Charles Bannerman

No, no... I'm not saying you are by any means. The turn of phrase was merely a general platitude to remind forum users in general that the BBC still has a lot to offer the Caley Thistle fan. On that subject I would also take the opportunity to remind people that our local news bulletins on 92-95FM in the Highlands and Islands and worldwide on the net also offer Caley Thistle coverage on Mondays and Fridays at 0750 and at other times during the week on an "as and when" basis. I usually know by Thursday or Friday what the featured games will be. IF I CAN REMEMBER I will try to post these.

Celtic actually lost 5-0 to Artmedia.... and then almost pulled it off at Celtic Park! Can't see the Dons or Motherwell getting as close I'm afraid. So far then, that's Falkirk out, Aberdeen and Motherwell with almost impossible deficits and Celtic on a dicky wicket too since it won't be easy to pull back a one goal deficit in Moscow with their opponents also in possession of an away goal. I would imagine Celtic are regretting mising out on the SPL title which would have put them straight into the group stages. As it stands, it's now looking fairly likely that for (at least?) the third time in five seasons, a member of the Old Firm will fail to get past the Champions League qualifying stages and be out of Europe after two games. And the financial turnover of the OF clubs is several times greater than that of any other club in Scottish Football. In practice, Scotland is way out of its depth in European football. In summary, it seems more than possible that four of the Scottish representatives could be out of Europe before the fifth one, Rangers, have even started.

Yes, you will certainly get constant score updates from across the land on Open All Mics and, if Caley Thistle are doing well, I would expect that their games would be quite frequently covered on Open All Mics as well. In addition, albeit infrequently and at odd times such as when there is no SPL or during midweek, there is also the chance of the odd BBC full match commentary on a First Divsion game. The BBC's problem is that it is a national broadcaster and as such has 42 teams to cover, ie 21 matches, and cannot therefore do them all. Typically on a Saturday, 7-9 games will be covered. The normal procedure on Open All Mics has been to cover all SPL games and maybe around 3 from the SFL - usually Division 1 unless there's something critical lower down. Selection of games from the SFL has tended to depend on where the higher placed of the two teams is in the First Division, so the better Caley Thistle do, the more frequently their games will be covered. SO DON'T WRITE OFF OPEN ALL MICS - not only will you get very regular updates on ICT if it is a featured game, you will also at the same time get a complete overview of Scottish football on what is an uninterrupted and wall to wall national football service. Open All Mics is available in Scotland on 103.5-105 FM and worldwide on the internet.

Anyone remember when Stranraer came up to Inverness for a midweek Scottish Cup replay in about 1997 which ended 0-0 AET? Paul Cherry then missed his penalty and Jimmy Calder saved two to send ICT through.

More home draws for the North sides. ICT v Stranraer Ross County v Morton Elgin v Albion Rovers Ties Tuesday 18th and Wednesday 19th August.

As Scott Byrnes once said when there was a lot of flak between Caley and the Jags over the strip during the merger "It's not the strip that matters - it's what's inside it." :D

Apologies. This one must have slipped through wehen I was away or something although I have to admit I don't follow friendlies all that closely.

I take it this is a Freudian slip which is suppressing any memory of relegation and that you really mean Inverness v Dundee on Boxing Day. I have never been in the Innes on match days but I could imagine Boxing Day would be a good one. Enjoy your trip to Inverness. EDIT - Alex, you seem to be suffering from the same Freudian slip!

Do you mean the "OG"? Not too long after that game I happened to be chatting to Bobby Mann and I made reference to when Moravcik found his own net. Bobby promptly pulled himself up to his full 6 ft 6, stared down at me and said: "It wuz MAH goal!" I just craned my neck upwards so I could look him straight in the eye and said "O...O...O..OK Bobby!"

Most of mine have already been covered above. Barry at Motherwell. Rankin v Rangers. Mark McCulloch v Dundee United in the cup replay (1998) Mark McCulloch og (after he went to County :010: ) at Victoria Park (into the roof of the Jubilee End net) Brian Thomson at Stenhousemuir in the Cup (1996) Tokely at Tynecastle in the Cup (2001 or was it 2002?) Tokely bicycle kick v Dundee united (into South stand end) Most of the small number of goals Russell Duncan has scored.

Yes I'm afraid relegation to the SFL also means a considerable reduction of live BBC radio coverage. On the basis of previous years, the best prospect on a Saturday would be Open All Mics (103.5-105 FM and I THINK worldwide on the net) but even that has only typically taken 2-3 D1 games, with the choice tending to depend on the league placing of the two teams. There might well also be the odd commentary opportunity on eg Saturday's when the SPL are not playing or on midweek Sportsound programmes when there are only SFL teams in action.

I'm afriad the Wineshed was condemned for Health and Safety reasons a few months ago. It is no more... it is a deceased Wineshed. B) :024: It's there in body but that's about all and, IF the Willie Gray plan to buy the remaining chunk of Grant St Park goes ahead the Wineshed is scheduled to be demolished to make way for new changing rooms/ boardroom. I genuinely regard that as a significant loss to the popular culture of Inverness.

So you've obviously been thinking about Vetle Andersen as well?

8-1 after going 1-0 down wasn't it?

Wot? Painting the urinals black and red? Any excuse to get into the Gents, eh?

So this will be black and red for the unrinals again then?

Exclamation marks are actually punctuation. So are apostrophes - like the one you've missed out of "it's". Then of course there's spelling... where common errors include writing "grammer" instead of "grammar".

The PBs had their hen/ stag night last night..... out in No 27 together! I thought that was just wonderful! :( Hope you have a great day guys and the damned taxi is on time. See you in the evening.

Excellent resume of the 70s (and a bit beyond) which were a golden era for the Jaggies from the moment King Willie arrived in 1971-72 - paid for with ?150 which Jock borrowed from 15 different people including his father and himself paid ?3 a week. A question. The Thistle team which won the League in 87 went undefeated until the very last game at Peterhead. But from what you say there, was the Jags side which also won (retained) it in 73 (the year Ferranti got into the SFL), in the same position? One small correction - the Falkirk Cup tie in 1979 went ahead at the 30th attempt. It was postponed 29 times. Jimmy Calder as striker! Wonderful days! He was substitute striker at Celtic Park in 1985! Must remind Baillie next time I see him what a miserable old git he was!

In effect he was told he was leaving "by mutual agreement". He agreed!

And now the Kaka (Kk) has been surpassed by the Ronaldo (Rn) 1Rn = ?80,000,000 = 1.43Kk. Looks as if Madrid in the last few days have spent about 3 years' GDP of your average Banana Republic.

I have't posted much on the "ICT" forum here for some time. This is partly because of a clash of interest with my journalistic activities (especially in the "goldfish bowl" of the SPL) but also to a large extent because the tone of the whole thing has changed so much for the worse over the last five years or so that this is something I would no longer want to be associated with. However I am, belatedly, prompted to do so now by some of the content of this and other related threads. It is a strange irony that the higher Caley Thistle went in Scottish football, the more carping, whingeing and discontented the tone of some comments became on this board. It is also worth noting a corresponding shift in the identity of the regular contributors involved over the period. Caley Thistle has been an amazingly successful football club which took Inverness from the Highland League to the SPL in a decade, kept the city there against all expectations for five years, and did so in a manner which was within its means and leaves the club debt free. This season the club was eventually relegated by the smallest of margins (of which more in a moment.) Inverness Caledonian Thistle has been one of the major success stories in Scottish football but yet there are still fans who appear to make it their life's mission to spread discontent, to a large extent through the medium of this forum. This has already been suggested by the likes of "absent friend" and also "mainstander" whose earlier intervention on another thread seemed to precede an unprecedented period of silence from one of the more notorious dissidents. On this forum there has been a constant (albeit unrepresentative) stream of people who seem to think they know how to run a business better than the Board, how to run a football team better than the manager (whoever he may be) and how to play the game better than the players. The arrogance and self satisfaction frequently shown is breathtaking! But of far greater concern is the effect that the rantings of this unrepresentative minority have had on those who are doing their best to make Caley Thistle the best they can. In the course of business, I find myself behind the scenes at the Caledonian Stadium two or three times a week. I speak extensively to people who work for the club, on and off the field, and I can testify to the demoralising effect that the rants of a hardcore of discontented knowalls have had on these people - even though they are perfectly aware that they are simply the delusions of a disaffected rump. It can't be very pleasant to come into your work in the morning to the awareness that a cabal of discontents, most of whom do not even have the moral courage to use their real names, continue to snipe at your best efforts and to undermine your honest attempts to do your best for Inverness football. Now let's return to the wafer thin margin by which Caley Thistle were relegated. There must be so many factors which, if they turned out only slightly differently, would have resulted in survival. And indeed one of these must be the demoralising effect which the constant public comments of a handful of the unenlightened had on the morale of the employees at the sharp end of ICT's survival bid. Perhaps these snipers should now examine their consciences and ask what role THEY actually played in what has just happened? Under the circumstances, the term "supporters" seems singularly inappropriate here - it might be far better to ask who the REAL "Muppets" are? PS - anyone inclined towards the "Well I pay my money and I'm entited to my opnion" reaction need not bother responding. This argument has been well overwhelmed by the sheer crassness of what we have increasingly had inflicted on us here in recent years. PPS - anyone tempted to suggest that I am not entitled to an opinion since I don't actually pay for entry to the ground should not bother replying either since it will be like water off a duck's back.

Gordy.... if you remember, 1 Marius = ?400,000 (sterling equivalent of 500,000 Euros at the time of transfer to Dinamo.) At an exchange rate of ?56,000,000 to the Kaka, that makes 1 Marius worth 0.07Kk. Presumably there are also lesser denominations such as the Tokely, the Vigurs and the Kellacher. I am told that the smallest denomination of all is the Fort William Defender. In this afternoon's currency markets the Fort William Defender reached parity with the Zimbabwean Dollar.

No, but since I posted the original I've also become aware of another very large currency unit... the HPE (Heathmount Pint Equivalent). Since the Heathmount installed its Peroni tap, the HPE more or less seems to have drifted towards parity with the Kaka. Over on the other side of the river the standard currency is the CCVL (Caley Club Vodka Lake). 1 HPE = 25 CCVL. School lunch today by the way (without any HPs or CCVs of course) cost me 0.05 microKakas (uKk)

In 1923 it took about 50 billion German Reichsmarks to buy a postage stamp. Before the Euro arrived, there used to be around 2000 Italian Lire to the ?. Today's exchange rate for the Zimbabwean dollar is 37,456,777 to the $US. All prime examples of very small units of currency, but now football has created its own currency unit at the other end of the scale. It is called the Kaka (Kk). One Kaka (Kk) = ?56,000,000. It certainly makes the rest of football look good because Rangers' debt, which I recently saw reported at ?104,000,000 would work out at less than 2 Kakas. And when you express what it cost to have a Romanian international striker playing for you in the SPL, a mere 0.00007 Kk a week sounds like a real bargain! Talking of the SPL, it looks as if they are now on a shoogly financial peg following Setanta's apparent inability to come up with their latest instalment of 0.054 Kakas. I am sure that ICT will now be hoping that the SPL will be able to pay them their Parachute Payment, estimated at around 0.005Kk. In the financial world, RBS's recently revealed annual losses of ?24 billion quickly convert to 4030 Kakas (4.03 KiloKakas). An even bigger currency unit is the "Team of Kakas" (TKk). 1 TKk = 11 Kk so one TKk = ?616,000,000. RBS's debt therefore equates to 366.4 TKk. Oh, and by the way, there are 33900000000000000 (3.39 x 10 (to the 16)) Zimbabwean dollars to the Kaka.