Dancing In The Streets Of Raith
Posted in Kirkcaldy at 21:01 on 29 January 2009
I used this phrase to describe my latest short story acceptance. The ITN newscaster Alastair Burnett also said it on air one night after a Raith Rovers victory over someone or other.
Lots of people castigated him for this as, of course, there is no town of Raith. The Rovers, as they are known, are the senior football team of Kirkcaldy. Their ground is only a couple of hundred yards from Son Of The Rock towers.
There is a Raith estate nearby, though, after which I believe the club was named; so the announcement was perhaps warranted – if only in a small sense. They may, after all, have danced there that night.
Nevertheless, Burnett (English people pronounce his surname Burn-ette. It is of course more properly rendered as Burn-it) was Scottish and a football follower. He would have known well enough there is no town of that name. I think he was being ironic (as I was) – or even taking the piss out of people who didn’t know it, like his fellow newsreaders.
(Stands back and waits for pelters from Kirkcaldy folk.)
Tags: Kirkcaldy, Raith Rovers
MrH
30 January 2009 at 15:13
I am an avid follower (home and away) of the mighty raith and I must admit Im not 100% about the name and its link to the estate.
I remembered reading about the commentator saying the phrase “dancing in the streets of raith” (before my time) and I remembered there being some dispute as to the original occurance. According to the ever factual (cough) wikipedia it was Sam Leitch (and has a reference too), and often mistenly accredited to David Coleman…
The plot thickens…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raith_Rovers_F.C.
jackdeighton
30 January 2009 at 16:44
Burnett certainly made some sort of comment about the Rovers.
It might, now I think about it, have been “they never do well at Ibrox” though, rather than “Dancing.”
But, apart from Rangers, who does do well at Ibrox?
jackdeighton
30 January 2009 at 16:47
If it was Sam Leitch, he would certainly have known well enough there is no town of Raith.
Bigrab
4 February 2009 at 22:08
I thought they were named after the great Sir Roy Raith of Melchester (Rovers)
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