Old Highland League days....

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[+snorbens_caleyman]

By sheer coincidence, I have today received a copy of "Inverness Remembered Vol 4", in which that picture appears. As your filename suggests, it is indeed Glasgow Rangers, taken at Bught Lodge in 1888, on possibly their first visit to Sneck.

I think that's Graeme Souness as captain - bang in the middle, wearing the cap.

[Charles Bannerman]

16 minutes ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

By sheer coincidence, I have today received a copy of "Inverness Remembered Vol 4", in which that picture appears. As your filename suggests, it is indeed Glasgow Rangers, taken at Bught Lodge in 1888, on possibly their first visit to Sneck.

I think that's Graeme Souness as captain - bang in the middle, wearing the cap.

Dead ringer for Souness indeed Snorbens!

But Bught Lodge? Given the prevalence of bowler hats and even a token umbrella, do you not mean Bught Lodge Loyal? And was the date of the visit not Rangers' inaugural season of 1690?

[IBM]

3 hours ago, Charles Bannerman said:

Dead ringer for Souness indeed Snorbens!

But Bught Lodge? Given the prevalence of bowler hats and even a token umbrella, do you not mean Bught Lodge Loyal? And was the date of the visit not Rangers' inaugural season of 1690?

That will be the old Rangers then 

[dougiedanger]

I don't think Rangers were a sectarian club until around the 1920s or so when the board made a conscious decision to go in that direction. Or something like that, just glad they met their rightful end.

[Charles Bannerman]

1 hour ago, IBM said:

That will be the old Rangers then 

Yeh.... we still have the inaugural visit to Inverness of the new club to "look forward" to

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[+snorbens_caleyman]

My late father was Jags' secretary for a couple of years in the late 60s - 10 years after this photo - so I knew a few of these faces.

Terry McDonagh and Dils Hendry, however, I knew through the Golf Club at Culcabock.

George Pyke was still around.  Billy Robertson I didn't know, but I do remember him being an excellent keeper for the Clach.

Murdie Urquhart - who passed away fairly recently - was still playing. My father once had to take him up to Raigmore during a midweek evening game, after he had knocked himself out by diving against the corner of the post, unsuccessfully trying to prevent a goal. Dad said that one of the A&E nurses who was attending to him came out to ask "What exactly happened?  We are taking flakes of white paint out of the wound...".

Donnie Godsman was, I think, just about at the end of his playing career. Do I remember him being coach or trainer after that?

Jock MacD was, of course, "El Presidente", as Dad used to call him - though probably not to his face - and Roy Lytham was on the committee.

Apparently Roy was the only person who could get off with taking the mickey out of Jock. I often wondered if this photo - Roy in first team shirt, Jock in reserve strip - might have provided a clue as to why.

Edited August 10, 2016 by snorbens_caleyman
adding omitted words

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Murd, Roy Lytham and Donnie Godsman all worked for the Estates at the Craig. I can recall them playing or the Craig in their latter years.

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More feckin Jeggies

[Scarlet Pimple]

Has anyone got photos of Peter MacKinnon who played centre half for Caley, before he transferred to Elgin or Nairn , about 1950-1955. Big, strong with muscular legs and very nimble I do remember..- he  played seemingly on tiptoes when he got the ball. Day job was as a fireman on the railway. Lived for a spell next door to our family. Very nice guy to speak to, no side or arrogance about him at all.  I liked him very much....... ?

[Charles Bannerman]

9 hours ago, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

More feckin Jeggies

Is that the Thistle team that won the Highland League in 1987 with their only defeat in the final game at Peterhead? I don't think Billy Skinner had crossed the river by then for the £10K (inc VAT) that Jock had sought for him.

[RednBlackComeback]

The picture is a press-release from July 1990.

[Charles Bannerman]

1 hour ago, RednBlackComeback said:

The picture is a press-release from July 1990.

In that case it looks as if it might have been the launch/extension of a Tomatin sponsorship? I also seem to recollect that Lofty got sacked about six months later for failing to live up to Jock's expectations - especially in the Scottish Cup.

[RednBlackComeback]

4 hours ago, Charles Bannerman said:

In that case it looks as if it might have been the launch/extension of a Tomatin sponsorship? I also seem to recollect that Lofty got sacked about six months later for failing to live up to Jock's expectations - especially in the Scottish Cup.

Spot on. Tomatin announcing sponsorship deal for the forthcoming three seasons.

No prizes for guessing who the subsequent Jags manager was!

[Charles Bannerman]

4 hours ago, RednBlackComeback said:

Spot on. Tomatin announcing sponsorship deal for the forthcoming three seasons.

No prizes for guessing who the subsequent Jags manager was!

Yes indeed... the problem with Leishman is that he just didn't "get" Highland League football and was also a warning prior to the Baltacha situation with CT in 1994-95 that an absentee manager isn't a great idea - irrespective of how nice a room he may have had in the Crown Court.

I think one of the worst decisions Jock made was to sack Lofty and this was also the root cause of Jock's own departure at the end of 1991. I think there was maybe a lack of realism there when it should maybe have been appreciated that, with Thistle's means and likely income streams, winning the likes of the League and the Q Cup in 1987 and 1988 was never likely to be the default position.

On the subject of Jags "unveilings", I also remember the new strips - including the green away one -  in about 1992. That press call was especially memorable for the incredible buffet they laid on at the launch in the Haughdale. The conventional wisdom was that Jock's Jags just didn't do that kind of geniality!

And in turn, on the subject of the Haughdale, it was on the front lawn there in July 1994, when it looked overwhelmingly as if the new Inverness club was going to be strangled at birth, that Jock made one of his better calls when he told me categorically in an interview "the new club WILL go ahead"....

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[RednBlackComeback]

1 hour ago, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

Which one of the players is that?

[Charles Bannerman]

43 minutes ago, RednBlackComeback said:

Which one of the players is that?

Gotta be Urquhart!

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Guess Who ?

[Scarlet Pimple]

Charlie

On that first photo above, front row 2nd from right, was A Mitchell  "Jupie"?

And, if so , didn't he subsequently play for Caley for a few years?

[Charles Bannerman]

Scarlet... that "first photo above" is Plug from the Beano.... who actually featured in a University Challenge question last night! I assume you mean the Thistle 1958-59 cup winning team a lot further above, in which case I think Jupie may well have moved on to Thistle from Caley and indeed did he once score 10 in an 11-0 defeat of Fraserburgh by Caley... or did I dream that one?

Edited December 28, 2016 by Charles Bannerman

[Scarlet Pimple]

Right on Chas . I get it re Jupie.

But you will really have to stop splitting hairs....unless you give them to me for my bald spot.One of the problems we Canajins have is the distance between Inverness and Vancouver...i.e when I read something it takes a long time for the post to appear on the site so things seem not to relate when it finally shows up me hearty. And it has gotten worse since Clancy of the Mounted's horse dropped dead from exhaustion. Now we rely on the stagecoach and 4 for onward transmission of messages,especially when the telegraph has been replaced by the telephone.   

Either that or I am getting old.

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