snorbens_caleyman

6 hours ago, Laurence said:

 The recent High court ruling that  Parliament is soverign and referendia's do not make the law is a great talking point.

Must be a different ruling to the one that I saw.  It said that Parliament is sovereign and Government ministers do not make the law.  Nothing to do with referendums.

Was in there just a couple of weeks ago on my most recent visit to Sneck. Very informal, good food, beer and wine - recommended. 

My wife particularly liked her starter - haggis pakora with tikka sauce. Common in Scotland, but a novelty for those of us from the deep south of England.

Sat across the aisle from her on a SleazyJet from Luton to Sneck a few years ago.  She scoffed her way through a box of Krispy Kreme donuts.

17 minutes ago, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

Football Times ?

Are you serious?   You're the same age as me, so you should remember it.

Used to be in the shops by about 5.30 - certainly before 6pm - on a Saturday, with reports on all Highland League games. This was how you found out all the other scores.  One of my small treats used to be accompanying my father down to Barney's on a Saturday evening, for him to pick up the FT, and for me to get a bag of warm roasted peanuts (not expensive cashew nuts), with the oil from the nuts turning the paper bag transparent.

The FT also used to carry the schools' football results, causing more than one non-local to express surprise that the IRA appeared to have a thriving youth team set-up in the Highlands.

Can't remember if the FT carried the scores from the Scottish and English League - the Evening Express Green Final did, although its reports covered only first half of Scottish League matches.

The FT also used to carry other sporting news, some of it shared with the Highland News.  The FT editor in the early 70s was Frank Phillips, and as member of Inverness Golf Club, he used to write up the club competitions. He once had the scoop of playing alongside me when I won one. Frank was also a Highland League referee - not a very good one, IIRC.

The FT also used to have an excellent column written by someone associated with Brora Rangers, called "Over The Struie".  It was always a joy to read.

Who could forget that milk machine? 

Corner of Hamilton Street and Eastgate - I guess that's just about where Marks & Sparks has its doors now. Can't remember if that shop on the corner sold other things, but it always used to have some very desirable toys, such as Corgi cars, in the window.  Possibly a newsagents too, which would explain the Evening Express van parked outside.

And would that be Mario's awning further down Eastgate?

17 minutes ago, 12th Man said:

And who owns both companies ?

OK, I give up. Who?

(Branson has no connection to Virgin Media.)

1 hour ago, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

Not sure why my post merely suggesting that an "Idiots Guide to Spelling" was deleted but nice to see the Title spelling corrected but are there not two n's in pennant ?

Nope - three.  See "An Idiot's Guide to Counting".

1 hour ago, caleyboy said:

Sorry but the buck stops with the Board of Directors. It is their responsibility to raise the funds required to compete at the level we are playing at.Please lets not hear more of our limited budget - it's the board that sets it! If they can't raise the funds needed to compete at this level then they need to GO!

You have a replacement Board lined up?  One that will guarantee that the team on the pitch wins?  Let's hear it, then.

It's definitely Nairn.

IHE's "clue" above is a direct quote from the Wikipedia entry for Nairn railway station.

And if I have managed to do it correctly, this link will take you to another photo of Nairn station.
 

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.

Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last.

When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

It's Nairn.

36 minutes ago, Whippet said:

I just could not figure out where that photo was taken from until you mentioned the parrots. So (out of shot) Burnetts to the right, old Highland Bus depot to the left. God I'm getting old. 

It's taken from the bridge over the railway - but I seem to remember it as being more hump-backed than that photo suggests. 

Just a couple of weeks ago, when I was in Inverness, I was talking with my uncle about our old flat at the top of George Street - he moved into it when we moved out. He said that it was fascinating to stand at the window in the flat, watching traffic struggling to get safely across the bridge when it was very icy.

Thanks, Tob.  I've seen that photograph before, but I've only just realised that it includes a window from our flat at the top of George Street.

Between the car facing the camera (a Hillman? Humber? where's IBM when you need him?) and the Old High church steeple, the windows on the second floor of the building with its own little spire were in our living room. (No one called it a lounge back then.)  I think the room also had windows directly onto both Rose Street and George Street - thus making it what would nowadays be called a "double-aspect" room.

I think that the Esso garage further down Rose Street must be Robertson's Garage. We were (are!) related to the Robertsons - but of course many of the folk around George Street, Innes Street and the Shore were related to each other.

14 hours ago, Tob said:

Rose Street multi-storey car park!

We might have been near neighbours, Tob.  I reckon I was in the supermarket car park, just off the spur road between the roundabout and the multi-storey. The top of George Street, as it then was.

That was 1956-1960 or 61. From then till 78, in a flat in what was formerly the Highland Orphanage on Culduthel Road.

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.

Give him a holiday !!!

The windsock for the airport.

5 hours ago, Caley Mad In Berks said:

Bit off topic but reading that these cars were owned by a Dr Kerr, it reminded me that, in my youth, a Dr Kerr lived in a very imposing house on high ground at the junction of Culduthel Road and Old Edinburgh road, (just at the top of the hill at the top of Castle Street).  I remember it because it had a cannon in its garden pointing roughly in the direction of the castle.  Anyone else recall this house?  Just wondered if it might be the same family of Kerrs.

I used to live up Culduthel Road, so I do of course know it.

Another thing about the house is the observatory-like dome on it. When I was in Inverness about 6 weeks ago, I noticed that the sun was glinting off the dome - I don't think I'd ever seen that before.  The picture below won't win any awards - I have a cheap phone and it was into the sun - but here you are anyway!

10 hours ago, Charles Bannerman said:

I don't know who originally registered ST1 but by the 60s it had got into the acquisitive hands of ex-Provost Robert Wotherspoon...  It was said that the company that produced The Saint tried to buy ST1 off him for use in the programme but he wasn't selling although he gave permission for the number to be used.

My Mum used to work at M&Js, and said that whenever the Saint's car was being taken on the road for filming - usually in the leafy lanes around Elstree, just down the road from where I am now - they used to phone to find out where the real ST1 was, in case of confusion. One was a big black Bentley saloon, and the other was a white Volvo P1800 sports car - so there wasn't much scope for confusion!

RW also used to own JS1, the first Ross & Cromarty plate, and M&Js staff were under standing instructions to decline politely whenever a certain Mr Savile used to phone up to try to buy it.

Thanks, Charles. 

My Dad always referred to Lamont Graham as Scoobs, never Scoobies, so it seems odd to me to see that name.  Probably everyone except my Dad called him Scoobies!

Thanks, bughtmaster.  It was "Herb" that I wasn't sure about, and Bill rings a bell with me. 

I wonder who Herb was. Sadly there's no one I can ask.

Can't see any new signings being made until everyone knows who the manager will be next season.  And that's (probably) not going to happen overnight.

15 minutes ago, oats said:

... surely he knew the budget before he signed his contract, so to them come out and complain seems stupid. He made his position untenable at that point 

Indeed. Almost sounds like a cunning plan to exit with a payoff.

Three short, silent films of BB activities in days gone by. They were on a videotape which belonged to my late father, John (Jock) Smith of the 5th company, and which I have recently digitised.  I hope that they will be of interest to some of you here.

Inverness Battalion Camp - Carrbridge, 1950 - 11 minutes.  The only person that I recognise is my father, ducking his head at 09:34-09:35 as the camera sweeps along the line of people.

Inverness Battalion Camp - Carrbridge, 1953 - 6.5 minutes.

• 01:16 - Lamont Graham - Scoobs - walking backwards, directing the litter pickers
• 02:13 - line-up of officers includes Scoobs, Herb MacDonald?, George Fraser, Ian (Flash) Reid and Jimmy Robertson
• 06:14 - Scoobs again, watching the cricket

Inverness Battalion 50th Anniversary - New Colours and Church Parade - 04 & 05 June 1960 - 5 minutes

Ironically, the most recent film has the worst quality of the three. It looks like there was a parade to and display at the Northern Meeting Park, followed next day by a march past at the Town House and a service in the Methodist church on Union Street. I don't recognise anyone in it.

I don't have any more films like this.  I have many large boxes of still photographs which I intend to digitise over the coming months (years, probably), so if I find anything which may be of interest I'll post it here.

Garry Smith