Charles Bannerman

So from this thread, can we in the press corps feel entitled to go with the line "Caley Thistle fans have given manager Charlie Christie an overwhelming vote of confidence....."? PS - a post briefly appeared asking if MIDGE55 was actually one of Johndo's windups in the tradition of his legendary GREENBHOY LARSSON alias. Unfortunately it disappeared very quickly because this is a question well worth asking! IHE... are you at it again?!

Bottle of Strongbow up the back of Seraffini's chipper on the way to the school dance. Bought the Strongbow from Alexander Fraser in Tomnahurich Street. "Bottle of cider please." "What kind would you like sonny?" The following story will only mean anything to Royal Academy pupils who were in school before about 1968 and it relates to my first encounter with cider. We had won a national speechmaking contest at the Muirtown Motel. Froggy Forbes and Fritz were the team managers and Froggy was so chuffed that she wanted to fill the cup with (Woodpecker) cider. The response from Fritz (who enjoyed a dram or several greatly himself) was unforgettable. "Buttt das ist Alkoholische!" (For the benefit of the unititiated, Fritz was an Orcadian with an incredibly strong accent and not a German. However when he arrived in the school during the war some kids thought he was a Nazi agent - hence the nickname.)

There's always the suspicion that this interdict on selling alcohol on a Sunday morning is at the insitgation of Church interests. But that surely seems a bit strange, given that their people are all safely out of temptation's way on a Sunday morning. And of course they wouldn't be wanting to impose their own values and rules on other people or anything like that.... would they?!

David Dowling probably wishes Clach Rangers still existed! I'm also not sure if Hill Rovers or Hilton Athletic are still there either. I think "mass" football matches are a good deal less common these days, as are any physical activities on the part of kids. However I do see some lads playing in Drummond school from time to time. Unfortunately Rangers and Celtic strips are most commonly observed though. I can't imagine in your day that there would have been organised football in public parks in Inverness on Sundays though. I think it was the mid 70s before the District Council started to give lets of their facilities on Sundays. On that subject but to digress, can anyone give me a logical explanation why you can't buy a few cans of beer in a supermarket in Inverness on a Sunday morning... a time when most folks' supplies have reached a low?

Eye Settee... I have a feeling we may know each other from an earlier existence!

As it happens a school contemporary of mine just about fits TBB's description but I'd better not say any more since it could be wildly, wildly wrong!

On the subject of the Bully Wee, I remember reading a newspaper article which came up with several ideas as to its origin but could come to no conclusion. It's also interesting that a multiply postponed DU Scottish Cup tie should be mentioned in a thread where the "Jags" part of ICT is being asked about, because the record for postponements happens to be held by Inverness Thistle.... 29 for a Scottish Cup tie against Falkirk early in 1979. Now to digress just a little, that winter was one of two on the trot which were extremely cold and at that point people were asking if we were going into another ice age. Then they invented global warming. Can't remember if I mentioned the 29 postponements in Against All Odds or not. You've got me thinking we should maybe get it put online now but I don't know if Highland Printers would still have the original discs. Oh, by the way Caithness Gal, you may or may not know that when Jags Park went out of use as a football ground after the merger in 1994, the floodlights and enclosure were sold to Wick Academy to upgrade Harmsworth Park to specification for the Highland League to which they'd just been elected in place of Thistle, Caley and Ross County. And here's a bit of trivia.... the day the Wickers loaded the stuff on a lorry and took it "up ee rodd" was the day DU beat Rangers 1-0 in the Scottish Cup Final, the goal coming from a certain Mr. C Brewster!

Indeed Sandy. An identical experience at the back of St. Valery Avenue in the early 60s probably pointed me in the direction of being a runner rather than a footballer!

Hiram Holliday? (Wee American guy with glasses and an umbrella in the early 60s)

With apologies to Orwell... all mergers are unequal, but some mergers are more unequal than others.... except that you'll be hoping that after tonight's North Cup semi this one would become a little more equal than before!

I can exclusively reveal that, further to merger talks between ICT and Nairn County in a bid to bring annual Champions League football to the Highlands, the main reason for the proposed development of Tornagrain is as a venue for a 70,000 seater stadium in neutral territory.

Caley D... your request in red seems sort of to assume that everybody knows how to do this!

Dazza.... he used to do some wonderful curries!

"With me I have Kathy Jamieson, the MSP for Heid-the-Ba-Jimmy-Ah'm-a Shopaholic West.... Mrs Jamieson, what exactly is the Executive's stance on Football Banning Orders?" "Y'orright Bernard son? Ah'm just oot o' Primark and ah'm aff tae Lidls now tae get ma man somethin' fur his tea..... but see yon Susan Deacon wan....."

SP.... you seem to be quite an expert on this subject!

.... you can spell (with reference to another thread on this forum) "haemorrhoid" correctly. SP - I have a recollection (of reading rather than remembering directly) that sweetie rationing stopped in around 1954. I think a lot of the other rationing stopped round about then as well. It seems that the era of post war austerity lasted a long time, so possibly the only pleasures at the time involved the procreation of a generation of Baby Boomers!

Once again I find myself obliged to expose the myth that Caley Thistle crowds are still suffering from the aftershocks of the merger. For a start, the number of "refuseniks" when CT started out in 1994 was quite a small proportion of the 600 or so, which was the average combined home gate of Caley and Thistle in their latter spell in the Highland League. Even in these early days of CT, this was no more than a minor disadvantage and a small price to pay for what was created. In the 12 intervening years, a lot of these refuseniks have started coming to games and indeed others will have either left the area or even died off. As a result there are now very few people in and around Inverness who were Caley and Thistle attenders but who still do not come to ICT games on principle. Meanwhile in these 12 years, average HOME support has risen to something in the region of 3000, so really the refuseniks who are still around now represent no more than a drop in the ocean. This never was a major issue at any time and hasn't been one at all for some years.

.... you can remember penny dainties (which filled your gob right up), MacKintosh's lemonade and the Palace Cinema.

You mean Millburn Junior Secondary School? The shark was probably the creation of Doc Williamson.

Gerx13.... thank you for that definitive description of the old La Scala. DJS... the Rose Street Hall! Now there's a significant venue for a no hold barred fight to the death. I think a few of us attended such events in the Rose Street Hall in 93-94!

Sandy.... I'm beginning to wonder if you're right because I now vaguely remember that entrance to the balcony (with its lower flea count) was where the main entrance was latterly - a few yards up Strothers Lane and not on the corner. But I still have a vague recollection of 2 doors on that corner. Can anybody help here?

Wrestling was probably in its heyday in the mid/late 60s with a big weekly slot on World of Sport on ITV. The Empire was indeed the home of live wrestling in Inverness, with frequent visits from the likes of Jackie Pallo, Mick McManus, Steve Logan (the ugly, long haired really dirty one) etc. I don't know where, if anywhere, wrestling went in Inverness after the demise of The Empire but the theatre was certainly still there in 1966-68 and doing wrestling. The script for the wrestling was pretty predictable. Bad guy knocks eleven bells out of good guy with forearm smashes, half nelsons, full nelsons, drop kicks etc and generally breaks the rules for about five minutes. The ref does nothing about the good guy being kicked while he is down, thrown out of the ring, jumped on by the bad guy, posted and generally illegally assaulted. In the course of this, it was mandatory that the good guy should at least once be pinned down for a count of two and a half and floored for as count of nine before either lifting his shoulder or staggering to his feet. By this time the good guy looks half dead but, as the bad guy rushes in for the kill, miraculously manages a body check or a manoeuvre which results in the bad guy smashing into the corner post. After this, there are two scripts available... either the good guy goes on to triumph or the bad guy scrapes a jammy and somewhat illegal win. With tag teams it was even more entertaining! When my son reached the WWF stage of adolescence in the late 90s, I used to take a look at that and think "nothing has substantially changed in 30 years!"

I seem to remember that, before the La Scala was made into a 2 cinema complex (and rendered parasite free!), there were two doors at right angles to each other on the corner. One went out into Academy Street and the other into Strothers Lane. I'm slightly less certain about the Strothers Lane one but absolutely sure about Academy Street.

TBB... my main problem in the classroom is that my pupils never seem to have a sense of humour! However I would have to admit that humour is becoming more and more difficult as one generation gives way to a younger one. For instance when I am discussing "diols" (as in antifreeze), references to telephones are now fruitless. Similarly "I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it" falls on deaf ears and when I describe my relationship with something as "similar to that between Basil Fawlty and the Eleven Hundred" I get equally blank looks. "Nobody expects a Spansh Inquisition" has equally slid from the public awareness and, amazingly, Skodas these days are regarded as quite respectable motors. Even more alarming is that, from a couple of decades later, "Wayne and Waynetta" and "loadsamoney" have also slipped from the awareness of the current generation, although one or two do remember Jonathan Watson's much more recent "Sean and Seanetta"... with their little daughter Setanta. (Scotty... I fully expect this to be removed as a football thread!)

In the post at the top of this thread, caleyboy wrote..... "I know it must hurt but he and Parky must analise the game....." I have no doubt that if Charlie and Parky literally took Caleyboy's advice, it WOULD hurt!!! (Or did caleyboy really mean "analyse"?!