Tennent's Sixes returns after 33 years with former stars at Braehead Arena
Scottish football's cult indoor six-a-side tournament makes a comeback this weekend, with former players representing all 12 top-flight clubs.
The Tennent's Sixes, a mid-season indoor tournament from the 1980s and 1990s, returns this weekend at Braehead Arena in Glasgow, 33 years after its last staging. Former players will represent Scotland's 12 top-flight clubs, playing group matches on Saturday before a new winner is decided on Sunday evening.
The event will be played on an artificial surface laid over the arena's ice rink. Rangers hero Ian Durrant, who will assist manager Barry Ferguson, joked about the "creaky joints" of the participants. The Rangers squad includes Charlie Adam and Andy Halliday, while Aiden McGeady and Charlie Mulgrew are set to feature for Celtic. Hearts legend Rudi Skacel will also take part.
Back in the day, current first-team players represented their clubs, highlighting how seriously the tournament was taken. Davie Cooper, regarded by some as Rangers' greatest player, scored the first-ever Tennent's Sixes goal in the mid-1980s, and John Collins was part of Celtic's triumph in 1992.
Former Dundee player Gary Harkins, who will feature for Dundee this weekend, highlighted the modern impossibility of such an event: "Imagine somebody got injured these days doing that... your £12m striker out for the season because he's basically played a game of fives." Scott Allan, managing Hibernian, added that while he would love to see it now, it would never happen.
The tournament's lore includes Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest taking part in 1988 when Rangers declined, though Clough could not add the trophy to his European Cups. Dundee won that year, but Partick Thistle have been holders since 1993, a success achieved without manager John Lambie present. Former Thistle striker Gerry Britton recalled celebrating with sponsor tankards at Glasgow's Savoy nightclub.
With no cash prize, tankards from the sponsors were the reward. Three decades on, the Savoy remains open, and if a group of men with aching joints are seen leaning against its bar on Sunday, they may well have spent the weekend at Braehead.
Image: SNS / BBC Sport
