News & Links
August 2010
With the start of a new season, its time to update this part of the website again, with news of the latest publications and what is in preparation.
Scottish Non League Review of 2009/10
The latest REVIEW (this is the 23rd since the first one back in 1988) was published in mid July and is available now for £3 and 65p postage. I am offering this years and subscription for the next 2 years for £10. This years runs to 64 pages and also includes details of all the senior county cup competitions as well as a comprehensive listing of final amateur league tables.
East of Scotland League
There will be a publication on the East of Scotland League available later this year. It will be more of a guide/directory and also information on where to have a refreshment and local transport. More details on size, price, availability etc, in mid-late October.
Scottish Junior Cup
The 1950s Scottish Junior Cup publication will finally be available in October. Throughout last season, I was fortunate to receive the help of a couple of people who have added greatly to the information I already held. This has enabled me to lessen my 'wants list' of results back as far as the first competition in 1886. A full list of these queries covering 1886 to 1949 will be available from mid-September and be on the website as well as on Brian McColl's excellent online Scottish Football Historical Archive.
As it is almost a decade since the 1989-2001 edition, it is probably about time to start compiling a 2001-2011 edition which I would envisage appearing early in the 2011/12 season.
Renfrew 1943-44
This 28 page booklet, Renfrew Football Club 1943-44, A Wartime Season Remembered, was published at the end of February.
It includes extracts from the actual club minute books for the season and highlight the added problems of running a club during wartime. A list of known results for the team is also included, as is the full results list for the Scottish Junior Cup that season.
Copies are available for £2 plus 50p postage, or can be bought in person at Renfrew matches. Part of the proceeds are being donated to the Club and to Erskine, the hospital for ex-servicemen and women.
Dumbartonshire Juniors
This is now looking as if it won't be published after all.
March 2010
Having not updated the latest "news" section of the site for some time, I thought it high time to spring clean this page and let everyone know what is happening. Well, there has been one new publication, and another couple in advanced preparation with another close behind.
Renfrew 1943-44
A 28 page booklet, Renfrew Football Club 1943-44, A Wartime Season Remembered, was published at the end of February.
This includes extracts from the actual club minute books for the season and highlight the added problems of running a club during wartime, whilst also recording much of the minutae that are included in the weekly discussions.
Much of the notes regarding possible players to be watched with a view to signing and committee deputations to same, have been excluded however. A list of known results for the team is included, as is the full results list for the Scottish Junior Cup that season.
Copies are available for £2 plus 50p postage, or can be bought in person at Renfrew matches. Part of the proceeds are being donated to the Club and to Erskine, the hospital for ex-servicemen and women.
Scottish Non League Review of 2009/10
This years' edition should be out, as usual, in the latter half of July.
Price is £3 and 65p postage.
Orders can be made now, with your copy being sent immediately upon publication.
Dumbartonshire Juniors
This is being published in conjunction with another author and will contain around a dozen brief (mainly two or three pages each) histories of clubs, mainly now defunct. This should be out near the end of the current season when details of cost will be available.
Scottish Junior Cup
What can I say ?
A few queries still remain for the 1950s and although I wanted to have this published by Easter 2010, I am going to hold off till the summer in the hope that these can be discovered.
I have been busy going through my records for the early years of the competition (1886 till 1903) and have a queries list for these seasons compiled. Thereafter my records until the early 1930s are patchy for some seasons, whilst I have the majority of results for others.
A list of queries for the 1930s and 1940s (the latter, with the exception of two seasons is fairly short) has been compiled.
I have to acknowledge the help of a number of people who have been in touch in recent months and have helped add more information. These include John Meffen, Tom McGouran, Martin Bain, and others.
If you think you may be able to help, please get in touch with me. I can e-mail my current queries listing if required.
Renfrewshire Football Association
I have recently been fortunate enough to be offered the loan of some of the old minutes books (covering the period from 1912 for the following fifty years or so) for this Association and the results of motes taken from this may well form another addition to my list of publications at some point in the future.
Programme Fair in Glasgow - May 16th
A football programme fair is being held in the Swallow Hotel, Glasgow Road West, near Ibrox Stadium on 16 May 2010. It starts at 10pm and runs till 2pm.
I will be having a small stall so if anyone wishes me to bring along any particular books or programmes that day, in order to collect them I person and save on postage costs, please let me know in advance (by May 14th).
October 2009
Scottish Junior Cup
My work on the Scottish Junior Cup (now sponsored by Emirates Airlines) has been ongoing for far too long, regularly being put aside whilst work on the Scottish Non League Review and other research, not to mention life in general, has taken precedence.
Work, in recent years, has tended to be sporadic but then intense for a period.
At present, there are a few queries remaining for the 1950s (a list of these is available for anyone who thinks they may be able to help), and an ever-shortening list for the 1940s and latter half of the 1930s.
I have also started compiling a list of the queries from the first competition in 1885 and am working slowly forward from there, now approaching the turn of the century. The remaining period (1900-1935) has a mix of seasons where I have some records or a few, though in some cases almost none. The 1920s looks to prove a huge challenge as this is the peak period for entries (one season seeing 400+ clubs enter the competition).
Results from the West of the country have always, in general, been easier to find whilst several people (John Aitken, Ian Anderson and Charlie Grieve springing to mind) have aided with the East, Fife and Tayside areas.
Easton Thain has helped with a number of the more outlying areas in the north while the Argyll area, for one, will require further investigation.
As you can see, it is far from an easy task but I intend publishing these on a more regular basis than has been the case to date.
The 1950s, therefore, even with a few questions still to be answered, should now appear to the world by the spring of 2010.
West of Scotland Cup
The West of Scotland Cup has always been another of my pettopics and I mentioned, in the Scottish Non League Review of 2008/09, that I had many results from this competition which arose from the Scottish Intermediate Cup of 1927 to 1931.
I was then approached by someone who has now offered to help fill in much of the missing material while Mark Donnelly has assisted with most of the results from the West of Scotland Consolation Cup of the 1930s.
This is a publication which may appear, possibly in more than one volume, in the next few years (or earlier) watch this space !