Weather Damage at Cathkin Park 2012

Recent bad weather had left our old ground in a dreadful state, with 11 trees down and three across the playing surface. One huge tree has uprooted and collapsed the fence and floodlight of the 5-a-side court and there is a lot of damage there too. We contacted the Council and sent photos and they have swiftly restored the place so bravo to Glasgow City Council and their overworked tree surgeons! We have our plans to remove all of the trees at Cathkin and to completely restore and rebuild the ground(depending on permission) and so this latest 'Act Of God' has actually helped! 11 down, only 111 trees still to go! We were down clearing & chiopping branches last week and restored all of the public pathways again. We will get back into full restoration flow when the inclement weather improves!

New Photos Unearthed!!

Thanks to Jeff Holmes for sending in this amazing photograph emailed to him recently. In colour this shot from an unknown photographer presents a wonderful moment frozen in time from when the ground was in it's heyday and the advertising boards are fascinating. Good to see Frosties still going strong 40 years later ! This was the main entrance to Cathkin Park and the old Club Gates can be seen on the bottom left of the photograph. Hopefully there are more of this series around but I am so grateful to Jeff for sending in another piece of the Cathkin Park jigsaw.One can easily now see the strain on these gates when over 45000 turned up determined to get in to the Rangers game! If you have any photos of Thirds or of Cathkin Park from 1884 to 1967 please email them in and I'd be delighted to upload them.We are trying to reconstruct the ground as it was and need every photo of every angle of the ground that we can get!

Official Club Sponsors

We are delighted to report that the Official Shirt Sponsors for Third Lanark are GREAVES SPORTS. The oldest family run sports retailer and one of the oldest names in world football have joined together and is the start of what we both hope will be a long and happy union. The First XI and Under 16s have their new jerseys already and we have ordered the new Second XI shirts too. Made by Adidas, the new kits home & away look fab and the lads are delighted with them.

Many, many thanks to Stephen McCrainor and to

Sandy Greave for this wonderful sponsorship and

we are entering into our official Centenary year of 2012 now in some style. Interestingly Lumleys, now a part of Greaves were the kit suppliers to 3rds in the last days of Cathkin Park and were one of the creditors at the close! Mercifully this was settled out of court at the time, otherwise we could have had a big bill to settle ! The Club hopes that these jerseys will be available on request to buy in Greaves stores and so if you would like to get your hands on one please email the Club on thirdlanarkrv@hotmail.co.uk and we will pass on all request to the store. The perfect Christmas gift! We have some new merchandising on it's way too and the Supporters Club is now up and running. Check out the 3rd Lanark Supporters Club on Facebook for updates. Membership worldwide is only £10.00 per year. Further sponsorship opportunities are also available on the Club Website http://www.third-lanark.co.uk so please get in touch as lot's happening now with Third Lanark and our quest to return to playing at Cathkin Park.

Cathkin Latest....

Frustrated by bad weather for the past four weeks as too much rain has made the repainting of the ground impossible, so we have been busy simply clearing the rubbish from the terraces and pitch area. Very disappointed to note that cars have been driven over our revered pitch and deep scars remain despite the Council's attempts to fill the holes with sand and soil. The pitch looks unplayable at present and desperately needs replaced and the drainage repaired on the South wings and corners. The Council Community Safety vans have been round regularly and succeeded in reducing the gang activity this autumn and winter so far in the park, however there is still drug dealing and taking going on regularly. This, allied to the joy-riders on the pitch just stresses the need for the park gates to be locked-up at night and for a decent long-term plan for the regeneration of this old ground to be worked out. We hope that ours will be the way forward. At the moment 3rds remain scattered around the West Region, in Cambuslang, Netherpollock & Huntly...the Third Lanark diaspora continues!

Official 3rd Lanark Website Now Live!!

Third Lanark are now online ! The Official Club website will be launched this week and we'd like to thank Mark Downie for his months of hard work on this. If you want to check out the new 3rds website, it can be viewed here: http://www.third-lanark.co.uk This blog will of course continue with updates from all developments relating to Cathkin Park and our fight to return to the ground.Get in touch to let us know what you think of the new site ! And don't forget if you would like to support the Club you can join the Supporters Club for £10.00 per season !

New Training Kits !!!

We were delighted to receive a wonderful donation from our Italian 'Thirds Man' Michele Palilla of a full set of Training Kits in Glorious 3rd Lanark scarlet ! Here's the lads of the 2nd XI at training today at our home ground this season at Netherpollock. Michele has been helping us restore Cathkin inch by inch and asked his brother to assist his favourite team in Scotland with some kits as he is the UK rep for Italian sportswear giants MACRON. The kits are of top quality and is usually sported by the likes of West Ham United FC. We cannot thank Andrea & Michele Palilla enough for this marvellous and timely gift and our new team are very proud to wear the kits. The Club are hoping this will now lead to improved performances on the field ! However things are improving with the reserve team, with a 3-0 win (on paper!) versus Sheddens FC today in the League Cup.Now for a return fixture with our friendly local rivals Southside Select AFC in the second round next month! Back to League action next Sunday and John Browns once again...a tough fixture indeed. Michele, you can get a game for 3rd Lanark whenever you fancy it, consider yourself signed!

Latest Press ...

Many thanks to BACKPASS MAGAZINE for this wonderful coverage in this month's edition. The response already has been overwhelming and we cannot thank Ken Gaunt enough for travelling up from Manchester to meet at Cathkin Park a couple of weeks ago on a rain-soaked Saturday morning! If you can get your hands on this month's edition it's a great read and so much care and research goes into every page. It's a big favourite with all of us at 3rds and it was a real honour to be featured. Available from WH SMITH & SAINSBURYS now.

We are still clearing weeds from the ground at weekends and evenings but yet more wet weather has stopped the painting at present. A battle with falling leaves is about to begin for a second winter in a row...More updates to come soon ! PS. We are still awaiting a definite date for the Queens Park match at Lesser Hampden so stay tuned !