Charles Bannerman

Davie... I can't speak for anything other than running events and as far as they are concerned, the prices charged for Loch Ness Marathon day are right at the top of the range, with the Inverness Half Marathon, which the same company took over a couple of years ago, now rapidly heading in the same direction. One of the things that irritates me about this event is the manner in which bodies with large numbers of basically public spirited people within their ranks seem to end up providing cheap labour in a situation where the organisers are laughing all the way to the bank as a result. Could you imagine Caley Thistle, which doesn't even make a profit, recruiting - for instance - hospitality staff on match days on such a basis? But on the other hand ICT doesn't promote its business on an aura of being a paragon of good cause promotion. Regarding my final statement earlier, of course I appreciate that CJT puts a lot of time into Caley Thistle. All I was suggesting was that the time involved in this enterprise might better also be used instead in direct support of ICT rather than as cheap labour for a company whose finances are almost certainly a lot more positive than the football club's tend to be. There is a rather acute irony there!

An informed financial health warning here, perhaps, from within the sport of athletics. Firstly, I would ask how much the Loch Ness Marathon organisers are paying CJT for this service, and for how many person-hours of work? There are a few things that not enough people know about this event. In particular, it is (unlike ICT's operation most years) run for profit by a company called Caledonian Concepts who charge among the highest entry fees in the country along with various other cash raising dodges which I won't detail. At around £25 and £45, it is two or three times as expensive to enter this event than very many other 10Ks and marathons. In my view, this event is a rip off and it's a pity more of the unsuspecting public don't realise this. This is partly because the company also issues a great deal of overhyped spin about charities. But let's make no mistake about it - the fundamental purpose of this event is a business undertaking for Caledonian Concepts. Yes, some runners do get sponsored for charities but they could do that anywhere, and more cheaply elsewhere. The spin invites the impresson that the driving force here is good causes. I would beg to differ. It would be very wrong, for instance, to believe that the very high entry fees etc have anything to do with charities. Caledonian Concepts has basically jumped on the running bandwagon to make a profit out of it and as such has become deeply unpopular within the sport of athletics, of which, I would stress, it is most definitely not a part. Volunteers working for a peanuts donation to their organisation hence merely boost the profit. So before volunteering for this, it might be a good idea to find out how much is being paid by this for-profit company to CJT for every hour of your time, and consider whether that time might better be spent volunteering to help the non-profit making football club you support rather than to make more bucks for this company.

Oops.... absolutELY

There would certainly be an increase but I'm not convinced it would be as big as that. Certainly a cup final would be a big "first" for ICT but I think there's a law of diminishing returns here, given that playing the biggest names in Scottish football has become commonplace in recent years. I think it was very diferent in days gone by when, for instance, Thistle played Killie at KIngsmills in 1985 or Caley played Rangers at Telford Street in 1984. These were the kind of opponents to which the Inverness football public had had very little exposure so seeing them up here was a complete novelty. In 1992 even the visit of St Johnstone had Telford Street packed out (and some say a bit more than that!) at a time when Caley only played in front of a few hundred regular supporters. But that's all changed now, although the novelty of a first cup final might well be a significant incentive. The reality is that there always have been glory hunters who only turn out for the "bigger" games in football and there always will be. The more I think about attendance levels at ICT (and elsewhere as well) the more firmly I come to the conclusion that this is a problem with many separate variables contributing to the overall situation.

A very fair idea but you would have to be prepared for the overwhelming answer will be that the people asked are simply not particularly interested in football or at least in making any effort at all to go and see it. Of the 100,000+ people relatively local to Inverness, this will be the case with the significant majority. On the other hand there MAY be (rough ballpark????) 10 - 20,000 in the area who are potential football customers. Of these, a significant number will be fans of the OF and Ross County and to a lesser extent Aberdeen etc. So the "swing population" who might be persuaded to attend will actually come from quite a narrow slice of the community. Over the years I have along similar lines found that if I need to do a vox pop about Caley Thistle in the streets of Inverness, the majority of those I approach for a response invariably aren't interested in football and the football fans are dominated by the OF.

Thanks fraz. Bunsen burners were duly hung up in June. I actually bought a bike with my retiral gift!!!

It might actually be better NOT to spread the word abut that since being live on TV is actally a disincentive to people to come and pay through the gate. Its an away match Charles. Its a free taster of what ICT have to offer, not the same as being at a live match for the first time but its a step in the right direction. I'll have a word with your mate Tony Hall and see if he can give us a bit of extra coverage on BBC 1 Scotland prior to the game. Sorry... I forgot that with the international break then two consecutive away matches the next home match in Inverness isn't until September 28th. In that case it's not such a bad idea!

I thnk you are absolutley right OCG and I also partly agree with 12th Man in the previous post. I wasn't at the game on Saturday since I was down south but I am following that, with a crowd above 4000 for the first time since the traffic lights were installed, the "system" (or lack of one) couldn't cope. I am also following that there was a larger than average but not huge travelling support trying to access the ground along the A9 and turning 270 degrees through the roundabout in addition to the normal home support and the roundabout plus lights couldn't cope. Certainly the times taken to reach the ground quoted by some other posters on this thread appear eyewatering. I just wonder what it's going to be like when Celtic or Aberdeen visit - or even Couny with just a 90 degree turn off the roundabout. The bigger issue is the siutation in general at the stadium roundabout even outwith match days. I am in absolutely no doubt that it is far more difficult to negotiate that roundabout since these useless lights went in. I don't normally use the roundabout at rush hours but one thing I have noticed is that since these lights appeared there are regular warnings of delays on Radio Scotland traffic updates whch there never were before. The impression I get is that it wasn't particularly broke but some clown somewhere has tried to fix it with these damned lights - and has made it a whole lot worse. It's a bit disappointing that councillors are not jumping up and down about this - possibly because they are completely preoccupied by the fracas and overspend on link road at the other end of town. Between one thing and another, the traffic situation in Inverness is a mess. But at least it will ease a bit quite soon when the tourists once again come to the conclusion that there really is nothing in Loch Ness and clear off home and leave us in peace once more.

It might actually be better NOT to spread the word abut that since being live on TV is actally a disincentive to people to come and pay through the gate.

What evidence do you have that this would result in a corresponding increase in attendances so there would be no reduction of gate receipts in a financial environment where ICT recently had to cut its wage bill in an attempt to keep its finances under control? You cannot reduce ticket prices without being sure that there will not be an unaffordable reduction in gate income.

Clach v Inverurie for locally based ICT fans - surely!

No, it's the strip of metalling right beside the firth, parallel to the road. Actually I'm not totally convinced that the club ever did fulfil the planning requirement about the cycle racks but I'd better not say any more since there may be some Council Jobsworth reading this! And I do take your point about the "parking malarky", given that the police have pledged to get tough on people parking harmlessly on the verge beside the road. In complete contrast, anyone attending Ness Bank Church on a Sunday morning can seemingly park anywhere they like actually ON the road and irrespective of the traffic chaos this causes along the Haugh and Castle Road.

It runs all the way round the Firth side of Stadium Road, between the "rocks" and the road opposite the stadium but also well past it because the original road which the Council specified was then extended by them to provide a vital link between the Kessock Bridge roundabout and the harbour. From that point of view the £900,000 which Inverness District Council pledged in 1995 but got their knickers so much in a twist over that it was only paid by Highland Council from the Common Good after they took over in 96, has been paid back to the community many times over by the amenity of that road. So it seems, Fraz, that you are one of the very small number of fans to cycle to games at the TCS. In that case I wonder if you parked your bike in one of the "64 cycle racks (Sheffield Style)" which the Council specified as one of the planning conditions for the stadium!! Oh, and I see our old chum Doogie has emerged once more from his blue and white phone box on Telford Street in post #35. And once again he has us all wondering whether he simply hasn't got a clue as to what the reality of the facts was or whether this is just another of his woefully naive attempts at retrospective revisionism?

Well let me see.... Mercury? Venus? Mars? Jupiter? Neptune? From whichever one it is, hopefully you can make out the following observations. * Possibly partly due to a fairly large away support, the current capacity of the TCS (7700) was yesterday more than HALF full for the first time this season. Last season's average gate equates to about 200 above 50% capacity. * Even visits from Celtic now struggle to get the TCS within 1000 of its full capacity. * ICT has a recent history of modest losses so would hardly be in a position to build this white elephant in the first place. Unless you are proposing a further 30% cut in the player budget? * In any case the TCS is owned not by the club but by the ICT Trust who have just as good a grip of reality as the board has. * There is indeed a gas main in that neck of the woods which would necessitate the extra expense of a gadget known as a cantilever if a stand were ever to go over there. * The design of the current main stand is the result of multiple constraints placed on the design of the original stadium by an extremely tight budget back in the mid 90s. This in turn was largely due to the requirement to build a £1.3M road - plus cycle path which I have never in my life seen a cyclist use, despite the fact that the blighters constantly whinge on about cyclists' rights and getting more cycle tracks!! I really thought this subject had been done to death years ago!

The sycophantic Yes Men Salmond has got assembled round about him?

And as the holder of a United Kingdom passport, because the UK is the country in which I was born, I am assuming that - along with others like minded - I would be entitled to retain it since I should not be obliged to surrender it in the event of the majority of voters in my local area of the UK deciding that they want to separate from it.

Correction PMF. Proven African oil reserves are estimated at 133,000 billion barrels, equivalent to close on 10% of the worlds reserves. So let me get this straight. Even though oil seems to be the only thing you ever think about, you Separatist chaps still don't seem to be able to agree about where it is! Oh well, I suppose that does sort of square with the statistical wishlist which emerges from Neverendum HQ every so often!

Perhaps it is also worth mentioning that, worthies apart at the top of Laurel Avenue, quite a large number of houses also contained quite a large number of problem free families!

Nope. Apart from the gentleman who is currently in custody in relation to the alleged Hilton gun incident there were quite a few other worthies up that end in the 60s.

Laura... it's the top end of Laurel Avenue that I was speaking about - the bit between the Dalneigh Road roundabout and Bruce Gardens. I don't know what it's like now, but back in the day - certainly in the 60s - it was pretty scary and residents included the gentleman who appears to have been arrested in connection with the firearms incident in Hilton. He was still at Dalneigh School when I remember him first and later moved up to Hilton. Certainly in my day in Dalneigh, the bottom end of Laurel Avenue (the Caledonian Road end) was perfectly OK. I don't know what it has been like more recently.

Do you mean Bumber's Lane (aka Balnacraig Road) or the lane which links Lilac Grove and Fairfield Rd or what? The brick and bike throwers would be these ruffians from Dalneigh (like me!) heading to the Caley Park for a game I'm sure!!

Bloody right back in the 60s Lauraness... and I suspect for quite a few years after that. There were three families in that top end of Laurel Ave - let's just call them the Fs, the Ks and the Ss - who were especially feared. I lived in St Andrew Drive, so on the way home needed to cross the Laurel Ave - Dalneigh Rd roundabout. When cycling home you ALWAYS accelerated somewhat and looked left to ensure safety and if on foot.... well why the hell do you think I became a runner!!

Live commentary from Rob MacLean with Murdo MacLeod and Tom English on BBC Radio Scotland 810 medium wave, online and digital.

It's funny, listening to the news they got as far as "A 63 year old man" and it instantly clicked who it was before they got to the name which was stated in rather more politically correct terms than those used by much of Hilton for decades, and before that by residents of Dalneigh in the 60s when he was the most notable among a number of notables in that notorious top end of Laurel Avenue!

If you're talking about the 1993 Highland League title, Elgin were stripped of that because manager John Teasdale had their final game at Forres moved to the Friday night to allow himself and John MacDonald to play in advance of suspensions beginning. It was also alleged that Teasdale bet on Elgin winning that game 6-0... which they did. But despite an SFA investigation this was never proved. So I must have been mistaken in my belief, when standing just a few feet away from Teasdale on the night, that I heard Teasdale tell someone he had done just that!