Saturday sees our two national stadia host derby matches --in the east it is Murrayfield for Glasgow v Edinburgh second time round whilst at Hampden Queens Park( the only amateur club to own a National stadium) host Rangers
All four participants are linked together by the common year 1872 a year that saw the birth of the Blues and the Inter City much explored in recent times in a TV documentary

For your interest from a scribe of Victorian vintage
A take on the Inter City by an Associationist of olden days but some points made still have a ring about them

The oval ball, with its historical associations, has a charm for them. They then talked about the Association style of play with something akin to contempt. "What," they might have been heard to say, "is the fun of looking at people 'bobbing' a ball about with their heads, and the half of a team doing nothing, while a couple or so of the players are engaged at a time? Give us the closely-packed maul, the exciting individual run, with the ball under the arm, the gallant struggle to ground it over the opposing line, and, above all, the beautifully dropped goal." "But nobody goes to see your matches now," remarks a newly-fledged convert to the Association style of play, who has come to see the "Inter-City," "they got disgusted with your never-ending mauls and shoving matches, preferring to witness scientific manipulation of the ball in dribbling, and passing with the feet." "Pshaw! do you imagine we care a straw for gate-money? We play the game for the love of it, and the genuine exercise it affords," retorts the old Rugby adherent, "and respect it all the more on that account." "Oh! it is all very well to tell one that, but don't your leading clubs still charge for admission to their matches?" "Yes; but this is more in the way of keeping out the roughs from the field than for gain." Such conversation I have overheard myself, and none of the sides made much by it.

The combined attendances this weekend could be in the region of 50-60,000 slightly short of the combined attendances at Hampden and Murrayfield on Sat 13th April 1946 which reached over well 200,000 not to mention those lifted over the turnstiles-- but that's another story

This article was posted on 29-Dec-2012, 00:45 by Hugh Barrow.