Gulls Over Scotland
@gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
15 followers 16 following 32 posts
Retired welfare rights worker/second hand bookseller. Fan of animals & nature. Following Torquay United's results from the beautiful Scottish Riviera. No flags or fascists, please.
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gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
Heathfield, Ayr. Twinned with Bigotry and Shite.
Reform UK, without permission, in Heathfeild Shopping Centre.
gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
Too dreich to do anything in the garden for the last month or so, but no need to worry. This lovely wee pansy has turned up all by itself.
A blue and purple pansy, self-seeded among the weeds between two slabs in my garden in Stranraer.
gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
Wigtown & Bladnoch v St Cuthbert Wanderers. There'll be no bigger crunch match in Scotland this season, with the teams having 1 point between them at kick off.

A shame Wigtown couldn't hang on for a win but it was a fun afternoon, nicely topped off with a visit to some standing stones.
Wigtown (in red) v St Cuthbert Wanderers (blue & white). Pictured from behind the goal. 
The stand, offices, changing rooms, cludgies & snack bar are on the touchline to the left.
Trees complete the scene nicely. The prehistoric Torhouse Stone Circle, in a field next to the B733.
gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
An old man on the last bus - a long way from Wisbech or Wolverhampton - once told me Mike Bailey was his son. I didn't believe him then, and I still don't.
gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
It's #caturday, and we don't get out of bed when it's the weekend. You know this.
A tabby cat, in her bed, looks offended at being disturbed while comfy.
gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
Gallows humour prevails in the Stranraer Fitba Bar, and no wonder. That 15 point lead over Edinburgh City has already dwindled to 5, and is likely to be wiped out altogether in the next few weeks.

Fair play to the regulars. Most fitba fans in town follow one half of the Gruesome Twosome.
The grey walls of Stranraer fitba Bar, with last season's away shirt featuring in the window. The board reads: SOUP OF THE DAY: GIN.
gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
...plus his wife Caroline is one of the stars of Bargain Hunt.
gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
Really enjoyed that. I hope West Brom won!
gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
First match I ever saw was from that end. My dad made a wooden bench & took it to the match for me to stand on, so I could see over the perimeter wall.

I recall a League Cup match against Stoke, at which the queue on Cross St was so long that Stoke were already winning 1-0 by the time we got in.
gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
Who doesn't wear a tie to dig the garden? I know I always do.
gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
A surprise snowfall on 30 November 2010 found Chesterfield's old Saltergate ground looking forlorn but very pretty. The team had left for their new gaff, & everything of value had already been stolen or vandalised

But never mind, eh? One day this photo would become part of #floodlightfriday.
People are trudging - great word we don't get to use very often - through snow on Cross Street, Chesterfield. 

There's a house with a Dutch barn roof in the centre of the photo, and behind it is the corrugated stand, stone wall and floodlight pylons of the abandoned football ground.
gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
I'm a hippie so I started going to Totnes for my holidays. I thought "I like it here. I'll come to Devon to live and I'll support the Gulls." Several holidays and defeats later I somehow ended up in Stranraer, 475 miles away, instead.
gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
OK. So who IS your favourite pro-celeb Subbuteo player?
gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
Not sure a team named Kickers should have been allowed in the Bundesliga in the first place.
gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
Pretty sure Goal magazine mentioned the story back in the day, Miles.
gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
...then I apologise to Zoltán's memory.
gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
If my memory isn't letting me down, Zoltán was banned from German football for taking bribes, which is why he moved to Aberdeen from Hertha of Berlin.
gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
Stayed with friends in Pontypool last year. There's a football pitch across the road from their house so I asked whether Pontypool Town play there. They said no, but I looked on a map and saw that the pitch is indeed Town's home ground. Being rugby fans my buddies didn't know that!
gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
I doubt it, Jerry. The village's population is under 500. The goalposts & dugouts are still OK but nobody would be allowed near the stand nowadays.

In 1967 Rovers played Alloa in the Scottish Cup on that very field and beat them 1-0. Culture shock might have played a part in Alloa's defeat.
gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
So pleased to check Google Earth and find that house still there, albeit now with a rubbish view. The tree provides a wee bit of consolation.
Gable end of the house that used to overlook Brockville but now looks out at the entrance to Morrison's instead. A tree has grown where part of the terrace used to be.
gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
Aha! Chesterfield supporter, eh? Then let me tell you my claim to fame. I was the cryptic crossword compiler for Chesterfield's fanzine, The Crooked Spireite.

Clues included:

Headed off from Sheffield (3,3)
Non-shit Bobby! (7)
Bigots called south with hesitation (7)
gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
Kind of you to say so, Richard.
gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
I agree. Independence and Nationalism are not the same thing, and its disingenuous to pretend that they are.

Nationalism is the Road to Hell, as we are all witnessing right now. The SNP - & I'm not a member - campaigns for Scottish self-determination in order to escape from British nationalism.
gullsoverscotland.bsky.social
I was at this game, and the rain was the best thing about it.