snorbens_caleyman

The deal has only been signed off by the other EU heads. There is a vanishingly small chance of it being approved by Parliament. Consequently, there remains everything to play for - for all sides of the debate.

It's a long way from Brora to anywhere ? I think the quality of the SPFL is low enough, without adding another tier. I thought that just a couple of years ago they were thinking about combining the 4 divisions into 2 or 3 larger divisions? What happened to that? Yes, small divisions may lead to more excitement as clubs are rarely marooned in mid-table with no chance of going up or down. But do you enjoy seeing the same nine teams 4 times in a season? And what about the numbers of draws that small divisions give you - 5 in 11 Scottish league games yesterday, but only 4 out of 22 in the English league.

Do Brexit Brits usually say " Brexit was a bad idea "?

Yup, I was there too - 9 years old. My father had come into school the week before to ask the headmaster if I could have time off. (I see from the Courier website that that headmaster - Callum MacLeod, Crown School - has just died.)

"Stop talking rubber stool", according to Google translate ?

Quite possible. Remember I was looking at a book about Caley - I don't have anything about Clach. BTW, the Caley book reckons that there were another 2,000 on the railway embankment for the Bobby Bolt benefit. The biggest crowd that I can find for Citadel is 4,000, for a Scottish Cup first round match against Partick Thistle on 16 January 1932. Quite respectable, given that there were 3 other clubs in town, and that Citadel always struggled for support because of their remote location - not far from ICT's!

Had a quick look at Alex Main's "Caley All the Way" book. Can't see any references to "record attendance". It may be that these records were never kept, or were lost when the stand burned down in 1950. Some numbers which caught my eye: - 6,000 for a Scottish Cup tie against Celtic on 18 January 1930 - 10,000 for a memorial match for "Joopie" Mitchell. A Caley-Thistle select played Celtic, who "were holders of the European Cup", so this was 1967 or 68. I am assuming that the match was at Telford Street, though the book doesn't say. I do have a vague memory of being in Telford Street and virtually unable to move, and I wonder if it was that game. - 9,000 at Grant Street for a benefit match for Bobby Bolt, on 22 August 1951. The opposition was Rangers, whom Bolt played for before he came to Caley. The match was at Grant Street because the new stand at Telford Street was still under construction - 5,000 for the friendly with Rangers in 1978, immediately after which Billy Urquhart signed for the Gers.

I was saying recently over in the "Olde Inverness" forum that the ref that night was former Jags player, John RP Gordon, who was by then an international referee. He was an old friend of my father - through the 5th Co BB - and he stayed with us while he was up for the match. You are correct that it was during the power-cuts period, and I remember that Thistle had to hire generators - can't remember if they were actually used. I must have been there, but I can't remember anything about it. I, too, was 15 for most of 1972.

That's a fair point. But if you are planning to dismiss someone for bringing their employer's name into disrepute, then you have to wait to see how much publicity there is about the case.

Depends on what you mean by "this type of thing". Dismissal for bringing your employer's name into disrepute is probably in most contracts. Dismissal because of criminal conviction might not be. We have a situation in which a person could well be treated differently by their employer because he is a first team player rather than an unknown member of backroom staff. That's a distinction which won't exist in employment law - though there will be similar cases in the past - so if I was thinking of terminating the contract, I'd make sure that I first obtained good legal advice.

Well at least no one is making the obvious crack about 11 blokes dressed as a football team. Uh-oh..... ?

... and, it seems, the last year in the top division. I don't think these problems have melted away. It's not much fun, but the approach at the moment has surely to be to ensure survival, then sustainability, and, if things become stable, then look to see how we might move upwards again. Sure, if promotion comes along, we'll all take it. But then we'd have to decide whether to try to stay up with a minimal spend, or spend money which we haven't got. I would always opt for survival over risking the future of the club. Would be a shame to see 130+ years of history come to an end.

Not quite. We have gone the Eurovision route - Inverness Caledonian Thistle Un Point

Assuming you mean Second Row's picture, I'm pretty sure that's a 1930's Vauxhall 14-6 - like the 1935 one below. One of the main differences between it and the 1940s model is the way doors open. From the position of the door handles, the 1930s one has "suicide doors" in the back - i.e. doors which are hinged at the back, and would thus fly open if you opened them when the car was in motion. It looks to me as though the 1940s Vauxhalls have suicide doors on the front and convential doors on the back (though I don't remember that on my father's car).

Hi Scarlet - I have to say that, to my eyes, an awful lot of the cars from the 40s look like those Vauxhalls, so I'm not sure if we are making progress. One last throw of the dice - the two pictures immediately below are of a 1949 Vauxhall Velox. I've been thinking of this all along, because the first family car that we had, in about 1961, was an old one of these. We quickly moved onto a more modern car ? - a 1953 Velox like the one below. But this is similar to cars that IBM pictured earlier. Veloxes had big 6-cylinder engines. The two that we had could romp up Drumossie Brae. MInd you, I see that 0-60 took 21 or 22 seconds! Vauxhall also produced a model called the Wyvern - same body as the Veloxes, but with a 4-cylinder engine.

Scarlet, roughly what time (year) are you thinking about? And was the car new or not? The Vauxhall 10-4 and 14-6 from the 1940s - see below - have your "flat back", but I suspect the flutes on the bonnet are not your type.

Agreed - I have that feeling too. Whether the break is the summer, a week, or even just half-time!

From the safety point of view, yes. It's dark, and the driver is more likely to make a mistake because of the time of day. Also more likely for conditions to deteriorate - e.g. ice forming - than improve, which they would normally do during daytime. Would you look forward to coming through Drumochter in the wee sma' hours of a freezing January night?

One of my first thoughts was the travel, too, but I was thinking of the team rather than the fans. Having to set out at about 10:30 on a winter's night for a journey home of 4 or more hours, every second week, would not be good for the teams from the Highlands. The alternative would be the additional expense of an overnight stay. You'd probably also have more postponed games as pitches froze after sundown. Both of which make me think that combining Friday night games with a move to summer football - often suggested here - could well be worth considering.

I'm not against it, but the obvious problem is that it puts us out of synch with club and national European and World competitions (except for Qatar 2022). Would also complicate things in the UK if Scotland and other home nations had different transfer windows. These are not insurmountable problems. But is there any demand for it in Scotland? Neither SP nor I are in the country...

Get the subs on now!!

Fake news!!! ? (You meant 21st.)

Okey-dokey - thanks for replying. I'll guess that the "well worded response" you reported last month was a more literary version of "Thanks - we'll get back to you".

Unless I am missing something, neither has IHE told us what he wrote to the Board, nor what the response was. If it was agreed that these communications would be private, then that's fair enough, but would be pointless.

Back row, 2nd from right, Murd Urquhart. Middle row, 2nd from left, looks like Kevin McDonald. So, first half of the 70s - 1974 or thereabouts? Hope no one walked on that floor with metal studs