Some new  pictures of Larkhall Thistle teams from the past, thanks a lot to John Milne for supplying photos 16 and 17, John’s father is in the pictures. The pictures are from the same era and the 1953 one had players names but the other one didn’t, any help filling them in would be welcome. Just leave a post at the bottom of this page and it will show at the top of the comments on the home page.

Back row, Left to Right: Stewart, Nelson, Calder, Chalmers, Gunne, Flieder
Front row, Left to Right: Orr, Maxwell, Milne, Haughey, Black

 

The Larkhall Thistle team from around 1953 who won the Lanarkshire Junior League Cup and were finalists in the Evening Citizen Cup for the third year in a row where they played Coltness United. The Jags had also played Coltness in the previous season’s final where they lost 2-1.

Larkhall Thistle team photos 1
Larkhall Thistle team photos 2

Stagecoach West of Scotland League Central District First Division
Brig ‘O Lea Park, Neilston
Neilston v Larkhall Thistle

Larkhall Thistle travelled to Renfrewshire and after having beaten near rivals Neilston 6-1 in the home fixture, completed the double on a day that never really looked like providing much in the way of free flowing football – with high winds and near freezing temperatures. The Thistle squad was badly depleted through a combination of injury, suspension and players working and it meant a recall for full back Mark Russell in an unfamiliar right midfield role and no recognisable outfield subs on the bench.

The first twenty minutes passed almost without note and although Thistle had the majority of possession and attacking play, the only real incident was a Neilston corner that looked like it was going in directly which Jags keeper Davie McEwan had to swing his arm at to scoop out from under the bar. There was more worry for Thistle on the 20 minute mark when a Neilston forward wriggled free on the right side of the area before hitting a powerful drive that McEwan did very well to save.

Larkhall took the lead after 27 minutes when JP Grant won the ball well in the centre of the park and set Mark Canning off on a run, the midfielder slipped the ball through to Graham Gracie whose shot was blocked well by the keeper but the ball fell to Mark McKeever on the left side of the box and he hammered it past the keeper into the net.

Neilston almost got back into the game only two minutes later when their number 8 fired a shot just over the bar from the edge of the box, Thistle replied with a searching ball from Canning finding Gracie who hit a low, hard shot that the keeper saved but then lost control of. Luckily for him he managed to recover in time to stop it squirming over the line.

Thistle’s last effort of the first half was through Gracie who created a chance out of nothing, he picked up the ball 25 yards out and shimmied past a couple of Neilston players before firing a left foot shot just past the post. Neilston pressed for the equaliser before half time and did have the ball in the net but the referee had blown the whistle long before so the goal didn’t stand.

Half Time: Neilston 0 Larkhall Thistle 1

Neilston came out for the second half looking determined to get the goal back and almost did so straight from the kick-off as Andy Brown hesitated on the ball and lost possession, letting the Neilston man burst through and curl a dangerous looking shot that clipped the corner of the post and crossbar.

Larkhall were happy with the let-off but the relief wasn’t to last long, the home side continued to press and got their reward five minutes into the second half when a run by Neiston’s number 7 down the right wing saw him evade challenges from Hugh Kelly and Brown before hitting a low drive past McEwan. There was a controversial decision by the referee to ignore the flag from the stand side linesman in the build-up, Alan Fleming was booked after the goal for protesting. Dean Richardson was also booked shortly after  for a late tackle.

Thistle were a bit under pressure at this point and conceded a free kick twenty yards out for a handball by Kelly. The ball was cleared but it went for a corner and from the cross the ball fell to Neilston’s number 5, who had a great chance to put them in front but blasted high over the bar.

The Jags manager Duncan Sinclair made a change after 62 minutes, Russell being replaced by trialist Scott Nicholl who moved to left midfield, McKeever switching to the right side. After a slightly nervous start Scott finished the game very well and contributed a lot to the win in the closing stages.

It took as long as the 19th minute for Thistle to mount their first real attack of the second half. Gracie outmuscled his opponent in the middle of the park before bursting into the clear on the left. He looked to have overhit the ball but did well to retain control and hit the bye-line before putting in a good cross which was defended well. Five minutes later Gracie was involved again when he nearly scored from a Ross McGeachie knock-down, then minutes later he got himself in the book for dissent after kicking the ball away in frustration at the referee’s decision to award a throw when he was in the clear and heading towards the goal.

As the game moved into the closing stages it looked very much like it was going to fizzle out and end in a draw, but Thistle kept pushing and were awarded a couple of corners on the left in quick succession. The second one fell perfectly for Canning who threaded his low shot through a clutch of players into the net to extend his fine recent scoring run.

Neilston had a good chance to equalise in the dying minutes with a free header 10 yards out and Canning also could have scored from a header down by Gracie but choked his shot wide.

In the end though a great result for Thistle who gained ground on all of their promotion rivals as none of them played today, the Jags now sit in fourth place in the table.

Full Time: Neilston 1 Larkhall Thistle 2

Thistle Scorers: McKeever, Canning

Larkhall Thistle Team:
McEwan; Brown, Kelly, Fleming, Richardson; McKeever, Canning, Grant, Russell; McGeachie, Gracie. Subs: Moss, trialists

Neilston: Digney, Campbell, McNamara, Lennox, McDade, Christie, Hughes, Canning, Nisanci, Essler, Kennedy

Booked: Fleming, Richardson, Gracie

Best on the day for Thistle was Graeme Gracie for his first half performance in particular, there were also good shifts from Grant and Canning in the middle of the park and McEwan in goals. Again though it was a great spirited team performance and there were no let downs, they can all be pleased with their day’s work.

Larkhall Thistle had a good cup run in 1977, a time that was dominated by the big Ayrshire teams of the day.

8th January 1977
Scottish Cup Third Round
Larkhall Thistle 3 Arniston Rangers 2

22nd January 1977
Scottish Cup Fourth Round
Linlithgow Rose 2 Larkhall Thistle 3

This was an outstanding result for the Jags and one of the most famous victories in their history as they beat the East league giants on their own park. Larkhall’s hero on the day was Alistair Duff who scored all three of the goals.

12th February 1977
Scottish Cup Fifth Round
Kirkintilloch Rob Roy 4 Larkhall Thistle 1

Thistle travelled to play Roy Roy in the last 16 of the Scottish Cup, a game that the Jags lost 4-1. The home team had themselves lost 4-1 in their previous game to lowly Carluke in the Dryburgh Cup, a major shock at the time and Thistle looked to be going into the game with every chance of winning. The game was marred by crowd trouble which caused a six minute hold up in the second half. See photo
Scorers for Rob Roy were Frew 2, Ward and Lochrie, Thistle’s goal was scored by Duff.

This is just a page for everything else that doesn’t fit into a specific category but has something to do with Larkhall Thistle. Thanks to Hugh Kerr for the photographs and most of the details below. Thanks also to exiled for added comments and information.

This photograph was taken during the crowd invasion of the park at Kirkintilloch on 12th February 1977. See archive page for more details.

 

Some of the faces in the photograph above: Jock Roy, Davie Wilson, Jock and Danny McLeish and Jackie Hamilton. (Thanks to exiled for the information)

Two pictures above celebrating Tom Sutherland as Larkhall Thistle Player of the Year. The top one was taken at the presentation dance in The County Inn in Cambuslang in 1973 0r 74.
Back row: John Hutchison, John Chalmers, Arthur Whiteside, Jim “Suzz” Sutherland, Alan Duff, John McCaig, Bobby Bloomfield Front row: John Hunter, Scott McCartney, John McKerr, Alastair Duff (Thanks again to exiled for his help on this one)

 

 

 

 

The pictures above are from a Larkhall Thistle training session at Gasworks Park, taken prior to the Beatons Cup Final against Bellshill in 2001 In the background is the former Larkhall Thistle Social Club which was wound up in 1989.

This is an old photograph of some Larkhall Thistle players training in the old pavillion and changing rooms, opposite the side where they are now.
Barbells – Bert Steel, crouching – Bobby Woods, situps – Dick Nelson, barbells – Tommy Walker, standing in corner – Harry Kirkwood.

Two Thistle players at Shawlands

Larkhall Thistle players Paul Anderson and Hugh Kennedy pictured outside the Shawlands Hotel in Larkhall, just before the cup final with Bellshill at Firhill.

 

The Local Lads – Thistle players from in and around Larkhall – By Hugh Kerr

There have been many local lads past and present who have played for Thistle over the years, here Hugh Kerr shares his recollections of some of the most memorable of them.

I was on gate duty at the last home game against Carluke and was quite surprised by the number of local ex-players who were at the game. Guys like Davy Henderson, big John Hunter and a Thistle legend, Martin Mulhearn. It has been said that the Thistle don’t give local talent an opportunity which set me thinking about locals who had played for the club over the years.

Lets start with goalkeepers;

GOALKEEPERS

Fred Craig Fred played with the Jags in 1912 then was keeper at Plymouth Argyle for many years. He was also the Argyle penalty taker.

Tom Coates Not only a top class keeper he was also a fairly good outfield player, once scoring a hat trick at today’s opponents when we had 10 outfield players and 2 keepers. He also played non-league down south and also with the Albert, signing with them because they paid ten bob a week more than the Thistle! Big Coatsie is his son, the quiet man at our games. Sadly Tom is no longer with us.

Guy Montgomery Guy played with us in the early seventies and was our keeper during the epic 3 games with St Rochs, with us finally being defeated 2-1 at neutral Petershill. Guy was only a boy at the time but a very brave and confident keeper.

Alex Morrison It is said goalies need to be daft to play that position and Alex certainly lived up to that theory! He came from Ashgill and was capped for Junior Scotland while at Gasworks Park. He went on to play and manage Darvel, taking them to the Scottish Cup final where they lost 3-0 to Bo’ness. He was also in charge at Hurlford Utd and the Albert.

John Graham John was at the Thistle when he had only turned 16 years old as stand-in for Alex Morrison. I remember once when we were travelling to Forfar West End in the Scottish Morrison turned up for the bus under pressure after night out. Young John then took ill on the way up and was in no state to play, so big Alex played when still badly hungover. The game ended in a 3-3 draw and he had nightmare. Thistle won the replay 6-1.

Matt Preston Matt was also at club during the Morrison reign and was a good competent keeper.

Mitchell McIntosh As well as Mitchell himself, his brother Alex also played with us. Mitch was a big strong brave keeper who had one of his finest displays in the jersey in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup when we beat Linlithgow Rose 3-2 at Linlithgow. The big man was magnificent and at the other end, Alistair Duff  of whom a well known reporter at the time for the Citizen – Tommy Workman – said can only score goals, netted a hat trick. The Thistle punters cleaned out the local bookies who were offering odds of something like 6/1 as Rose were odds-on favourites for the cup. What a day in our history. We went out in the next round at Rob Roy.

Graeme Nisbet Nizzy came to us from Stonehouse Violet and soon became a firm favourite at Gasworks park not the tallest but an excellent keeper again very good on his line.

Scott Kelly Over the years we have had quite a few keepers on the small side, Scott played with our Under 19 team and was understudy to Davie McEwan in our promotion year. Again a good shot stopper. Scott stopped playing due to work committments.

Davie McEwan Reinstated to the junior ranks from Dumbarton after also playing with Livingston, Hamiton Accies, Alloa and Clyde. A great shot stopper who marshalls his defence very well. Currently recovering from an operation on his knee after the horrendous late attempt at winning the ball by a Kilwinning player in the Scottish Cup replay in February.

Lee Moss Definitely the smallest goalie ever to play with us, coming in after big Davie’s injury and despite his lack of inches the wee man has never let us down.

DEFENDERS

John McStay Stylish centre half, famous name in Larkhall.

Willie Lamb Old fashioned full back, still see Willie in Larkhall.

Micky Lyons Again cultured full back, played with us twice. Played in the 1968 cup semi-final team. Still seen about Larkhall.

John Hunter Centre-half. Played in a team that won two trophies at same ground, on Wednesday then the following Saturday. John never misses a game.

Davy Henderson Not the tallest, stays just up from park and seldom misses a game.

Bobby Stillie Centre-half. Played in our famous win at Linlithgow.

John McKerr Also played with John Hunter when we won the two trophies in four days.

Bobby Muir “Teabread” was his nickname as he ran a baker’s van.

John Martin Centre-half. Again with us twice, signed from Fairholm, went to Dundee then returned.

Danny Carroll Old style full-back. Wingers never passed him twice! Sadly no longer with us.

Alex Walker “Big Eck” Solid centre half who was magic in the air. All I need to write about the big man was Ellon Utd. Alex is also no longer with us.

Dougie Bryden I have decided to include the “Larkie lawyer” as a defender for obvious reasons. Dougie was a Jekyll and Hyde at Gasworks Park. He arrived with the bowler hat and briefcase etc but as soon as he put on the jersey he was without doubt one of the hardest players ever seen in the red and white. One story in particular springs to mind. It was a West of Scotland tie against Muirkirk and one guy at the back of the enclosure was giving the big man a real hard time. When Dougie came over to take a throw in, something was said by the guy and to everyone’s amazement Dougie calmly put the ball down, stepped over the wall and landed a great right hook. He then stepped back over the wall, gave his name to the astounded referee and headed for the pavilion.

Tam Anderson Great right back. Came from Stonehouse Violet.

 

 

 

As featured in the regular Larkhall Thistle match programmes, a series of quiz questions involving Thistle and their players past and present. Questions by our resident Thistle expert/researcher/Googler, Hugh Kerr.

Question 1
Who was the last Thistle player to be capped at both Junior and Senior level for Scotland?

Clues:
– He got his two Senior caps in the same year, against Wales and England
– He stayed in Larkhall for many years and had a business in the town.

Answer
Tommy Ewing. He signed for the Jags from Birkenshaw Welfare Hearts and played for Junior Scotland during his spell at Gasworks Park. He then signed senior with the other Thistle – Partick – and was with them for three years, during which he won his two Scotland caps in a 1-1 draw with Wales and a 4-0 defeat to England. Tommy then moved to Aston Villa before returning to Partick Thistle and Morton, where he finished his playing career. He also had a spell as manager of the Accies. Tommy owned the Ranch bar in Larkhall and Jilts in Hamilton for many years.

Question 2
Can you name the five sets of fathers and sons who have played with the Jags?

Clues:
– In one set the father and two sons played with the Thistle.
– Of the fathers and sons in the five sets, two sons and one father went on to manage and play at the highest level.

Answer
1. The McLeans
Tommy “Speeder” McLean played for the Thistle in 1932 in the Scottish Cup semi-final, where we lost 3-2 to Rob Roy. His two sons, Jim and Willie subsequently played with the Jags. Wee jum as he was known played senior with Hamilton Accies, Clyde, Dundee and Kilmarnock but is best known for his 22 years as manager of Dundee Utd, winning the league championship and breaking the Old Firm’s hold on major honours.
His brother Willie played for Airdrie, Sheffield Wednesday, Alloa and Clyde. He played with and managed Queen of the South and Raith Rovers and also managed Motherwell Ayr and Morton.

2. The Chalmers
Jimmy and John Chalmers. Jimmy played with us in the early fifties and John was with us in the seventies before moving to Lesmahagow where he gained numerous caps for Junior Scotland.

3. The Dempseys
Jim Dempsey joined the Thistle from Blackburn United and had a tremendous spell at the club in 1969 before he joined the Accies where had two spells as a player. He also played for Raith Rovers, Stirling Albion, Albion Rovers and Thistle again. Jim also managed Accies for a season then came back to Thistle as manager in 1991-1992 but left to manage Fauldhouse .
He returned as assistant to Bobby Crilly in 1999. You could say Jim was an old style tough-tackling half back. His son John was in the same mould as his old man when he was with us during his dad’s spell at Gasworks Park.

4. The Hamiltons
Charlie Hamilton only played with the Thistle for one season and was an old type battering ram centre forward. His son Graeme was only with us for about six months and was a skilful midfielder.

5. The Bapties
Crawford Baptie “Big Beeba” as he was known was equally at home either in defence or midfield and was great favourite with the supporters. He also played at senior level with a host of clubs including Falkirk, Accies and Motherwell. His son Jack signed for us from Lanark United but failed to command a regular place and was released and now plays with our tenants at Gasworks Park, Royal Albert.

Question 3
We have travelled to the North of Scotland on many occasions, can you recall the only time we were defeated?

Clues:
– It was a major shock on the day.

Answer
Ellon United. The game was played at Uddy Park, Formartine and quite frankly should never have been played. When we arrived they were putting down red salt on various parts of the pitch, including the goalmouths and it was clear that the ref was hell bent on the game going ahead. It was about the only game on in the North of Scotland, even Aberdeen’s game was off due to frost, in fact Bobby Clark and Alex McLeish were at the game.
We just could not get to grips with the conditions and lost 2-1 to a team who lost 6-0 at Cumnock in the next round. The game ended with Tommy Burns in our goal a spectator as we laid siege to the Ellon goal. Tommy had to keep out his goalmouth as much as possible as the ground was starting to freeze under his feet. That was the longest bus journey home you could imagine.

Question 4
Anyone who has looked into the history of the Thistle will know that Tommy “Fister” Lang won an English FA Cup medal with Newcastle, but can anyone name the guy who coached Thistle, won a senior Scottish Cup medal with his home town club, was capped for Scotland and once during his senior career scored 6 goals in one game?

Answer
Wilson Humphries. Wilson was Motherwell born and played for them at inside-right, once scoring six goals in one game against Dundee Utd and was capped once for Scotland against Sweden. Wilson also played for St.Mirren, Dundee Utd and Hamilton Accies. He was a part time coach at Motherwell, combing it with his main job as a school teacher and also managed St Mirren for a couple of seasons.
He was only at Gasworks Park for part of a season, I am not sure exactly how he came to be coach – I think one of our players at the time taught at the same school. When he arrived we were rooted at the bottom of the old Central League First Division and looked odds-on for relegation, but we went on a run of victories which resulted in us needing a win at Renfrew to stay up. We won 2-1 and I can remember the game quite clearly, Tommy Burns was absolutely brilliant in goals and at the other end Alistair Duff netted twice in what turned out to be his last game.
Wilson Humphries had the knack of getting the best and more out of even the most basic players and when he entered the dressing room, he commanded the attention of the players right away. He was old-school in many ways – one story in particular springs to mind. One of our players sustained a bad head gash and our physio at the time John Brown who was brilliant at his job and a great favourite with the players, was all for taking the player off. The player in question was local lad Alan Hamilton, not great on ability but would run for you all day. Wiilson said, “John get a f*****g bandage on it and make sure he doesn’t see it in the mirror, I’ve played with worse in my time”.
So Alan was put back on the pitch with what looked like a turban on his head. We won the game and in the dressing room later when he saw the gash, Alan nearly fainted. He had to go to hospital to get umpteen stitches. Wilson’s bonus for keeping us up was a bottle of Black Label which was his tipple. We couldn’t keep him due to financial restraints, but what a six months we had while he was coach with his unique style of man management. Unfortunately Wilson passed away in 1992.

Question 5
Who was the coach who in one calendar year managed to relegate three clubs, including the Thistle?

Answer
Ian Browning. Ian was in charge of Carluke Rovers as one season ended and they were relegated and he was sacked. New season started and he was with Stonehouse Violet, he had bad start and was sacked. He then joined us in October as player coach when quite honestly we were in a really bad way but he did not help things and we went down to Division C of the old Central League as did the Violet. Quite a record at any level.

This section is general articles about Larkhall Thistle – short and sometimes long. All contributions most welcome, just leave a post at the bottom of the page in the comments section or send an email to:

iamcintosh @ bluebottle DOT com

Thistle’s Scottish Cup run to the semi finals, 1968

More pictures of Larkhall Thistle teams from the past. Again if you can fill in the blanks please leave a comment.

 

Back row, Left to Right: Henderson, Moffat, Smith, Bell, Cunningham, Weir
Front row, Left to Right: Feeney, Nugent, MacReady, McNab, J. Bell, Little (Trainer)

 

 

 

Back row, Left to Right: Tom Anderson, Arthur Whiteside, John McKerr, Alex Morrison, Les Innes, Tam Sutherland, Martin Mulhearn
Front row, Left to Right: Jim Beaton,  John Chalmers, Alan Duff, Willie Powell, Davy Boyle, Stewart McCandless

 

Back row, Left to Right: Jim Conroy, Robin Park, Guy Montgomery, Martin Mulhearn, Hugh Kirkland, Jim Dempsey, Vic Wardrope
Front row, Left to Right: Jim Allan, Bobby Ferguson, John Chalmers, John Sangahan, Alan Law

Above photograph taken on the day of the famous first game with St Roch’s in the Scottish Cup in the early 70s. The game ended 2-2, the replay also finished in a draw but Thistle lost out 2-1 in the second replay.

 

Back row, Left to Right: John ???? (trainer), Mick Lyons, Hugh Kirkland, Dave McGavin, Bobby Mitchell, Jacky Balloch, Tam Armstrong
Front row, Left to Right: Andy Campbell, Rab Brown, Martin Mulhearn, Bert Steel, Jim Allen, John Doyle (coach)

The 1968 team above was almost entirely the team that reached the semi-final of the Scottish Cup that year, for the story of Thistle’s best run in modern times, click here

Thanks to Chris Lenson for supplying the photograph above along with the names.

NEW PHOTO – We’ve got some of the names of the team here from the 60s, waiting for a few of them though.

<- Back to previous page of photos.

Larkhall Thistle team photographs from down the years, if you have any information about any of the players or know any of the years the pictures were taken please leave a post at the bottom of the page.
Thanks to Hugh Kerr for supplying the pictures and the names of the players.

 

Picture taken on the day of Thistle’s 3-1 win against Kirkintilloch Rob Roy in the Scottish Cup in 1974.

Back row, Left to Right: John McKerr, Tom Anderson, John Hunter, Ian McFie, Jack Wilson, Scott McCartney, Arthur Whiteside
Front row, Left to Right: Alan Duff, Alistair Duff, Dave McLelland, John Hamilton, Tam Sutherland, John McCaig

 

Back row, Left to Right: John Brown (physio), John Hutcheson (coach), Tom Anderson, Martin Mulhearn, John McKerr, Alex. Morrison, John Hunter, Jim McGowan, Jim McLaughlin (coach)
Front row, Left to Right: Alan Duff, Ian Sneddon, Davy Boyle, John Sanaghan, Alan Hamilton, Peter Boyle

Trophies both won same week at Shettleston, The Dryburgh Cup and RJ McLeod Cup

 

This was one of Thistle’s best ever sides and had a record that was second to none in the junior game. At the time of the photograph being taken, the Jags had played 21 games and won no less than 18 of them, with two draws and only a single defeat.

Back row, Left to Right: Micky Lyons, Hughie Kirkland, John Weatherall, Bobby King, Jacky Bulloch, Dougie Bryden
Front row, Left to Right: Hughie McMillan, John Dingwall, Martin Mulhearn, Andy Campbell, John Doyle, Bert Steel

Back row, Left to Right: Alan Hamilton, Jim McGowan, Tom Anderson, Arthur Whiteside, Alex Morrison, Martin Mulhearn, John McKerr, Stewart Cunningham, John Brown (physio)
Front row, Left to Right: Jim McLaughlin (coach), John Chalmers, Alan Duff, Davy Boyle, Ian Sinnett, John Sanaghan, John Hutcheson (coach)

 

Back row, Left to Right: Jamie Bulloch, Robin Park, Tommy Coats, Martin Mulhearn, McInnes, Galbraith
Front row, Left to Right: Hugh Rundell, John Chalmers, Jim Roberts, John Sanaghan, Willie Knox

 

Back row, Left to Right: J Cowan (secretary), Gibb, Miller, Whitelaw, W Marley, Clark, A Marley, S McLellan (secretary)
Front row Left to Right: McGuire, Waddell, Boyd, Dunsmore, Johnston

 

Back row, Left to Right: Andy Cheek, Alan Sneddon, Bobby Stillie, Mitch McIntosh, Frank McGonigle, Davie Morrow, John Graham, Jim Black, Davy Henderson
Front row, Left to Right: Willie McKinlay (Coach), Davy Booth, Brian Fisher, John Chalmers, Johnny McCaig, Bobby McPhee, Martin Mulhearn (Coach)

 

Thistle’s Central League First Division winning squad from 1999 – 2000 season.

Back row, Left to Right: Jim Sweeney, Ian Stoddart, Paul Anderson, Ian Campbell, Stuart Thomson, Gary Lynch, Jim McLuskey, Stuart Bovill, Brian Watret
Middle row, Left to Right: Willie McAneny (Coach), Jim Kavaghan, Paul Roberts (Elvis), Willie McCormack, Tony Mitchell, Peter McAninch, Grant O’Donnell, Derek Gardiner, Julie Thomson (Physio)
Front row, Left to Right: Jim Dempsey (Assistant Manager), Craig Digham, Stevie  McQuade, Derek Paterson, Spencer Stirrat, Bobby Crilly (Manager)

More Thistle pictures on the next page ->