Charles Bannerman

Oh they do, they do! It's obviously you guys in general and Doofer in particular who haven't heard about the latest merger negotiations.

Alex.. John Willie actually retired from BBC shinty reporting about 20 years ago and for some time after that Hugh Dan MacLennan did the BBC reports on a Saturday. There have been one or two others in between and currently it is Fraser MacKenzie from Glenurquhart. Over the last 15 years I have tended to stand in if the regular reporter is unavailable - subject to my football commitments.

Dougie would have been 1st XI goalkeeper when you were in First and Second Year. Or were you so far out of your head even at that early age that it passed you by with the rest?

So far it has been - but that might well change. Since 1984 just three clubs have won the League (or the MacGillivray North league pre Premier League) - Newtonmore in 1985, Fort William in 2008 and Kingussie on the 24 other occasions. Fort's record in the Camanachd Cup over the last 8 years or so has been superb but they only have that one league victory. Alex - I trust you know that Fort lost 2-1 at home to Kyles in the league yesterday when a 3 goal victory would have put them top? I have to say I thoroughly enjoy reporting on Shinty. In particular the people make you feel so welcome (not that this isn't the case elsewhere, but Shinty is outstanding in that way.)

OCG... I think you are right but Peter left Caley to become general manager at Clach in 1991 at which point he also sold a lot of boards for them. Indeed the first signs of Clach's 1996 financial crisis (they are frequent enough to define by year) was when Peter found that firms were no longer willing to support the club. It was good to go to Grant Street last Saturday after the Celtic game and see an encouragingly decent number of nice, clean, new boards there.

The famous Newtonmore side of the 70s (whose great rivals were Kyles)relied hugely on guys like John and George Fraser as well as the likes of keeper Hughie Chisholm and "Tarzan" Ritchie. That was the team which really kept Newtonmore in the forefront into the 80s at which point Kingussie took over with a Grand Slam in 1984 - repeated by Newtonmore the following year but since then the game has really been Kingussie's although Fort William's Camanachd Cup exploits and one off interruption of Kingussie's quarter century league domination are very well worth noting too. The question for Kingussie is - what will happen when Ronald ross finally hangs up his caman? On the other hand they were saying 10 years ago that Kingussie were a spent force.... we are still waiting.

Final score 4-3 Kingussie a.e.t. As Manfer has said, Ronald got all four for Kingussie. I did a calculation back in July when Kingussie's run of wins sat at about 10 and although I forget the precise figure, I think he had scored something like 70% of Kingussie's goals in these games. This is by no means the only time that he has scored all four(ish) in a Kingussie win and he's been dominant for years. Here's an interesting point. Last week Ronald was out with a minor injury and Kingussie beat severely relegation threatened Oban Camanachd 1-0. Today he was back and scored all four as Kingussie beat cup specialists Inveraray 4-3 in this MacAulay final. Also, Kingussie made a very slow start to this season - which coincided with a couple of Ronald's absences. Make no mistake. I am NOT saying that Kingussie are a one man team. There are many other very fine players in that side and Ronald Ross would not be putting away the goals he does without first class service. However what we do have here is without question the finest goalscorer the game has seen, possibly ever. Put an asset like that into an environment which can give him the supply and the combined effect is devastating. How good Ronald is with the foot I don't know. Indeed the Beautiful Game is sometimes regarded with some disdain down Badenoch way. For instance Stevie Borthwick the Kingussie manager on one occasion this season dropped his own son and his own nephew after they played midweek football. I also recollect an instance when Newtonmore football club were forbidden to start a fund raising effort from within the Eilan shinty ground.

What? The Trinkie? Is it even still open? Probably the most Baltic, genital shrinking outdoor pool in Britain from what I have heard from a previous generation of folks from Up Ee Rodd.

I seem to remember a wee wifie came on here a few years ago to say how nice it was that the Celtic support seemed to have this song about (that icon of Protestant youth ) The Boys' Brigade!

So who is it OCG? Mantis... evidence possibly for and against your theory about 1993 and the suggestion of October 1996. It very much looks as if there is a Citylink board behind the goal,which might place this at August 1994 or later. However, looking at the board between the PandJ and Tullochs, it rather looks to me as if the phone nuimber begins 0349. That format was superseded by 01349 in 1995 so this would appear to be pre 1995 on that evidence.

The choice should be theirs. Merge or fall by the wayside. I'm not sure people in Inverness really have too much sympathy for the lame ducks who are the very probably the same lame ducks which kept Inverness (eg Jags in 1973) out of national league football for decades - admirably described by David Stewart in his District Council days as "this second division protection racket."

If you can get a hold of a copy of "Against All Odds" you will find a black and white pic of the fire, which i think was around July 30th 1995, about two thirds of the way through (sorry - don't have a copy to hand to give a page reference). There's a lot more detail than that too because in the foreground of Ken MacPherson's photo you can see the complete wilderness that the pitch and Kigsmills Road end terrace had become. Caley... I think your suggested date of the Howden End pic could well be right. But I hope your suggested fate of the footballs issn't - even though they have been doing nobody any good in the intervening years, wherever they are if they have survived.

I tend to favour two 14 team leagues. Teams could play each other twice and then split 6 and 8 with teams playing each other twice more. The only slight reservation I would have there is that the bottom 8 would then have in the case of the top league two games and the lower one four games more than at present. If clubs were prepared to have an odd number of three encounters, then there could be only one post split game giving 31 and 33 but that may reduce revenue too much. There is then relegation and promotion of course between the two leagues and also between the bottom 14 and regional leagues like the East and the HL. So two leagues of 14? What happens to the other 14 clubs? I think there are too many national league clubs in Scotland at the moment and that the scope for mergers is considerable (hey folks.. we know it's not too painful and can do a lot of good! ) There are at least two areas which are oversubscribed - Montrose/Arbroath/Forfar/Brechin and Alloa/Stenhousemuir/Stirling Albion/East Stirling. The choice should be given to the other 14 as to whether they want to disappear on their own into the East of Scotland or the HL etc and battle for promotion to the SFL from there... or amalgamate with a club which makes the top 28 already.... or amalgamate and then go into a regional league and stand a better chance of promotion to the SFL. Within a few years there could well be a much stronger SFL2 and probably stronger regional leagues as well. There are a few questions. * Should the SFA, as the supreme governing body, take total control, abolish the SPL and SFL and run its OWN 2 division league, hence reducing the number of governing bodies? * What would the response be if WICK ever won the HL and promotion to national leagues? * If there was all this talk of amalgamation, might it create some pressure for a parallel amalgamation of ICT and Ross County.

Aye the Howden End fair brought a tear to my eye, and I wasn't even a regular occupant! What's the date of that photo? I would suggest it's sometime between August 1994 and October 1996 because just behind the goal, although at an oblique angle, I think I can make out a Citylink advert. If that is the case, that Citylink sponsorship began at the start of CT's first season in 94 and Telford Street was knocked down in October 96. By the way, just out of shot behind the end of the enclosure would have been the footballs above the gate. I'll ask once again.... does anybody know what happened to them?

That was the point at which I fully and truly realised that SPL football had returned to Inverness - when I drove up to the Caledonian Stadium for a football match and the first thing I saw out on the pavement was a stall selling.... "Pope Benedict XVI" scarves!!

] I think someone mentioned the Social Club. It's £1.22 for a vodka/whisky/ bacardi etc, £2.25 for a bottle of Miller and £2.50 for wine. The Legion is similar but these places have special privileges as private clubs which enables them to sell drink more cheaply. It's £3.90 for a pint of Peroni in the Heathmount, or at least it was the last time I was in and I find occasional visits to Foxes similarly painful.

LadyF was mascot against Aberdeen a few years back IIRC.. You are quite correct!!! I would imagine Lady F would be CHARMED at being taken for 30!

Unfortunately you are indeed holding on to false hope. Understandably this thread does reflect a degree of denial and incredulity over the absence of such a key player who made such a spectacular return on Saturday but Richie will indeed be out for something like three weeks. So just to put the record absolutely straight, I spoke to the manager yesterday morning and he told me then what was happening - hence yesterday's BBC story referred to above. The Courier presumably did the same in advance of today's back page story. He told me that Richie had an arthroscopy done on Wednesday. That's basically a minimally invasive procedure involving the insertion of a clear plastic tube which allows the surgeon to look around inside the joint. At the same time they washed out any "crap" that might have been in the joint which might have caused some pain. Nothing sinister was found and, with rehab (maybe including Maurice imposing more of what Richie earlier bemoaned as "Inverness Harriers" style running ) he should be back on the go and good as new in about three weeks.

I've just heard that there will be a BBC commentary team of four for the Celtic game on Saturday. David Begg commentating, John Robertson and Murdo MacLeod summarising and Chris McLaughlan who will probably be track side.

Yes, with a number of different options. Radio Scotland will have live commentary on all 38 (sic!) games. The only one of these at the moment which will not be live on air (ie internet only) is the Dundee United game a week Sunday. On occasions when commentary is not going out across the whole country it will at a minimum go out on 92-95FM from transmitters across the Highlands and Islands (home and away games). Saturday's game against Celtic, since it is a 1215 kick off, can be heard nation wide on 810MW. Your BBC football options for Saturdays are as follows - * 7 hours of football from midday (Off the Ball through Sportsound and Your Call to Sports Report). Within this, from 3-5pm there are the options of live commentary or Open All Mics on 103.5-105FM. * On TV, the Final Score programme at 4:30 on BBC 1 includes updates and full times from all SPL games. * BBC Online also has live commentary as well as other updates and extensive pre and post match reports. (With the usual unavailabilities of commentary for the Diaspora for the usual reasons.) Outwith Saturdays, SPL coverage is on 810MW and this can also be picked up on 103.5-105FM when Radio nan Gaidheal is not on air.

Busy ! Indeed he is! In fact the last time I saw him was on the morning of the Queens Park game, dressed as a Leprechaun and wearing a thick dayglo pink wig. :023: He said he wouldn't be able to get to the game since he was working with his Limo (and I don't THINK that was a front for him really having a counselling session with IHE! )

I am simply and briefly supplying this for information. One consideration which seems largely to have been missed is that, despite this loss of ?947K, Caley Thistle have managed to remain debt free and have money in the bank. (I quote the Chairman on this.) This has been done through:- * Drawing on reserves. * Management of cash flow * An injection of ?150K from the Directors.

According to my statistics, the last three posts are all correct. The last time ICT failed to win a competitive game was against.... Ross County!.... a goalless draw in Dingwall on March 23rd. The last competitive defeat was at Kilmarnock in the Cup on February 6th, the last league defeat was November 28th 2009 away to Partick Thistle and the last home defeat was October 10th 2009 by Queen of the South. With 21 league games now undefeated, it's worth remembering that the club record is 22 between October 26th 1996 and April 26th 1997. And with 10 straight league wins it's also worth remembering that the club record is 11 within that run of 22. So no pressure for the Celtic and Dundee United games then.....

During the Merger in the mid 90s, one of the burning issues was a Members' Club. The alternatives at the time to were either Caley and Thistle Trusts to perpetuate the memory of the original merger partners or a Unified Members' Club. At one point, Caley were all for a Members' Club since the Rebels thought it, and hence certain aspects of football club life, could be dominated by them. Thistle, predictably, were a lot less keen! However it progressively became apparent that a Members' Club would not benefit Caley in the way some had hoped so the Jaggies took the idea on board and one was formed. One of its important functions was in effect to be Trustee for the shares related to the considerable assets which Thistle and Caley brought to ICT. A rough estimate tells me these would have been, gross, in excess of £1.5M but legal fees at the time of the merger and possibly tax would have had to be deducted. Initially these were reflected in a 50% shareholding on the part of the Members' Club but as this input was diluted by subsequent uptake of additional shareholdings and with the agreement of various club meetings, the [percentage shareholding has also progressively been diluted down and currently stands at something like 10-12%. However a few years ago, the Members' Club was disbanded and its functions in effect transferred to the then newly former Supporters' Trust which now also holds that particular element of shareholding. So in effect, ICT has been there already but now runs a Supporters' Trust which has done a great deal of good for the club.

Johndo... pardon my phlegmatic response but there aren't too many on here who are old enough to remember Monty Python!