We’ve been doing some work on headline writing in our workshops recently. It reminded us of the story behind one of our favourite ever headlines …
Inverness Caledonian Thistle (or ‘Caley’), a Scottish football team then playing in the second tier, were playing the mighty Glasgow Celtic in the cup. This is the equivalent of, say, Northwich Victoria playing Manchester United.
Anyhow, in one of the biggest upsets in Scottish football, Inverness won 3-1 against a woeful Celtic, spawning the headline:
‘Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic Are Atrocious.’
I bet the journalist who came up with that one has been dining out on it ever since.
Apparently, it was based on a lesser known headline from the 1970s, also football related. That version relates to Liverpool’s Ian Callaghan playing a blinder in a victory over QPR: ‘Super Cally Goes Ballistic, QPR Atrocious’.
Do you know any better ones? If you do, let us know using the comments link below. We’ll be compiling the best ones for a future post.