Third Lanark 14/2/38

Great reports Jon and I love the reporting style of the old days. "Four goals were divided" ... ok it was 2-2. They wouldn't dare report that now that mental arithmetic has been taken over by calculators (and of course map reading will go the same way with Sat Nav)

The juxtaposition of that air-raid shelter story – squeezed beneath the anticipated team line-ups – shows how newspapers were put together in those days with every inch of space being used. And, to partly answer Stefano’s enquiry, 1938 was the year when the Anderson shelter was designed. Locally, Pike’s history of Torquay 1892-1992 records that the town had a “warden service” from 1937 (initially to prepare for gas attacks). Pike also writes that, when the new library was built in 1938, its’ basement was constructed to air-raid shelter standards.

It’s revealing to look at Wiki for events around the time of the Third Lanark game, notably the meeting between Hitler and von Schuschnigg on the Saturday which sealed Austria’s fate (just as we were slipping to a 2-0 defeat at Clapton Orient). The previous weekend, incidentally, saw both a defeat at Exeter and the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in the United States.

The 4.20pm kick-off time for the Third Lanark match seems alarmingly late for February. As far as I can work out we were on GMT that winter; GMT+1 only being introduced during the second year of the war. Seeking out the sunset times for the same day in 2010, the sun was due to set in Torquay at 5.31pm with dusk falling at 6.03pm. Must have been rather murky towards the end when Hutch scored the equaliser – a quick turnaround at half-time and no injury time?

“The 18-year-old Mason” proved to be James Mason who played for Scotland in the late 1940s as well as turning out for Portsmouth and Brentford during the war. One book offers this description “...a great natural talent (who) must be included in any gallery of leading Scottish inside men. He had marvellous ball control and a superb subtlety which, together with a pleasing and unassuming temperament, made him deservedly popular. For many years a licensee in Bridgton, Glasgow.”