The Hearts saga continues with a reported three bids for the Gorgie club, but administrators BDO could take up to a month before a preferred bidder is announced. Elsewhere Hibs prepare for their second qualifying round against Malmo in Sweden on Thursday night. Congratulations go to Scotland’s Men’s’ Hockey team for two victories over Czech Republic, and of course the British Open is coming to East Lothian on Thursday.
Football
Hearts
Hearts’ administrators BDO announced that three parties have submitted formal offers to take over the club after Friday’s 5pm deadline passed.
Fans’ group the Foundation of Hearts confirmed on Thursday that they had formalised their offer, however the identity of the other two groups has not been confirmed, although media and fan speculation centres on HMFC Ltd, who are financed by American investors, and Five Stars Football Ltd owned by former Livingston owner Angelo Massone.
Following the deadline, BDO’s Bryan Jackson said: “To preserve confidentiality, unless disclosed by the bidder themselves we will not be naming the parties.
“Under the right guidance, the club has the potential to be successful both on and off the pitch and it is encouraging to see that a number of prospective owners have clearly recognised this.
When asked about timescales, Mr Jackson suggested that it “may take some time, but In the meantime, we will continue to run the club and support the manager in his preparations for the forthcoming season.
“We all want the club to exit administration as quickly as possible but it’s important not to get carried away: we’re still much closer to the start of the process of concluding a sale rather than the end. We ask fans, players and staff for their continued support and patience.
“Further discussions will now take place with the bidders and also with the legal representatives of the administrators of AB Ukio Bankas, and we would then hope to be in a position to name a preferred bidder in due course. At this stage we cannot say how long that process will be.
“As we have said already the delivery of a CVA solution will need the support of the other major creditor and shareholders and there may be a delay in securing that support while administrators are appointed to those entities.
“Therefore the sale process may take some time before a deal can be concluded and the club exits administration.”
On the field, Hearts beat Dunfermline 2-1 thanks to first half goals from Brad McKay and Jamie Hamill to lift the Supporters Direct Scotland Fans’ Cup at East End Park.
Former Heart’s favourite Gary Naysmith was listed as a trialist.
The game was played in front of 4538 fans, 2591 of whom were in the away end.
Fans’ favourite John Robertson has returned to Tynecastle after his offer to coach the players was accepted by Gary Locke.
Hibs
On Thursday night, Malmo beat Drogheda United 2-0 in Sweden for the right to take on Hibs in the second qualifying round of the Europa League.
Hibs completed their pre-season fixtures at Starks Park in Kirkcaldy on Friday night where they were held to a 0-0 draw. Scouts from Malmo were amongst the crowd.
On Saturday, the club announced the signing of former St Johnstone striker Rowan Vive and the re-signing of Kevin Thomson, both on one year deals.
This brings Pat Fenlon’s total signings to six, including Ryan McGivern, Liam Craig, Owain Tudur Jones and Fraser Mullen.
The squad travel to Sweden this week to face Malmo, with the return leg on Thursday 25 July.
The Under 20s continued their fine form with a comprehensive 3-1 win over Lothian Thistle at the East Mains Training Centre. Irish 16 year old Cody Mulhall gave the youngsters a half time lead with a well struck left foot shot from the edge of the box, then his corner just after the break was headed in by Neil Matryniuk at the back post.
Mulhall then embarked on a sensational run, beating three defenders before being brought down in the box, but the normally prolific Jay Doyle’s penalty was saved by the Thistle keeper. Jamie Beaton added a third, and Doyle and Sinclair both struck the bar before Thistle pulled one back in the last minute, in an exciting game played in the East Lothian sunshine.
Ramsden Cup
Spartans beat Threave Rovers 4-2 in first leg of the Ramsdens Cup qualifier at Ainslie Park on Saturday, in front of a crowd of 321.
Following a goalless first half, Spartans took the lead three minutes after the break when a Jack Beesley cross found Robbie Ross who slotted the ball home from six yards.
Ross grabbed his second a few minutes later when he headed the ball past Parker in the Threave goal then the home team had a string penalty appeal when a Rover’s defender appeared to clear a goal-bound header from MacKinnon off the line, but the referee waved play on.
Rovers pulled one back with a Milligan tap in from a yard out, the equalised with 13 minutes remaining thanks to a Wilby penalty.
With 5 minutes to go, Gary Cennerazzo was brought down in the box and this time the referee pointed to the spot. Kevin Motion took the resultant penalty and slotted it neatly into the bottom left hand corner. 3-2.
Chris Anderson added a fourth in time added on to ensure the Edinburgh side travel to Castle Douglas with a two goal advantage.
Malt and Hops Man 0f the Match: Kevin Sivewright.
Men’s Hockey by John Preece
Kenny Bain was the hat-trick hero as his three goals, together with a Wei Adams’ penalty corner, gave Scotland a 4-3 win over the Czech Republic in the first of a three match series in Prague.
The Scots went 1-0 up when Bain’s penalty corner attempt was deflected into the goal off a home defender. However, the Czech Republic struck back twice in three minutes to take a 2-1 lead shortly afterwards.
Excellent build-up play from Gavin Byers led to Bain finding a Scottish equaliser and his second goal of the match to put the Scots back on parity at 2-2.
Bain secured his hat-trick shortly before half-time to give his side a 3-2 lead going into the interval.
The Scots extended their lead to 4-2 mid-way through the second half when Wei Adams’ strike from another deflected penalty corner.
The Czechs managed to pull a goal back late in the second half, but it was Scotland who closed out the match comfortably to register a 4-3 win at full-time.
Scotland’s Senior Men made it seven wins in a row on Saturday with another victory over the Czech Republic in Prague. Kenny Bain and Chris Grassick were the goal scorers for Derek Forsyth’s side.
Scottish marksman Kenny Bain scored his fourth goal in two games when his reverse stick shot opened the scoring for the visitors in the 13th minute.
The Scots took the narrow 1-0 advantage into the half-time interval, but it was the Czechs who struck back after the break, netting a rebound just in front of goal to make the score line 1-1 in the 42nd minute.
However, Scotland didn’t have to wait long to retake the lead when Chris Grassick finished off a penalty corner set-play in the 52nd minute to give the Scot’s side a 2-1 win.
(Photo – Kenny Bain in action against Wales at Peffermill) http://www.photoboxgallery.com/jlp-photography.
Golf – The Open in the Square
The Open Championship’s famous Claret Jug visited the centre of Edinburgh at a special event celebrating the return of golf’s oldest Major Championship to the region.
The Open in the Square took place in St Andrew Square from Thursday 11 – Saturday 13 July, the week before the Championship is held at Muirfield in East Lothian.
Members of the public had the opportunity to try golf, to receive some tips from PGA golf professionals, to play some of the great Open courses on EA Sports games consoles and to get their picture taken with the Claret Jug.
The event also featured a golf simulator, a large screen showing some of the great moments from The Open Championship and artificial practice putting greens.
Speedway
The Edinburgh Scotwaste Monarchs scored their biggest win of the season on Friday night when they hammered Glasgow Tigers 62-30, and moved into second place in the Premier League, three points behind Workington with three matches in hand.
Jozsef Tabaka gave his best display of the season in scoring the full maximum15 points.
The following night, the high flying Monarchs travelled to face Rye House Rockets and ended up drawing 45-45 in a hard fought encounter.
Meanwhile the Monarchs will install an air fence at Armadale in time for the 2014 speedway season. This follows a recent directive by the Speedway Control Bureau that all tracks in the UK must have an additional protective device fitted to their safety fence. Any club which does not comply will not be able to run.
BUPA Great Edinburgh Run
Around five thousand took part in Sunday’s Bupa Great Edinburgh Run which featured a 10k, 5k, junior and mini run.
Fifer Andrew Lemoncello won the 10k with a time of 30.18.
A number of celebrities took part, including Shauna MacDonald, star of Ripper Street, Spooks and The Descent, Cal MacAninch, best known for his roles in Downtown Abbey and Mr Selfridge, soap stars Nicola Wheeler (Emmerdale’s Nicola King) and Vicky Binns (Emmerdale’s Ollie Reynolds and Coronation Street’s Molly Dobbs), who were joined by Mr Selfridge actor Trystan Gravelle (Victor) and Ashes to Ashes and Life on Mars star Dean Andrews. Des Clarke, comedian and Capital FM presenter.
Cricket
Barclays Grange duly completed a comprehensive 57-run victory at Grange Loan, scoring 201-4 against Heriot’s who eventually reached 144-7 at stumps.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
