I type this just after the UK has officially left the European Union.

Given that the Conservative (and Unionist) party has been in government in the UK for the majority of my lifetime (64% of it to be precise; a ratio of not quite two to one) a quote from The Who seems entirely apposite.

“Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.”

Or maybe this-

Stevie Wonder: Heaven Help Us All

I’ve heard this on the radio several times recently.

It was good to be reminded of it.

The Sutherland Brothers and Quiver: Arms Of Mary

In St Serf’s churchyard, Dunning (see previous post,) there are two Commonwealth War Graves

Lance Corporal W L Crowe, 5th Battalion, Australian Infantry, 6/7/1918, aged 24:-

Corporal A G Small, Army Catering Corps, 15/12/1944, aged 22:-

In the churchyard another gravestone commemorates William Duncan, 1st Scots Guards, died of wounds in France, 13/12/1916 aged 32:-

A plaque in St Serf’s itself remembers Major Norman Chetwynd Rollo, KOSB, died of wounds in Belgium, September, 1944, aged 28:-

A burn runs through the village and under the main road. It forms a backstop to the foot of this garden:-

Dunning’s biggest landmark is St Serf’s Church.

Church and tower:-

Tower:-

St Serf’s houses the 1200 year-old Dupplin Cross, dedicated to Constantine, one of the last kings of Pictland.

This was in place outside the church – subject to all that Scottish weather – until 1999. Despite that it’s in great condition:-

Dunning is a village in Strathearn, Perth and Kinross, Scotland. Its War Memorial is a Celtic Cross set into a shaped stone above a series of steps.

The steps are inscribed with the dates 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918. The cross has 1919 just below it. The main tablet is inscribed, “Erected by the inhabitants of Dunning and District in grateful memory of the men from the neighbourhood who fell in the Great War.” The curved one above states, “These four tablets were added in memory of those who died in the war 1939 – 1945.”

From east:-

From north:-

From south:-

One of the faces of Dunning War Memorial showing names for both World Wars:-

On the wall of the churchyard is a plaque installed in 1995 expressing thanks to the villagers from grateful World War 2 evacuees:-

Forteviot is a village in Strathearn, Perthshire.

Its churchyard contains the graves of three brothers, side by side.

Private J Bonthrone, the Black Watch, 25/3/1920, aged 23.
Guardsman A Bonthrone, Scots Guards, 12/8/1915, aged 23.
Corporal D Bonthrone, the Black Watch, 29/2/1920, aged 33.

Alexander, David and John Bonthrone are also commemorated on the family gravestone close by:-

There is one World War 2 grave, that of Private C Walker, the Black Watch, 29/12/1944, aged 26:-

Some planting at Kirkcaldy Memorial Gardens to mark the 100^th anniversary of the end of the Great War.

Scotland’s Football Grounds in the Black and White Era, D C Thomson Media, 2018, 257 p. With a foreword by Chick Young.

Annfield, Bayview, Boghead, Brockville, Broomfield, Cathkin Park, Douglas Park, Firs Park, Love Street, Muirton, New Kilbowie, Shawfield, Telford Street, Kingsmills. Names to conjure with – and all gone to dust (or housing, or supermarkets.)

To Scottish football fans of a certain age (which I am) this book is a magnificent nostalgia fest. It features 41 of the historic grounds of the present day SPFL football clubs, plus two more, Shielfield (at time of publishing Berwick Rangers were still in the SPFL,) and Firs Park. The only ones missing are Peterhead’s former ground at Recreation Park and Annan Athletic’s Galabank. The criterion for inclusion in the book was that a photograph had not been widely published before or else illustrated some quirk of the ground concerned. (I was somewhat disappointed that only one photo of Boghead, former home of the mighty Sons of the Rock, appears; but I have my own memories to savour.) And of course for Inverness Caledonian Thistle you get two former grounds, Telford Street and Kingsmills. In the course of following the Sons I have visited most of the stadia here in their heydays, excepting only those belonging to the ex-Highland League clubs (though I have walked past Telford Street Park several times and even been to Clachnacuddin’s Grant Street Park in Inverness for a game – a pre-season friendly they played against East Fife; in 1976, while I was in the town.) I have frequented many over the years since.

The book is a delightful celebration of the history of the beautiful game in Scotland – and also a memorial to what has been lost. Cathkin apart, all of the grounds on the list above have been replaced by bright(ish) new(ish) stadia but most of those have yet to invoke the glories of these now mouldered (Cathkin again) or vanished (most of the rest) temples to Scotland’s abiding sporting obsession. With only one exception, Hampden, the book tends not to delve as far back as pre-World War 2, hence the absence of even longer gone grounds such as the Gymnasium, home to St Bernard’s FC, of which photographs would in any case be vanishingly scarce.

There is a 1930s, Art Decoish-looking, building in the pictures of Shawfield that I don’t remember from my only visit there and which I assume was demolished years ago. My favourite old ground, Firs Park, is shown in the days before that huge concrete wall was erected at one end to stop the ball going on to the access road to the retail park beside the ground; before, even, the office building that overlooked that end of the park in the 1970s. That other redolent relic, Cliftonhill, is shown lying in a natural bowl perfect for siting a football stadium.

The text is studded with various titbits of arcane information. Glasgow had at one time three of the biggest football grounds in the world in Hampden, Celtic Park and Ibrox. And there were plans to extend Shawfield’s capacity to add to that list of superstadia. The world’s first penalty kick was awarded against Airdrieonians (away at Royal Albert in a charity Cup match) and was scored by a James McLuggage. (Not from a penalty spot, that had yet to be invented; from any point along a line twelve yards from goal.) A WW2 pillbox was constructed at Borough Briggs with slit windows/gun ports all round (those sly Germans could after all have attacked from any direction) and remained in place till Elgin City joined the SFL in 2000. It was Ochilview which hosted the first ever floodlit match in Scotland. Falkirk once held the world record for the highest transfer fee and Brockville was the venue for the first televised floodlit game. Rugby Park used to be ‘mown’ by a resident sheep – three in total over the years. Hampden’s square goal posts now reside in St Etienne’s museum as they were held by that club to be responsible for their defeat at the hands of Bayern Munich in the European Cup Final of 1976 since two of their team’s efforts rebounded out from the goal frame instead of scraping over the line. Les poteaux carres is still used as a phrase for bad luck in the city.

Attending football matches is no longer as economical as it was back in the day. One photo shows a 20p entrance fee at Firhill in 1970. After inflation that 20p would equate to £3 in 2018. Try getting into even a non-league ground for that now! Some things definitely were better in the good old days.

Pedant’s corner:- “the current club were established” (was established,) “the club were on the up” (the club was) sprung (sprang, x2.)

The solar wind is of course not actually a sound wave but a stream of particles blown out from the Sun. However NASA’s solar probe has enabled scientists to translate the particles’ impacts and other data into sound. (The video feed is from Parker’s sideways viewing camera; if it pointed forward the Sun’s glare would destroy it.)

From You Tube via Astronomy Picture of the Day for 21/1/20.

Women’s Press SF, 1988, 150 p

All over the world women are turning into animals and animals into women. The narrative focuses on the adventures of Pooch, a dog turned woman, who has a yearning for opera and a pure singing voice. (She briefly thinks of calling herself Pucci.) Her particular interest is Carmen, hence the book’s title.

The men in this scenario are non-plussed by the changes, seeking either to deny or exploit it. (And their carnal desires are never very far away.) Chapter headings are quotes from the likes of Nietzsche, Apuleius and Marcus Aurelius and the text has embedded references such as, “stare at each other with wild surmises.”

It’s all gloriously over-the-top but at the same time an oblique look at gender relations in the 1980s. In particular, one gent has come to the belief “that motherhood should be dealt out, even to infants, in small insignificant doses so that it can be held within reasonable bounds.”

Pedant’s corner:- “that moves her mosts of all” (most of all,) sharks teeth (sharks’ teeth,) concensus (consensus,) a missing comma before a piece of direct speech. “None of the others return” (none returns,) “107s is” (it was a possessive, 107’s,) “‘I know its doesn’t match’” (it,) “if worse should come to worst” (the phrase is ‘if the worst should come to the worst,’ as was employed elsewhere,) “none of them come at all” (none … comes,) “will surely be one of the last, if not the last, building to fall” (one of the last … buildings to fall,) “like three phoenix” (phoenixes or phoenices,) nowdays (nowadays.)