Plenty of Nothing

Elephant Bird

Source.

The Dunstable Swan Jewel

Source.

Lyndale and Carruthers

Source.

Bewick's Swan

Bewick's Swan is a variety of Tundra Swan named for Thomas Bewick the engraver and author of A History of British Birds. His son Robert Bewick made this engraving.

Source.

The Silchester Eagle

The Silchester Eagle was discovered in 1866 at the site of the abandoned Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum in Hampshire. It inspired Rosemary Sutcliffe's 1954 novel The Eagle of the Ninth, though it probably wasn't part of a legionary standard. You can see it at Reading Museum. Source.

Gary the Gull's Greenock

This map records some of the foraging expeditions of a tagged seagull named Gary who was operating from a nest on the roof of the Greenock police station in 2018. Visit this site to follow Gary's journeys, including a holiday in Portugal.

Alloa visit Cappielow to make up the game postponed by bad weather on March 16th.

This match is crucial ... for Falkirk. If Alloa win or draw it will drop Falkirk into tenth place. On the other hand if Morton win it give the Ton 39 points, more or less lifting them out of the relegation battle. And if Queen of the South win they too will be very nearly clear of relegation. The combinations and permutations are narrowing down toward Falkirk getting relegated.

Alloa beat Falkirk Saturday, while Morton played to a draw against QoS.

Also tonight:

Ayr United [1 - 0] Queen of the South

Ross County [1 - 0] Dunfermline

[Morton 1 - 2 Alloa. Goal by Kiltie. Morton cannot earn promotion.]

Most draws in a 36-game season, Morton (updated):

14            2001-02

13            2016-17

12            3 times + 2018-19 after 31 games

11            4 times

10            5 times

  9            once

Wins and opponents. Have Morton ever played a season in which the number of their league wins was equal to the number of their divisional opponents? Yes, lots of times: 2007-08 (9 wins: 9 divisional opponents); 2000-01 (9:9); 1981-82 (9:9); 1956-57 (18:18); 1953-54 (15:15); 1952-53 (15:15); 1934-35 (17:17); 1897-98 (9:9); 1894-95 (9:9).

In any of those years did Morton earn exactly one win against each opponent?

No.

Has any team ever had such a season?

Yes, Ayr FC did in 1900-01. They played an 18-game season in the ten-team Second Division, and beat Hamilton, Port Glasgow, Airdrieonians, St Bernard's, Motherwell, Clyde, Leith, East Stirlingshire and Abercorn once each, and were beaten once by each of them, for a final total of nine wins and nine losses, good for sixth place.

Teams without a loss in Scottish League play:

Celtic            1897-98 Division 1        18-15-3-0

Rangers        1898-99 Division 1        18-18-0-0

Kilmarnock    1898-99 Division 2        18-14-4-0

Rangers        2013-14 League One    36-33-3-0

Celtic            2016-17 Premiership     38-34-4-0

The club with seniority in the First Division/Championship, beginning 1994:

1994-95    10-way tie

1995-96    7-way tie

1996-97    5-way tie

1997-98    3-way tie

1998-99    2-way tie

1999-00    2-way tie

2000-01    Airdrieonians

2001-02    Airdrieonians

2002-03    Falkirk

2003-04    Falkirk

2004-05    Falkirk

2005-06    2-way tie

2006-07    2-way tie

2007-08    Clyde

2008-09    Clyde

2009-10    Queen of the South

2010-11    Queen of the South

2011-12    Queen of the South

2012-13    Partick Thistle

2013-14    Morton

2014-15    Raith Rovers

2015-16    Raith Rovers

2016-17    Raith Rovers

2017-18    Falkirk

2018-19    Falkirk

If Falkirk stay up they will continue as senior side, otherwise the title goes to Queen of the South, unless they both go down in which case it falls to Morton.

CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield group stage:

April 7:

Santiago de Cuba 0 - 0 Scholars International

April 9:

Hoppers [5 - 2] Platinum FC

Santiago de Cuba [4 - 0] Fruta Conquerors

[Both Hoppers and Santiago de Cuba advance.]

The Canadian Premier League squads are in the Dominican Republic, and there are friendlies going on. Those involving the Haligonians are:

HFX Wanderers vs FC Edmonton

HFX Wanderers vs Inter RD

Inter RD are originally from Bayaguana, a cattle ranching town in the center of the country. They must have a large roster, or else the CanPL is treating them like third world resort workers, because they played two matches on Sunday, losing 4 - 0 to Calgary and 5 - 1 to York 9.

Coincidentally, the topic of last Wednesday's The Knowledge was "Has a football team ever had to play more than one game in a day?"

They were admitted to the LDF Serie A for the 2018 season, and finished 11th out of 12. This year they're out, though the team that was 12th are still in, and the LDF is reduced to 11 teams.

According to this document the Federacion Dominicana de Futbol refused Inter RD a license to play in Serie A this season. I don't know exactly what brought that on, but from the tenor of some of the remarks on Twitter, which include charges of human rights abuse, I'd guess they had stopped paying their players.

Their shirt sponsor is Dominican Sporting and Events (DSE), the company that's running this training camp.

Inter RD. Do they have a players' union? Source.

Elmer of Farnham

Gilbert White's favourite painter was Stephen Elmer of Farnham, who specialized in portraits of game birds. This painting of cock and hen black grouse resides in the Museum of Farnham.

Owl Door, Copenhagen

Source.

Pigeon Egg

The Bluebird of Happiness

Sialia sialis, by Audobon. Source.

Cardiff City FC visit Cappielow for a pre-season friendly. Cancelled.

Cardiff City are the top club in Wales but they play in the English Premiership, not the Welsh Premier League. They're one of six Welsh clubs that play in the English system. The others are Swansea (English Championship), Newport County (League Two -- tier IV), Wrexham (National League -- tier V), Merthyr Town (Southern Football League, Premier South Division -- part of tier VII), and Colwyn Bay (Northern Premier League, Division One West -- part of tier VIII). How the Welsh Premier League compares is hard to know because there is at present no competition in which all Welsh clubs participate. The Welsh Cup used to admit everybody from Wales (and some English teams too) but no longer includes the six Welsh clubs of the English leagues.

A consequence of the exclusion of the six from the Welsh Cup is that they no longer have a competition in which to play one other. The Welsh Cup final often used to come down to two of Cardiff, Wrexham, Swansea and Newport.

Were the Bluebirds in the Welsh Premier League today they would undoubtedly win it and then they would be invited into the Scottish Challenge Cup. As it is Wrexham are the ones who could turn up next year, if they wind up as one of the top two National League sides that miss promotion this year. (They finished 10th in 2017-18.)

Cardiff City wear blue, and somewhere along the way they aquired the nickname The Bluebirds. Their badge contains an image of a bluebird, or some kind of blue swallow anyway. Bluebirds are not native to the British Isles. They're North American, and they aren't swallows or martins, they're thrushes. The songs "Bluebird of Happiness" and "There'll Be Bluebirds Over the White Cliffs of Dover" were written in America. Cardiff City's bluebird is just as much a mythic beast as the Welsh dragon.

Championship League Cup stats-o-palooza:

The League Cup group stage is done. Group E included three 2018-19 Championship sides. Let's make a table out of the results between Ayr United, Morton and Partick:

                         G    W    D     L    F    A   GD  Pts

Ayr United         2     2     0     0    5    1   +4    6

Partick               2     1     0     1    2    1   +1    3

Morton               2     0     0     2    2    5    -3    0 

Group A also had three clubs from the Championship in it: Alloa, Dundee United and Ross County. Let's make a table out of the results between them:

                          G    W    D    L    F   A   GD   Pts

Ross Co            2     2     0     0    3    0    +3    6

Dundee Utd       2     0     1     1    1    2     -1    1

Alloa                  2     0     1     1    1    3     -2    1

Now combine the tables:

                         G    W    D     L    F    A   GD  Pts

Ayr United         2     2     0     0    5    1   +4    6

Ross Co            2     2     0     0    3    0   +3    6

Partick               2     1     0     1    2    1   +1    3

Dundee Utd       2     0     1     1    1    2    -1    1

Alloa                  2     0     1     1    1    3    -2    1

Morton               2     0     0     2    2    5    -3    0

We'll see if the Championship standings line up like this after two weeks of league play. (See August 18th.)

Compare last season's group stage points (A) to the final league standings (B):

A                                          B

Falkirk                 12            St Mirren            74

Dundee Utd         11            Livingston          62

Livingston           11            Dundee Utd       61

Dunfermline        10            Dunfermline       59

Morton                    8            Inverness CT     57

Inverness CT          8            QoS                   52

QoS                        7            Morton               50

St Mirren                 6            Falkirk               47

Brechin                   2            Dumbarton        30

Dumbarton             1            Brechin                4

Pretty clearly the story of last season was the rise of St Mirren and the fall of Falkirk.

Now, sort the 2018-19 Championship clubs by points earned in this year's group stage:

12        Dunfermline

12        Ayr United

  9        Queen of the South

  9        Ross County 

  9        Partick Thistle

  9        Inverness CT

  8        Alloa

  6        Morton

  6        Falkirk

  5        Dundee United

(Clubs in bold advanced.)

What this list shows is that there is no doormat in this year's Championship. I think the spread between top and bottom at season's end is going to be comparatively small. This could be the year that a club with 40 points finishes tenth.

Who was the leading scorer for each Championship side in the group stage, and how many regulation-time goals did he get?

7        Stephen Dobbie (Queen of the South)

7        Lawrence Shankland (Ayr United)

4        Miles Hippolyte (Dunfermline)

3        Michael Tidser (Morton)

3        Nicky Clark (Dundee United)

3        Alan Trouten (Alloa)

3        Nathan Austin (ICT)

2        Dylan Mackin (Falkirk)

2        Shea Gordon (Partick Thistle)

1        six players (Ross County)

Did Hearts' 2-point deduction have any effect on the composition of the round of 16? No.

It's the preliminary round of the 2018-19 Challenge Cup, starring clubs 3 and 4 of the Highland and Lowland leagues. This is the first time the Challenge Cup has had such a thing as a preliminary round. It became necessary when the two English teams were added to the tournament in early June. Up till that point all eight of the participating tier V clubs thought they were in Round One. Read: Highland Bosses in a Fizz.

BSC Glasgow 0 - 1 East Stirlingshire (July 29)

Despite having been relegated from the SPFL in 2016, East Stirlingshire have yet to miss out on a Challenge Cup campaign.

Inverurie Loco Works [2 - 2] Fraserburgh (Aug 1). [Locos win on penalty kicks.]

UEFA Champions League 2QR, second leg:

Rosenborg [0 - 0] Celtic. [Celtic progress.]

Malmö [1 - 1] CFR Cluj. [Malmö progress.]

Fortuna Düsseldorf's U19 squad is holding its training camp on the Dalhousie University campus. See here for a Fortuna article on Saturday's game.

SJFA West Region League Cup group stage:

Largs Thistle 5 - 2 Saltcoats Victoria (July 30)

Kilwinning Rangers [3 - 2] Largs Thistle (Aug 1)