Doctor No. Livid.

The curious case of Livingston FC continues.

On Saturday they visited Albion Rovers at Cliftonhill (coincidentally the last time I saw Livi play was there when they took on the Sons in the same competition 9 years ago).

The players and officials of the West Lothian club apparently made a few disparaging remarks about the humble surroundings at Coatbridge. They then proceeded to make fun of the playing surface.

Rovers had the last laugh by stuffing their opponents 3-0.

It will be interesting indeed to see how the league deals with the case of Livingston FC and the jiggery pokery that has kept them in business.

Neil Rankine is a persuasive man. I would not be entirely surprised if Livi hang on to their first division status. I hear that his business plan relies on such a scenario. As for him putting up a bond of £700,000, there is more chance of shit from a rocking horse.

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The Real McCoy

This is Captain William McCoy.

Who he?

During the first world war, Distilleries in Scotland were closed to preserve barley stocks for food. In the 1920’s there was a significant temperance movement in Britain, and the government increased the duty on whisky (plus ca change!) and in the USA total prohibition of alcohol was introduced.

Thankfully for the whisky producers, prohibition was somewhat less than effective. So much so that many distilleries exported almost their entire production to the USA through dubious sources. Indeed when I wrote recently about visiting Edradour distillery the tour guide confirmed that this was the case. It is believed that that particular distillery was actually owned by the Mafia for a time.

So who was William McCoy?

McCoy was a Bahamas based bootlegger with a Dumbarton connection.

Not because he was born there or had relatives there.

McCoy smuggled huge quatities of Cutty Sark blended whisky into America during prohibition.

Tam O Shanter persued by the young witch

Cutty Sark literally means short shirt and “weel done cutty sark” was a cry from Tam O’ Shanter in one of Burns most celebrated works. Tam had been secretly observing Nannie a young witch wearing nothing but a cutty sark doing an erotic dance amongst a group in a wood.

You’ll see much the same thing these days at Cheers in Dumbarton High Street at a similar time in the morning.

The Cutty Sark

It was also the name of the fastest sailing ship of its day (built in Dumbarton) and the whisky (also at one time bottled in Dumbarton) took a picture of the ship as its label emblem .

McCoy illegally imported hundreds of thousands of casks of the light premium blend beloved of speakeasy customers of the day. Such was the popularity of it that patrons, unwilling to accept a substitute would ask for……

“The real McCoy”