Plenty of Nothing

Eglinton Theatre

The Eglinton Theatre picture palace opened in 1936. In the late 1960s The Sound of Music played here for 142 weeks. Source.

Dorchester

The first locomotive in Canada was Dorchester, imported from Britain in 1836 for the Champlain and St. Lawrence Railway. This photo is of a replica on display in Montreal in 1936. Source.

Girl in Yellow Sweater (1936)

Girl in Yellow Sweater by Prudence Heward. Source.

The Hindenberg over Halifax, Nova Scotia

On this date in 1936 the Hindenberg flew over Halifax on the way from Lakehurst, New Jersey to Frankfurt. Source. Find all the Hindenberg's flights here.

1936 Schlörwagen

Source.

Victoria Station, 1936

Source.

Government Greenock

Sir Godfrey Collins began his career as a midshipman in the Royal Navy, and went on to become Liberal MP for Greenock (1910-36), and Secretary of State for Scotland (1932-36).

Morton host Queen's Park in League Cup Group F action. Including friendlies this is Morton's first home game of 2017-18. Morton have not won at Cappielow since March 11th.

These two clubs have met in six League Cup matches before today, Morton winning four of them and Queen's Park two. The last encounter was in 1989.

The last time Morton and Queen's Park played each other in any other competition was last year in Round Three of the Challenge Cup. The Spiders won 2 - 0. Morton and Queen's Park were divisional rivals in 2002-03 in the Third Division, when Morton took two wins with two draws.

Last year in the group stage the Spiders wound up with one win (against Stenhousemuir), two regular losses, and a penalty shoot-out loss, for four points.

July 9th, 2017 was Queen's Park's 150 anniversary. They were a power in the 19th Century, but they have not made it into the top half of the league since 1981-82 when they finished 8th in Division One.

Morton enter today's game in second place in Group F, behind Motherwell on goal difference. Morton, with one win and a gd of +1, are tied for fifth place among second-place holders with Peterhead and Ayr. Last year Morton won their group with five regulation time goals for and none against. But you can't always count on your opponents to co-operate in low-scoring tournament: Motherwell beat Queen's Park by four on Saturday. A five-goal outburst today or against Edinburgh City would be sound policy.

When was Morton's first game against Queen's Park? It seems to be a league game that was played on November 3rd, 1900, at Hampden, which the Spiders won 3 - 0. But Morton had been around for 26 years at that point, and Queen's Park 33 years, so there might be something earlier in some charity cup or something.

[2 - 2. Morton goals by McHugh and Barr. Morton win the penalty shoot-out, and so they take two points and Queen's Park take one.]

Also today: Edinburgh City [2 - 2] Berwick. [Edinburgh City win the shoot-out.]

St Mirren and Livingston are together in Group H. They play today. [Livi win.]

How are the League Cup groups chosen?

The League Cup is open to the 42 SPFL clubs, plus the winners of the Highland and Lowland leagues. The four clubs in European competition are given a bye and the remaining 40 are divided into three pots. The first pot contains the clubs ranked 5th to 12th in the 2016-17 Premiership. The second pot contains the clubs ranked 1st to 8th in the 2016-17 Championship. The third pot contains everyone else. Each pot is split into North and South halves.

Eight groups are chosen, with one team each from the first and second pots and three from the third. All the northern clubs go into the North groups and all the southern clubs go into the South groups.

Talking points:

Why is there a geographical division? The league isn't divided geographically.

The border between North and South is bound to shift from year to year. Last year Dumbarton was in the North, this year the South. Confusion.

The rankings are based on league position in the previous season before relegation and promotion. This was a sore point under the old format, but it doesn't seem to be bothering anyone now. The upshot is that it took an extra year, but East Stirlingshire are out of the League Cup for the first time since 1954.

Pot One South contains a selection of four clubs that won't change much from year to year. Last year they were (in seeded order) Motherwell, Partick, Hamilton, Kilmarnock; this year, Partick, Kilmarnock, Motherwell, Hamilton. At some point, if this format is kept, the Oh No Not Them Again factor is bound to kick in.

The four clubs that made it into European competition enjoy a bye through the group stage, but Rangers and St Johnstone had already been eliminated before the League Cup began, and now they have to find something else to do. (This point was made on Off the Ball, and I'm just repeating it.)

The League Cup group stage has shifted the beginning of the football season from the start of August to mid-July. This has had a bad effect on some of the last remaining county cups, especially the Stirlingshire Cup and the Forfarshire Cup. The Renfrewshire Cup went into abeyance when St Mirren dropped into Morton's division. There was a discussion about this at Pie and Bovril.

The squeeze is on friendlies too. Is it significant that the SPFL website didn't publish a list of this summer's friendlies?

Which party represents each 2017-18 Championship town at Westminster and Holyrood?

town                Westminster            Holyrood

Brechin            Conservative             SNP

Dumbarton       SNP                          Labour

Dumfries          Conservative             Conservative

Dundee            SNP                           SNP

Dunfermline     SNP                           SNP

Falkirk              SNP                           SNP

Greenock         SNP                           SNP

Inverness         SNP                           SNP

Livingston        SNP                            SNP

Paisley             SNP                           SNP

And what about the Seaside League?

town                Westminster            Holyrood

Airdrie              SNP                           SNP

Alloa                Conservative              SNP

Arbroath          Conservative              SNP

Ayr                   Conservative             Conservative

Coatbridge       Labour                       SNP

Forfar               Conservative             SNP

Kirkcaldy          Labour                       SNP

Methil               SNP                           SNP

Mount Florida  Labour                        SNP

Stranraer         Conservative             Conservative

[Group A standings after July 18:

Inverness CT      5

Falkirk                 3

Brechin                2

Forfar                  1

Stirling Albion      1

Group F standings after July 18:

Morton                5

Motherwell          3

Edinburgh City    2

Berwick               1

Queen's Park      1

Bear in mind that Motherwell and Edinburgh City have played one match each.]

 

2016 Emperor's Cup, Round One

Watch a short film of Kanto versus Kansai Old Boys at Koshien Stadium, 1936. The linesman's flag bears the JFA's three-legged crow.

This round matches 47 prefectural champions, the 2015 university champion, 22 J2 clubs, and two of the three clubs most recently promoted to J1.

As usual, I'm completely biased in favour of northern Japan. When was the Emperor's Cup last won by a club from north of the 36th parallel? 1935, and it was Kyungsung FC, from Seoul, Korea. The clubs most likely to end the north's cup drought are: Vegalta Sendai (10th in the 2016 J1 First Stage), Albirex Niigata (13th in the 2016 J1 First Stage), Consadole Sapporo (currently 1st in J2).

Let's watch:

Match No. 9, Yokohama FC [5 - 0] Yamagata University

Match No. 12, Mito HollyHock 1 - 0 Tokyo International University

Match No. 14, Consadole Sapporo 3 - 0 University of Tsukuba

Match No. 17, Montedio Yamagata 2 - 1 Arterivo Wakayama

Match No. 18, Thespakusatsu Gunma 1 - 0 Sony Sendai

Match No. 19, MIO Biwako Shiga 1 - 3 Kwansei Gakuin University

Match No. 22, Fukushima United 4 - 1 THESPA Kusatsu Challengers

Match No. 28, Grulla Morioka [4 - 0] Waseda University

Match No. 31, Blaublitz Akita 2 - 0 Vanraure Hachinohe

Match No. 32, JEF United Chiba 5 - 0 Hokkaido University of Education

THESPA Kusatsu Challengers are Thespakutasatsu Gunma's B team.

Morton Versus Berwick

RKO's Mary of Scotland opened 80 years ago today on July 30th, 1936, and starred Katherine Hepburn as Mary, Frederic March as Bothwell, Florence Eldridge as Elizabeth, Douglas Walton as Darnley, John Carradine as Rizzio, and a tremendous cast of famous stars in other roles, including Robert Barrat as Morton.

Today it's Morton versus Berwick in the final match of the group stage.

Morton and Berwick last met in Round 2 of the 2014-15 Challenge Cup: Morton won. They have played 36 league games altogether since 1955, Morton taking 21 wins, Berwick 11, with 4 draws. They have been in the same division four times in this the four division epoch, always in the third tier. Morton are generally a second-tier club, Berwick a fourth-tier club. In League Cup play, Morton have 3 wins, Berwick 1, with 3 draws.

Berwick made the semi-finals of the 1963-63 League Cup, and quarter-finals of the 1981-82 cup. They are bottom club in Group H.

The situation: If Morton earn 3 or 2 points today, they win Group H and move on to the Round of 16. If they earn only 1 point, or 0, Kilmarnock can overtake them. If Morton finish second in the group there is still the chance that they will be one of the four best runners-up and advance. A first-place finish with 11 points will most likely make them one of the seeded teams in the draw for the next round, depending on how things go in the other groups.

So far in this tournament Morton have not allowed a goal, except in the shoot-out.

We're also watching:

Kilmarnock [0 - 0] Albion Rovers. Albion win on penalties.

Raith [0 - 1] Alloa

The result of the Raith/Alloa game will affect Morton's seeding.

On Wednesday in Group D, in what might be a foreshadowing of the pyramid playoffs next May, Cove Rangers defeated Montrose 3 - 0.

Thursday it was Largs Thistle 4 - 1 versus a Greenock Morton development squad.

Jamie Lindsay has signed with Morton, on loan from Celtic. He was with Dumbarton last year.

Nacho Novo has signed with Glentoran of the Northern Irish league.

[Morton win 2 - 0. Goals by Lindsay and Quitongo. Morton win Group H and advance. Final Group H standings:

Morton                11

Kilmarnock           7

Clyde                   5

Albion                  5

Berwick               2

Morton earn the eighth seed.]

Elsewhere on Earth:

CAF Champions League Group B:

Mamelodi Sundowns 1 - 0 Zamelek

UEFA Champions League, 3QR:

Astana 1 - 1 Celtic

Europa League, 3QR:

Aberdeen 1 - 1 Maribor

Maribor knocked Celtic out of the Champions League playoff round in 2014. The club's full name is Nogometni Klub Maribor. Nogomet is the word for football in Slovenian and Croatian.

Celtic and Aberdeen need some wins to improve Scotland's country coefficient.

Scotland's country coefficient is a figure UEFA calculates annually based on the performance of Scottish clubs in the Champions League and Europa League. The higher the coefficient the more Scottish clubs get to enter the European competitions, and the later they get to join. Scotland's recent coefficients are:

2015-16        3.000

2014-15        4.000

2013-14        3.250

2012-13        4.300

2011-12        2.750

2010-11        3.600

2009-10        2.666

2008-09        1.875

2007-08       10.250

2006-07        6.750

2005-06        4.250

2004-05        4.750

UEFA bundles the past five years' coefficients to make the country coefficient. Scotland's is currently 17.300. Source: Bert Kassies' UEFA European Cup Coefficients Database.

Celtic play Barcelona in Dublin as part of the International Champions Cup. [Barca win 3 - 1.]

Two International Champions Cup matches have been played at BMO Field in Toronto:

July 24th, 2014        Olympiacos 3 - 0 Milan

July 18th, 2015        Benfica 2 - 3 Paris Saint-Germain

Yesterday it was UCD 5 - 1 Athlone Town.

And B36 0 - 2 Víkingur.

Today: Östersund 0 - 0 Elfsborg

The Lowland League starts this weekend. Let's follow East Stirlingshire this season and see if they can yo-yo back to League Two. [The Shire were busy with the League Cup today.]

The Highland League starts today. Let's follow Strathspey Thistle, because is there a more Scottish name than Strathspey Thistle? Well, okay, Scone Thistle. [Fraserburgh beat Strathspey 3 - 0.]

Tomorrow: Blaublitz Akita [1 - 0] Fujieda MYFC

What am I supposed to do with a 17.300 coefficient?

Rail Map of Japan 1936

This is just the north part of a 1936 folding rail map of the Japanese Empire. You can see the whole length of it, in greater detail, here. It reminds you of the Peutinger Table.