Turnbull Hutton, who resigned as Raith Rovers chairman in November, died last night after a short illness. When Scottish Football League chairmen were presented with an Armageddon scenario in 2012 his voice of dissent was first to be heard. Those at the top of Scottish football tried to convince SFL clubs it was in THEIR interests to grant newco Rangers access to the second tier of Scottish football. Hutton saw through this and called-out the presentation by Stewart Regan, Neil Doncaster and David Longmuir, chief execs of the SFA, SPL and SFL respectfully, for what it was.
Craig Whyte bought Rangers in 2011. Within months his team crashed out Europe and he had devised a plan to liquidate, phoenix with a newco and present the SPL with a fait accompli – give me a place in the top flight and I’ll save your league programme and commercial deals.
Once Duff and Phelps were installed as administrators Craig lost control. Had he been able to force through a quick liquidation there is a very good chance the SPL would have voted to allow newco access to the top flight. Newco would have been debt free and able to strengthen their team in 2012.
It would have destroyed Celtic, who had no choice but to resist. As the weeks passed, one by one, SPL clubs said ‘No’. By May the baton passed to the Scottish Football League, who would not only be asked to vote newco as a new member, which the rules permitted them to do, but to elevate this club to the Championship.
The cost of liquidation and becoming a phoenix newco was established by Turnbull Hutton. The rules permitted the applicant club would ask to be voted into the bottom tier of the professional league structure. Hutton insisted the rules be followed, nothing more. For this, Scottish football is in his debt.
You have three days left to bid on the fabulous hospitality for four people one day at this summer’s Open Golf Championship at St Andrews, which takes place from 16-19 July.
The auction is in aid of the Celtic Quick News appeal to build a fourth school kitchen in Malawi for Mary’s Meals. Shuttle transport for the five minute journey to and from the golf course as needed, with beer, Gin and Whisky tastings throughout the day with the master distiller.
You also have the chance to create a unique CQN single malt whisky cask worth potentially £5000 for future CQN charities, and you will receive a bottle of this very special single malt whisky to commemorate the great day when it is bottled in several years.
Eden Mill is Scotland’s newest and most innovative distillery and brewery incorporated in February 2012! Located just 2 miles from the famous Old Course itself it provides a perfect base for hospitality for yourself and 3 friends on a day of your choosing at the forthcoming open golf championship on July 16th to 19th.
But this is so much more than just a day’s hospitality at the home of golf. Before taking to the course to watch, you will enjoy a breakfast roll or two and discuss your perfect single malt whisky with the master distiller.
Whilst you and your friends are enjoying the golf he will seek to surpass your favourite whisky by using the best barley to create the right wash and recommending the right type of barrels for our very own unique CQN 1/4 cask of single malt. A cask which will mature and provide over £5000 of future funding for our charities in a few years’ time.
You will return to the distillery by shuttle bus for lunch and an optional beer tasting and then for afternoon tea with a tutored gin and whisky tasting with the owner capping off a memorable, unique and very special day for your group and for CQN.
My thanks to Eden Mill for their incredible support. You can bid on the auction here.
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Regarding earlier posts. If ibrokes has genuinely been pawned, then that for me is even bigger than a liquidation event. The consequences are absolutely catastrophic for them. They will never challenge us again if the stadium is gone and i mean NEVER.
MWD
This is our 29th anniversary of our wedding today.
We were looking at the video and photographs and there are more dead than alive now.
So a wee bit emotional.
But I remember meeting you before.
You are one of the best and I still owe you a big hug!
Finlay?
Farquar?
RIP Turnbull Hutton. A giant among pygmies. Took up the offer re Hall of Fame. If numpties can’t get on it why not TH? Also used Raith Rovers site. I will be disappointed if our support cannot manage a tribute on Wednesday. Might even agree to 4 mins added on for a 94 tribute!!
Farquhar ( listen ) is a surname of Scottish origin, derived from fearchar (“man”) and car (“big testicles’).[1] Farquharson is a further derivation of the name, meaning “son of big balls”. The name originated as a given name, but had become established as a surname by the 14th century.[
Numptie here cannot meant can. DOH
TBJ
if you could rename them once they show their true prowess – or lack of – then deffo!
HH jamesgang
I also recieved a reply from Raith Rovers
actually from Eric Drysdale sent from his iphone…..not sure if it was automated or not but when they will be inundated with messages it is classy of them to reply.
Awe naw-VG :)
Gene
Cheers pal email sent.
Just been having a little look the CQN comments from the summer.
Right after Ronny Deila first press conference. Just a bit of fun.
Took a wee bit of stick yesterday but I think he called this right.
(b)Gordon J(/b)
(i)While I know little about the man himself I see this as a forward looking appointment. Like all hiring decisions it is a gamble. But I think we have a man who will come to understand the Celtic Way of playing football and get the ethos of the club. it’s going to get interesting.(/i)
(b)Bamboo(/b)
(i)When I saw first saw Johansen playing it was clear he had been very well coached. He was passing and moving and wanting to play at a high tempo .If Diela can get the whole team playing like that then we might have struck gold.(/i)
Still a long way to go but SJ pressing high up is key to our team. Wasted next to Brown.
(b)NegAnon2(b/)
(i)When our new manager was asked today if he was worried Celtic would sell our big players before CL qualification he gave the equivalent of a shrug and said so be it. I think this says everything about this appointment. What Ronny doesn’t realise is that if he doesn’t qualify for the CL he is a busted flush and the recriminations around the club will be awful. We are playing most of these qualifiers away from home.
I am very fearful for Ronny and us.(/i)
Fraser Forster obviously stayed until we were out (the first time) But interesting given Ronny’s recent comments on CL preparations this time round. Think he has told Lawell how it’s going to be.
And finally this belter… Armstrong, GMS?
(b)darwinsbeautifulidea(b/)
(i)Another cheap appointment ,kept saying at press conference he was all about developing young players,sorry but most young scottish players are crap these days,and can,t make rubbish good,sounds like the perfect pirate pete appointment ,not going to demand a lot of high quality signings,and he a bloody whale murdering norweigan,
Thinking of giving up going to games after over 5o yrs continuous support,hope . can get A refund on my season book,funny how they didn,t appoint him till after the deadline for renewals.
STOP THE BLOODY WHALING NO WAY NORWAY(/i)
El Mad.
This is a long post from Derbyshirebhoy/Peter McCutcheon on his Seville experience. You feel even from this post that you’ve known him all your life.
—-
“I didn’t post on the trip before now partly because I got caught up in other things and partly because James Reilly did such a good job of putting together the highlights of our trip together. I have just about forgiven him for describing me as a slim cross between Sean Connery and Father Christmas! I did point out however that I felt he got it spot on. All the sexual magnetism of a Connery coupled with that little bit extra to make the girls feel that Christmas has come early. Couldn’t have put it better myself! :-}}
Anyway others have written very eloquently regarding the atmosphere etc so I’ll not waffle on about that but simply recount one or two other anecdotes and highlights of the trip.
On the day before the match I began by wondering if I’d done the right thing in as I contemplated a six hour drive from Murcia airport with Mr Reilly starting off at around 10pm but this was compensated for by the building anticipation of what might lie ahead in Seville.
My second thought was being of mature years making me just a bit conservative these days I worried that I might stand out a bit if I arrived at East Midlands airport in the hoops so I settled for the largely grey Celtic v Porto T shirt and off I went. Of course when I went into departures lounge I began to feel conspicuous because I wasn’t wearing green and white!
Being as I was meeting James off a Stanstead flight and he had the car I naturally got a little concerned when it became clear that my plane was going to be late and then calm settled over me again when I realised I was the one with the spare ticket. I soon figured out that I was unlikely to be left behind. In fact when I began to realise how many around the lounge were ticketless I reckoned one or two might well offer to ferry me on their back if I asked.
On the flight I sat beside a couple from Liverpool with their two young daughters in the aisle seats across the way. It didn’t take long for the talk to turn to football and it eventually emerged just why they were holidaying in Spain travelling that day. Yes the guy and his eldest daughter who follow the ‘ Pool everywhere had arranged it the week the UEFA tickets came out! The excellent thing was that I discovered that he had arranged with some Celtic pals that whoever got through they would pass on their tickets at face value and that’s what they’d done.
The plane was a 737 carrying a mix of holidaymakers and fans but the seating arrangements seemed to be such that from around midway where I was sat to the back of the plane were all Celts. My Liverpool pal after his third beer was soon encouraging everyone in a chorus or two of “You’ll never walk alone” but that apart it was a quiet flight interspersed mainly with tales from my scouse friend.
The one that had me cringing was of his trip to the Liverpool v Bruges EC Final at Wembley when pre-match he was thrown into a fountain at Trafalgar Square with his ticket in the hip pocket of his jeans. No need to tell you the rest other than it was a very sympathetic turnstile attendant who saved the day. I gather all that could be seen of the ticket was a gold strip which was the security strip for the time. No bar codes then fortunately for him!
The one that caused consternation and a chuckle was when he told of after the match at Anfield when he met a bunch of the Bhoys somewhere down Everton Way. What confused him was why one was carrying a 4×2 painting of the Last Supper? Where had it come from? Had it been to the match? And why on earth was it still in one piece?
The highlight for me however was as the plane touched down and almost spontaneously the cabin erupted with “Hail Hail the Celts are here” I could feel all the emotions begin to stir shortly followed by chuckles of laughter as they broke into
“ You are our pilot, our only pilot
You land us safely when skies are grey
You’ll never know how much we love you
please don’t take our pilot away”
Only bettered by the pilot on coming to a stop emerging to doff his cap to a round of applause.
After an hour or so wait I met James off his flight and off we went. I asked him if he had a map and lo and behold he had. Regrettably it was a glove-box version of Europe, more of which later.
It was by now dark and suffice to say it was quite remarkable that we in fact did arrive in Seville around 3.30 am. Well not quite so remarkable as I quite quickly settled to calling James by his first name – Harold – of the Schumacher variety. ‘ Nuff said and as I am the world’s worst passenger we concentrated on exchanging views re likely line-up etc, my contribution consisting of the odd grunt and stifled scream here and there as we met the next bend or steep descent! The situation was not of course helped by James’ brother Chris who was in Seville and obviously hugely enjoying the Party in the Park insisting in calling James with uncanny timing at the highest speed and the tightest bend. My over-riding thoughts were that I hadn’t seen the game yet and that I was far too young to die. All part of life’s rich tapestry.
My many emotions regarding Seville, the game and the wonderful support were I suppose like everyone else’s and will remain amongst my fondest memories forever. Sprinkled amongst them will be my sharing the top of two twin beds with the Reilly Brothers for a couple of hours shut-eye, my inability to think clearly enough to find anything to eat other than cheese and ham sandwiches – the one exception being an order for tuna and tomato which came toasted and smeared with tomato ketchup!!!, the 1860 Munich supporter and his dad who’d come to see the Bhoys – no tickets of course, the lovely guy who went out of his way to give us a lift to the ground because it was “too hot for you to walk” and the numerous friendly locals who seemed enraptured by these mad folk who’d taken over their city the sole exception being the official at the railway station who having told James’ brother on the Monday that they were running special trains to the stadium for the match threatened to call the police and have us locked for the duration of the match if we continued our polite enquiries as to what had happened to the trains. Judging by his reaction and the queue at the taxi rank and bus stop outside I guess there had been a fair few before us asking the same thing!
In the aftermath of the game I was I suppose like most people in a mixed mood between being extremely proud and just a little deflated because we’d come so close so for me generally everything was a little flat with most of the rest of the trip being carried out on auto-pilot.
General lethargy on the next day was not aided by the overnight kip in the car which really translated into 3 or so hours dozing in a dirt road exit from a petrol station somewhere outside Seville after we’d dropped James’ brother Chris off at the airport.
James who is clearly an organised guy had brought along some sleeping bags but I declined sleeping under the stars. James did but shortly afterwards decided there were more ants than he cared to sleep with as he rummaged about in the boot!
As I dozed off I was awoken by one or two bangings of car doors around me and here and there a variety of hooped figures emerging from cars to complete their various ablutions. I must have dropped off and woke to a grey dawn, no cars around us and feeling quite chilly at which point I realised that there were no cars around, the driver’s window was open , hence the chill and there was no sign of James, who had the keys of course and consequently I couldn’t shut the window.
In my half awake state I remembered James muttering about the ants as he was rummaging in the boot and finally concluded that he’d decided for some reason to clamber in there as every now and then there was a creak from somewhere behind me. Eventually I gave up trying to beat the chill and decided I ‘d get out to stretch my legs. As I got out of the car however the cause of the creaks became apparent as I was startled by the sight of James spark out on the roof of the car. I’m sure his wife loves him dearly but clearly this was more than a man should be expected to face after a UEFA final defeat!
We were well our way before 8.00 and as James’ plane which was first off was at 5.30 we had all the time in the world to potter our way back stopping off in Granada to see the sights which for us consisted largely of the inside of a rather nice little café somewhere near the University and for me a final escape from cheese and ham with a nice tuna sandwich without the tomato ketchup thankfully! Oh and of course there was the senor who served us assaulted us in rapid Spanish about the game. No idea what he said but I don’t think it was uncomplimentary.
On the way back of course I was able to see in all its splendour some of the bends and twists we’d navigated at breakneck speed in the early hours of Wednesday. I was very pleased that it was now daylight and that we now had more than enough time and nowhere to rush off to, which leads me back again to that glove-box map of Europe and why it should be compulsory on every car journey to have a woman passenger.
On the outskirts of Murcia, which is of course where the airport is, (cue pantomime audience – oh no it isn’t!!!!) James took stock at a junction sign-posted Cartagena (remember that – I’ll test you later) and took out the little glove-box map of Europe.
Guess what there’s no indication of a Murcia airport . Still no problem, more than 2 hours to flight time. Seemed like a very sensible thought that we go into Murcia centre, pick –up the inevitable airport sign and Bob’s your uncle. Now’s here’s where the woman passenger bit comes in. I did try, mind you using my feminine side to suggest that James drop me off at the tourist info place we’d just passed but nae problem the sign’ll be just around the corner.
An hour later and no airport sign we’re headed out on the Alicante road just because yours truly remembered that on the night before we’d had to take that direction initially from the airport – so 20 miles on the road to nowhere we are by now desperately seeking an exit so we can head back into Murcia for the first petrol station where we might find a map. We did and with 40mins or so to flight time discovered it was at a place called S. Javier, just off the road to ??? (c’mon you’re not paying attention) – why CARTEGENA of course!!!!!
James tells me Ryan Air apparently operate a strict cut-off of 30mins and looking at the map I reckon its nigh on 20miles to the airport. The next flight to Stanstead is the next day. White knuckle time
Well I don’t know how high the speedo on a Ford Focus goes up to and quite frankly I didn’t look. I just kept consoling myself with the thought that I’d seen the match and if I had to go it was at least with a last fond memory. Pity about the wife and the grandchild but hey you can’t have everything.
Fortunately Ryan Air’s boarding policy was not so strictly enforced as James feared and he caught his flight. Confession time now that as I slipped my hand into my flight case to get out a book to while away the time I pulled out my map of Spain that I forgot I’d taken. What’s that you say James – aye ‘fraid it did show where the airport was. Still we all need a little excitement every now and again:-))
Myself, I had three hours to wait for my flight during which time I met Tims from Southampton and Portsmouth and had probably my most engaging conversation with a German guy on holiday who commented on how unlucky we’d been, what an incredible support we had and that he was particularly taken by the fact that there’d been so many, so much drink and no trouble. All in perfect English of course. He gladdened my heart when he said but that’s typical of the Scots! Certainly when they’re following the Green and White or the Dark Blue it is and let’s hope it’ll be the same for all our teams next time.
For what its worth Stuart from the Isle of Wight had a beer or two with Neil Lennon’s agent and says he’s on his way and BTW Nicky Butt’s coming to us. As Tony would say DSTM!!!
My final memory was of the moment I asked on the plane what did they have in the way of sandwiches to be told that all they had was ham and cheese. The kit – kats tasted very nice :-) ”
RIP
Sad news about Derbyshirebhoy, a Ghent.
Rest in Peace.
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo
so that’s why i walk funny!
you prompted me to look it up.
supposedly means ‘very dear’ – aye my Mum would say, you’ve cost me a fortune!
HH jamesgang
Derbyshirebhoy: may you enjoy eternal rest in Paradise.
cosy corner bhoy…
I just voted, I had no problem. Hope my vote will not be binned, for some strange reason I think it will HH
Ahh I fecked up the bold and italics. Just pretend they’re there.
My bhoy and his GF will be arriving at my Ma’s tomorrow night. Currently Morrisey23 is looking out for spare tickets forthem both. If you know of any please get in touch with Morrisey23. I did tell him he was not allowed to go due to my dispute with the board. He told me to get lost and have O fallen on my head. He’s a good boy. Sometimes.
HH
Above post is regarding the jags game
Philbhoy
Congratulations buddy. 29 years married? Must have got married young in your day. You don’t look a day over 40+30 :)
MWD said AYE
petethebeat…
Thanks for posting Derbyshires post…sleep well mate. RIP.
jamesgang
21:24 on 6 April, 2015
it is now my first and middle name :-)
HH
petethebeat-thanks for posting that,another great Seville story.
PeteTheBeat
21:23 on
6 April, 2015
This is a long post from Derbyshirebhoy/Peter McCutcheon on his Seville experience. You feel even from this post that you’ve known him all your life.
———-
That’s lovely. and very poignant. and all about what the Celtic Family is about.
I’m away for now beautiful Tims. Take care of one another.
KTF
HH jamesgang
PeteTheBeat
Thanks for posting that mate.
Pete the beat
Thanks for posting that Derbyshire bhoy story
Great memories of that time, I never made seville but was at the match in stutgart on the way there and I met some guys who had a 4× 2 painting of the last supper, has to be the same one..
Maybe we should get a CQN memory stone and etch the names of those who have passed away onto it.
HH
Folks I have a spare for Inverness away this Saturday.
If you’re interested please post on here or contact me at hamiltontim@hotmail.co.uk
WITS
same one mate.
HH
Pete the Beat
Thank you for that!
He will be missed!
Awe naw
It has to be
Good night great Celts!
Sent a message to Raith Rovers about Turnbull Hutton. Got a reply from Eric Drysdale CEO. It was not automated message as he used my name in his reply.
After they had beat us in the league cup final at snake mountain I took a distinct dislike for them. Over the years I have mellowed with their actions on and off the park.
Just had a response to my email from Eric Drysdale. Well done to him and his club.
Leave you with this…..ignore the silly video and listen to the tune
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YTqmMDd3zs
First time I ever took my kids to Paradise was for the Phil O D tribute match.
They got to see KoK in the flesh though the wee beggars wanted to go to the loo every 2 mins.
Daddy had a wet face which confused them. Losing Phil and TB was too much to handle.
This song was playing.
Ever since it’s made me smile and cry at one and the same time.
HH jamesgang
21:39 on
6 April, 2015
Sent a message to Raith Rovers about Turnbull Hutton. Got a reply from Eric Drysdale CEO. It was not automated message as he used my name in his reply.
After they had beat us in the league cup final at snake mountain I took a distinct dislike for them. Over the years I have mellowed with their actions on and off the park.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I just re-read the mail i received from Eric Drysdale and he also used my name in his reply.
Full respect to him taking the time to reply personally
PS the wet face was NOT related to them needing the loo!