Category: The Project
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The Final – Aberdeen vs. Celtic.
24th May 2025. Hampden Park, Glasgow. I’ve been a wanderer all of my life, any many a sight I’ve seen – Mary Webb, The Northern Lights of Old Aberdeen. The tenth round of the cup! The final and the end of the road to Hampden for this wee project. Pre match chat was all about…
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Semi final – St. Johnstone vs. Celtic.
20th April 2025. Hampden Park, Glasgow. May the Lord level in the dust those who would deprive the people of their liberty. — John Hampden Celtic playing St. Johnstone in the latter stages of the cup puts me in mind of their 1969 League Cup final meeting, the plucky Saints against the mighty Celts. The former have…
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Quarter Final – Celtic vs. Hibernian.
9th March 2025. Celtic Park, Glasgow. “Trying hard to feed her little starlingsUnconsciously she clips their little wings” – Michael Marra, Mother Glasgow. “Football is nothing without fans” – Jock Stein. The warm sunny afternoon in Culter last August is starting to feel like a very long time ago as we reach what pundits call…
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Fifth Round – Ayr United vs. Hibernian.
Somerset Park, Ayr. 7th February 2025. I’d never been to Ayrshire, I hitched down one Saturday Friday night;Sixty miles to Kilmarnock Ayr to see Hibernian play – The Proclaimers, Joyful Kilmarnock Blues. Auld Ayr, wham ne’er a town surpasses,For honest men and bonny lasses. – Robert Burns, Tam O’ Shanter, 1790. What a priviledge to…
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Fourth Round – Hibernian vs. Clydebank.
Easter Road Stadium, Edinburgh. 18th January 2025. It is quite lovely – bits of it – Oscar Wilde Edinburgh isn’t so much a city, more a way of life… I doubt I’ll ever tire of exploring Edinburgh, on foot or in print – Ian Rankin This is were the cup gets its charm – when a…
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Third Round – Clydebank vs. Buckie Thistle.
Holm Park, Clydebank. 30th November 2024. When we started out, I thought we were really going somewhere. But this is it. We’re just going. Faye Dunaway as Bonnie Parker (Bonnie and Clyde, 1967). We have reached the half way point in this season’s odyssey, but have yet to visit a senior ground. This round’s journey…
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Second Round – Sauchie Juniors vs. Buckie Thistle.
Beechwood Park, Sauchie. 26th October 2024. It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them. – Ralph Waldo Emerson Taking full advantage of the expanding cycle infrastructure in this part of the world, I get to visit an old friend on their cup journey. I worked…
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First Round – Strathspey Thistle vs. Sauchie Juniors.
Seafield Park, Grantown-on-Spey. 28th September 2024. By the time it came to the edge of the Forest, the stream had grown up, so that it was almost a river, and being grown-up, it did not run and jump and sparkle along as it used to do when it was younger, but moved more slowly. For…
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Second Preliminary Round – Culter vs. Sauchie Juniors.
Crombie Park, Peterculter. 31st August 2024. There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged, to find ways in which you yourself have altered – Nelson Mandela. It may only have been a couple of weeks and only my second visit, but I did have a sense of returning to a place of…
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First Preliminary Round – Culter vs. Invergordon.
Crombie Park, Peterculter. 10th August 2024. The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ menGang aft agley,An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,For promis’d joy! – Robert Burns, To a Mouse. 1785. The promised joy was a couple of hours on the train up the east coast and a pleasant cycle the few flat miles of…
In the Hat 