The competition’s strange and extensive history illustrates just how dramatically football has evolved during this century.
When Rangers chose not to enter in 1988, Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest joined the tournament instead.
It is difficult to imagine a modern Premier League club, assembled with enormous financial backing, sending a six-a-side squad across the border today.
Clough, the celebrated manager who had already lifted two European Cups, could not add this particular title to his collection.
Dundee claimed the trophy that year, while Partick Thistle have remained the reigning champions since 1993, despite manager John Lambie not attending the event.
For the Thistle players, the tournament was initially little more than a welcome break from training, with victory becoming an unexpected reward.
There was no prize money, so the champions received tankards supplied by the tournament sponsors. Former Thistle forward Gerry Britton remembers that they were soon put to use.
“I recall that we visited the Savoy, one of Glasgow’s nightclubs,” says Britton, who is now the Firhill club’s chief executive.
“We stood at the bar holding our tankards and asked the staff to fill them with Tennent’s.”
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