The Hi Hi

[Uilleam 5,948]

Third Lanark unveil plan to restore their Cathkin Park home

 

A reformed Third Lanark have unveiled ambitious plans to move to Cathkin Park in Glasgow's southside, the club's spiritual home.

 

It was once one of Scotland’s best-known football stadiums, regularly hosting top-flight matches and attracting thousands of cheering supporters from across the country. But Cathkin Park, in the southside of Glasgow, was left to rot after its home club, Third Lanark, went bust in 1967. The club went bust three years later and the ground was effectively abandoned before being bought by the local council.

Its grandstands were eventually dismantled and the ground was bought by the local authority, who retained the pitch for public use. Now ambitious plans have been unveiled that could see a reformed Third Lanark rebuild their spiritual home as a modern footballing centre. A consortium are in talks over funding for the redevelopment of Cathkin Park, which would see an all-weather pitch, changing facilities and floodlights installed. Directors of the project want to see the renovated stadium used for football and cricket – with both sports having a large following in the nearby Mount Florida and Govanhill areas. Cathkin Park's grandstand was demolished in the 1970s but the original post-war terracing remains.

The revived Third Lanark AFC are currently top of the third division of the Greater Glasgow Amateur League and groundshare at Vale of Clyde’s Fullarton Park in Tollcross. But the club hopes to return to Cathkin in the near future. “We want to establish Third Lanark as a football and sporting club at the centre of the local community,” chairman Ian Alexander told the Sunday Mail. “We’ve had meetings with Glasgow City Council regarding our proposals and they have been extremely positive. The plans for a five-phase development would initially cost about £250,000 for a basic infrastructure.

 

“It’s a five-year, £5million plan which would see a 2000-seater stand, smaller pitches and car parking built. “We want to forge close links with Govanhill. It’s the most racially diverse part of Scotland with more than 40 nationalities within a square mile.”

The original Third Lanark club was formed in 1872 by members of the Third Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers (3rd LRV). Known by supporters as the Hi-Hi, Thirds quickly established itself as a force in Scottish football and was for many years considered the third biggest club in Glasgow behind Celtic and Rangers. As late as 1961, the side finished third in the top division. But a series of boardroom squabbles in the mid-1960s saw the club relegated, with fans and players alike increasingly alienated by off-the-pitch activities.

 

B]Thirds were liquidated in 1967 and a subsequent board of trade investigation found widespread corruption within the club’s operations. [/b]

 

http://www.scotsman.com/heritage/people-places/third-lanark-unveil-plan-to-restore-their-cathkin-park-home-1-4421112

 

I still don 't know why they were called The Hi Hi.......

Edited April 17, 2017 by Uilleam

[the gunslinger 3,366]

I lile stuff like this. Good luck to them.

 

 

[Uilleam 5,948]

I lile stuff like this. Good luck to them.

 

Agreed. Hope it works out.

[BrahimHemdani 1]

My very first Rangers game was vs The Third Lanark Volunteer Rifles at Ibrox and I think my first away game was at Cathkin with 45,000 packed inside. The boys gate was a very long snake line.

 

I and some other boys were sat on the track and had to make way as a horseback policeman rode past temporarily coming between Alex Scott and taking a corner.

 

In my days in Amateur Football I was the Secretary of King's Park FPFC for a short period. They played at Cathkin.

 

It would be great to see the the "Thirds" back.

Edited April 17, 2017 by BrahimHemdani
Recollection of police horse incident

[BrahimHemdani 1]

Goodfellow, Hilley, Harley, Gray, and McInnes the names still run off this old boy's tongue.

 

A devastating forward line in the day when forwards were forwards and real men wore brilcream.

Edited April 17, 2017 by BrahimHemdani
Brilcream!

[compo 7,052]

Be nice to see them back

[Crimson Dynamo 128]

Good luck to them, I regularly go up the park and have a kick about.

[BrahimHemdani 1]

I don't remember the guy's name who owned them at the end but it used to be said that they paid the refs in old threepenny bits (multi sided like the new pound coins but much heavier) rather than take them to the bank.

 

It might have been Bill Huddleston or I could be hopelessly mistaken.

 

EDIT Found it. BILL HIDDLESTON

Edited April 17, 2017 by BrahimHemdani

[Scott7 6,016]

"I still don 't know why they were called The Hi Hi......."

 

Supposedly because their fans used to shout that. I never heard them do it.

 

BH, "BRILLcream"? Chap your age should know better but you're dead right about the forwards, a perfect blend and Jimmy Mason before them.

 

"Be nice to see them back". I was going to agree with you Compo then I minded the first time I saw the Thirds they beat Elgin City 1-2 in a Scottish Cup tie. Jammy sods.

[Uilleam 5,948]

I have just realised that this is another "feelgood" story about Scottish fitba'.

I am surprised that the guy in the weekend papers, brilliant writer, mind like a steel trap, ( Waddell?) missed it in his piece excoriating Rangers for some -any old- reason or another.

Edited April 17, 2017 by Uilleam