snorbens_caleyman

11 hours ago, Charles Bannerman said:

Is this thread to CTO as The Ancient Mariner or Kubla Khan are to poetry?

If anyone understood that, CB, you could be in trouble

However, it may be worth noting that at the same time that IHE was posting last night, there was a Horizon programme on TV about people who hear voices in their heads...

Could someone check if   Ewen Mackenzie is still available?

Couldn't do any worse, and he should have more experience under his belt now.

Although I see he wanted RF as assistant...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-36387520

Like it or not, I have heard most of them on the course over the years.

One of my former golfing mates had this story about a friend of his.

The bloke was playing in a charity fundraiser, in which each group of players included a "celebrity" assigned by the organiser. The celebrity in his group was an athlete/coach that none of them had ever heard of.

On the 3rd hole, my mate's pal gets lucky with a less than perfect drive. He turns to the others and says "A Sally Gunnell!".

The celebrity bristles, and says "Eh? What do you mean by that?"

"Well, you know. Sally Gunnell, Ugly, but runs.".

"I AM MARRIED TO SALLY GUNNELL!!!"

And there are still 16 holes to play...

53 minutes ago, 12th Man said:

... best of luck using the phone lights at 20 past 4 ish.

The next match is in Dingwall at 19:45 on Friday 28th. That's why it mentions "away fans".

1 hour ago, Kingsmills said:

Bad luck....poor timing missing the skills and goals of Ian Stephens and the original Don Cowie

Ian "Chipper" Stephen.  And Johnny Cowie. Tony Fraser. Bobby McLean. An incredible goal-scoring machine.  They were all there in the couple of seasons before they won the league.

Johnny Cowie's wife never saw him score    She used to sit in the stand reading a book, and would only look up when the rest of the crowd went wild.

56 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

It was touching to see the 4 perfectly placed Motherwell players turn and run to the ref to point out the huge mistake he was making. 

And I see from the highlights that one of them made a half-hearted claim for the goal, and the three nearest did not claim at all. Which should have meant something to the ref.

Sadly, no - I was there at the end of the 60s. Can't remember what I played, apart from the Dambusters' March!

By the early 70s I had moved on.

46 minutes ago, Charles Bannerman said:

Must have been fun having to do Jock's bidding!

It wasn't - which is why he walked after two years and many rows. (And I wanted to move on from playing the records on match-days at Kingsmills )

Having said that, Jock was undoubtedly successful at hauling the Jags from the bottom of the league to the top. One wonders what he would have made of this season at ICT...

10 hours ago, PerfICT said:

... Maybe even if we end up in part-time mediocrity it would still be worth the cup win to be honest.

The guy next to me in the Gents at the end of the Cup Final put it "perfictly": "Whatever happens now, we are in the history books forever!". 

13 hours ago, Charles Bannerman said:

... the twin unlikelihoods of Thistle winning a trophy and of their notoriously parsimonious committee stumping up for individual trophies for the players.

My father was secretary at Thistle for a couple of years - shortly before they won the League twice in a row.

Early bath for your two-footed foul, CB.   

Thanks for your kind comments, Caleytrue, and I am glad that you enjoyed the film clip. I was gobsmacked when I discovered it by accident - it had never occurred to me that some film of the event might exist.

I wasn't at the Telford Street gig, but it was well-known in Inverness.

The only other time Rory played in Inverness was the gig that I referred to above - on 1 March 1973. (I know this because I have an advert for the tour, from one of the music papers, in a frame on the wall beside me - good picture of Rory, and a list of all the tour dates). It was in the Caledonian Hotel, which is now the Mercure, on Church Street. They put on gigs in their ballroom. I have no idea if it is still a ballroom, but if you stand on the riverside and look at the hotel, it is the shoebox-shaped extension coming towards you on the right-hand side.

It was my first proper rock gig with a A-list name. I wasn't really into Rory at the time, but my mates were, so I said "OK, get me a ticket too". I don't think I realised how lucky I was - I believe that the show could have been sold out two or three times over.

We didn't get many big names in the north of Scotland, so anyone who made the journey could expect a great welcome. Just imagine that small, low-ceilinged ballroom jam-packed with hot, sweaty, drunken Highlanders eager for their shot of rhythm'n'blues, and then imagine Rory and the band pulling out all the stops! It was great. As I said, I thought all rock gigs were going to be that good.

To be honest, I don't remember many details about the music - I wasn't very familiar with it at the time. I do remember "Bankers Blues" being introduced as one from the new album ("Blueprint"), and I also remember Rory promising to come back to Inverness during "In Your Town" - but he never did. I, however, moved away in 1974 - first to university and then to work in London, so I saw him again many times over the years. Many happy memories - and also sadness at his untimely death.

It's clearly a "seniors" team, and that isn't one of the trophies that a Highland League first team could win. It's still a substantial trophy, though.

The photos to me suggest late 50s or early 60s. Before substitutes, anyway - only 11 players in the seated pic (and 10 in the other!). 

At first I thought the ground in the seated picture might be Telford Street before the Howden End enclosure was built (I don't know when that was) . But I am really not sure about the ground.

I have a feeling this is not Thistle. Even if it was a senior team, I'd have expected to recognise some of the faces - of the officials if not the players. As I said, that's a serious trophy! Could this be a works team, with a strip based on or borrowed from Thistle, or that just happens to look like Thistle's in black and white?

2 hours ago, Charles Bannerman said:

It could of course be argued that the statement may also be bollox and the Board are privately examining the situation.

That wouldn't make the statement bollox, though. There is nothing in it which says that they are NOT examining the situation.

As I've already said, they can't come out with a credible "full confidence" statement, and they also (I hope) wouldn't say "we are considering the manager's future".  But I would expect that they are investigating their options, possibly with a discussion on the agenda for the board meeting this week, which would more or less fit in with the Sun's timetable.

1 hour ago, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

It is now too late for any changes in the management structure to make any difference.

Indeed - that occurred to me when reading all the demands for Foran to go now. 

There are 6 games left. How many games would a new manager - unfamiliar with the squad - require to work out the best team and system?

Cue someone to start shouting "Charlie Christie now!!"

And exactly what do you expect the board to say?

They can either come out with the "full confidence in the manager and team" guff, and get laughed at.

Or they can acknowledge that there are problems with the manager and the team, and thus pull out the last few threads of the rug from underneath them.

Damned if they do, damned if they don't.

22 minutes ago, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

Sorry but we CURRENTLY have a squad of players capable of Top Six.

Not if they get sent off in the tunnel! 

I said this the other day, and nobody reacted. So I'll say it again. If our players are as good as some folks here make out, why haven't THEY done something to sort themselves out? Experienced pros, playing at the top level in the country, should be able to see where the problems are, and then try to address them.

I agree that the manager and coaching staff should take a lot of the stick, but the players themselves are not blameless.

2 hours ago, Kingsmills said:

Our demise is nothing to do with any central belt conspiracy but everything to do with naive and inexperienced management of players who are better than our current position would suggest.

So why don't our captain and senior players do something about that? Either by talking with the manager - and I do mean "with" and not "to" - or even making their own adjustments on the field of play when they can see what the problems are.

Maybe I am being incredibly naive. Or maybe they have already done these things - I am not close to the club and I don't see many matches.

But to blame absolutely everything on the manager seems a bit much, when we still supposedly have "players who are better than our current position would suggest". Presumably they can think for themselves - although I accept that whether they are allowed to is a different matter.

You will get very tired of seeing this picture.

1 hour ago, weeman said:

IBM, time on my hands these days. Saw this on another site, it is a DKW Junior from the 1950's

Thanks, weeman.  That explains why semi-obscure German marques like Wartburg and Trabant had come to my mind...

10 hours ago, DoofersDad said:

...  Apart from the obvious distractions, remember that the Brexit negotiations will be taking place to take account of the whole of the UK.  Were Scotland to vote for independence whilst those negotiations were still on-going, it would mean that details that had been agreed would require to be renegotiated in the light of the changed position. 

But the cat is now out of the bag. The negotiations will now have to take into account the possibility - 50-50 at the moment, if anyone still believes pollsters - that Scotland will leave the UK in the near future. If the UK government ignores that during negotiations then that will boost the pro-independence argument.

Key to the whole thing will be the EU's attitude towards an independent Scotland. I would expect the Scottish government to be trying to talk to the EU as much as possible - on and off the record - over the next couple of years. The question is whether the EU will talk to them. Or whether the EU will be willing to talk about Scotland during Brexit negotiations, even if the UK government is reluctant.

Great photographs, again. So much detail - especially when you click on them and get the slightly larger versions.

What strikes me is how little traffic there is. Plenty of parked cars, but few actually on the move. If I had to guess, I'd say you took them on a Sunday morning when the churches were in!

Plenty of gas in the gasometer - must have been expecting a cold spell.  I used to live very close to it, at the top of George Street. About where the wall of the car park of Smyth's toy superstore - next to the roundabout - is now.

9 hours ago, IBM said:

... the white gable end with the roof to the left in front of the open grass area is the old rifle range.

Well remembered! I fired a few bullets in there, but never really got into it.

Living up the road, I cycled up that steep part of Castle Street many, many times. Though Hetty's shop was a frequent stop.

A family friend lived in one of the houses in the second row (appropriate!) off Castle Street on the left. You went in off the street past Hetty's shop, then turned left. I had no idea that they were, until she moved in.  Quite claustrophobic- Castle Street buildings on one side, and the slope up to Ardconnel Street on the other.

Used to be on Tomnahurich Street, IIRC.  I always meant to take a photo, but never had a camera with me.

There used to be a Chinese takeaway in Falkirk - where my wife comes from - called "The Family Way".

And somewhere I have a photo of a sports shoe shop in Nicosia, called "Athlete's Foot".

On 23/02/2017 at 2:55 PM, snorbens_caleyman said:

Astonishingly - or maybe not, given what it is - that Land Rover is still taxed and MOTd. It was first registered in March 1960.

In fact, its MOT expires next Thursday, the 2nd. Good luck!

MoT has now expired  

I can't remember anyone called Billy Hogg!  What year was he in, relative to IHE and me?