Spare a thought this midsummer Sunday morning for the intrepid cricketers of Falkland Cricket Club who today are heading for Wolviston (near Middlesbrough) for their Village Cup tie which may lead them to a Lord’s final in September.
Falkland, who play in central Fife near Falkland Palace, are having a great season at the top of the Strathmore Union (eight wins and one rained off – dare one use the word “invincible”?) and won the Scottish section of the Village Cup by beating local Fife rivals Freuchie a couple of weeks ago. Today is their first excursion to England this year.
And why is this relevant to this website?
Just that their captain, four other players and their scorer suffer from the irreversible condition of being Celtic daft. (Captain Stuart Campbell scored a century yesterday, and the others are Craig Hepburn, Ryan Hepburn, Callum Watson and Graeme Watson, whose batting average, believe it or not, is 67.00!).
The others tend to support local teams like Dunfermline and one of them who used to look like Paul Scholes supports Manchester United, another is an Australian but the backbone of the team are Celtic minded, and so are loads of their supporters who will be travelling with them. And there are NO ZOMBIES! (Or if there are, they keep it quiet!) No funny handshakes with the Umpires, nor flutes nor rolling up the legs of the white trousers, nor any molesting of the sheep and goats in the next field.
Falkland Palace, by the way, was where King James V died. His daughter was Mary Queen of Scots who would have been a Celtic supporter, I think, (but she might have got too excited and would have had to be told to “keep the heid” – ho! ho! ho!). She certainly did not like John Knox very much, did she?
Falkland’s scorer, who will lose no opportunity to tell the Middlesbrough men about the shared heritage of Neil Mochan and Willie Fernie (although maybe won’t say too much about Tony Mowbray) will also remind the Englishman that today (24 June) is the anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, and to shield his eyes from from the sun will wear a “panama” hat. And who is their scorer? None other than yours truly, David Potter!
David Potter
Listen to Part 2 of The Jimmy Johnstone Academy with A Celtic State of Mind below and if you missed part one that is a little further down. This is emotional stuff so don’t be surprised if you shed a tear or two while listening.
