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Tynecastle in the snow


Swanny17

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alwaysthereinspirit
13 minutes ago, Swanny17 said:

8BD32491-93C5-4123-ACF2-6ACBB2619075.jpeg

Nice. My first standing spot as a wee 5 year old was directly above the right hand entrance/exit. Right against the railing. Me standing on the middle rail and my Dad directly behind me.

52 years ago.

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Selkirkhmfc1874
3 minutes ago, alwaysthereinspirit said:

Nice. My first standing spot as a wee 5 year old was directly above the right hand entrance/exit. Right against the railing. Me standing on the middle rail and my Dad directly behind me.

52 years ago.

Do you ever get home to a game these days ? 

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John mcCartney

I used to love the notion of snow on the pitch,orange ball,winter games,on the terrace huddled up....poss stems from highlights of English div 1 and FA Cup matches back in the 70`s... anyone remember HMFC games in the early/mid eighties
having that going on ?
Remember climbing over the Dunbar End wall when we were let away early from Leith Academy early one time as the boilers had failed.We were right next door to the old main stand and on the way home in a foot of snow went for it and over the wall,up to and down the terracing onto a deserted stadium larking about on the pitch for a good bit.
Top memories....

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alwaysthereinspirit
2 minutes ago, Selkirkhmfc1874 said:

Do you ever get home to a game these days ? 

I plan all trips home after the schedule is released. Next trip is October 2020. Always make time for Hearts and Tynecastle.

I miss Hearts more than family only because we always have visitors here. So no time to miss them.

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North Berwick Jambo

Quite a few times during the early eighties when we got snowed off at Tynecastle High School we would just go into the ground instead and offer to help shovel the snow off the pitch  in exchange for a free ticket. 

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Hearts v. Partick in the Scottish Cup in 1984. The original Saturday game had been postponed and was rearranged for the following midweek. A wee bit late for school that morning and on the way bumped into a Jambo classmate. He'd heard on Radio Forth an appeal from Wallace Mercer asking unemployed fans to go to Tynecastle and clear snow from the terracing. That was that. Got the bus to Gorgie from Leith and spent the morning clearing snow in McLeod Street up to the turnstiles then the school end terracing. Got our free ticket but the ref postponed the game anyway at the afternoon inspection. 

 

This photo is from the following midweek.

 

 

GW776H487.jpeg

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Don’t know why but have visions of Kenny Black with Astro trainers playing on a frozen Tynie. Obviously an 80s match. 

 

Must be a pic somewhere ❄️

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4 minutes ago, SectionDJambo said:

That’s Tommy Walker on the right.

 

I thought that, too. I wasn't 100% sure as he doesn't look tall enough but I suppose Tiny Wharton makes most look smaller. 

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scott herbertson
11 minutes ago, Gnjambo16 said:

Tiny Wharton referee and probably his 2 linesman 

 

 

 

is that not Tommy Walker on the right doing his 'old Jamie" impersonation?

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16 minutes ago, SectionDJambo said:

That’s Tommy Walker on the right.

 

I think the one on the left, and in the original photo, is the groundsman Mattie Chalmers. He was a great character around Tynecastle.

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Murrayfield in 1963. Apparently the snow being cleared prior to switching on the undersoil heating. I had no idea they had such a thing back then, never mind at Murrayfield. 

 

Probably too many years of hearing Hibs fans boasting about inventing it in the early '80's. 

image.jpg

Edited by martoon
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SectionDJambo
1 hour ago, Rab Mac52 said:

 

I think the one on the left, and in the original photo, is the groundsman Mattie Chalmers. He was a great character around Tynecastle.

I think you may well be correct.

I used to have a near neighbour who played for Hearts reserves back in the 1950s. We talked about the ways the club tried to avoid postponements during the winter.
Straw was a favourite amongst many clubs. Keeping any decent snowfall on the pitch until the morning of the game, protecting the pitch from frost was another. The pitch would then be tested before clearing the snow.

I remember he said that Hearts had tried positioning braziers, used commonly on building sites etc. for warmth to the workers, around the pitch to combat the cold air of a frost. It can’t have been successful, because I hadn’t heard of it before then. You’d need an awful lot of them.
Murrayfield had undersoil heating from 1959.

I saw quite a few Hearts games on hard, frozen pitches that certainly wouldn’t go ahead now. The rule was to keep the pitch flat, by rolling it immediately after the previous game.

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9 hours ago, Footballfirst said:

Another couple from Londonhearts

 

Image result for tynecastle snow

Image result for tynecastle snow

 

.... and from the Scotsman

 

Image result for tynecastle snow

I used to stand at that barrier at the back of the dugout 50 years ago. We entered the ground and walked through the wee gap at the back of the Hearts badge.

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10 hours ago, alwaysthereinspirit said:

Nice. My first standing spot as a wee 5 year old was directly above the right hand entrance/exit. Right against the railing. Me standing on the middle rail and my Dad directly behind me.

52 years ago.

Mine was in the middle of the back wall ...also 52 years ago when I was 5 !

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Remember a lot of, is the game on or not ? they could get called off late, memories of a large crowd arriving in Dunfermline only to be told the game was off, lead to a certain amount of bother

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11 hours ago, Swanny17 said:

8BD32491-93C5-4123-ACF2-6ACBB2619075.jpeg


A good time to read-tell the story of the abandoned game at Firhill a few years back. Thistle grounds man came out with a brush and tried to clear the lines at half time. The head kept coming off the brush and he kept putting it back on, only for it to keep coming off.

Poor guy got it stinking from us !

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12 hours ago, alwaysthereinspirit said:

Nice. My first standing spot as a wee 5 year old was directly above the right hand entrance/exit. Right against the railing. Me standing on the middle rail and my Dad directly behind me.

52 years ago.

 

 

2 hours ago, leipzig76 said:

Mine was in the middle of the back wall ...also 52 years ago when I was 5 !

 

I used to stand with my dad against the railings between the two entrances which were positioned along a wall about three feet high. Perfect view for a boy until one day a guy about my age, maybe 12 or 13 but quite a bit bigger than me, climbed up from below and stood against the railing directly in front of me. I told him to clear-off naturally enough. He turned round, grabbed my hair (I had plenty then) and jumped over the barrier above the entrance and dreeped down into the entrance holding on to my hair. I was amazed at how quickly he thought of it did it, and still am after all these years, the actions of a born psychopath in my opinion. Anyway my dad was over the barrier and after this guy in a flash and caught him in the toilets between the two entrances. I'm not sure what happened there but the police were never called.   

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Салатные палочки

Was there not a snow storm after the Rangers 4-2 SC game and wee hamster features skidded off the motorway?  

 

I can only remember two call off's TBH.  I suppose by the time I started going grounds had started to modernise.  One was a midweek match v. Motherwell at Tynecastle where someone on the bus heard via their mobile (quite a thing at the time) and we turned off at Harthill.  The other was Rugby Park Saturday game around this time of the year where the pitch was frozen.  

 

The other notable was the LC final in 1996.  Absolutely amazed that game wasn't called off.  For some reason IMO the weather made the atmosphere better as no one wanted to sit down. 

 

There is some great snow pictures in the book Lifted Over the Turnstyles by Steve Finan.  

 

 

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22 minutes ago, Salad Fingers said:

Was there not a snow storm after the Rangers 4-2 SC game and wee hamster features skidded off the motorway?  

 

I can only remember two call off's TBH.  I suppose by the time I started going grounds had started to modernise.  One was a midweek match v. Motherwell at Tynecastle where someone on the bus heard via their mobile (quite a thing at the time) and we turned off at Harthill.  The other was Rugby Park Saturday game around this time of the year where the pitch was frozen.  

 

The other notable was the LC final in 1996.  Absolutely amazed that game wasn't called off.  For some reason IMO the weather made the atmosphere better as no one wanted to sit down. 

 

There is some great snow pictures in the book Lifted Over the Turnstyles by Steve Finan.  

 

 

 

I remember the Motherwell postponement. Not long before Christmas 1993, iirc. Called off very late. Only found out ourselves around 7.30 on Gorgie Road after a couple of hours in the Diggers. Quite a few Motherwell fans mulling around. 

 

I think McLean's car accident was after the 2-0 derby win. Postponed New Year 1995 game. First on scene were a group of Jambos who only wanted to talk about the game. McLean had to interrupt them to ask them to call 999, apparently. :lol:

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alwaysthereinspirit
1 hour ago, upgotheheads said:

 

 

 

I used to stand with my dad against the railings between the two entrances which were positioned along a wall about three feet high. Perfect view for a boy until one day a guy about my age, maybe 12 or 13 but quite a bit bigger than me, climbed up from below and stood against the railing directly in front of me. I told him to clear-off naturally enough. He turned round, grabbed my hair (I had plenty then) and jumped over the barrier above the entrance and dreeped down into the entrance holding on to my hair. I was amazed at how quickly he thought of it did it, and still am after all these years, the actions of a born psychopath in my opinion. Anyway my dad was over the barrier and after this guy in a flash and caught him in the toilets between the two entrances. I'm not sure what happened there but the police were never called.   

WTF was and still is wrong with people?

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4 hours ago, Ballitojambo said:

Remember a lot of, is the game on or not ? they could get called off late, memories of a large crowd arriving in Dunfermline only to be told the game was off, lead to a certain amount of bother

I remember this a lot back in 80s especially.  Planning midweek beers at the BMC club which all seemed to hang on the game being on.  Endless phone calls to Tynecastle from work from about 10am.  Is it on, is it on, is it on???

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1 hour ago, farin said:

025423D2-E751-4432-BB03-73FCD0C386D0.jpeg.387b971b78fdd9b55b3fac59aa6ba08f.jpeg

 

tynecastle & murrayfield blanketed in snow.. 

The angles of the photo makes Murrayfield look quite small even though it could hold more than twice as much as Tynecastle.  

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15 hours ago, Footballfirst said:

Pitch inspection

 

Image

That would be referee Tiny Wharton in the middle, with Tommy Walker on the right.

 

EDIT: oops, someone beat me to it! 

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15 hours ago, Footballfirst said:

Pitch inspection

 

Image

 

Sure that photo was used on the cover of a programme v's Rangers around about 1959 or 1960.

image.png.b6253fd3743b1c3f87eda22620fcdacc.png

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16 hours ago, Swanny17 said:

8BD32491-93C5-4123-ACF2-6ACBB2619075.jpeg

 

Top right hand side there used to be toilets (around about where the advert is), just to the side of that there used to be a concrete platform, maybe about 20 inches high, fabulous when you were a wee short arsed kid, brilliant view of the whole pitch from up there, stood there many a time.

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The White Cockade
6 hours ago, Ballitojambo said:

Remember a lot of, is the game on or not ? they could get called off late, memories of a large crowd arriving in Dunfermline only to be told the game was off, lead to a certain amount of bother

Remember driving past East End Park on supporters bus game was still on but by time we parked up it was called off Went back to Edinburgh and a few people went down to Easter Road where George Best was playing for Hibs but me. Sax of my mate went down to Meadowbank to watch Thistle playing Stenhousemuir I think Thr official attendance was well under 100 Was absolutely baltic 

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1 hour ago, The White Cockade said:

Remember driving past East End Park on supporters bus game was still on but by time we parked up it was called off Went back to Edinburgh and a few people went down to Easter Road where George Best was playing for Hibs but me. Sax of my mate went down to Meadowbank to watch Thistle playing Stenhousemuir I think Thr official attendance was well under 100 Was absolutely baltic 

 

Official att: 80.

 

I was there too. Stayed nearby and often watched MT when Hearts were away. Only 11yo at the time. Used to watch the first half from outside then kids would get in at half time. 

 

0-0 draw, iirc. Jet set stuff. 

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The White Cockade
8 minutes ago, martoon said:

 

Official att: 80.

 

I was there too. Stayed nearby and often watched MT when Hearts were away. Only 11yo at the time. Used to watch the first half from outside then kids would get in at half time. 

 

0-0 draw, iirc. Jet set stuff. 

Yeah remember it was 0-0 Should just have gone straight home!

Any idea what year that was?

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1 hour ago, The White Cockade said:

Yeah remember it was 0-0 Should just have gone straight home!

Any idea what year that was?

 

Just before Christmas 1979, bud. 

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Weakened Offender
6 hours ago, The White Cockade said:

Remember driving past East End Park on supporters bus game was still on but by time we parked up it was called off Went back to Edinburgh and a few people went down to Easter Road where George Best was playing for Hibs but me. Sax of my mate went down to Meadowbank to watch Thistle playing Stenhousemuir I think Thr official attendance was well under 100 Was absolutely baltic 

 

I remember a Hearts match being called off and heading to Meadowbank to watch them play Raith Rovers. The Hibs game had been called off too, there were a couple of hundred of both teams fans and about three or four hundred Raith fans. 

 

Eventful. 😁

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iwasthere1954
8 hours ago, Jambo-Jimbo said:

 

Sure that photo was used on the cover of a programme v's Rangers around about 1959 or 1960.

image.png.b6253fd3743b1c3f87eda22620fcdacc.png

I was wondering if that was the postponement of the SC match against Killie 1959/1960. The game was played the following Wednesday and ended 1  -  1. We lost the replay.

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On 13/11/2019 at 08:18, alwaysthereinspirit said:

Nice. My first standing spot as a wee 5 year old was directly above the right hand entrance/exit. Right against the railing. Me standing on the middle rail and my Dad directly behind me.

52 years ago.

I remember 1963 as just cold and then every game postponed. Our first match back was at Forfar after some months.

There was a game Hibs v QOS reserve game which many thousands attended due to football “starvation”!

A lot of my pals had never seen Hibs outside a derby, never mind reserves. Ridiculously I recall a good game!

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