I WANTED to go to last night's Kilmarnock party to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their one and only League Championship, but, I had previously been booked for a family do, which, as patriach, I could not miss.
Just as, back when Bobby Ferguson was making his memorable save, and the late and much-missed Bertie Black and Brian McIlroy were setting-up and scoring the title-winning goal, I was elsewhere: playing rugby.
Never mind, this afternoon, for the first time in too-long, I will be back at my old rugby club, looking to see them clinch promotion. See this having a split personality, it gets difficult at times.
Young Alan Pattullo - well, he will always be "Young Alan" to me, wrote an excellent piece in today's Scotsman about that Killie title triumph. It was illustrated by a picture of the survivors of the 1965 squad who made it to last night's party, including the same Bobby Ferguson, who came back, all the way from his Australian home.
The thing which struck me about the picture, was the way Tommy McLean appears to have morphed into Jim McLean - scary.
SO, for once, common sense prevailed and Josh Meekings WILL have his day in the Hampden sun for the Scottish Cup Final. Might I suggest to the SFA mandarins: next time you appoint a Compliance Officer, make sure he has a neutral name. Tony McGlennan does, to those of us brought up to interpret the nuances of West of Scotland sectarianism, sound "Kafflik", ie, a member of the Celtic Family, in much the same was as Vincent Lunney did.
Of course, Both gentlemen might not be what they appear to be to the great unwashed on the sidelines; but, in reality, that's more Scotland's problem than Scottish football's.
I reckon it is long past time the SFA had a competent and neutral legal eagle go through their rule book with a fine tooth comb and bring it up to date and fit for purpose - might the esteemed Cowdenbeath Chairman be that man? Or maybe not.
I have long argued, if football is going to go down the road of retrospective punishments, then they have to start by rewriting the Laws of the Game. When rugby brought in citings and citing officers, they also rewrote the Laws of their Game, so that, when once, as is still the case in Football: "The referee is the sole judge of fact" was gospel in both codes. In rugby this became: "The referee is the sole judge of fact for the duration of the game" (this may not be the actual wording, but it gets the gist).
That way, the after-match intrusions of citing officers, compliance officers and so-forth, are legitemised. AND, I would seriously consider tennis-style challenges to decisions, which can be re-evaluated by video replays. HOWEVER, I would go down the American Football route, whereby the referee gets ONE video replay look at an incident - IN REAL TIME. Slow-motion replays are a can of worms.
I attended a couple of events in the magnificent Mitchell Library, during the Aye Write festival this week. The first was a discussion on the current state of Scottish Footbll, chaired by my old mate Big Shug Macdonald of the Herald, which featured "Educated and erudite Hun" Alan Bisset, "Suffering Hibbee" Aidan Smith, that "Devout Blue Brazilian" the Rev. Ron Ferguson and "Dandy Don" Stuart Donald.
Unfortunately, because another event was following it into the main hall of the Mitchell, the conversation had to be cut-off after one hour - so much for football matches lasting 90 minutes - ending just as audience and panel were getting into their stride. However, some good points were well made; it was an enjoyable night.
The second event, on Thursday night, featured BBC Scotland's in-house Aberdeen fan, Richard Gordon and English writer James Montague. This one had a World Cup theme, centred around Gordon's book on the iconic 1974 World Cup campaign in Germany and Montague's trawl round the nether regions of World Cup entrants, especially the hapless American Samoan team which crashed 0-31 to Australia.
Apparently, as Montague demonstrated, there is in American Samoa, a tradition of trans-genderism, involving people who are biologically male, but dress and act and by every other measurement are women. The American Samoa centre half is one such person.
Well, it certainly gives a whole new meaning to: "That centre half plays like a big Jessie". It is great that he/she is accepted in a mainstream sport, some day, who knows, we might be grown-up enough here to see it in the West of Scotland juniors, but, I don't think I will be around to see it.
SPEAKING of the West of Scotland juniors, the mighty Lugar Boswell Thistle has been saved. The Jaggy Bunnets were threatened with folding at the end of the season, with long-serving secretary Kenny Young being forced by illness to stand down, and the club committee lacking bodies.
Thanksfully, at a crisis meeting at Rosebank Park on Sunday, the club was saved, with Lugar Legend Lauhlan Miller stepping up to the plate as the new secretary. So, Lugar will compete next season, the 60th anniversary of their solitary appearance in the Junior Cup Final, in which they lost heavily to Petershill, and scarred this young Lugar fan for life.
It is great that the old club - which invented the 2-3-5 formation - will be carrying. A previous Lugar secretary, Felix Wright, confided to me, some 30-years ago, that he did not think the club could last into the 21st century. They have, and, hopefully, Lugar Boswell Thistle will be around for a few years yet.
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