snorbens_caleyman

7 hours ago, DoofersDad said:

That leaves the option of a "people's vote".  That would probably be a choice between Remaining in the EU or leaving under the terms of May's deal.  Given that choice, I think there would be a  clear vote to remain as some Leavers feel the deal is worse than remaining in the EU.

That is indeed possible, but down here in England there is also a strong wish to just get it over and done with. It could well be that some who voted Remain, but not ardently so, would vote to Leave in the hope of avoiding more years of argument. 

Those who wanted a hard Brexit - a substantial number down here - will have had their attitudes hardened over the last couple of years. And will be joined by many who think that May's deal is a non-starter. I think that "no-deal Brexit" would also be on the ballot paper.

To answer SP's question, the other EU leaders have always said - and are still saying - that it is a tragedy that the UK is leaving. If we were to decide to stay, they should therefore welcome us with open arms. If nothing else, it might dissuade other countries from thinking about leaving. 

Though I am sure that they would also make us pay, somehow, for all the trouble that we have caused.

2 hours ago, Scarlet Pimple said:

I wish you all well but whether you like it or not there is no way back now. Good luck all.

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.

52 minutes ago, dougiedanger said:

The irony of that final line from a Brexit Brit.

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

1 hour ago, tm4tj said:

County v Rangers

The County game we travelled through snow drifts from Grantown to get to Dingwall. I'm sure the original tie was postponed and it went ahead on a Monday afternoon, had to take time off school to go to the game.

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.)

14 minutes ago, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

Stop stól ag caint Rhuaridh

"Stop talking rubber stool",  according to Google translate 

15 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

My late father, who was a Clach diehard, swears that he was in a crowd of 13,000 at Grant Street for a friendly against Rangers. He remembers the the Bobby Bolt testimonial and swore that the crowd for the earlier friendly was bigger.

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!

14 hours ago, Tree said:

wonder what Caley and Thistle record attendances are. Time to dig books out

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.

10 hours ago, Jaggernaut said:

I was there as a 15 year old, amazed at the oasis of light that Kingsmills was that night, due to It being the only place lit up that night as we were going through electricity blackouts and the three day working week. We walked from Hilton, and all you could see was the glow from Kingsmills. What a great spectacle It was.

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.

16 minutes ago, MorayJaggie said:

If it was me and I was aware of the situation I'd have gained that advice long before the outcome of the trial so I knew my options immediately after the verdict wether that was guilty or not guilty.

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.

15 minutes ago, Hiro said:

It is literally in every single employment contract that this type of thing is grounds for termination.

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.

1 hour ago, Buster said:

Credit must be given for the fancy dress inititaive to draw people along as the crowd was announced on twitter as 1994.

Going to be tough to decide who wins the best dressed competition with so many going as the invisible man.

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

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

... the good governance approach of taking minimal risks and living within our means, which is what the club has run with for most of our existence (outside the first few years),

... 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.

38 minutes ago, CableGuy said:

 Always feel we come off the back of a break looking sluggish too

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

37 minutes ago, CaleyD said:

Is setting off at 10:30pm for a journey home really any worse than setting off at 8am for a journey there?  Swings and roundabouts. 

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?

5 minutes ago, Stirling Observer said:

I really like Friday night games but it needs to be a fixture where both sets of fans have less than an hour to travel.

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.

5 hours ago, Scarlet Pimple said:

Caman is right. Summer football will save the team  and others. So what's stopping the Beaks from at least trying  the changeover?

Are they inflexible ? Are they stuck in the mud of their dotage.?

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!!

20 minutes ago, CaleyD said:

UPDATE : ICTFC : SLO

The ICT Supporters Trust met with the football club on Friday 31st September

Fake news!!!  

(You meant 21st.)

2 hours ago, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

Well the reason is that I have not as yet received a response. If the comments are being read I would suggest that it could take time to digest and it would be impossible to answer all the concerns. I will give it some more time but will let people know whatever the outcome.

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". 

50 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

Nor had I but that is hardly surprising since the club communicate next to nothing these days.

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.