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You would almost think they were doing this to spite us all for disapproving the move to Kelty and asking Gardiner to leave because our club is being ruined. This is unprecedented crass behaviour. Are they bringing the game of football into disrepute? Shocking performance from those within who have done irreperable damage to the brand. I have never been so disengaged from anything in my life. Not sure I can stomach much more of this.

It all makes sense now Dougal, oh you are clever. Didn't know who I was ? What way I voted ? Of course it's now clear we were the first football club applying National Socialist methods to assess memberships and weed out potential "outsiders" Before handing over aforementioned book, he did comprehensively quiz me at length about my previous history, what school did I attend ?, was I left footed ?, could I pronounce rubber bumpers properly?, had I ever fouled Grassa Bennett when playing against the High School U15s ?. He then stamped "undies desirable" on my book which I did think a little odd but I am mildly dyslexic To this day I wear undies to games, (fleece lined October - March)

Agree. I feel ashamed of how our club treating people and finding it hard to stay connected to a club so morally bankrupt. Awful times

Mark, Roddy, Lewis - makes a mockery telling supporters we're going to train in Fife because of the high cost of providing accommodation for players in Inverness - these three do not need accommodation and I bet NONE will be replaced by better players.

Did you check Kelty?

Big disappointment for you guys. Denied a stonewall pen and a sucker punch in the last min. Apart from the pen shout Scotland never created much up front at all. First shot 53rd min? McGinn was your best player last night but got hooked. I think Steve Clerk will walk now leaving the door open for big Dunc. However, I have to say your fans did your country (and team) proud.

I am absolutely stunned and staggered that, with less than a week before the first pre season friendly, we have still heard nothing! Do we have a squad to play games? Have we got investment? When is Gardner going? Are we going into admin? The silence is deafening and it's only getting loader - totally shambolic from the club!

That's exactly what it feels like. Surely no club could be so clueless and incompetent as to act this way. The only reasonable explanation is that this is by design. It's made even more ridiculous as most fans are looking for some positivity, some kind of reason to reconnect, get their season tickets, to buy the merch. However the club refuse to communicate anything to fans (or players for that matter) regarding, well anything at all. Utterly bizarre and pathetic in equal measure.

I’m relieved the traditional pain and heartache is over, conjured up too many painful memories from ‘74, ‘78… …now I can get down to enjoying the rest of the tournament and cheering on whoever plays England (with apologies to Gringo )

I had time on my hands this morning so…. First stop Fort George and what looked like seven or eight over-weight members of HM Forces labouring round the training area on a boot camp…. but you never know, that might have been it. Then I thought I’d have a look at the Queens Park track which other clubs have been using. Here a squad of 70+ year olds were making brave efforts to walk or hobble round. So maybe that was the 24-25 squad? But best also check the all weather at the Rugby Club next door since there are going to be a lot of plastic pitches to acclimatise to. It was empty. I’m sure they could have been plenty other places, but the “usual suspect” venues yielded about as much as recent information from the club has.

If anyone goes over to Fort George, can they take a jotter and pencil and take notes please. We have a blank sheet on our Players List for this season. Thanx

We would have been an embarrassment in the last 16 anyway. I went to most of the qualifying games including the monsoon a year ago and it was like chalk and cheese compared to this. We probably peaked too early and without a striker or a right back, then losing Tierney too, we don’t have the depth of squad. We rely heavily on McGinn and McTominay and our back 3 are not good enough ball players at this level. Sad too that Ryan looked a bit culpable at the goal although it’s pretty irrelevant. I fear that’s the end of Clarke’s time. In some ways he’s the same as Southgate.

Never mind. We've still got England to cheer on!

Fuming about the late penalty not given, and not even a VAR check?! However, that aside, we just weren’t good enough. Passing it sideways and backwards and completely toothless in the final third. Very familiar, as you say. Best fans, worst team. Our Mannschaft flopped!

I have renewed my season ticket for the 24th year in a row , I have also renewed both my sons (under 12s) tickets too. I have always loved the club from day one (an ex Caledonian FC fan pre merger who grew up a regular at Telford St) - I want it to remain a going concern. I also want to be able to take my 2 football daft young sons to watch a game on a Saturday afternoon. Maybe I’m being foolish in renewing our tickets - but I really hope to see as many of you there when the 24/25 season kicks off

I left at 1130. I’m told that a Caley Thistle group began to arrive at midday.

We're going with the 'nearest the goal is in' method instead of a dedicated keeper this season.

Please can we have a further update of what is going on at the club? Good or bad, it's better to know in my opinion especially when it's season ticket renewal time....

Or send a drone over…

Oh well, Scotland did what Scotland does! I’m sure none of us are surprised be blew our best chance in years to get to the latter stages of a tournament for the first time. Some of our play was reminiscent of a team we all love!

I recall buying my season book ( £59 standing I think it was) in year 1 and beginning to wonder when there was still no trace of it in the post on the eve of the season opener at Telford Street. I needn't have worried myself as it was hand delivered that evening by a committee member, a new club pulling together to ensure the supporters weren't disadvantaged. Given the current fan engagement one taxi might just about do it for season 24/25. Learning point for current Board - Aim to get the basics right before trying to impress your league one peers with the shiniest brogues.

Wish I felt as confident as you. Hope you paid by credit card just in case

Its still getting plenty outings

Let's hope that tomorrow we have some sort of clue as to who might be actually playing for us next season and whether Dunc is returning. Without any sort of background information this will just explode our frustration yet again - but I'm not holding my breath

We did he was a Caley dissenter appointed to appease the revolting

Couple more from frankfurt.

From another film, but around the same time, here are views on Railway Terrace.

The Castle Snack Bar latterly named the Castle Restaurant is closing. I have not been in it for years but is provided great basic food in its day, the steak pie and chips were great! Now going to be a chip shop.

Now this was a Snack Bar

Ever been in here?

I remember the paddling pool !!

Yes Waterloo Bowling Club, it's still there. Not much on the north side of the railway apart from Shore Street and the Citadel, no Burnetts Bakery! A big space between Abban Street and Dunabban Road. The white building on Dunabban Road was where Williamson the scrap metal merchant was in the late 60's and you got 10 shillings for an old battery and £1 for a heavy duty one

Was that a Bowling Club ?

Just spent a happy couple of hours on this thread again, going back over old times with some Old Timers......' Thanks for the memories IHE , great stuff and fine photographs. You know the old saying..."the more things change the more they stay the same."

A few here for you IBM

When smoking had advantages

Anyone fer tennis ?

Other memories i have, are of when the AI Welders hooter used to go off every weekday at 1-30. I recall this clearly as a toddler, as to me, it signalled that it was time to go and watch Fingerbobs, Mr Benn, Trumpton, The Flumps etc lol Also i recall when all the council vehicles were Orange instead of Yellow.

So you were Charles

Went along tonight and it was good to be back. It was quite remarkable how little has changed since I left in 1974 and even older people were saying the same thing - the same doors, blackboards, floor tiles, radiators, windows, cloak rooms etc etc. Those who visited were given the freedom to more or less roam the building at will, and every corner you turned, or room you entered, brought back fresh memories. Some wonderful old photos on display too and if one person mentioned MacLeod and his drinking, I think half a dozen did. Several hours later, and back home now, I am struck how even after all this time I had a huge sense of belonging there when I went back today. I must be getting soppy in my old age. :003:

Remeber the old Crawfords Cafe opposite main PO? If i remember correctly, there was a Crawfords at the back of Wollies too..........but not sure if it was a cafe or just a bakers????????????

Smee----"marbles season"--don't you mean durbs? :002: Rounders in the road .

Thank you buckett. I'd forgotten the details of that one. I'm wondering if the version I saw involved the "guard" throwing a ball up in the air and catching it again at the end of the turn... to take their eyes off the encroaching challengers a bit more. "War" to us baby boomers was, of course, an inevitable extrapolation of what our fathers had done to the Germans or the Japs depending on which theatre they'd been in. The best War games I ever had were at the "back of Kavvies" (Kavvies later becoming as noted Caley Rebel) in the waste ground behind St. Valery Ave in among the whin bushes. Sometimes it was the Japs, sometimes it was the Huns but, like John Wayne (except when he was at The Alamo) the good guys always won. I was never very good at impersonating a machine gun - which, unlike most Brtish infantrymen, we all seemed to carry, none of your crappy 303s - but ur,ur,ur,ur,ur,ur seemed just about to do it. Remember in Commando comics when Germans used to die with an "Aargh" but with Japs it was "Aieee".

Depends where you looked from - chain was on the wall to the left if you were on the canal side or on the right if you were at the bottom of it. On the other side, there was usually some form of rope swing which was pretty hairy as the ground fell away quite dramatically Yup - did that too long before the Caley Inn was a hostelry I worked there before going to uni - would have been from about May 84 to August 84. Was a general dogsbody on the marina side helping out the likes of Richie Foss, Brill, and Peter the boatbuilder -- did get a day out doffing my cap to the posh people at the Moy Fair though and a few occasions where i got to birl (sp ?) about on the cruisers on a Saturday moving them from the berths to the transom jetty for cleaning and back again before they were rented out. I remember that area - quite steep and scary Here's a few more for you ..... .... going from the Bumbers Lane to the Cemetery on a bike (usually with playing cards clipped onto the spokes to make noise) through all the lanes where the garages / sheds were ...... through fairfield road-lilac grove lane, then on the road to st ninian then through the lanes all the way to the police houses opposite the cemetery ...... .... go karting from the top lock to top of hawthorn drive or down the bumbers lane on home made carts .... hiding in the 'air raid shelters' along the canalside - one at the top lock end, one at tomnahurich .... seeing a colour TV programme (seem to recall it was a game in the 76 world cup) in Tony Wood's house - his dad worked for Radio Rentals and I think he was the first in the street to have one !

nice thread. I enjoy hearing the memories. My memories of Dalneigh as a kid include, Mad Eddie the tramp/ wino who lived in a shed along at the canal end of Balnacraig road. There was also maggie bins and her trolley (the female equivalent of Harold Steptoe) Going in the trees at "back roadie" (behind Hawthorn Drive) at bottom of the hill leading to canal, hunting for noodie books. Always prime pickings to be found there. Fishing in the top lock (along wi the rest of the dalneigh population) during summer with half a fly rod (and impaling my finger on the fly). I also went exploring under the wooden peir opposite Scott II boat. There also was a lil hideout adjacent beside the big wall thing, which handily had a tree you could climb down to back roadie, cutting a full minute from yer trip home time from the adventure under the peir. Chasing the footballs for Caledonian Fc at the park during training and being rewarded with half an orange.

Gosh this thread brings back so many memories, I too remember the wee white card, and the wire baskets and the doors on the changing room where you could practice Limbo peering to your hearts content. I remember the finger test as well. I too nearly drowned in that pool and was pulled out by an attendant who lived in Hill Street. One day in a hurry I raced home with a towel from the baths and went round to his house and asked if he could take it back for me. He said , do you want to save your life twice?? Does anyone remember the Bovril served in the kiosk upstairs, can't remember the mans name but he had a moustache and I think english. Didn't we have a diving champion from Inverness? Brian ??

Goodness me, this thread started with memories of Eastgate but it's now producing some cracking reminiscences of old Dalneigh! I don't know if the waste land behind St. Valery etc was for safety reasons or not but what we used to call "The Back of Kavvies" (ie the area behind Brian Kavanagh's house in St. Valery) played a huge part in my early development. It was there that I discovered that I was no good at ball games - cricket or football - but the hours and hours spent running about attempting to play the latter probably epitomise the fitness gulf between my generation and the current one. Then there were games of "war" in the undergrowth where we liberated either Western Europe or Burma in battles where everyone had a machine gun (ur!, ur!, ur!, ur!, ur!, ur!..... yer dead!... No ah'm no.. yah missed!) Or if it wasn't war it was Hide and Seek. These games of War remind me of Commando comics which were so good at illustrating the seriously limited vocabulary of the Wehrmacht.... "Gott in Himmell", "Achtung Englander", "Donner und Blitzen", "Schweinhund", "Dumkopf".... and not much more. The Japs were worse. All they seemed to manage was "Banzai" .... and occasionally "Aieeee" if they got shot. (Strangely Germans didn't seem to utter "Aieeee" when they got the bullet which, in Commando comics, they did frequently). But I digress and to return to the "Back of Kavvies".... climbing up on the of the "Garages" and jumping from one to another was also a favourite pastime and of course as you wandered about the undergrowth you did, from time to time, happen across the odd abandoned copy of Parade. It was also there that we built our bonfire and "guarded" it for nights on end in case intruders from the Ferry or Laurel Avenue had ideas of premature combustion. Then, on bonfire night itself, everyone brought their fireworks (or at least the ones that hadn't been chucked into unsuspecting residents' gardens) for a wonderful, communal display of Roman Candles, Catherine Wheels, Squibs and Rockets. A long time ago now, though.....

In my day we used to get taken to the baths from school about once a month, walking all through the town in a long crocodile. I never liked swimming and always used to try and get out of going. But you needed a 'note' from your Ma. Oh the joy the first time I realised I could make a reasonable fist of copying her signature!

Hiring a bath.. never did that but the baths were huge not like the wee bowls we have now! Remember once my mate forgot his trunks, had to hire a pair from the office, he appeared out of the cubicles with what looked like a large woolen blanket wrapped round his midriff ! swimming up the pool he was slowly getting lower and lower as the blanket/trunks must have weighed about 20 lbs when it got wet!