Cathkin Park

Its not much of a picture and the location has been Blipped before, but I did think it was of interest. Taken on the south terracing of Cathkin Park in Glasgow. The former ground of Third Lanark football club. Their nickname was the Hi Hi.

These days we hear a lot about clubs in financial crisis and even going into administration. Clubs like Dundee, Portsmouth, Gretna, Leeds United have all hit the headlines. But even a lot of the so-called big clubs carry enormous amounts of debt and really only stay in business when they can prove to the Bank they are able to service the debt, or if a White Knight comes along and ploughs money onto the Club.

However we have to go way back to 1967 for the Third Lanark crisis. That's when they were declared bankrupt and went out of business. Prior to this they had been a major First Division side. One of their famous ex players was Ally Macleod who went on to manage the Scotland Team. One of my relatives was a big Third Lanark fan.

It seems strange that after all this time the remains of their ground (and the name) remain intact and it is still used in the summer for youth football.

One other unique thing about them was that they were originally formed from the football team of the 3rd Regiment of the Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers, shortening the name to Third Lanark.