Charles Bannerman

Chris... I just don't remember this "Dan" - unless it was the guy that used to live in a sort of tent in Lochardil Woods? And was he one of these guys who always had "empties" since nothing remained full for long?

I'll have you know I was once a Bon Accord employee!! Three student holidays worth 1971-72 working for Tommy Robb in "sales development" which was taking a wee truck round the doors trying to drum up new business. I got plenty, but for some reason the regular lorry drivers then seemed to "lose" it again. That was actually where I first met Roy Lobban who was assistant manager down in Anderson Street. However the scariest experience I had there had nothing to do with any of the drivers. It was the time I was sent on an errand in Vince Robb's Mark 1 Cortina but I only found out that it was vastly overpowered when I got to the end of the street extremely prematurely. Or maybe it was when I had to visit this house is Beauly that smelled like a cess pit and just about threw up when the wifie handed me back a load of absolutely minging greasy empties!

Now we're getting down to some of the nicetites of Sneck pronunciation and how it translates into written Sneck! I have to say I would also go for "durbs" and probably also "steelucks" and indeed "rooked". But on the other hand there is a particular Sneck vowel sound which translates into the wirtten form equally effectively as an "e" or a "u". For instance I instantly think of one all time classic which could be written as "Yersee'eenit" or "Yursee'eenit". Sneck is actually full ambiguous vowel sounds and that Inverness poem which does the rounds has lots such as "tenas" played in "frully knuckers" and "fush sapper". Then there are the two low cost hostelries which I patronise - "Tha Collee Clab" and "Tha Leejun".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18025886

"Durbs".... "steelachs"... "ge'een rooched"... what memories of something as simple as marbles! I wonder what contemporary youth, with their X boxes and i phones and Freeview channels, would think about kids of a previous generation deriving amusement from spheres of glass or, if you were lucky enough to have one, an old ball bearing? Or splitting into rival groups and running about wasteland firing imaginary machine guns and throwing fictitious hand grenades at each other (with appropriate sound effects from the back of the throat) whilst re-enacting the re-conquest of Western Europe or various Pacific islands? Or nicking the Minister's or the Sheriff's apples or going into the corner shop to buy penny bangers to throw into people's gardens or playing Kerbie or swapping Commando comics or Flags of the World bubblegum cards! Oops... we've come a long way from Tramps!

Right from the original post on this thread I made it quite clear that I would be equally happy with an answer in the public domain or by PM. Caley D, as a party to this thread from an early stage, was hence clearly aware of the distinct possibility that the name would, sooner or later, appear publicly on here unless a request was made to the contrary. Had that been made it would have been observed but it never was. He therefore had several hours to act pre-emptively and request that anonymity was retained, but did not do so - preferring instead to whinge after the event. And given my previous experience of the pointlessness of endless nitpicking dialogues with Caley D on CTO, I hereby conclude my contribution to this thread.

Mmm.. interesting to see an attempt to draw a parallel here between the club's latest investors and the wearer of the mascot suit! Oh well.... maybe it's at this stage that I should suggest (see post 16) that the Sneck phonetic spelling of the word in question might in fact be "Tut- chee!" Valid observation by IHE in post 20 as well. PS - is there a separate rule for Site Admin with regard to the making of abusive posts?

If they were still there (and I think Barney's still is) you would pay well above the odds if you patronised either of these well established Sneck institutions. But on the opther hand you could buy a player right up until midnight - even on Christmas Day and on Bank Holidays!

I have PMd Donald to ask him what he actually means by this statement?! On the Tokely question.... I understand that Ross is injured. Wonderful retail analogy from the manager. In his post match interview he said that Celtic and formerly Rangers shop for players from Harrods (maybe for Still Game watchers that should be "Harrid's")... the rest of the SPL shop at Marks and Spencer but ICT's budget forces them to shop at ASDA. (Lidl and Aldi were also mentioned!)

Or it might have been Katie "Children First" Gibb's son Fraser who did a brilliant job - which was why the fan concerned asked me the question in the first place with a view to the now no longer anonymous incumbent getting the job permanently.

A large one in the Heathmount? Even Alan Savage and David Sutherland have to club together to afford one of those!

No, no! You seem to misunderstand me 12th man! I was saying "Too-shay" (as in Turtle or fencing). I was only acknowledging that you were maybe winding me up/ trying to hoist me with my own petard in a good natured manner in response to my earlier refusal to name the Fifth Man in the Muirfield Mills consortium! And I can assure you that the fan is unlikely to be a scout so you can rest easy about the future of Nessie!

Touchee 12th man It's just that a fan in the main stand seems to want to know.

Thanks Manfer! Any other takers?

It might well be but I don't know who that was!

I'm posting this in an attempt to get an answer for a fan. Can anyone tell me who was inside the Nessie Mascot suit at the Dunfermline game on Wednesday night? If you don't want to post it on here, you could PM me. Thanks. CB.

I think you were one of a few who declined the said offer - and in a number of cases that was a good shout. A number of kids turned that down because they knew their family circumstances woulsd require them to get a job at 15 anyway. The modern day parallel is the kids who decide not to take up one of the far too many places now available at universities, often because they know that getting a job with a load of student debt into the bargain will not be easly. Nothing wrong with that. I say this as a Kaddie Boy but I fully appreciate where you were coming from.

Did they go for anything as complicated as "APOCALYPSE" anywhere?

"Pro merger debate"? Johndo you are the master of the oxymoron!!! Seriously, though... absolutely not! However SMEE did raise the issue of what happened during the half dozen years before movement into the SFL in 1994. Now as it happens, Inverness and Highland League football during that roughly 87/88-94 period is a subject which especially interests me and has done so for many years, which fully explains why I detailed so much stuff in earlier posts on this thread. It represents a fascinating ebb and flow of influences. You are obviously a child of stamps, Pomagne and Scotsmac on the Howden End in the 70s. Being rather younger than your good veteran self, I find the rather later period which I have specified of much more interest. Horses for courses really.

Thank you Scotty! Trouble is, when you forget something as bloody obvious as that.... you actually begin to worry!! Lovely view over the civilised "West End" of Inverness and all!

In one of these "Old Inverness" type books there's a classic photo of Forty Pockets, I think outside Castle Tolmie (razed in the early 60s to make way for the Shapla or whatever it's called now.(*) Certainly my granny, who lived in Inverness from 1899 until 1932, used to talk about Forty Pockets. "Hill 60", the tenement block off Grant Street, with all its World war 1 connotations, was another departed Inverness institution she used to talk about. (*) what was the Shapla called for years before it was the Shapla? It's on the tip of my tongue!!! You could get an under age drink in there is the late 60s.

Thanks for that informed update Culduthel. I had always juast assumed that the Stoneyfield "tinks" were itinerants. Interesting also to track their migration to the Merkinch. And yes, I can imagine it was useful to have them on your side if it came to fisticuffs! Scotty... agreed! Granville was definitely a worthy out of the same stable (OOPS - sorry for the spontaneous pun :snigger: ) as Suzie and Willie. Presumably his abode was also fairly fixed as well.

Are you also by any chance one of these chaps who thinks that Caley and Thistle fans are still staying away from ICT games in their thousands?

Yes I remember her in Dalneigh in the 60s and by God she STANK! I have the most awful memory of her coming on to a bus absolutely minging! She also had the most ghastly, swollen lower legs with "Tinkers' Tartan" from sitting beside a fire for too long. And I also think I remember the trolley or in fact I think it was a pram in the pre supermarket days. She used to go round the doors asking for rubbish but my mum wouldn't let me answer it. I also remember the camp at Stoneyfield, quite close to the old A96 but indeed I think that was travellers before they moved down beside the dump at the Longman when you could take a car right up there to dump stuff (count your wheels both before and after.) Quite a thought some of these kids going to Crown School. I wonder what the "canapes and Chardonnay" brigade thought about that? Bet all the future Kaddy Rats from the big posh houses got taken home and were thoroughly checked for nits... or worse! Does Granville count as a tramp?

Ymip... I am no more than providing the factual background to SMEE's perception of Caledonian FC's somewhat unproductive last years which he says his own memory deprives him of. :biggrin: Good to see it's eliciting some reaction though! I have already done a rather more objective analysis of both Caley's and Thistle's Highland League achievements 1894-1994 in the first (new) and second chapters of Against All Odds which can be accessed for reference on this site. The ICT v County scenario 1994-97 is also examined later in the book.