barca, and Rangers) the Jaun Gamper Trophy.

There is significance in this thread for Bears. Reference the 'H' term. We do NOT utilise it to self describe, we do NOT embrace it in self deprecating humour, and it is NOT a term of endearment. There are no RSCs that encorporate the term in their titles ie Hamilton H..s RSC. There are no user names on Rangers supporting forums including the term. We do not include the word in our songs or chants. I have heard Cosgrove on BBC Radio Scotland ranting, and raving about not being allowed to utilise the term. He laments the loss of a word because Channel 4's Director for Diversity knows it is derisory. The term is Cosgrove and the usual suspects preferred comfort blanket.

I have accrued empirical evidence and concluded there is a direct correlation between domestic violence and marriage to SNP MSP, Bill Walker.

Reference Cosgrove. Can you imagine a DIRECTOR FOR DIVERSITY contributing to such a one sided piece?

The real decision reference Jum will be made at the Pacific Quay CSC's next monthly meeting in the Admiral Bar, Waterloo Street. Jum's fate will be a blackboard special. I hope Jum, big Stuarty, Rheinhart, TomBhoy, Michael Grant, Spiersy, ................. et al are awarded Associate membership to the CSC and allowed to attend. It will save everybody time and money as the NUJ have a habit of meeting there too. I wonder if Paul, Phil, Angela, .....etc remove their green'ngrey scarves at the culmination of NUJ business, before conducting Pacific Quay CSC business? We should be told.

I attended said game noted by the OP. We lost 2-3, after being 1-0 to the good at half time. The front trio of John Fletcher, Billy Pirie, and Andy Penman(our 12th man in Barca) played for 25 second half minutes and ripped our defence a new one. Ibrox applauded Arbroath from the park that day. Interestingly, that same season at Gayfield, ra green'n'grey hooped horrors killed one of their fellow supporters. The game was a sell-out and the police ordered the pay-at-the-gate turnstyles closed. The jolly craicsters stormed the main gate, it fell on a wheel chair bound supporter. The Yahoos ran over the large wooden gate, pinned the disabled supporter, and crushed him. Another highlight in the phenomenon that self styles itself as TGFITW.

I believe Jum is a keen participant in water sports. He has a regular arrangement with a mature lady, she provides full flow facial humiliation.

So, Nuremberg Hugh climbs out of the brandy/robust red bottle, felates BIG Peter and hail hails a taxi to continue imbibing at Quins, Bishopbriggs.

I remember reading my way through numerous early match reports in the Mitchell Glasgow Room some 35 years past. There were a number of mentions of the then Rangers support chorusing, 'the Bonnie Wells o'Wearie'. The last time I saw it mentioned was in a few reports on the famous 4-0 thrashing of the unwashed in the 1928 Scottish Cup final.