Charles Bannerman

Well at least we know it won't be a salivary gland problem.

Scotty... you are music to the ears of Hibs fans! :biggrin:

To my recollection, the actual fixtures are announced as soon as the composition of top and bottom six are known. Given the relatively short timescale, that's a necessity to ensure fans can make arrangements. Typically it's been 5pm on the last pre split Saturday. Of course it could in theory be the Sunday before the exact line ups are known. Can someone tell me if I am right in vaguely recollecting that in such an instance they once issued fixtures on the Saturday, some of them on an "either/or" basis for the 24 hours until the final line up was confirmed?

DEE'S LEGEND MACALPINE!!!!!! Only for the amount of abuse he used to take ( very well I may add) great character but Arab *******',and yes his lad won at Nairn Oops... sorry, forgot! It was the place across the road, wasn't it? That's a wee but like people in the South of Scotland thinking that Inverness and Aberdeen are more or less the same place. :irritated:

Very possibly. I passed a very pleasant couple of days at Nairn West reporting on the Scottish Amateur in 2006... and even did an interview at the end with Dees legend Hamish MacAlpine whose son I seem to recollect won the event! I also note with interest the other observations you made about Colin Montgomerie.

Delighted the Scottish Open is coming to Inverness. This should be a big boost for the game and if it leads to the area producing another Murray Urquhart, Gillian Stewart or Kelsey MacDonald then that would be a bonus for them. What I am dreading, though, is the spate of highly speculative "surveys" which will predict that the event will bring x, y and z million pounds into the local economy where x, y and z are totally different numbers. I find these highly inaccurate exercises extremely annoying, even though the event will be of significant and very welcome local economic benefit. My main problem with golf, apart perhaps from some of the fashions they wear, is Colin Montgomerie since it goes against the grain to see a lot of money being made out of playing a sport by someone who is - in a word - fat.

So that will be an all Scottish final then - Jockovitch v Murray. :biggrin:

They wear green and white hoops... maybe a huddle would help!

This interview includes the manager's take on the red card. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/9377518.stm

Yes. They go to games and make money out of both clubs for the duration of hostilities. (They also provide the First Aid.)

I was wondering exactly the same thing Double D.

And according to a newspaper report I read, a couple who already had that church booked for that day gave up their slot after an approach from "the palace". Who do these people who act with such presumption think they are?

Believe me... your Peter Pan days, and with them your delusions of moral superiority, are well and truly numbered along with everybody else's! It has been said that there are two certainties in the human existence... Death and Taxes. However there is a third which intervenes before the inevitability of Death... and that is Old Codgerdom. I also wonder how many of the Caley Animals which IHE was so en on reviving for the Elgin game now sit in the Main Stand wrapped in tartan travelling rugs and sucking Werthers Originals? When ah wurralad there was no shortage of Old Codgers either... except that in these days they normally had the fairly potent option of reminding us that they were the generation of the Normandy Beaches or El Alamein or even the Somme, whose efforts saved young people like me from being tramped under the boot of the Hun. At least we can take comfort in the fact that we will never be as old as you Mr Bannerman Well if that is the case at the moment, it is likely to remain the case for the indefinite future since we are all getting older - and hence approaching Old Codgerdom - at exactly the same rate. And those in denial of that are most likely undergoing their mid life crises! :biggrin:

Believe me... your Peter Pan days, and with them your delusions of moral superiority, are well and truly numbered along with everybody else's! It has been said that there are two certainties in the human existence... Death and Taxes. However there is a third which intervenes before the inevitability of Death... and that is Old Codgerdom. I also wonder how many of the Caley Animals which IHE was so en on reviving for the Elgin game now sit in the Main Stand wrapped in tartan travelling rugs and sucking Werthers Originals? When ah wurralad there was no shortage of Old Codgers either... except that in these days they normally had the fairly potent option of reminding us that they were the generation of the Normandy Beaches or El Alamein or even the Somme, whose efforts saved young people like me from being tramped under the boot of the Hun.

Aye, I can just imagine what these Old Codgers were talking about too. "See these young lads... they only come here so they can make a noise and a complete @rse of themselves on a Saturday afternoon. No interest in football at all. Well I suppose it keeps them off the streets. But the soooner they get away back to the North Stand the better. Tut, tut, tut. Pass the Werthers Originals." Don't worry son. The day is approaching faster than you realise. You probably won't suddenly wake up one morning and simply realise that you have become an Old Codger. As sure as night follows day though, it's a status which is certainly coming your way. But enjoy the intolerance of youth for the moment, because it won't be available to you for all that much longer.

Really pleased to hear that. Tomorrow is my favourite day of the Scottish football season (a partiality I share with Richard Gordon from what Richard has said in the past)and I'm really pleased that Scottish football fans worldwide, not just those of Caley Thistle, will be able to share the whole show.

If you are within Scotland, with the exception of the back of beyond, I would recommend one of the FM frequencies since reception is far, far better. MW on the other hand is a bit of a broadcasting Heineken in that it can reach places FM cannot reach.

Just to keep you updated.... Sportsound is going to be covering all of tomorrow's eleven ties in one large scale Open All Mics programme with a reporter at each ground. This will go out on all frequencies (92-95 and 103.5-105FM and 810MW) so there are no commentaries tomorrow. This will keep listeners across the entire afternoon's card. This is on air from 2pm until 5:30. I don't know how available this is in the Diasporate. The Sportscene Results Programme is on air on BBC 1 Scotland from 4:30-5:10 with full time reports from all ties and updates/ goal flashes in the latter stages from several of them. Highlights of all eleven ties, including post match interviews, will then be shown on Sportscene from 10:30-11:50 in the evening - 80 minutes of coverage from across the country. Before and after on Radio Scotland, Stuart and Tam are on from midday, Your Call is on from 5:30-6:30 and Sports Report from 6:30 to 7pm.

2:30pm Tuesday Jan 11th.

Cheers... I've now checked their website and it seems they have the FT from right back in 1888. They also sappear to have LSM! And quite rightly so.

Given that this national story has now taken an ICT angle, as can be seen in the link to the BBC website pasted below, I thought it might be appropriate to place this in the ICT section. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_prem/9339466.stm A statement has also gone out from the club to the media and I would imagine this will also appear on the ICT Official site before long.

It would appear, then, that your wish will be granted. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_prem/9339466.stm Caley Thistle have also just issued a statement to the media which I would imagine will be on the official club website before long.

Thanks TBB. This is possibly a couple of years away yet but from what you say, the British Library does seem to offer me the possibility of becoming the Karl Marx of Inverness football. It's a pity the FT doesn't go back to the earliest days of the HL in the 1890s, but The Courier will do that since the HL in its earliest form was largely an Inverness league(changed days!) What the FT does include is the period of Citadel's one and only HL title in 1909.

TBB... a few points from that post. Firstly... the belt actually departed the scene as long ago as 1985! Seems an age ago now and I think in practice it was barely used after the early 80s. I certainly remember lending mine (which you seem to remember ) to an Art teacher, never getting it back and never noticing that I no longer bothered to use it. The inaugural HFL table is fascinating. Your motive for displaying it is, of course, totally understandable. I wonder how many of Jags' 59 goals were scored by Jock McDonald? Something in the back of my mind tells me that locally held copies of the Football Times may have been lost. If that is the case it is especially interesting to hear that there are archive copies in London should I manage to pursue the research I am thinking about.

Mike Grant (ex Inverness Courier and now Chief Football Writer with The Herald) made a very good point on Good Morning Scotland today when he suggested that this proposed reversion to the previous ten team top league is perhaps as much as anything being driven by TV companies who want four Old Firm games in a season. I would add that if the TV companies can get rid of a couple of "riff raff" at the same time they would probably also be happier to have more of their other televised games as the Old Firm against what they perceive to be the "bigger clubs". I would also be very surprised indeed if the Old Firm themselves didn't emerge from any change to ten teams with more money while the other side of the coin (literally) is that the fans would be left with a format which the vast majority of them don't want and which they and so many of the game's respected professionals believe would result in an inferior, defensive product. So it rather looks to me as if this could well be a case of money and those who already have a considerable capacity to acquire it dictating to the rest of the Scottish game. We could also be looking here at a legacy of the collapse of Setanta inasmuch as TV revenues have shrunk and in its desperation to restore these, the SPL might just be prepared to allow the TV companies to call the shots to a greater extent. Certainly this does appear like a further step for Scottish football away from the interests of the fans in the stands and in the direction of the televised game. And as far as Caley Thistle are concerned, for how long can a club with the kind of budget ICT has stave off a season of finishing 10th as opposed to 12th? I would suggest that the likelihood of another relegation within the first five years would be significantly higher and it would also be correspondingly more difficult to get back up. And as for the promises of better resources, especially parachute payments,to be given to the second tier... does anyone seriously believe that SPL2 would be significantly different from SFL1?