You Couldn't Make It Up!

by Jack Little

Having used Ibrox for most of their "home" games in Season 1908/09, Thistle and Hibs turned up on Boxing Day 1908 to discover the pitch covered in a blanket of straw (protecting it for the Rangers v Celtic match on New Year's Day). As an alternative, Thistle proposed to play the match on Rangers' training ground but as it was unprotected from the frost, the referee had no option but to call the game off. Rangers issued a statement that they had advised Thistle in early December to find another venue for the fixture as they had to take precautions against frost before their match with Celtic. They were surprised to see Thistle had gone ahead and advertised the match being at Ibrox. The "Dundee Courier" reported that at the SFL monthly meeting on 7/1/1909 Thistle were fined £30 (around £3,600 today) for not fulfilling their fixture. It was reported in the "Glasgow Herald" that "Partick Thistle agreed to pay Hibernians their £30 guarantee" and it is not clear whether this was in addition to or instead of the fine. Either way, it was money Thistle could ill afford.

Publishing date An original Thistle Archive publication, 07-Sep-2020.
Latest edit date Latest edit version 02-Jun-2020.

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