Steven Birrell

Burst Baws, Bangers and Blairhall: The Season of the Colliery Kings The long read you are about to embark upon (and it is a long one, so grab a drink and a box of Quality Street) was originally going to be a few paragraphs of Jimmy Birrell’s story.

What’s that? You’d love a long read of Blairhall Colliery Junior Football Club’s Fife County League championship winning season of 1936/37? Grab a selection box and a drink, maybe even a bit more cheese and have a read…

open.substack.com/pub/stevenbi...

Hiya mate! Good to see you on here. Flyers twitter was a bit wild last night. Think section c will need to be bit of a collective support group tonight - we will get each other through it!! 😂

I fear I’m not living up to my Bluesky bio tonight. Fife Flyers certainly making it a challenging start to the holidays. But looking forward to being back in Belfast on Sunday, a place that always feels like home.

So if you want to read 5000 words on Blairhall Colliery Junior Football Club’s Fife County League championship winning season of 1936/37 you are going to have to hold on a wee bit longer. If that’s your thing though, you’re gonna love it! 😂

Realising that after today, I’ll spend a lot of the next few weeks watching hockey with my son and darts with my daughter. If that is all I take from the festive season, it’s more than enough.

I mean, you can probably argue that Bobby Bell should have been given the afternoon off at the very, very least.

The ineligible scribbles of Mr William Reid, a former Registrar.

My new hobby involves silently screaming at the handwriting of former registrars. Tonight’s scream belongs to you, William Reid. About the only words I can make out on this page!! 🤬😂

You can’t convince me to go out running at night in December for love nor money thus far. But tell me to lose hours of my life reading about Blairhall Colliery’s Fife County League winning season of 1936/37 and I’ll bite your hand off. I’m down this rabbit hole til Spring I reckon!

My favourite local Strava map and our last run around Black Rock of the year. Yes it was low tide, well low ish, and there were chips at the finish as always. Legs are heavy this morning but the heid and heart are a bit lighter after runs/wades like these.

If you are celebrating this today, Happy #Thanksgiving. Five years ago I got on the train to Highland Park and spent the day with a lovely family. Everyone had baked a pie it seemed so of course I had to try at least a slice of each one. Didn’t eat again til Friday dinner time!

You seem like a friendly lot, so sharing my wee winter project on here. I’ll keep my substack updated, you’re welcome to subscribe (for free, don’t donate!). It’s taken me down some amazing rabbit holes.
My gran’s cat (Ginger, how apt) used to ‘go fishing’ on the tank behind me (often successful)

😂 …but it would be kinda cool! 😂

You’ve got to go all in on your setup it’s practically docs orders! 😂Actually don’t listen to me, I’ve spent the last few weeks spending way too many hours building myself a nice wee house in Rust in a PVE open world. I thought I was lapsed Ruster! 😂

2024 is a year that I could see far enough. I’ve made a plan for the winter so any spare time is spent hibernating in the gym, working on a writing project I’ve started (and loving) and giving the podcast one more big (and maybe final) push. Wee projects that are good for the heid and heart.

I’m spending the winter months writing up the story of my grandad’s brief, but quite eventful, football career. As part of the research, I’m down the rabbit hole of our family tree and I now totally get why people enjoy this so much. I’m back to the 1700s on one side…send help! 😂