Buckie Thistle loyal servant Easton Thain publishes 500th match programme for Victoria Park club - and he’s done many more for other Highland League teams
A devotion to a Highland League football club has reached a proud milestone.
Easton Thain is one of Buckie Thistle’s longest-serving committee members, done countless hours of research on the club’s history and written a book about his beloved Jags.
The 59-year-old has also edited the Victoria Park club’s match programme since 1993, and on Saturday he published his 500th edition.
It proved to be an emotional day for Easton, as his milestone publication landed on the very day that his late mother Roberta would have celebrated her 100th birthday.
Buckie made the occasion all the more memorable by defeating Keith 3-0 at Victoria Park on the final day of the Highland League season.
What makes Easton’s loyalty to the club all the more remarkable is that he wasn’t brought up in the north, but hails from Edinburgh and didn’t move to Moray until 1992.
“My brother took me to a Meadowbank Thistle game against Shrewsbury (in 1983) so I started watching them and sort of got to know the guys there - and eventually I got involved with their programme.
“I did that more-or-less until I came north in ‘92.”
Initially based in Kingston-on-Spey, Easton’s interest in Highland League football led to him selecting nearby Buckie as his club, sometimes even cycling along the coast to watch their games.
“There wasn’t time to get their programme started then but it was only a matter of time,” he added. “Then in February ‘93 came the chance to do it.
“I ended up doing six programmes like that - anything that constitutes a programme is four pages or more, so that’s how it started.”
Soon Easton’s editions had evolved into an A5 hardcover programme, the first of which brought him full circle back to his first love oin the capital, as Buckie took on Meadowbank and Aberdeen in a pre-season double header.
That only lasted four issues due to printing costs, and it was into the 1994-95 season before Easton came up with a new plan.
Buckie’s programme had for some years been called Jags Mag which Easton carried on from previous editors, but the need for a revamp saw him rename it the Thistle Review, taken from one of his predecessors.
“The reason I changed it was really an homage, if you want to call it that, to a guy called Raeich Green, who had started the Thistle Review in 1978.
“Sadly he’s no longer with us but I've got his programmes that he did, and they literally were ahead of their time.”
Easton’s efforts have also gained recognition, as he helped Buckie win the Highland League programme of the year award four years in a row, and seventh best in the whole of Scotland in 2002-03. It was voted best non-league programme in the country in 2013-14.
“You start something up and say ‘let's just see how it goes’. So to reach 500 is something pretty special in a way, but I've been fortunate as I've had great backing from the club over the years.”
He remembers some of the more amusing moments, not least when former Rothes winger Chris Pilichos was printed as ‘Chris Pilchards’ when his handwritten notes went unchecked. “I knew there was something fishy about that one when I read it,” he joked.
‘Hamilton Aca Demical’ and ‘Partic Thistle’ were the mispelt names of Scottish League covers of two more Thistle Reviews.
One programme against Forres Mechanics was discovered to have something like 28 errors - prompting a move to proof reading each edition from that day forth.
Not only has Easton edited 500 programmes for Jags, but he has also published editions for many of their neighbouring clubs.
“I lived in Keith for ten years so I did their programme as well for that length of time. Some cracking games like when they played Blackpool when Colin Hendry was manager.
“I did 15 or 20 for Islavale as well, which was more fun because its junior football and a different world altogether. I did some for Dufftown, a couple for Nairn and Forres and one-off games as well, like Aberdeenshire Shield finals.
Easton has also been a regular contributor for Elgin City’s matchday programme in the SPFL, unearthing some gems from his history banks.
But out of his Buckie 500, Easton has his favourites. Covering the testimonial matches for three of the club’s long-serving heroes, Paul Lamberton, Kevin Main and Jamie Shewan are right up there with the best.
“There was the Rangers game in 2014 which was incredible because so many people wanted that one.”
And even when the pandemic struck and fans couldn’t attend matches, Easton managed to get a special edition out when Buckie hosted Caley Thistle for a Scottish Cup tie at an empty Victoria Park, and still managed to get a good number of sales.
So what does the future hold for football match programmes? Many clubs have stopped printing or doing online editions, yet Easton plans to keep his Thistle Review going for as long as possible.
“People ask why you do match programmes in this day and age when, by the time it comes out it's all going to be out of date. But for others it’s something tangible, it’s there and you can pick it up and read it.
“The amount of programme fairs that are going on now is incredible. There's collectors still out there and young collectors at that, which is even more important.
“I do understand why some clubs don’t do them any more, I just think it’s a shame.”
