The good old Tennents sixes. As good as it got in the early 90s.
Who can remember the annual Tennents sixes tournament? For the younger generation it was a six a side tournament played out by Scottish Premier League clubs over a January weekend broadcast on STV.
Celtic’s sole win was in 1992 beating st Johnstone 4-2 in the final and for a young kid like me it was a big moment as you didn’t see much silverware handed out to Celtic in those days so any trophy was seen as a success! It was our very own Ramsden Cup moment or was is the Petrofac Training Cup that they won?
The Sixes started in 1984 and ran until 1993 with Rangers, Hearts and Aberdeen being the most successful clubs with two wins a piece. Dundee, Hibs, Partick thistle, and of course Celtic, were also winners. Partick Thistle were the last winners in 1993 and still have the trophy in their cabinet to this day.
It was hosted in the SECC apart from the first two tournaments which were held in Falkirk and Edinburgh. It usually consisted of ten teams and strangely enough which I didn’t know until recently, Manchester City in 1985 and Nottingham Forest in 1988.
Rangers were absent for the past couple of years and the rumour was it was something to do with them being sponsored by Tennents rival brewery McEwans. Or was it perhaps because their fans couldn’t be trusted not to ’embarrass’ the old Ibrox club by their indoor sectarian chanting?
Basically it was two groups of five teams who played each other once and the top two from each group advanced to the knockout rounds. Games were two halves of seven and a half minutes and two halves of ten in the knockouts.
Teams had a group of twelve and were allowed unlimited substitutes. There was even a sin bin if a player was booked, and they would spend two minutes there. All very American, even the crowd was all basketball like counting down when time was running out.
It was well attended with up to five thousand fans flocking to the exhibition centre. I wonder if they would consider bringing it back although I doubt the stars of today would like to spend their winter break playing 6 a sides in the SECC! Could you imagine a Celtic v Rangers game and the Green brigade and Onion bears in attendance? I know there’s no chance of today’s clubs agreeing to such a tournament, but maybe at a youth level it’s surely worth a consideration.
It wasn’t the most successful bit of silverware but when you were starved of seeing Celtic win a trophy it was great to see, something the youth of today wouldn’t understand.
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
