About

Stramash: Tackling Scotland’s towns and teams is a book available now in paperback. Published by Luath Press, it goes a little something like this…

Fatigued by bloated big-game football and bored of samey big cities, historian Daniel Gray (Homage to Caledonia) went in search of small town Scotland and its teams.  Part travel log, part history and part mistakenly spilling ketchup on the face of a small child, Stramash takes an uplifting and insightful look at the country’s nether regions. At a time when the Scottish club game is striving for its lowest ebb once more, Stramash singularly fails to wring its hands and address the state of the game, preferring instead to focus on Bobby Mann’s waistline.

Using the excuse of a match to visit places from Dumfries to Dingwall, Gray wittily surveys Scotland’s forgotten towns and teams in their present state. He also trawls the archives and speaks to those in the know to bring to light details of often glorious, sometimes inglorious, but never dull pasts. Stramash accomplishes the feats of visiting Dumfries without mentioning Robert Burns, being positive about Cumbernauld and linking Elgin City to Lenin. It is ae fond look at Scotland as you’ve never seen it before, possibly because you didn’t think you wanted to.

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About the Author

Daniel Gray is author of the Saltire Award-nominated Homage to Caledonia: Scotland and the Spanish Civil War. Since its publication, the book has been turned into a television series and Edinburgh Fringe show. Daniel’s previous book, co-authored with David Walker, was the Historical Dictionary of Marxism, for which they have still to sell the film rights. He has regurgitated the same jokes in the fanzine of his beloved Middlesbrough FC, Fly Me to the Moon, for the worst part of a decade. Daniel also reviews books for, among others, History Scotland, writes a column in The Leither magazine and has worked as a manuscripts curator and television researcher.

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FAQs

-What on earth does ‘stramash’ mean?  

Well, with the help of the information super highway:

‘Stramash: Scot.  1803 A disturbance, racket, or crash.

In football, term for  goalmouth scramble.  Refers to an incident where there are several players in the 6-yard box, either trying to force the ball into the goal or to get the ball safely up the pitch. It appears to be very messy, but is in reality one of the most entertaining aspects of the game.’

Best pronounced with a ridiculously exaggerated rolling of the ‘r’, though perhaps not in public.

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Which towns, teams and fixtures feature in Stramash?

Ayr: Ayr United v Partick Thistle

Alloa: Alloa Athletic v Stirling Albion

Cowdenbeath: Cowdenbeath v Peterhead

Coatbridge: Albion Rovers v Annan Athletic

Montrose: Montrose v East Stirling

Kirkcaldy: Raith Rovers v Inverness Caledonian Thistle

Greenock: Greenock Morton v Dunfermline

Arbroath: Arbroath v Stenhousemuir

Dingwall: Ross County v Dundee

Cumbernauld: Clyde v Stirling Albion

Dumfries: Queen of the South v Airdrie United

Elgin: Elgin City v Montrose