The Walk with Shay team sent me the next in their series on living club captains and their incredible raffle. The first can be found here, goo luck to all participants.
“The countdown is now on for the Walk With Shay Green Raffle Army prize draw on 25th May 2017 at Paradise. There is still time left to purchase raffle tickets to win our Club Captains of Celtic Away Top, covering 53 years of our Clubs unbroken history and a host of other amazing Celtic prizes, but don’t leave it too late.
Here is the next part of the club captains story”
Captain No 3: Tommy Boyd-November 2014
Tommy was an inspiration as Club Captain and still raises the bar high amongst the Celtic family as a Club Ambassador; giving up free time, and taking part in numerous fundraising events within the club and with the supporters, always taking time to talk to fans, signing autographs etc. Indeed, when we had a few beers in Mollies, he spent the entire night happily being interrupted by fans asking for photos and signatures. He obliged them all without a moan or groan. His wife told us that he loved the attention and was in his element. I had gone to the toilet at one point and a Chelsea fan who was standing next to me as we passed the time of day, asked “Who’s that you’re with? And I said to him joking, “Imagine, not knowing that! That’s Tommy Boyd, he played for your team”. I thought nothing more of it, until the boy appeared beside Tommy, ten minutes later asking for a photo. I later told Tommy, that I had chatted him up in the toilets earlier, for him.
For Tommy’s signature, I got in contact with Tommy’s CQN buddy who agreed to put the wheels in motion to assist with Captain number 3. A couple of days later, I was in the Kerrydale Bar having a pre-match beer with CQNer, TTTT. It was very busy, but who appears in front of me, as if by magic, Tommy Boyd. We had a brief chat and I said to him that I needed a favour as I was looking for him to sign the two tops. He said” Sure no problem”, and gave me his mobile number and told me to call him. The next week after a call, there was Tommy Boyd in my office at work signing the two tops. Tommy still claims to this day that he was the only Club Captain that came to us, to get the Tops signed… At this point, I had told Andy F about my plans and had enlisted his support and help in the search for the 11 club captains. There was still a long way to go and I started to realise that to complete this momentous task, that I would need help.
Captains No 4 and 5: Danny McGrain and Scott Brown-May 2015
Thanks to Andy F, this was a breeze in the park, as he got in touch with Tony Hamilton, CEO of Celtic FC Foundation who agreed to help. We duly and slightly nervously handed the tops into Celtic Park for signing in due course. The tops had never been out of possession up to this date, but we knew that they would be well looked after by Tony.
Danny had taken ill at the time, so we knew he had not been working at Celtic Park, but Tony went out his way to get both Danny and Broony to sign the tops, within a short space of time. The significance and uniqueness of the tops started to dawn on everybody now involved in collecting signatures, but we still had a long way to go to achieve the dream.
Captain no 6: Billy McNeill – March 2015
Billy, I had thought would be one of my easiest signings to obtain given his previous assistance on the Bringing Martin Home and Wee Oscar 4 Life campaigns. It was a joy to be invited into the McNeill household and for Billy to recall various Celtic stories. His wife, Liz was also lovely and they both knew my youngest daughter, Niamh who went to the nursery ran by Billy’s son. In fact, there was many a day when Billy popped into the nursery with lunches for the kids and I would have great delight in telling Niamh, just who the man, that regularly brought her lunch was.
I contacted Liz via text shortly after I had come up with the idea of the tops, but there had been no response. Billy was struggling with his illness and was going through a difficult time at this period. I had sensed that all was not well, and decided to put Billy’s signature on the back burner. It was actually not until the following March, that Liz got word to me, that they were waiting for me to pop in, so Billy could sign the tops. I arranged to pop in and since it was March 17th (St Patrick’s day), I bought 4 cans of Guinness for Billy and some wine and flowers for Liz and took them across. You could tell that Billy was struggling, but as they always did, the McNeill’s made me welcome in their house and we chatted for ages. Billy signed one top and Liz told him that it was a poor signature. I jumped in and say it was wonderful, Billy proceeded to sign the other top. He still regaled some great Celtic stories from years ago, but you could see at times how he struggled to remember and that he had a tear in his eye when he talked about Jinky. I gave him the four cans and he said thank you, to which he then said to Liz, “Am I allowed these?” She replied “You can have one can tonight, due to your medication”. I smiled as here was the legend Cesar being closely marked and had little or no room for manoeuvre.
Little, did I realise, that the signatures I had received that day were probably one of the last signatures given by Billy, due to his deteriorating condition which would restrict him from signing in the near future. It says a lot for the McNeill family that they had went out their way to help us, when this should have been the last thing on their minds at this difficult time, but this was the McNeills’.
Club Captain no 7: Neil Lennon-August 2015
We took a few months out in the quest for the Club Captains signatures, and started to push it again in August 2015. My Dad’s friend was Neil Lennon’s agent’s father (less than six degrees of separation!!) and I had previously pestered my Dad to speak to him to see if his friend could help. Eventually, it all came good and I was to pass the tops over to Lenny’s agent, Martin Reilly, as he was travelling down to Bolton to catch up with Lenny and Johan Mjallby. The tops were duly passed over to my Dad, with the instruction “Lenny only please” and he passed the tops over to his friend with the same message.
I got a call a week later to pick up the signed tops from my Dad’s friend house, and popped in after work as he lived just around the corner. As he brought the tops out, he said there was a little problem and told me that Johan had signed the tops as well, but it was ok as he was a Captain as well. I tried to hide my look of horror and not trying to sound ungrateful and I said “Thank you, but he wasn’t a Club Captain though, but never mind”. I thought “How am I going get around this one? Can I hide or cover it up, perhaps? Maybe even rub it out!” It is amazing what runs through your head at times. I was also struggling to get hold of Roy Aitken, and a crazy thought came into my head for an instant; “Perhaps I could kid on it was Roy Aitken’s autograph?”. As I looked at Johan’s signature more closely, I saw the number 35 next to his signature, I thought “Nope!” And dismissed the mad thought in an instant. This was going to be our Celtic kinder egg!
Part 3 to follow soon.
The countdown is now on for our amazing draw on 25th May 2017 at Paradise, but there is still time left to purchase (or sell) raffle tickets to win our Club Captains of Celtic Away Top, covering 53 years of our Clubs unbroken history, and a host of other amazing Celtic prizes.
Contact us now via:
email walkwithshay@yahoo.com
Twitter @walkwithshay
369 Comments- Pages:
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Hail! Hail!
Hi
Reggie on 16th May 2017 12:30 pm
You don’t have great hearing then; “The Broad Black Brimmer”; “Merry Ploughboy”; “Roll of Honour”; “Aiden Macanespie”; “The Snipers Promise” to name but a few.
I know because I am in the North Curve and they are sung most home matches as well as away matches (Aiden Macanespie less so than the others).
Even Grace is a song in support of IRA martyrs. Sean South is also another regular.
They don’t get much more Rebel than that!
KTF
Afternoon Celts
See Sevco are at it again.
The Billy Gilmour fee…no mention of the perks of the deal,… pies and buckfast:)
HH
Pedro is Ga Ga.
BOURNE…
Do you think Level5 and SMSM will ever wake up to the fact their mawkish,fawning behaviour towards all thing hun is actually counter productive?Are they all really THAT dumb?
Every propaganda piece they scribble just makes me think,’the plot thinnens’.
Very enjoyable stuff for this tim. ;))
VFR
What a coincidence, i was singing all those songs earlier:)
HH
Word of The Day – Version 2 (Inspired by charity – https://www.ebid.net/uk/for-sale/big-charity-raffle-156693864.htm)
raffle /ˈræfəl/
noun
1. a form of lottery in which a number of persons buy one or morechances to win a prize.
2. verb (used with object), raffled, raffling.
3. to dispose of by a raffle (often followed by off):
4. verb (used without object), raffled, raffling.
5. to take part in a raffle.
6. verb (transitive) to dispose of (goods) in a raffle
Derived Forms
raffler, noun
Word Origin and History for raffle
n.
late 14c., “dice game,” from Old French rafle “dice game,” also”plundering,” perhaps from a Germanic source (cf. Middle Dutch raffel”dice game,” Old Frisian hreppa “to move,” Old Norse hreppa “to reach,get,” Swedish rafs “rubbish,” Old High German raspon “to scrape together,snatch up in haste,” German raffen “to snatch away, sweep off”), fromProto-Germanic *khrap- “to pluck out, snatch off.” The notion would be “tosweep up (the stakes), to snatch (the winnings).” Dietz connects theFrench word with the Germanic root, but OED is against this. Meaning”sale of chances” first recorded 1766.
v.
“dispose of by raffle,” 1851, from raffle (n.). Related: Raffled ; raffling.
v.
“dispose of by raffle,” 1851, from raffle (n.). Related: Raffled ; raffling.
Get your raffle tickets here: https://www.ebid.net/uk/for-sale/big-charity-raffle-156693864.htm
ACGR is providing some of his excellent whisky along with other sumptuous prizes!
KTF
Good Afternoon.
Here is my latest, about how Sevco’s U20s are going to save us all!
https://theclumpany.wordpress.com/2017/05/15/sevco-saviours-of-the-british-empire/
VFR800 IS NOW A MONSTER 821,
“The Snipers Promise”is a knew one on me.I have never heard that sung .A Golden Oldie there.
Off topic I just heard a journalist Martin Webster on Radio Scotland who is the golf writer at the Scotsman, saying that the wearing of football and rugby tops while spectating at golf should be banned, I guess seeing the Hoops on several spectators at Sawgrass at the weekend got right up his nose. Good.
The thing is imo, level5 and the MSM seem to forget that the tools they are using to put out their propaganda are the same tools that Tims have, but the difference is we put in the the things they leave out , a thing that they are immune to, it’s called the truth, and we’ve moved on, they’ve went backwards, simple.
Good Afternoon from The Atlantic Ocean, cruising towards our last port of call Belfast arriving high noon on Wednesday, Regarding Fatima Trip whilst in Lisbon, l would be up for it
TD67@1:10
Plus….The Tims are much smarter, and funnier:)
HH
A dress code for golfers playing in tournaments is in place, the paying customers? Any other country in the world will laugh at this, but here? And this guy is not a golf writer, he’s now a hurting hun golf writer and he can GIRFU him.HH
A STOR MHA CHROI on 16TH MAY 2017 12:03 PM
TIMALOY29:
I wasn’t aware that all their contracts has been run down, to be honest (not facetious) I really don’t follow tha Aberdeen players contract status too closely.
Just a point where you name Eboue, Griffiths & Tierney and comment:
“Nailed down for the long term. Unlikely to leave unless the club wants them to.”
I was of the understanding that no contacted player could be forced to leave his club against his wishes.
____
Well, Celtic cannot force anybody to leave without paying off their contract.
I was suggesting that if somebody were to try and buy one of those player (Tierney in particular) Celtic would be under no compulsion to sell.
I’d expect Celtic to keep Tierney for at least 2 further seasons. If he then refused to sign a contract, Celtic might be tempted.
I suppose the point is, ignore the absolute rubbish you read about Kieran Tierney being sold. He’s probably the least likely player to leave Celtic in the whole squad.
BABAS
No they won’t and every other day Celtic fans will be reminded through the actions of SMSM how their stuff, helped kill old Rangers.
If they had told it as it was, in the lead up to 2008 then they might not have let their club go off the radar never mind die, they now have to make do with Shinebox FC where their only salvation is a bent SFA.
Aye you’re right, watch them scramble for the bosmans in the penniless arcade where the wheels have even fallen off any bus for a development game in the central belt.
The Gift CSC
DESSYBHOY on 16TH MAY 2017 1:09 PM
Off topic I just heard a journalist Martin Webster on Radio Scotland who is the golf writer at the Scotsman, saying that the wearing of football and rugby tops while spectating at golf should be banned, I guess seeing the Hoops on several spectators at Sawgrass at the weekend got right up his nose. Good.
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Strange. Did he give a reason for this?
Hockey tops OK???
BSR
Any ‘player’ who goes into that cesspit is either: A. Finished
B. Mental
C. Desperate
D. All of the above.
Surely the farce that is sevco, must face the music at some point, but not yet:)
Lets wait till we see their signings for Europe:)
Now…that will cause serious hilarity.
Cant wait.
HH
Shinebox FC ;)))
I agree with Martin Webster, spectators should only be allowed when wearing Club blazer and brown brogues – and definitely no women.
Quick turnaround for Bobby Madden who was demoted to a lower league game after his penalty decision at Celtic Park?
FastTrackBackToTheFinal CSC
Natknow
Very weak argument about people having allegances to clubs which should not be brought to the golf, he was not asked which examples he has seen and the negative impact of peoples wearing football tops, he threw in rugby as a squirrel, I took it to mean Celtic tops as they stand out very clearly, he had an Edinburgh accent and was struggling even when interviewed by Goodlad to justify what he was suggesting, I wonder what the R and A will do if lobbied on this.
BSR
Bobby Madden has accepted he got the ‘penalty ‘ incident wrong and should have booked Griffiths for diving. The SFA confirmed that was the reason he was demoted.
It’s Martin Dempster not Webster.
Martin Webster,from what I can gather,would have been fond of hunnery though.
Gene
The SFA kindly giving Bobby Madden the chance to rectify his previous honest mistake.
Im sure they reminded him…not to make it too obvious next time:)
HH
Webster / Dempster – typical CQN fake news
I was a bit disappointed with the Labour Manifesto…..No Committee of Public Safety, No Guillotine
Far too soft:)
HH
TGM
For a five year old club they must have a world record in flop no transfer fee ‘signings’.
Pedro Caixinha who appears odd at best will do well to hold off Kenny Miller for his big jaiket
GoneByChristmas CSC
Watched an item on tv last night about the making of Japanese rice wine.Turns out it was sake news. ;)
Celtic are to blame for this. They should have forced a reform of referees. Utter cheating beyond belief. His displays are McCurry level. The more blatant the better his chances of big games. The display Huns v Accies in cup was shocking. Keeper handles outside box. Penalty with no contact then the kicking of Imrie. Then game at Parkhead 2 footed lunge by Miller assault on Roberts , Hill allowed 5 yellow offences before he was booked then the penalty (NON). And Huns v Hearts. Stonewaller not given for Hearts and Garner fouling keeper for winner. All could be seen by a blind man.. But maybe not one with a blindfold and trouser leg rolled up..
DESSYBHOY on 16TH MAY 2017 1:26 PM
Natknow
Very weak argument about people having allegances to clubs which should not be brought to the golf, he was not asked which examples he has seen and the negative impact of peoples wearing football tops, he threw in rugby as a squirrel, I took it to mean Celtic tops as they stand out very clearly, he had an Edinburgh accent and was struggling even when interviewed by Goodlad to justify what he was suggesting, I wonder what the R and A will do if lobbied on this.
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Living in Edinburgh, I can see where he’s coming from. There’s nothing makes a mans blood boil more than seeing a Heriots FP top when you are a Watsons man… What a cock.
That said – it would not surprise me if the R&A introduced a dress code for spectators. It’s that kinda place.
Mind the time he sent off Wanyama?
BABASONICOS71
apparently Mary Berry to channel 4 was cake news :))
GENE…
David Leggat…jake news. ;)
The Green Man says SACK THE Board on 16th May 2017 1:03 pm
I’ve been known to join in a few of them as well!
The only one I don’t like (as the father of a serving soldier and another in the TA after leaving) is the “Get the Brits out” add-on. I have a good friend who is also in the TA and a season ticket holder and, naturally, that one isn’t his favourite either. there are many, many serving soldiers who are dyed in the wool Tims!
Turkeybhoy on 16th May 2017 1:05 pm
Aye, it’s had more than a few airings this season!
KTF
NatKnow
Living in Edinburgh, I can see where he’s coming from. There’s nothing makes a mans blood boil more than seeing a Heriots FP top when you are a Watsons man… What a cock.
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Enough to send one into Fettes of rage.
VFR800 IS NOW A MONSTER 821 on 16TH MAY 2017 1:01 PM
I think we both know that it is songs that specifically mention the IRA that many people take offence to. Take that out the repertoire and there would be no issue. You may think that is a technicality. Perception is reality. I think it hurts the club. L̶e̶n̶n̶o̶n̶ Neil Francis thinks it hurts the club. The board think it hurts the club. Many other supporters think it hurts the club. I hope I don’t have to hear Rodgers saying it hurts the club. If he’s asked, and I think it’s coming, if he ever wants to work in England again then that is exactly what I think his response will be.