THE Ladbrokes Scottish Premiership is currently enjoying a three-week winter shutdown, but during season 1962-63 Scottish football was hit with its severest winter for years which wiped out fixtures for two months…

ALEX (Pollok) – My old man says the Jags would have won the league in the 60s if bad weather and an enforced winter break had not stopped their charge to the title. Sounds like wishful thinking. Can you give me details?

We will never know but Thistle had a very good side in the early 60s and your dad will be referring to season 62/63 when they came close to winning the title.

Thistle went on a 15-game unbeaten run from September 29, 1962, to 2 March 2, 1963. That run included 10 consecutive wins from October 6 to December 8 - drawing with Aberdeen the following week.

That run also included a rare 2-0 win against Celtic at Parkhead. A goal from the late Ian Cowan plus an outrageous long-range trundler from right-back Joe Hogan that somehow squirmed past Celtic keeper Frank Haffey into the net.

The Jags were joint top with Rangers and due to play them on January 2 when the weather intervened.

The severest winter weather for many years meant Scottish football was paralysed for two months (no under soil heating in those days!).

The ‘big freeze’ led to a fixture pile-up and Thistle had lost a lot of their momentum by the time they played their next game – 1-1 draw at Love Street on March 2.

Thistle eventually finished in third place behind Rangers and Kilmarnock on 46 point from 34 games. Who knows – it could have been Thistle’s year.

They did, however, qualify for Europe for the first time. Perhaps Thistle’s loss was Europe’s gain.

J. CUTHBERT (Glasgow) – Looking for details of a mix-up in making the draw for the League Cup semi-final in September 1993.

The mix-up was not in the draw which was Dundee Utd v Hibs and Celtic v Rangers. The issue was the venue for the Celtic v Rangers tie as Hampden was undergoing refurbishment and would not be ready for the game.

The Scottish League decided to allow the clubs to toss a coin to decide their venue Celtic Park or Ibrox. The Celtic manager Liam Brady was in Switzerland to watch opponents Young Boys of Berne and assistant Joe Jordan stood in for the draw.

Jordan and Rangers manager Walter Smith made the draw and Jordan won the toss and it was announced the semi-final would be played at Celtic Park.

However, it was then pointed out that Jordan had only won the toss to decide who would have first call to where the game would be played.

The coin was tossed again by Jordan and he lost the toss so Smith then chose Ibrox for the venue.

Rangers won the match 1-0 and went on to beat Hibs in the final at Celtic Park.