THANK YOU & CONGRATULATIONS!

The Board of The Jags Trust and the Community Central Hall would like to thank all those who purchased tickets for the Festive Raffle and ensured our first joint venture has been such a great success!

The draw was made at CC Halls on 5th January and all prize winners were phoned immediately to advise of their luck.

At the Trust Kiosk on the concourse of the Jackie Husband Stand, at the Queen of the South game on Saturday 7 January 2012, displayed was the winner’s poster but in case you missed it here is the list:

Hospitality for 4 – Tony Hardcastle

Hospitality for 4 – Elizabeth McClure

Festive Hamper – Eddie Welsh

Family Portrait Prints – Louise Rimmer

Family Portrait Prints – Siobhan McLaughlin

1L Bottle Vodka – Jim Gillespie

Whisky 4-1 – Margaret Petrie

Half Bottle Whisky – Dougie Stewart

For Trust Members only was the “SENSATIONAL” draw and the lucky winner of the limited edition, framed print of the ’71 Team was David Ness, number 70233.

Thank you again to all those who participated.

The Jags Trust hope you all have a very merry Christmas and many happy returns.

See you on Boxing day!

PTFC have a fantastic offer to get families back watching football in a friendly, fun environment.

For our game v Livingston on Saturday 3rd December we are offering the chance for adults bringing 2 or more kids to the game to get in for £10.

Yes £10 in total for an Adult with 2 kids.

All we would ask is that you register at www.ptfc.co.uk (so that we can inform you of all the great kid friendly activity we’ll be having over the rest of the season) by filling in and printing one form per child or printing it out blank forms to fill in later, take it to Firhill and exchange for a £10 Adult ticket. The forms received will go into a half time draw with some amazing prizes up for grabs.

On the day there will be face painting, giant slides, PTFC Balloons, and our Stadium slingshot will be firing PTFC Merchandise into the crowd at half time.

So let’s put the fun back into football and get kids to Firhill. If your a member of a local football team, BB Company, Scout Group, Primary: Secondary School, Girl Guides or any other group why not all get together and come along to Firhill on Saturday 3d December.

You’ll have a great day out and might even win a fantastic prize.

Following on from our recent annoucement to continue to sponsor the Manager’s page in the programme, we are pleased to announce another sponsorship deal with the club.

We will be sponsoring the away shirts of both Paul Cairney and David Rowson for the coming season.

Members should keep their eyes open near the end of the season to find out how they can be in a chance of winning the signed tops!

The Jags Trust are pleased to announce that starting this Saturday against Ross County, we will once again be able to sponsor the Manager’s page in the matchday programme.

This is the third consecutive year we have been able to support the club in this manner and we are also hopeful that we will be able to announce another sponsorship deal within the coming days.

The Hunt for Red (& Yellow) October!

We’ve often bemoaned the fact that the only visual record we have of our glorious League Cup triumph lasts just over twenty three minutes and that no full recording of the match survives. Few, however, know the story which shows that were it not for the dogged persistence of one fan, we wouldn’t even have that and could only relive the day with the brief clips of the goals (four real ones and Dalglish’s off-side effort) which survive!

While paranoia is usually a trait attributed to those who collected runners-up medals that day, Jags’ fans eager to revisit (on an almost unhealthily regular basis) the delights of 23/10/71 were left struggling, courtesy of a string of mishaps which suggested that having witnessed the majestic victory, we were to be blighted by a Tutankhamen type curse when it came to reruns.

The match was filmed (for those of a younger vintage, it’s what came before video tape and digital recording) by BBC Scotland, Scottish Television and the Celtic Film Club.

For reasons which are not difficult to comprehend, the third of the trio discarded their footage, indeed it was suggested that it didn’t even reach the developer and went straight into the bin before they even left Hampden Park!

BBC Scotland’s recording mysteriously disappeared in the early eighties, or at least that was their response to several written and verbal approaches by the fan obsessed with getting the ultimate memento of that day of days.

So that left the STV version, well actually it didn’t since their response to an initial enquiry was that it had been destroyed in the fire which gutted the Hope Street studios.

The minor flaw in that argument could be exposed without needing the wits of Sherlock Holmes since the fire, which tragically claimed the lives of two firemen, took place in 1969, two years before the match!

Ultimately it transpired that the film, both the unedited and the 23 minute broadcast version had been lost – and apparently remains so to this day.

From the depths of the mind however was dredged the memory of a night in the old Firhill Club (now the area filled by the club offices) when Davie McParland gave a showing of the edited highlights, a version presented to him as a souvenir by STV.

Unfortunately, on a variety of levels given that he had led us to our greatest triumph of the modern era, Davie’s departure from Firhill was less than amicable and it was perhaps understandable that approaches about the recording were fruitless for a few years.

Ultimately, however, a chance meeting at a dinner in the late lamented Albany Hotel afforded another opportunity for an approach and, coming from one of the Firhill 12, the fans who followed Thistle on mind-expanding and wallet-emptying two-week pre-season trip to Sweden in 1972, Davie Mac agreed to lending his version to let it be immortalised on a more modern medium.

A visit to his pub in Milton of Campsie resulted in the reel being rescued, just in time, from a damp cellar where the acetate based film was already showing signs of deterioration.

Transferred on to video, with copies made for friends, family and Firhill, it has since been moved on to DVD, even to digital versions now and will be centre piece of tonight’s celebrations.

Arthur Montford’s epic comments are all there with much upgoing of heads, a few stramashes and – my personal favourite – with Jimmy Johnstone leaving the field “Celtic are down to twelve men!”

Judge for your-self the decision of the referee not to take any action against Jinky when he savagely raked his shin down Ronnie Glavin’s studs!

It might not be the full magnum opus, but at least the key moments are there to be savoured by those lucky enough to have been present on the day and by those who will, for decades to come, be bored rigid by tales which grow in the telling but which never need to exaggerate either final score or the magnitude of Thistle’s finest hour in living memory.

1971 – What a Sensation

Hope you got a ticket for the hottest show in town?

Tickets available from Firhill £15 (still on sale at the time of going to print)

For all things Red & Yellow, be there to celebrate one of Thistle’s greatest victories, tonight – 22 October 2011 – at Hampden Park.

Supporters Direct, Scotland

SD has been provided with a funding package sufficient to take them through to March 2012.

In the next six months SDS aims to build on the work completed thus far with 30 supporter’s trust and to develop a Scottish Football Supporters Network to promote effective and productive dialogue between football fans, Government, football authorities, clubs, communities and other public authorities.

The Scottish Government has taken a greater interest in supporter behaviour at and around football matches and SDS is represented at all meetings of Joint Review Group (JAG) chaired by Neil Doncaster SPL Chief Executive.

The remit of this group, convened in March 2011, is to report on and discuss progress on the 41 proposals produced.

We await developments with interest.

Morag McHaffie

On October 23^rd 1971, eleven men in the colours of Partick Thistle produced arguably the greatest ever shock result in the history of Scottish Football. A result that prompted legendary Scottish football commentator, Arthur Montford to famously declare; “What a Sensation, it’s 4-0 Thistle”.

In the 1971 League Cup Final at Hampden Park a predominately young, universally exciting Partick Thistle side humbled Jock Stein’s previously all-conquering Celtic team by four goals to one.

On Saturday October 22^nd 2011, almost exactly 40 years to the day of Thistle’s greatest ever triumph, the venue is once again Hampden Park for a celebration of that truly sensational result.

This though will be no staid look back at one of the Club’s yesterdays. Rather it will be a celebration in true sense of the word, and not just of that famous result, but a celebration of Partick Thistle Football Club in general as well. A night for all Thistle fans; young and old to enjoy. All kids that attend the event will be given something to help them celebrate each of the four goals with.

This will be a night of colour (red and yellow obviously), music, laughter and, of course, football. So dig out your scarfs, flags and banners so clear your throats, the bars which will be open should help with that, and get ready to raise the roof in celebration of Partick Thistle. This is the only party in town – make sure you don’t miss it.

Please see the below link for further information on how to buy tickets and for more details of the planned events taking place.

http://www.ptfc.co.uk/fans/1971

We would like to thank those members of the Jags Trust who participated in the consultation process, asked questions and expressed their views, verbally, by email and/or by attending the meeting on 5 October.

On reviewing these responses, the Jags Trust Board found that there were strong views both for and against  the “Special Resolutions” being tabled at the EGM of PTFC Ltd.

For this reason the Jags Trust Board decided that the most appropriate action was to abstain at this evening’s EGM.

Jags Trust Members

The trust is seeking to canvass members’ views on the resolutions being submitted for a forthcoming EGM of PTFC Ltd.

A consultative meeting of members is being held between 7 – 8 pm on Wednesday 5 October 2011 in Maryhill Community Central Halls, 304 Maryhill Road.

The Jags Trust will take the soundings from their members on the evening, or, if you are unable to attend, in writing to (M McHaffie, 1/1, 99 Somerville Dr, Glasgow G42 9BH) or by email to chair@jagstrust.co.uk