Charles Bannerman

I was at the stadium at lunch time and it emerges that the signing of Hogg and Jones (maybe they'll open a city centre pub together :biggrin: ) completes the ICT squad for the moment. I have to say that following the addition of these two and Thomas Piermayr this week, there was a very positive vibe down there today - a feeling that this week's additions have really added a sense of completeness to the squad. Obviously it will take some time for this very new squad to weld together but the appearance is that this has started already and will be ongoing. Longer standing (aged 23+ or so) fans will recollect the time it sometimes took Pele's teams to get going at the start of a season (remember the first season in D2 97-98! ) I really don't expect a return to that kind of scenario and I think this week's developments could be quite significant.

What about the urinal at Telford Street for a (very brief) period late July/ early August 1994?

Wayne Addicoat - from another planet.

School cafes? The one at Inverness Royal Academy is first class and our dinner ladies are wonderful :biggrin: (and I'm not just saying that to get bigger portions should one of them read this.) Good food... good helpings... service with a smile so I always put vodka in their direction on the odd occasion I see any of them in the Social Club. School dinners at the Royal Academy have not, however, always been so. For many years, we had a grim Aberdonian lady whose portions entirely squared with her place of origin. (Sorry Donview if your 40 years on the wrong side of the Grampians has led you to empathise with the natives.) She used to spend her life at the front counter dishing out meagre helpings and when she eventually ran out, you would get the inevitable cry of "CHUUUUPS!!" I got so fed up with her undersized helpings of "chuuups", which were obviously well under the stated 4 oz (113g), that I took mine upstairs to my lab and weighed them on a chemical balance. I then came back down and said to her "Mrs ******, your portion of chips weighs 86 grams so is almost 25% underweight." I never had any problem after that. Donview... wine buff in the Thornbush! Well there's a real oxymoron, unless you're talking about Four Crown. No, I have to say that my libations have never caused me to foray more deeply into the Merkinch than the (late) Clach Club. And at least your bafflement which many Invernessians have shared over the years can now be tempered by news that the new store is making rapid progress opposite the Gaelic School with the foundations already well advanced.

I got my 4 x £10 vouchers sent to me at home. Maybe they're trying to draw in the locals and I'm 3/4 of a mile away. I'm also a former holder of a clubcard from the dayas I used to shop with Tesco so they have my details. You then present the voucher for the week and get £10 off if you've spent over £30. Marks cafe... I've never used that one. Morrisons upstairs in the market? Now there's a symptom of misspent youth along with the Cafe George, Dorandos, Salvadoris etc etc! You know there's something bloody bizarre about this ever lengthening thread. Bunch of blokes sitting discussing cafes andf supermarkets!!!

Johndo.... only one kind of person would ever allow you live on air. And you look after their needs every day among the psychiatrically challenged of Lancashire!

Not at 9:40 on a Sunday evening, but you are quite right! How could a veteran of the merger forget which is Rose Street! :biggrin: And yes, it was indeed Lows that moved on to the Rossleigh site. Over the last 30-40 years and the days of Liptons on Bridge Street and the Coop in the old (ie the one before last) swimming pool in Montague Row there's been quite a through put of supermarkets in Inverness. Bring back Jocky Lawson's van I say (but not Mrs Lawson )

Alex, thank you very much although I've actually rarely been on radio on a Saturday of late since my usual job at ICT home games has tended to be the TV report and updates on the 4:30 Results Programme. I'm definitely not going to get into a debate about BBC coverage since it's not my place to do so. All my initial post was for was to list the various BBC coverage options for ICT fans, highlighting those which are specifically ICT orientated. What I could do is to suggest that when you are outwith the Highlands and within the UK you should go to BBC online because all ICT and indeed all SPL games have dedicated live commentary there.

Alex, I think you know quite well the very large number of Caley Thistle games which have dedicated - "Old Firm free" if you like - live commentary to the entire Highlands and Islands if not further afield, and that this is just one of a very wide range of services - radio, TV and online - which the BBC offers to cover Caley Thistle. Of course if you are in Perth, the range of opportunities which you have to receive live-on-air ICT commentaries will be more limited, restricted indeed to any occasion the BBC also runs ICT commentaries nationally on 810 or 92-95 - unless the MFR signal stretches as far as Perth. Please remember also that the BBC manages to do for ICT and Aberdeen fans in their local area what it can't, for instance, do for St Johnstone fans in Perth, and that is to offer regular programming specifically aimed at their needs "Old Firm free" if you like.

Och well, since MFR have been promoting their coverage in another thread, I might as well balance this up and, equally shamelessly, also give a brief summary of what the BBC has to offer. :biggrin: BBC Scotland sports programming on Saturdays runs from 12 noon until 7pm and will normally include:- * Live commentary from Caley Thistle games home and away, plus progress reports on other Scottish games on 92-95FM across the Highlands and Islands and sometimes also on AM or FM across Scotland. * Live commentary also online. Availability outside the UK is, as always, subject to contractual conditions. * Open All Mics covering all SPL matches and some from the lower leagues on 103.5-105FM. * TV updates and full time report on BBC 1 Scotland from 4:30pm. * Your Call and Sports Report end on to Sportsound. Outwith the Saturday football envelope:- * Sportscene SPL highlights. * Online SPL highlights. * Commentary on non-Saturday games online and, where frequency arrangements allow, live on air as well.

Similarly, Kiltarlity, thanks for the tip about Wetherspoons. Tesco franchised out all their cafes to this company I think in 2005 and that was where the rot really began to set in at Inshes. Before that, Tesco's Inshes cafe had been fine when they actually ran it themselves but it went steadily down hill after that and then got a whole lot worse when they reopened the "upgraded" shop (which to my mind doesn't even cut it as a convenience store never mind a supermarket.) The other problem with the refurbished shop is that the lay out is such that you can no longer collect papers from the news stand, take them to the cafe and then "accidentally" leave them there. To be fair, Tesco's cafe prices are not totally outrageous but that and whether or not you can get papers kind of becomes irrelevant if the food is inedible. The Dores Road Tesco doesn't have a cafe but that's no great loss. Im actually miss the old Safeways cafes in Margaret St and Millburn Rd. I agree with what you say about Howdens prices and similarly Simpsons is also a very nice cafe but charge an arm and a leg.

That actually started life when that Bridge Street development first opened in the 60s as Liptons which I think then moved across to where Tesco Metro is now when they knocked down Rossleigh's Garage on that site. Anyway... I digress... what I was going to say was that Liptons had a very good cafe back in the 60s on Upper Bridge Street right above the shop. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think that may have been the first ever supermarket cafe in Inverness. Now, on the subject of Supermarket cafes in Inverness, has anyone been in the Tesco Inshes one of late? Is it still as dreadful as ever? At least Tesco Extra at the Retail Park has a slightly better one and I used quite to like the Morrisons one as well. However ordering a meal can somethimes be as slow as waiting at their Lottery counter and I've been very disappointed with the last couple of breakfast visits there. I've probably said this before, but I've yet to find better than Cobbs Cafe at Highland Industrial Supplies down the Longman. To quote but one example, you get a fantastic bacon roll, wedged thick with bacon, and a coffee for ?2.25. There's also a supply of papers. But I'm sure there are other decent breakfast establishments in our good city. For instance I've heard Wetherspoons well spoken of.

And not long before that we had Bobby MacKay's and Jocky Lawson's vans! Aye, food retailing in Inverness has sure changed.

Kiltarlity, I definitely agree that about car park and trolley situation in Morrisons, especially if you have to queue to get change at their customer services which must be the slowest counter in the world. But I do find them handy for access to the town centre and I do also agree that a lot of their stuff is fresher. It would also take a lot of negativity about Morrisons to offset my dislike of Tescos!

It's only now that I've had a taste of the absolutely bogging wine that I bought there on opening day on Monday that I've been motivated to say something about Tesco Town's latest eponymous Superstore. Let's start with the shopping trip which, as a Morrisons shoppper, I only did to get the £10 discount on £30 of shopping. Over the four weeks this operates I'll take £120 worth of stuff for £80 and then return to Morrisons thank you very much. Basically the new Tesco is a big barn with very little to commend it and pretty modest looking stock levels and brand variety. Let's now move on to the absence of a cafe. Well, given the disgraceful state of their Inshes one, maybe they didn't dare commit the commercial suicide of another one on this site. At least that's one less injury inflicted on the good people of Inverness. As for the wine, well my general strategy is to top my £120 for £80 up with a stockpile of cheap El Plonko Tesco and fortunately the bogging stuff which I am currently consuming is only a quarter bottle of one of these well known brands who put all the crap of the day, especially esters which taste awful, into their plonk. I'm talking about the likes of Echo Falls, Chenet and also Gallo which I have the misfortune to be drinking at the moment. On the other hand they are capable of doing decent stuff for £4 a bottle which I will now be careful to get over the remaining three weeks. In conclusion, it's marginally worth shopping there for four weeks, counting up your bill carefully to make sure it's just over £30, in order to save £40 and then I'm off back to Morrisons like a shot. Roll on Asda which is even nearer to my doorstep and which might even have a decent cafe.

The Thistle booklet (I am not the author but do have a copy) is entitled "The Hub of the Hill" and was published in 1985 to mark the Jags' centenary. I think I have also organised access to Caley All The Way for further research from Jim Falconer, but thanks Born Caley for your offer. As caleyboy said - on one occasion they did dish out copies of Against All Odds to Hotshots which made me cringe at the time since not only was that costing the club ?9.99 per copy in lost revenue, it also contributed to the unavailability of copies which has now been a problem for a few years but which at least we can rectify now. I already have most of the permissions I need and am about to make a start on the extra chapter which will not appear overnight but when it does I will be in touch with Pull My Finger to get the scanning done. Then it's over to Scotty who has already worked out how to put it on the site.

A popular misconception Oddquine. This battle was no more an Irish one than the war of the roses was a Scottish one. The opposing forces were King William III of Orange (protestant), who a few years previously had deposed King James II of England and VII of Scotland (catholic) from the throne of England, and the aforementioned James. James had fled to Ireland and was followed by the forces of William. They met and fought across the river Boyne. Irishmen fought on both sides of this battle, just as Scots had done in the English civil wars, but it was still very much a battle for the English throne. Apart from that I agree with most of what you say. I would, however, say to all our fans.....people will be among the crowds at games, especially those involving OF, and will act against those who use sectarian terminology. I'd not quite agree with that, Alex. Basically, after the Glorious Bloodless Revolution of 1688 which saw James II's departure and the arrival of King Billy and Marydoll, the "Bloody" bit to try to get him back started anywhere the insurgents thought they could succeed and gain support. This included Scotland, where the battles of Killiecrankie and Dunkeld played a prominent part before the fighting moved to Ireland where the two major engagements were the battles of the Boyne (11th July 1690 but commemorated on the 12th) and of Aughrim (12th July 1691). Claims have been made on behalf of both as the decisive battles of the Irish part of the campaign but the Boyne is the one which seems to have attracted more celebrity. And even though Dunkeld in 1689 was also a victory for forces supporting King Billy, it is totally forgotten. But this was NOT a dispute about the throne of England, it was about the throne of the whole of Great Britain following the Union of the Crowns of 1603. The five attempts which took place in the 1689 - 1746 period to restore the Stuarts are very difficult to categorise in terms of who was fighting whom. There is a common but serious misconception that this was Scotland versus England. It most definitely was not. It is closer to call it Protestant versus Catholic but even this doesn't quite fit the bill. It was basically the supporters of the Stuarts (the Jacobites) against the supporters of the regime which ousted them - initially William and James's own daughter Mary, then her sister Anne and then the German imports which we have had ever since because Anne was incapable of bearing survivable issue. I would have to say myself that it would have been a lot easier not to have had a king at all! But to take this thread back on topic... as long as they behave themselves in the South Stand and keep their 300 year old nonsense to themselves when the OF visit, Inverness should hopefully be OK.

A lot of relevant points there Oddquine. Interestingly enough, Orange Order rules state that an Orangeman - should strenuously oppose the fatal errors and doctrines of the Church of Rome, and scrupulously avoid countenancing (by his presence or otherwise) any act or ceremony of Popish worship; which as far as I am concerned confirms that the very purpose - indeed, if you look at ther history, the sole purpose - of their existence is to oppose Catholicism. Up here we don't have the Orange Order and have nothing more than the odd abortive Orange Walk and the annual Apprentice Boys pilgrimage to the Portland Club (via, inexplicably, the War Memorial where they have the affrontery to try to gain credibility by recognising our war dead.) But we do on the other hand have the Free Presbyterian Church (the Tartan Taliban) which is just about as bigoted as the Orangemen. This was the highly distasteful and outrageously self righteous organisation which in 1989 banned the Lord Chancellor Lord MacKay of Clashfern for attending the Roman Catholic funeral of his colleague Lord Wheatley. It's also an interesting observation you make about the Battle of Culloden which brought to an end the 60 year conflict which began when James II was thrown out in 1688 and of which the campaign which included the Battle of the Boyne and the Siege of Londonderry marked the start. And yes, it's completely absurd that the Act of Settlement of 1701, banning Catholics from the throne (whilst welcoming foreigners!), should still apply. Mind you, if i had my way, I would simply extend the Act of Settlement to ban EVERYBODY from the throne! But 300 and odd years on, they still make a triumphalist fuss about the Boyne etc but the attitude to Culloden is totally different. So what's the dinstinction? In a word - Ireland. What's kept the Orange nonsense going has been Irish politics and the vexed question of the early 1920s of what to do about the island as a whole. The problem is that the settlement - which was the subject of the 1921 Cabinet meeting in Inverness Town Hall -resulted in a Catholic south and predominantly Protestant north. The southern part fought among themselves in the Irish Civil War and, apart from a few ultra IRA extremists, the pro Treaty view has since become accepted. Now they're more than happy to make their way in the world by providing players for Inverness Caley Thistle. But in the north, the Protestants still seem to feel the need to go around like dogs urinating on lamp posts to mark their territory. Unfortunately this rubbish has also been imported into Scotland and, worse still, has become incorporated into support for the country's two largest football teams - which, I would argue, have become larger as a result of being (albeit invountarily) the focal points for this political and religious divide. In consequence all the other teams in the land find themselves correspondingly impoverished. So Inverness Town Hall in 1921 maybe has a lot to answer for. If the decision on that day had instead been to let the entire island of Ireland go its own way and sort out its own problems, a lot of this nonsense might have been avoided.

You are dead right that it will never be eradicated if the people who make the law and those who enforce it are spending all their time and energy scrutinising football while the Orange Order with impunity struts its triumphalist way as close as it can to Catholic areas, creating all the tension and resentment that it can muster. Unacceptable though sectarian behaviour at football most definitely is, it seems absurd to concentrate all the energies on football grounds while the Glorious Magnificent Lodge Loyal 1690 No Surrender FTP remains free to infect the community at large with its bigoted filth. A couple of weeks ago, as July 12th approached, I wrote to the relevant Scottish Executive minister Roseanna Cunningham and said largely that. I also suggested that sorting out the Orange Order was a far higher priority than football. I even put it to her that this wouldn't even be a vote losing policy since I couldn't imagine too many of Her Majesty's Bowler Hats and Umbrellas voting SNP in the first place.

Les K last seen IN SHORTS (I am exclusively... well not quite!.. told)at tonight's Simple Minds concert which I hear was wet but busy. Les might be free to speak to me next week now concert is over.

See what happens when Rebekah Brooks ends up with too much time on her hands!

Thank you! A wonderful turn of phrase which I may well take the liberty of plagiarising in a report at some time during the season! (Although I'm sure someone else has got there first liong since.) It would be especially suitable for Open All Mics!!!

Scotty... now there's an idea!! I don't know how big a scanning job this is since I don't know the technology, but there would be just over 140 pages plus whatever I added on the HL. Little by little perhaps? Someone scans while I research and write what I could take a ballpark guess at being a further 5ish? pages. I have a Thistle booklet of my own and I'm sure I could borrow a copy of Caley All The Way from someone. In terms of permissions, the Author hereby willingly gives his on the spot! I own the copyright jointly with the Club while Ken MacPherson, Trevor Martin and Gordon Gillespie have the photo copyrights. I'm sure all would be agreeable and I am happy to approach the photographers and George Fraser myself. I would be absolutely delighted for a slightly enhanced Against All Odds to be relaunched on CTO and already I think that the only major problem would be getting the scanning done. I do have a VERY small number of author's copies which I hold on behalf of the club for emergency purposes and I would be more than happy for one of these to be cannibalised which I imagine might make the scanning easier.

With writing like mine, I always thought that people who wanted signed copies should have got a reduced price! Born Caley PMd me to enquire about copies just before he started this thread back in January and I unfortunately had to tell him that the book had been sold out for some time. We did 2000 copies and the last few steadily went from the club shop a few years ago. As it happens we should maybe have gone for 2500 but that's all very well to say with hindsight and it would have cost more with no guarantee of selling them. For a number of reasons a reprint is out of the question - not the least because there will be no trace of the discs the original is on since both HiScan who did the DTP and Highland Printers who printed it have been out of business for several years. In any case it wouldn't be financially viable now. On a "what if" basis, if a reprint did happen, I would want to add to the text since it's always been a matter of regret that I didn't say a little more by introduction about the Highland League pre 1988 and the two clubs' history in it. I think, with hindsight, I was too reluctant to interrupt the carefully argued narrative of the first chapter which begins with Thistle and Caley winning what turned out to be their last major honours at each other's grounds in 1988 through to the start of merger negotiations in 1993. The argument is that during these five years the situation went from a merger being totally inconceivable to a scenario which was possibly unprecedentedly conducive to one, which has fascinated me since day 1. But I do now regret not having said more about the Highland League. OK I've gone slightly so to return to availability of Against All Odds, the best chance is to beg, borrow, steal or try Amazon or Ebay.... unless someone wants to scan each page and republish the book on this site - in which case I would undertake to add some words about the Highland League days!

Sounds just like the Howden End.... especially during the Merger! But on the subject of changes to the Clach Park over the last 20 years or so, they have indeed been massive. I suppose it all started in the late 80s when the grandstand (ahem!)"burned down". I don't believe the cause was ever determined. (But by the way, that means that the grandstands in all three Inverness HL grounds burned down - Telford Street in 1950 and Kingsmills in 1995 after it had ceased to be as football ground. "Was it ever?" I hear former Howden Enders cry! :biggrin: ) But to return to Grant Street, the chunk of land on which the old stand stood and a fair bit more was sold off to pay debts as part of the 1990 rescue. The 1997 rescue then involved selling off the pitch, initially to ICT Properties who then sold it on to the Common Good Fund but that at least involved no physical change. Now end on to the 2011 rescue, the Social Club has become a place for worshipping God and not Carlsberg while the Council have bought the car park area and the Wineshed has disappeared. As far as I am aware, the club still owns the Boardroom/changingroom areas and (I'm fairly sure) the land on which the Wineshed formerly stood but that is all. Basically Clach have had to sell off the family silver in stages over the last 20 years in order to prop up what has for decades been a fundamentally non viable business. Off the top of my head, these three rescues have between them disposed of a total of something in the ballpark of over half a million pounds worth of debt. Now there are only a couple of little teaspoons left from that family silver so I really hope the new Orion regime can turn things round because Clach are very much drinking in the Last Chance Saloon (which is probably the only pub left down the Merkinch these days!)