Plenty of Nothing

Miss Baker

Memorial to Miss Baker, who flew into space aboard Jupiter missile AM-18 on this date in 1959. She went on to live to the ripe old age of 27. Before Miss Baker's flight no monkey had survived a US space launch. Alan Shepherd's flight aboard Mercury-Redstone 3 occurred just two years after hers. Source.

Para Handy, 1959

Radio Times, December 6 - 12, 1959, featuring Duncan MacRae as Para Handy. Source.

It's Round Four of the Challenge Cup. Sixteen clubs remain, seven each from the Championship and League One, one from League Two, and one from the Northern Irish league. All the colt teams are out.

Dundee, Hamilton, ICT, Morton, Queen's Park and Raith are still alive in both the Scottish Cup and the Challenge Cup.

Morton visit San Starko to play Raith Rovers. These two have met twice before in the Challenge Cup: 1991 when Raith won, and 2000 when Morton won.

Morton and Raith have met twice in league play so far this season, each side taking a win. But Morton have gone ten games without a loss, league and cup. Morton have not lost a game since the 1st of October. Raith Rovers lost to Ayr United last weekend.

Winner of this match goes to the quarter-finals. Morton most recently made the quarter-finals in 2011, 2014 and 2021. They made the semi-finals four years in a row in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Raith won the cup in 2014, 2020 (shared) and 2022.

Have Morton ever knocked out the cup holder? No.

In Challenge Cup matches against teams from their own division Morton are 13W and 14L.

After Celtic, Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs, Motherwell, Kilmarnock and Ayr United, Morton are the biggest club never to have won the Challenge Cup.

But this cup has been around for about 30 years, with 30 teams competing in it most years, so Morton must be due to win it some time soon.

If Dougie wass here, he would tell you.

[Raith 1 - 1 Morton. Goal by King. Raith win on PK. Kabia and McGrattan scored for Morton in the shootout.]

The other Challenge Cup matches:

Falkirk 0 - 3 Dundee (December 8)

You can now buy a Falkirk ten-year-long season ticket for £5,000. Source.

Alloa 2 - 4 Queen of the South (December 9)

Arbroath 1 - 5 Dunfermline (December 9)    Upset

Kelty Hearts [1 - 1] Linfield [Kelty win on PK.]    Upset

Morton have never played Kelty or Linfield, so naturally they were drawn against each other. Linfield are six matches without a loss, league and cup. Kelty have one win in their last six starts.

Queen's Park [2 - 0] Montrose

Elgin [0 - 0] Clyde [Clyde win on PK.]

Hamilton Academical [2 - 0] Inverness CT

Other matches:

Forres Mechanics [1 - 1] Inverurie Loco Works

Rossvale vs Morton Women (postponed)

FC Isle of Man [2 - 3] Litherland REMYCA

Elfen Saitama [1 - 0] Sanfrecce Hiroshima

World Cup:

Japan 1 - 1 Croatia (December 5) Croatia win on PK.

Goal for Maeda, but Japan are out.

44th Empress's Cup, Round 3:

Match No. 28: Sfida Setagaya [6 - 0] Toyo University

Match No. 29: Iga FC Kunoichi [1 - 1] Ehime FC [Iga win on PK.]

Match No. 30: AS Harima Albion [2 - 0] Sakuyo High School

Match No. 31: Cerezo Osaka Sakai [2 - 3] Yokohama FC Seagulls (tomorrow)

Match No. 32: Orca Kamogawa [0 - 0] Waseda University [Waseda win on PK.]

Canada:

There might be a Canadian professional women's soccer league coming down the pipe. Story. But the CPL is doing a good imitation of someone smiling nervously and backing out of the room. Press release.

HFX Wanderers have released goalies Oxner and Basket, defenders Schaale, Tabi, Santos and Gander, and forwards Marshall and Samb. Andre Rampersad will be the only 2019 Wanderer left on the roster.

Times that Rangers colts got their Challenge Cup match scheduled to an entirely different week than the rest of the round:

2016/8/10      R1    Rangers colts 4 - 0 Stirling University    (s/b August 2)

2019/9/18      R3    Ballymena Utd 0 - 1 Rangers colts    (s/b September 7)

2019/10/29    R4    Solihull Moors 3 - 3 Rangers colts    (s/b October 12)

2021/9/14      R2    Rangers colts 3 - 0 Ayr United    (s/b September 4)

2021/10/27    R3    Alloa 2 - 3 Rangers colts    (s/b October 9)

2022/11/8      R3    Rangers colts 0 - 3 Hamilton    (s/b September 24)

Historical matches:

December 5, 1966    St Mirren 2 - 0 Morton

This was the second leg of their Renfrewshire Cup final. The aggregate score stood at 3 - 3, so a third game was scheduled for December 14th.

December 10, 1966    Stranraer 1 - 3 Morton

December 10, 1977    Hearts 1 - 1 Morton

Morton in the Renfrewshire Victoria Cup:

1911/x/x        R1    Morton L - W Abercorn

1912/4/6        R1    Morton 3 - 2 Johnstone

1912/4/x        R2    Arthurlie wo/scr Morton

1913/2/22      R1    Morton 1 - 3 Arthurlie

1913/12/6      R1    Morton 8 - 0 Paisley GFSP

1914/4/15      SF    Morton 1 - 0 Abercorn

1914/4/25      F      Morton 5 - 0 St Mirren (leg 1)

1914/4/28      F      St Mirren 2 - 1 Morton (leg 2)

1914/8/x        R1    bye

1915/x/x        R2    Bridge of Weir Athletic L - W Morton

1915/2/27      SF    Morton 10 - 0 Moorpark Crusaders

1915/4/16      F      Johnstone  3 - 0 Morton (leg 1)

1917/4/17      F      Morton 4 - 0 Johnstone (leg 2)

1919/4/5        R1    Morton 2 - 2 Johnstone

1919/4/19      R1    Morton 1 - 1 Johnstone (replay)

1919/4/x        R1    Morton W - L Johnstone (2nd replay)

1919/5/3        F      Morton 2 - 0 Abercorn

1924/8/27      R1    Morton W - L Paisley Academical

1924/9/9        F      St Mirren 1 - 3 Morton (leg 1)

1924/9/17      F      Morton 2 - 3 St Mirren (leg 2)

1925/9/8        F      St Mirren 2 - 0 Morton (leg 1)

1925/9/16      F      Morton 2 - 1 St Mirren (leg 2)

1927/8/23      F      St Mirren 1 - 1 Morton (leg 1)

1927/9/7        F      Morton 2 - 0 St Mirren (leg 2)

1927/9/28      R1    Morton 5 - 1 Paisley GSFP

1928/9/17      F      Morton 2 - 0 Arthurlie (leg 1)

1928/10/1      F      Arthurlie 2 - 4 Morton (leg 2)

In its early phase this trophy was a competition for Renfrewshire's smaller senior clubs. In its late phase it was a qualifier to determine which amateur club would face Morton or St Mirren in the Renfrewshire Cup. But in its middle phase both Morton and St Mirren entered teams. Morton won the cup in 1914, 1917, 1919, 1924, 1927 and 1928.

(Source: Scottish Football Historical Archive)

The Sky Is Calling (1959)

небо зовёт (The Sky Is Calling) is a Soviet science fiction film released in 1959. In 1961 Roger Corman bought the US rights, dubbed and recut it and released it as Battle Beyond the Sun. IMDb.

Murray Ross, 1959

Dr Murray Ross, first President of York University, on campus, 1959. Source.

I, Don Quixote

I, Don Quixote aired on November 9, 1959. Lee J. Cobb played Quixote, Eli Wallach Sancho Panza, and Colleen Dewhurst was Dulcinea. Source.

Renza Hale, First Woman on the Moon

Nancy Gates played Renza Hale in the Men Into Space episode "First Woman On The Moon," written by James Clavell, which aired on December 16, 1959. Read about it at wcftr.

 

Hockeyists

Hokkeyisti (1959-60), by Alexandr Deineka. Source.

Scottish Cup Final 1959

From the 1959 cup final. Source.

 

SCOTTISH CUP TRIUMPH

    FOR ST MIRREN

Large Attendance At Final

    by Cyril Horne

    St Mirren, as had been freely forecast, won the Scottish Cup on Saturday at Hampden Park for the second time, their previous success having been in 1926. If the defeat of Aberdeen was far from unexpected the size of the crowd who attended the match certainly surprised most people. At last year's final (between Clyde and Hibernian) the attendance was 95,123 and in 1957 the gate for the Falkirk-Kilmarnock final was 79,960. On this occasion, however, there were 108,591 paying spectators -- over 2000 more than the number who saw the Celtic-Clyde Saturday final in 1955.

    British Record

    Finals in which Celtic or Rangers have participated have generally attracted the largest crowds in view of those clubs' huge following -- the record attendance at a club game in Britain is the 146,433 at the Celtic-Aberdeen final in 1937 -- but the greatest crowd at a final since the Scottish Cup competition was resumed in season 1946-47 was for a match in which neither Celtic nor Rangers were involved -- 136,274 for Motherwell v. Dundee in 1952.

    Three factors contributed to the unexpectedly large gate on Saturday:--

    (1) The weather was fair for the start of the match, though in the middle of the afternoon there was heavy drizzling rain; (2) there was no first-division opposition, the major league programme having been completed; (3) Aberdeen's important victory over Rangers on the previous Saturday had given the final new appeal.

    Nevertheless, the spectator's appetite for the game at the end of a season which has been far from distinguished is remarkable.

 

INJURY MARKS TURNING POINT

        AT HAMPDEN PARK

        St Mirren 3, Aberdeen 1

    For nearly half an hour at Hampden on Saturday Aberdeen played as if they might repeat their success of the previous week in the role of non-favourites. Brownlee, Clunie, and Glen confidently contained the menace of the St Mirren inside forwards, and the left half and Wishart had St Mirren's veteran, Lapsley, clearly worried as they used the still not inconsiderable speed of Hather.

    The even faster Baker had, it is true, once run clear of Clunie and beaten Martin with a shot which grazed the outside of a post, but St Mirren had an even more narrow escape when Walker made a desperate save of a fast ground shot from Davidson and baulked Ewan as the outside right raced in for the kill.

        Rearranged Team

    But in 28 minutes Caldwell limped from the field suffering from a pulled muscle and though he returned five minutes later it was as an outside left, Hather having been withdrawn from the forward line to take over as right back.

    Thereafter it was St Mirren's match and St Mirren's Cup. Caldwell was willing but severely handicapped -- early in the second half when the score was 1 - 0 a fit player would have scored when Walker misjudged a cross from Ewen -- and Hather, beaten by Miller, as Caldwell not once had been, before the cross which Bryceland headed away from Martin two minutes from half time, was too left-footed and too deficient in positional sense to succeed as a right back. I am sure Aberdeen could have tackled their problem much more intelligently; it certainly was rank bad strategy to permit a full back so lacking in mobility as Lapsley an hour of welcome leisure.

    In any event St Mirren's halfbacks proceeded to exert the influence their opposite numbers had done in the first half-hour and Bryceland and Gemmell revelled in the new-found freedom from close marking. In 65 minutes Miller had merely to side-foot the ball over the line for St Mirren's second goal, and seven minutes later Baker strode away from Clunie, who had slipped as he tried to intercept Bryceland's pass, and coolly directed his shot out of the reach of the advancing Martin. In the final minute Baird scored for Aberdeen, having as a right half in his side's later readjustment of their forces made a much more direct approach than ever he had done as a centre forward.

        Semi-Final Form

    For me at least this, after Caldwell's injury, was no great game. Well as St Mirren -- and Bryceland and Gemmell in particular -- played after Aberdeen's misfortune they rarely touched their form of the semi-final on the same ground. Perhaps there will be general agreement now that Celtic that day were a shockingly poor team.

    Martin, Hogg, all three half-backs, and Wishart made tremendous efforts for Aberdeen. The St Mirren half-backs were throughout equally fine players and latterly one could appreciate the combination of skill and thrust that Bryceland, Baker, and Gemmell have introduced.

    Aberdeen's match-winner of recent weeks, Davidson, had an unhappy day. Injured in the first half and justifiably annoyed about the Leishman tackle which caused him hurt, he set about giving a Roland for an Oliver* and in the end had his name taken by the referee. Two St Mirren players were cautioned, Wilson for a dreadful foul on Ewen and Baker for an angry lunge at Hogg. All of this unseemly behaviour occurred in the second half. There was an unequally unpleasant action of Bryceland in the first half which caused Clunie to have trainer's attention; Mr Mowat could not have detected it so firmly did he deal with the latter offenders. Little men should be extra careful in their attentions to opponents; I have known half-backs who without getting themselves into trouble would have lent a great deal of weight to an argument with such as Bryceland.

    St Mirren's well-deserved success would have been more commendable without those misdemeanours.

    ST MIRREN -- Walker; Lapsley and Wilson; Neilson, McGugan, and Leishman; Rodger and Bryceland; Baker; Gemmell and Miller.

    ABERDEEN -- Martin; Caldwell and Hogg; Brownlee, Clunie, and Glen; Ewen and Davidson; Baird; Wishart and Hather.

    Referee -- J. A. Mowat (Burnside).

Glasgow Herald, April 27, 1959, page 4.

*The Song of Roland.

The First Astérix

The first instalment of Astérix was released on this day in 1959. Source.

Space 1959: Luna 1

On this date in 1959 the USSR launched Luna 1, the first attempt by humans to crash something into the moon. It missed, and is now in orbit around the Sun between Earth and Mars. Luna 2 achieved the desired impact on September 14, 1959, a little east of Mare Imbrium. Source.