Caledonian Craig

As is Scottish independence.

A bitter sweet match for Murray which he loses 6-7 6-2 6-7. He served twice for the match in the third set but couldn't see it out and lost the tie-break tamely by his old standards. A match he could and should have won but standard of play in general from both was great.

True but the 11K BS was being reported nationwide by the media and seen as written in stone whereas the 200K BS would have only been reported to a smaller audience.

Seemingly, Andy Murray is confirmed for the Australian Open and will enter with a protected ranking of No 2 seed.

True that game time is what youngsters need but...... Talented youngsters may be at clubs where their development is stinted by lack of chances. That being the case surely it is worth giving them that game time for Scotland...bear with me here. Look at Darren Fletcher. As I recall it he was not getting any first team football for United but Vogts threw him in and his career blossomed from there. I am sure that could be the case for several youngsters we have now. After all in many areas we have exhausted a lot of the alternatives out there anyway in various areas of the pitch.

ATP Live Rankings now have Andy Murray at No 242 n the world.

Andy Murray wins 2-6 6-2 6-3. Improved as the match went on and played some good stuff in the third set. In the second round he'll play either Fognini or Querrey. All very valuable ranking points for him to as he starts that long climb back up the rankings as he is now into the 200s.

As long as they tick Yes in the next independence vote I could not give a stuff about what they say about these marches.

Cheers. Well over-estimating I think happens to counter-balance the under-estimating done by union supporters.

My estimate would be around the 60K mark using some logic. I arrived at The Meadows at 2.15pm and people carried on flowing in for almost two hours thereafter. Given that grass was muddy they were sticking to the path but it was a solid block of people so would say if you stood at one spot you were being passed by a crowd about 10 wide across the path. That would equate to about 400 per minute and 24,000 per hour over two hours makes 48,000 and there were already many thousands at the Meadows by the time we got there. Also I know of many supporters who lined the route by the roadside unable to partake in the walk for age or health reasons who were supporting the cause. Given the crappy weather that alone displays the appetite there is for IndyRef 2 even though Westminster will try to deny it.

Andy Murray continues on the comeback trail tomorrow morning. He plays in the First Round of the Shanghai Masters against Argentinian qualifier Juan Ignacio Londero. It is a match I'd expect Andy to win and if he does he'd play the winner of the Fabio Fognini and Sam Querrey match in the Second Round.

Keeping tabs on them is one thing but calling them up for the Scotland squad for two decent performances against the Old Firm is another.

And toiled to score for Queen of the South too. I'd sooner see the likes of Hornby called up.

Maybe we should keep this thread going week-on-week so that when a striker who qualifies to play for us scores a goal we can put them forward for a place in the Scotland squad? Seriously though it just shows how desperate things have got for us that we are reduced to these measures.

I got to The Meadows at around 2.15 pm and was there for about an hour and a half and people were still arriving there when I left around 4ish. Great bonhomie and atmosphere - a feeling of real togetherness.

Well I wasn't even the first to arrive at The Meadows and they were still pouring in there an hour and a half after I arrived and bear in mind it was peeing it down with rain. Hard to gauge how many thousands were there but it is always a laugh passing a handful of yoons armed with a microphone and their faded Union Jack suits.

In my opinion there is no point in stumbling on with players not in form for us such as O'Donnell without looking at other options there. Players should not be keeping their place if they are not playing well. Look at other options in matches where the results are not going to impact on our qualifying chances and by the time the play-offs are here we may have found better options across the pitch strengthening our chances instead of stumbling on through mediocrity.

I will be there with my sister. Independence for Scotland and ditch the wasters of Westminster.

Thiem wins 6-2 7-6. Considering where he was and who he was playing against that was an encouraging showing from Andy. He was 5-3 down in the second set and fought back to take it to a tie-break. At the very least he was competitive.

Sure thing. Anyway best of luck to Andy tomorrow.

Well it is a bit considering Andy is ranked 500+ and has just come back from several months out of tennis and having to undergo a ground-breaking and pioneering operation which no player has ever undergone and went on to return to play singles tennis matches. Before he even thinks about slam wins he has to totally rebuild his career by regaining fitness and stamina which he will no doubt do at the end of the season with rigorous training as is per his norm. He will then have to repair the massive damage done to his ranking and fight his way back up the rankings as, at present, he could draw Novak Djokovic or players of his standard in the opening rounds of the biggest tournaments. I am not ruling out the possibility but at the moment it is a distant dream.

Lets not get ahead of ourselves here. It is just great to have Andy back on court and playing competitive tennis pain-free. In my opinion if he were to win another slam it would be the best slam win of his career and would be something no player has done before.

Indeed. Andy, in singles tennis, is now a pioneer. Nobody has played singles tennis following the hip operation that he has had. To even be back playing tennis at a level that can see him winning matches against players ranked in the top twenty says a heck of a lot.

After beating Cameron Norrie in three long sets yesterday, Andy Murray will play No 4 seed Dominic Thiem in the QF's of the China Open tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how competitive he can be given that Thiem is inside the world top ten.

A nice step forward in his comeback. It is his fitness I think he needs to work on and stamina to enable him to recover between matches and go again a day or two later to a high standard.