On the other side of the fence on Saturday’s game, the Killie lads were just as keen to help out, indeed James Fowler arrived just as I did before the game, and he immediately handed over a long promised pair of his boots.  I also managed to snaffle a pair of goalie gloves from coach Billy Thomson as well as an awesome initialled training top from Assistant Manager (and Rangers, Man Utd & Northern Ireland star) Jimmy Nicholl.

Having spoken to him at the start of the day, outgoing Kilmarnock midfielder James Dayton was handing out a lot of kit at the end of the day and I managed to nab one of his club polo shirts which he happily signed when the crowd died down a bit and then posed for this pic.

I’d like to thank everyone who helped me on Saturday from all of those who donated items, to those who helped me get to the items, you’re all awesome! 

Come Sunday, I had a few items to collect from players at the Motherwell vs St Johnstone game and I managed to collect a few bonus goodies there as well.

First up was defender Frazer Wright who very kindly donated his boots for the second year in a row, and also agreed to donate next season as well.  Joining him in the Saints ranks donating boots was Chris Millar, who I only asked the night before the final game and he was kind enough to jump on board.  I pretty much can’t stop laughing at the kids in the background either eyeballing me or the boots!

I approached ‘keeper Alan Mannus to ask if he would be willing to donate something next season for the auctions, and he blew me away by giving me one of his match shirts.  Alan was kind enough to sign the shirt on the front and the back and here he is posing with the shirt for me.

Murray Davidson, making his last appearance for Saint Johnstone, had promised a lot of items to other people, but I managed to snaffle his shin pads for the auction, both of which are signed.  Having received the first ever shin pads from Murray, I had another pair added courtesy of Motherwell’s Nicky Law, although he was away in the crowd before I managed to snap a pic of him with them.  Goalie Lee Hollis followed through on his promise to donate gloves for auction, here he is with one of the gloves which were freshly match worn.

The last photo is of one of the items I managed to get multi signed by the St Johnstone team, a squad poster which Scotland cap Callum Davidson was kind enough to sign and then pose with as he was the last player to sign it.

All in all a pretty good weekend, with some amazing donations.  Thanks to all the Motherwell and St Johnstone guys for their support, especially those who have added their names down to donate items next season.  I can’t fundraise without amazing items like these and you don’t know how much I appreciate it.

These items will find their way into auction within the next week, if eBay oblige with a free listing weekend for the bank holiday

]]> http://thelucky13challenge.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/going-in-for-the-kil-with-some-help-from-the-saints-well-that-was-a-cracking-weekend/feed/ 0 twelveby12 DSCN1140 conor1 DSCN1138 DSCN1136 DSCN1139 DSCN1142 DSCN1129 DSCN1147 DSCN1143 DSCN1132 DSCN1153 DSCN1155 DSCN1156 DSCN1167 DSCN1154 DSCN1168 http://thelucky13challenge.wordpress.com/2013/05/11/from-cup-winners-to-league-winners-from-dr-who-to-texas/ http://thelucky13challenge.wordpress.com/2013/05/11/from-cup-winners-to-league-winners-from-dr-who-to-texas/#comments Fri, 10 May 2013 23:31:09 +0000 twelveby12 http://thelucky13challenge.wordpress.com/?p=2786 Continue reading →]]>

click here for current live auctions!!

A busy day today, with some running around, dodging rain and making plans for next weekend.  The day started with a trip to St Mirren to catch the players likely to be leaving in the summer, and got some more cup final items signed up for auction including a nice collage photo and programme.  From there, after a trip home to check on the Smudger, I headed out to Celtic Park hoping to beat the rain and get some items signed, I did pretty well and you’ll see a signed Celtic home shirt up for grabs in the coming week, with loads of signatures on it from the Scottish Premier League champions.

Having left Celtic Park, I wandered over the the Daily Record Our Heroes award, hoping to catch Amy MacDonald who was performing.  I didn’t get her, but I did manage a few of Mrs Brown’s Boys, including the awesome Brendan O’Carroll who I had met last month but didn’t get a photo with.  Brendan was kind enough to pose for this pic as well as signing for the Xmas Card auction.  I also nabbed fellow cast members Rory Cowan and Gary Hollywood.

Others I managed included Dr Who and SJA star Tommy Knight who remembered me from last year on the plane from London, Sharleen Spiteri from Texas, Neil Lennon who was quickly added to the Celtic shirt from earlier in the day and Ally McCoist.  David Tennant was slated to be there, but hadn’t arrived when I left.  I find myself hoping he didn’t show up, as I would have been gutted to miss him.

In the meantime, it’s half marathon time this weekend in Chester, I’m looking forward to returning to this awesome city.  Right now it’s half past midnight and I should get some sleep!

Last week saw some Rugby Sevens hunting and some success across the board of all teams involved, including the awesome ten time winners The New Zealand All Blacks, pictured left with me.  Former Scotland international star Chris Paterson (record cap and point scorer) was kind enough to sign some Xmas Cards as well as one of my Pride the Lions.  As you’ll have seen a few weeks ago, I decided to branch out a little bit and get some other key figures to sign some, and Chris was kind enough to sign and add 109 809 to mark those records he holds before posing for this pic.

The Scottish Sevens team was equally brilliant, especially Scott Riddell who was kind enough to get the full team to sign some items for me.  Loads of those involved were great over the time I was there, including Mike Friday the Kenya coach who literally lined his team up to sign and several of the squads who were happy to do team snaps like the ones above.

Away from rugby, the lower divisions in Scotland came to a close at the weekend, meaning final chances to get a few players, and I headed to Ibrox to see who was present at the league unveiling day.  I picked up a few odds and ends including Johnny Hubbard MBE on my shirt before heading to Firhill for the First Division Champions!  Into the pot went items including a new signed Kids vs Experience tshirt as seen here in the hands of Alan Archibald.

The weekend then brought the arrival of the Manchester United and Rangers legends, or at least some of them, and I snapped up some nice signed items before heading to the PFA Scotland Awards where pretty much every footballer in Scotland showed up.  It was crazy, but a mix of photos, teamsheets, index cards and Xmas Cards were signed including this fabulous Scottish Cup Semi Final Teamsheet signed by Hibs hero Leigh Griffiths with the scoreline added!  Britain’s most expensive goalie, Craig Gordon was in town and he happily signed for the goalie glove auction, while Bertie Auld was thrilled to sign a Lion for the auctions.  Scottish band The View were in attendance and they signed for both the Xmas and Music & Lyrics auctions.  There were loads of additions to the Xmas Card auction, which I will update and pop some pics on the Xmas Auction Page after this post.  Matchday at Ibrox brought some pretty awesome items, including several signed by Sir Alex Ferguson, including this teamsheet from the match.  Not a bad wee item, signed just 48 hours before he announced his retirement.  Among the items signed by the United players was this brilliant multi signed photo of Old Trafford with the one pictures there signed by several of the team.

Goalie Raimond Van Der Gouw was kind enough to sign for the goalie glove auction, as was Andy Goram.  Bryan Robson, being the biggest name present in my view, was kind enough to sign an Olympic Lion for the auctions, and posed for a pic.  Indeed, the Lion is signed twice, though I’m not sure why

]]> http://thelucky13challenge.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/where-to-start/feed/ 0 twelveby12 DSCN0877 DSCN0900 DSCN0875 DSCN0997 DSCN0947 DSCN0934 DSCN0965 DSCN1000 DSCN0999 DSCN0971 http://thelucky13challenge.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/conrad-balatoni-ramsdens-cup-final-shirt-auction/ http://thelucky13challenge.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/conrad-balatoni-ramsdens-cup-final-shirt-auction/#comments Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:37:54 +0000 twelveby12 http://thelucky13challenge.wordpress.com/?p=2762 Continue reading →]]>  

Current High Bid £200

Partick Thistle fans who have checked out my blog in recent days will know that I currently have a rather brilliant item up for auction at the moment.  It’s not on eBay but instead I am inviting bids either by email (twelveby12@yahoo.co.uk) or via Twitter (@13challenge) to see how high it can go.

Here it is to the right, in the hands of the main man Conrad Balatoni, and it’s his very own Ramsden’s Cup Final shirt from the recent match with Queen of the South, signed by the squad which has now won the Scottish First Division.  The shirt has the match details stitched at the top, Ramsden’s sleeve patches and no6 on the reverse.  It’s a truly awesome item, and as you can see the bidding currently sits at £200!  Who’s going to top that for this one off item?!

Also included in the auctions right now are loads of other items, with and without a Thistle link.  Those which lean towards the Firhill side of town include a signed glove from Scott Fox and this brilliant tshirt celebrating the league win signed by loads of the squad, and a special champions addition at the top.

You can check out everything else @ THIS SHINY LINK HERE

…and don’t forget you can bid on Conrad’s shirt by getting in touch.

By Sunday night this link will take you to my current live auctions.

You know what, I’m going to open this post with a self indulgent picture, there’s me with the Scottish First Division Trophy, decked out in the best colours in the world!  What a feeling to get my hands on it!

Following yesterdays Jags items being signed, I followed it up today with one of the iconic Kids vs Experience tops worn by the players to celebrate the league win, and managed to get it signed by most of the squad.

As the players left, I managed to get this snap to promote the auction, featuring (left to right) Conrad Balatoni, Sean Welsh, Aaron Sinclair and James Craigen.  As well as being signed by so many of the team and management, both Craigen and Chris Erskine have added “Champions” to their signatures at the top of the tshirt.  An awesome item for fans!

Title winning goalie Scott Fox was also kind enough to sign a pair of gloves for the auction, sure to be a good seller after the season he’s had!

Later in the day I bumped into former Rangers and Scotland goalie Andy Goram though annoyingly I had only lifted one pair of gloves!  I did, however, manage a couple of Xmas Cards for the auction, and Andy was kind enough to pose for this pic to help promote it!

Earlier today I also did a wee interview for the Jags Cast, which will come out during the week.  I’ll post a link here to it once it’s online.

Thanks to everyone who signed today, much appreciated as always.

In the meantime, if it’s past 9pm CLICK HERE to check out the items currently online

Online bids BEFORE I got the shirt sit at £200, so I am going to open this up for seven days to see where the bidding can go.  If you’re wanting to bid on the item, please email me @ twelveby12@yahoo.co.uk or tweet me using @13challenge #conradshirtauction

Keeping the Thistle link going one of my supporters (who has asked to remain unnamed here) presented me with a signed programme from the 1971 League Cup Final in which the Jags destroyed Celtic 4-1.  The person in question knows who they are and they have my utmost thanks.  This will be up for auction in the coming weeks (unless of course someone wants to make me an offer that I cannot turn down!)

Moving away from football, I received a response from Freema Agyeman this morning with a little help from a fundraising friend of mine, massive thanks to Emilia Di Girolamo for her assistance.  Arriving in the post were EIGHTEEN signed Dr Who trading cards from Freema (pictured left) and several amazing signed script pages from some key moments in her Dr Who career.  Pictured below are two of those pages, each signed in black marker with “Martha Jones” added in brackets.

As with many of the Dr Who items coming in just now, I’m champing at the bit to auction them but know it will go much better in a huge auction later in the year, so I will just enjoy having these in my collection for now until the 50th anniversary auction day.

As you can see in the listing image, they’re pretty cool!  I can’t thank Freema enough for being kind enough to sign so many items.  All hail Martha Jones!!

Last, but by no means least for now is cup final scorer Conor Newton who signed several items including these fabulous shots of him while involved in “Australia Day” at Newcastle. 

Having sorted items from one of the finalists, I headed out today to see the other one, Hearts.  A fabulous day ended with loads of awesome signed items, with the trailblazer being these awesome signed boots donated by Callum Tapping!

Callum had previously agreed to donate a pair and was kind enough to get them for me today so they can go straight into the auctions.  MASSIVE thanks to Callum and to Denis Prychynenko who confirmed that he’s happy to donate his boots at the end of the season and goalie Mark Ridgers who is donating a pair of gloves!

Keeping in the cup final theme, I decided to make use of the multiple Cup Final teamsheets I have from last year and get the players who played to sign for the auction.  Several of the players involved in the game have placed a huge signature on a single teamsheet and added the scoreline to make it a truly unique item for Hearts fans and collectors.  Among those to do so were opening scorer Darren Barr (right) and captain and club legend Marius Zaliukas (left).  All of these teamsheets are going up for grabs this weekend, so be sure to check in and check them out!

The final main items being signed were some more Hearts team posters, following the success at auction last time round, and I was thrilled to get loads of the team to sign for me.  Also included as a bonus was former Hearts star Jean Louis Valois who is training with the club this week.  .  Top quality and just as decent a guy as he was when he was last in Scotland.

Here’s current Hearts manager Gary Locke with one of the posters at the end of the day, with loads of signatures in place.  All in all a pretty good day.  As I said, be sure to check back for these items and loads more in auctions over the weekend   These will be the last auctions until the end of May, so well worth checking them out… there’s going to be a LOT!!

What a feeling!  Another Major Marathon Medal in the bag.  I’ll say here and now the support from the CWC UK team was amazing, you’re all awesome in every way… from the support points on the course, to carrying my bags from finish line to the reception to having Ribena and a shepherd’s pie on hand for me to munch.  Awesome.

Here’s me in the build up to the race, in a snap courtesy of BBC 1 who broadcast me live (unaware) to the nation.  Please note, I am focused, not worried

The events in Boston played a big role on race day, and the thirty second silence was impeccably observed by tens of thousands of runners and fans.  It was spine tingling.  Every step every runner took was for those who can’t any more.  They caught the second bomber during the night I was travelling down to London, and I’m delighted, time to throw away the key!  Boston, we all ran for you guys, we’re with you every step of the way.

I had not planned to do sponsorship as such for this race, but enough people have asked me in the last couple of days that I will be setting up an online page tomorrow to allow anyone to support me that wants to.  Thanks to those who have indicated they will.

Away from the run itself, wow, what a weekend with some awesome items added to the auction pot and some awesome photos as you’ll see coming up.  An early arrival in London on Saturday morning and a meet up with fellow runner/collector/fundraiser James (HUGE thanks to James for taking most of the photos you’re about to see!) was followed by a quick journey to BBC HQ to try and grab as many of the morning’s guests as possible.  I missed a few I hoped to get, but got some rather awesome items including an a4 doodle from Bill Bailey as seen right, as well as this brilliant pic of me with Bill.

Also among those signing (mostly contributing to the Xmas Card auctions but several contributing to the Olympic Auction.  I decided recently to branch out the Olympic auction a little bit and get some big names from other fields to sign some of the mini mascots very kindly given to me by Mr Darth Sharkey, and those to sign this weekend including an Olympic opening ceremony star and two Skyfall cast members, and not just any old cast members either!

First up was the legend that is DAME JUDI DENCH, who was happy to sign a mini “Pride the Lion” and pose for this pic, as was the latest incarnation of “Q”, Ben Whishaw, who signed his with a stunning signature and posed for a pic with me as well.

The final “Pride” signed on the day was from musician Frank Turner who performed with his band during the London 2012 Opening Ceremony.  He was performing as part of “Record Store Day” in London as we managed to time it just right to nab him in the temporary back stage area to sign, and he was then kind enough to come to the end of the area to pose for a pic as well.  Here’s the photo one of his crew took for me with his signed “Pride”.  I’ve got to say he was awesome with us, and I was chuffed to add him to the Olympic auction.

Earlier in the day some of the other awesome people to sign for the auctions included half of Blue (I did see them all, but with two running late there was no chance of success there), Julian Clary, Gaby Roslin, and Sophie Kinsella.

The dash to the heart of theatreland also allowed a chance for an extra Dr Who signed item from Suranne Jones, who after a comical moment of misunderstanding signed a massive white card with her best known Dr Who quote… “I think you call me ‘sexy’” and added her character name as well before posing for this photo.

From there it was off to the Expo via nabbing Frank Turner, and some of the traditional start of event photos including this one at the Children with Cancer UK stand.  Runner no37220 come on down!  We bumped into Tony Audenshaw of Emmerdale fame at the Expo and then a surprise meeting with Billy Murray (Don Beech in The Bill) in a pub next to the ExCel, I managed a wee photo with him, though didn’t want to bother him to sign items as he was clearly in “private” mode.  Still, a photo with the baddest baddie in the history of The Bill… not bad at all.

The final celeb meet of the weekend was on the Sunday, DURING the race, when I took a breather at Tower Bridge and got this photo with 2000 Gold Medal winning Heptathlon star Denise Lewis!   I tried to resist getting it, but I just couldn’t!  

So there it is, London for a weekend, less A-Z, more M-Q, but still including a thorough tour of the city, some brilliant highs, some hobbling lows, but the smile is still present and the medal is proudly in the collection.

My thanks once again to those who made the marathon possible overall… the staff, the volunteers, the organisers, the emergency services, the charity cheering posts from other causes who willed us on and of course the awesome team at Children with Cancer UK … Ben, Claire, Emily and every other one of you!  You made my day what it was!

Also included are some more amazing St Mirren items from the 2013 League Cup Final including signed photos and another brilliant signed tshirt.  The extra special item for Saints fans this time round is this pair of Marc McAusland’s boots!   There’s also a new awesome photo from Rudi Skacel celebrating last year’s Scottish Cup win and that awesome signed tshirt from Mrs Brown’s Boys!  There of course now more signatures than when this photo was taken right after Gary Hollywood signed it.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT WHAT’S UP FOR GRABS RIGHT NOW

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