When the
senior Scottish football season kicks off on Saturday (4 August 2007) you
can be certain that unlike a century ago no pigeon fanciers will be turning
up with three or four birds in order to get the match results passed to
their home town or to the newspapers. In the days of mobile phones, text
messaging, the world-wide-web and every kick of the ball on BBC Radio
Scotland results are now passed on very quickly indeed. It is 117 years
since the very first season of the Scottish Football League (SFL) kicked off
with four matches on 16 August 1890.
Only four
of the clubs that took part that day are still in existence – Celtic,
Dumbarton, Rangers and Hearts. The match outcomes which awaited pigeon
delivery were – Rangers 5 Hearts 2 in front of 4,000; Celtic 1 Renton 4 with
a crowd of 10,000; Cambuslang 8 Vale of Leven 2; and the only drawn game 1-1
between Dumbarton and Cowlairs. Although there had been a National Trophy to
play for in Scotland since 1873, the Scottish Cup (the oldest such trophy in
the world) and local cup games were played it was agreed that clubs needed
regular fixtures. Therefore on 30 April 1890, eleven clubs agreed to set up
the Scottish Football League (SFL) – Abercorn, Celtic, Cowlairs, Cambuslang,
Dumbarton, Hearts, Rangers, St Mirren, Renton, Third Lanark and Vale of
Leven, It proved to be an exciting first season in all sorts of way. After
only five games Renton were expelled by the Scottish Football Association (SFA)
and had to be thrown out of the league, Celtic and Cowlairs both had four
points deducted for infringements and at the end of the season both
Dumbarton and Rangers were tied at the top of the league with 29 points
apiece. A 2-2 play-off followed and then they were declared joint Champions
and each held the league trophy for six months. The first and only time this
has happened. A second division rapidly followed, including Jim Lynch’s
team Dundee, and league football was very much launched. Over the 117 years
of the League’s existence, clubs have come and gone, indeed the SFL have
survived a major loss when the top Scottish clubs broke-away to form their
own Scottish Premier League. They also have been threatened with a second
break-away to form an SPL 2 but this will probably remain on the back-burner
as the SFL has just announced a major new sponsor for its 30 clubs in the
form of IRN-Bru, Scotland’s favourite soft drink and according to some the
best cure for a hangover! The £3 million sponsorship over three years should
prove very welcome to every club treasurer and with every one of the three
leagues being hotly contested (unlike the Premier League which at the moment
is a toss-up between a Glasgow club in green and one in blue) crowds will
hopefully be drawn back to our National game in large numbers. Season
2007/08 could go down as one to remember for the First, Second and Third
Divisions and their fans.
We cannot
give you the recipe for Barr’s bestselling IRN BRU (that’s a secret!) but
hopefully with better weather during August we can offer Old-fashioned
Lemonade as a refreshing thirst quencher.
Old-Fashioned Lemonade
Ingredients:
6 lemons;
1 cup white sugar; 6 cups cold water
Method:
Juice the lemons to make 1 cup of juice. In a gallon pitcher 1 cup lemon
juice, 1 cup sugar and 6 cups of cold water. Stir. Adjust water to taste.
Chill and serve over ice.
