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Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 16h

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.

Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 20h

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.

Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 1d

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.

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Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 1d

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.

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Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 1d

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.

Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 1d

...plus his wife Caroline is one of the stars of Bargain Hunt.

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Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 2d

Really enjoyed that. I hope West Brom won!

Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 2d

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.

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Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 2d

Who doesn't wear a tie to dig the garden? I know I always do.

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Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 2d

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.

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Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 2d

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.

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Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 2d

OK. So who IS your favourite pro-celeb Subbuteo player?

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Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 3d

Not sure a team named Kickers should have been allowed in the Bundesliga in the first place.

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Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 3d

Pretty sure Goal magazine mentioned the story back in the day, Miles.

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Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 3d

...then I apologise to Zoltán's memory.

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Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 3d

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.

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Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 4d

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!

Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 4d

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.

Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 4d

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.

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Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 4d

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)

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Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 5d

....and the following day, the Jarrow Crusade set off for London.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV2B...

5th October 1936: The Jarrow March departs for London

YouTube video by HistoryPod

www.youtube.com

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Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 5d

Kind of you to say so, Richard.

Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 5d

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.

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Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 5d

I was at this game, and the rain was the best thing about it.

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Gulls Over Scotland @gullsoverscotland.bsky.social · 5d

Ironically, the whizz-kid entretrepreneur whose ownership led to the demise of Tarff Rovers was called Robert Burns. There are parts of Dumfries & Galloway where that name is revered, but Kirkcowan isn't one of them.

At the other side of what looks like an ordinary farmer's field is the old grandstand at Balgreen Park, home of Tarff Rovers from 1874 to 2003.

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