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.

A Knight's Grave, Skeabost

Source.

Jules Verne's Tomb

The tomb of Jules Verne, who died on this day in 1905, implies that he hasn't been dead all this time so much as exploring the centre of the earth. Source.

Grave of a Shield Maiden

Top: 1889 record of a Viking burial. Bottom: recreation by Neil Price. From the time of its discovery this skeleton was assumed to be male, but recent DNA analysis shows it was a women. Source.

Dürer's Grave

Albrecht Dürer died 490 years ago today on April 6th, 1528. His grave is in the Johannisfriedhof in Nuremberg. Source.

Murth Murphy

Camp Hill

The Resting Place of Highland Mary

Possibly the resting place of Highland Mary, Greenock Central Cemetery.

Forfar Athletic visit Cappielow. [Cappielow passes pitch inspection.]

It's the beginning of the final quarter of the League One season and Morton are in first place with 51 points and a +18 goal difference. At this rate they'll end the season with 68 points and a +24 GD. Declan McManus is back in front of the scoring race with 13 goals.

Forfar are in fourth place. In the three games between Morton and Forfar already this season Morton have two wins and Forfar one. Morton are strong at home, Forfar weak on the road.

Stranraer are visiting Stirling, where they will likely win, so Morton pretty well must beat Forfar to maintain first place. [Postponed.]

[Forfar win 0 - 2.]

It's the Scottish Cup quarterfinals. Yesterday: Queen of the South 0 - 1 Falkirk. Today: Inverness CT versus Raith Rovers [is postponed]. Tomorrow: Dundee United and Celtic meet to decide which one of them won't win the treble this year, and Hibs play Berwick. [Hibs win. Dundee United 1 - 1 Celtic.]

Scottish Amateur Cup, Seventh Round:

Greenock HSFP AFC (CSAFL) [2 - 3] Harestanes AFC (CSAFL)

Today is the first day of the J League schedule. This season I'll follow Montedio Yamagata, who are newly promoted to J1. They start the season with an away game, travelling to visit their Tohoku rivals Vegalta Sendai. This is Montedio's second stint in J1. The first time lasted from 2008 to 2011. J2 starts tomorrow, and J3 next week. [Sendai win 2 - 0.]

It's the beginning of the League of Ireland schedule. UCD suffered demotion at the end of last season. Can they rebound? They begin the campaign with a visit to Cobh Ramblers. [UCD win 0 - 3.]

On Monday UCD host Cabinteely in the First Round of the League of Ireland Cup. This cup involves 24 clubs, and all the games excluding the final are played on a Monday or a Tuesday. In addition to the 20 clubs of the League of Ireland the competition includes University College Cork, Crumlin United, Cockhill Celtic and Mayo League. [Cabinteely win.]

As we saw last week, Japan and Ireland each begin the football season with a super cup. If Scotland did the same, pitting Scottish Cup winner against league champion, how would that look? Let's pretend they started it in the year 2000:

2000 Rangers (SC) v Rangers (L)

2001 Celtic (SC) v Celtic (L)

2002 Rangers (SC) v Celtic (L)

2003 Rangers (SC) v Rangers (L)

2004 Celtic (SC) v Celtic (L)

2005 Celtic (SC) v Rangers (L)

2006 Hearts (SC) v Celtic (L)

2007 Celtic (SC) v Celtic (L)

2008 Rangers (SC) v Celtic (L)

2009 Rangers (SC) v Rangers (L)

2010 Dundee United (SC) v Rangers (L)

2011 Celtic (SC) v Rangers (L)

2012 Hearts (SC) v Celtic (L)

2013 Celtic (SC) v Celtic (L)

2014 St. Johnstone (SC) v Celtic (L)

Do you see the problem? Half the time you'd have to invite a runner-up. Which is not as super. If you brought in the Scottish Cup runner-up you'd have a replay of the cup final. If you brought in the league runner-up in most cases you'd have an Old Firm match.

But what if you started the season with a Runners-Up Cup?

2000 Aberdeen (SC) v Celtic (L)

2001 Hibs (SC) v Rangers (L)

2002 Celtic (SC) v Rangers (L)

2003 Dundee (SC) v Celtic (L)

2004 Dunfermline (SC) v Rangers (L)

2005 Dundee United (SC) v Celtic (L)

2006 Gretna (SC) v Hearts (L)

2007 Dunfermline (SC) v Rangers (L)

2008 Queen of the South (SC) v Rangers (L)

2009 Falkirk (SC) v Celtic (L)

2010 Ross County (SC) v Celtic (L)

2011 Motherwell (SC) v Celtic (L)

2012 Hibs (SC) v Rangers (L)

2013 Hibs (SC) v Motherwell (L)

2014 Dundee United (SC) v Motherwell (L)

Lots of variety there, and no duplication. How about it for the Runners-Up Cup?

Dartmouth Gothic

Standing Stones