This Ayr United Thing - More Iliad than Illyria

<p>Club Historian Duncan Carmichael reflects on the curious consequences that supporting a local football club will have.</p><p>Fifty-five years of writing programme notes have done nothing to diminish Duncan's enthusiasms: practicing stoicism patience emotional control in times of stress perfect knowledge of transport timetables motorway toilets and recommended fish-and-chiperies.</p><p>Generations of Carmichaels have found their lives rearranged by fixtures and foul weather and here Duncan blends family reminiscences with reports of battles won and lost on a journey featuring glorious defeats and routine victories but as yet no happiness at the still-elusive end.</p><p>Duncan's databases and archives of epic proportions are the accurate grounding for a fascinating review of one club's mesmeric hold on a typical Saturday foot-soldier.</p>