Charles Bannerman

Agreed absolutely and it's a talent that embraces the entire spectrum of the game, in addition to his weekly more topical affairs article in the news pages. In fact I would love if Bill could come and do something at Clach Park in the dying weeks of what we hope will not be the last season of Highland League football in Inverness. I agree that The Sun would not be everybody's cup of tea but it is very well written in a way which resonates with and grabs the interest of its core readership which, in general, may not be the most cerebral in our midst but still need to be served. That is probably why it sells so well and indeed in Scotland, as far as I am aware, it continues to outsell The Record. Please ignore Kidger's nebulous reference to a Highland News story which I once instigated of a female cleaner at the Sports Centre who insisted on entering changing rooms irrespective of which gender was in occupation. :D Les... when I call in at One Stop to collect my daughter's Rod Stewart tickets tomorrow, perhaps if you could arrange to be there this time rather than sitting drinking coffee in the Media Room at the Caledonian Stadium. :D :D

I would like a job with The Sun writing the "Dear Deirdre" letters... that's if I can't get employment as one of these people who seem to spend their entire lives hanging about their bedrooms in their underwear in "Deirdre"s Photo Casebook". I think The Sun is an extremely cleverly written newspaper which has got a very strong handle indeed on the profile of its readership. :D

There will be commentary on St. Johnstone v Rangers and there will be reporters at two other grounds - John Robertson in the case of the Caledonian Stadium and also Denfermline v Dundee. These are the only two First Division games at all relevant to the title race and, with the single SPL game, three games would not make a viable Open all Mics. However I am sure that fans of both Highland clubs will be kept fully informed of progress in this game. Remember this is 810MW only, ie not FM, and I am not sure what the internet arrangements will be although I seem to remember that games involving Rangers tend not to go out world wide.

I remember John telling me that when these two were at Inverness together they regularly used to go out on a Friday afternoon and spend an hour practising hitting dead balls.

Ah yes... well just noticed this line and wluld have to admit to being the occasional beneficiary of Jessie's scones. However I am commendably abstemious and usually discipline myself to having just one. This probably contributes to the fact that my Body Mass Index is somewhat lower than Robbo's. :021:

I just don't understand this. A lot of fans seem to complain about ticket prices. But on top of that many also pay something like ?2 to park, ?2.50 for a programme, then all these food prices. And in addition to that there's always these people with buckets standing outside looking for charitable contributions. Presumably they would not do so if it were not worth their while, which is quite surprising given all the other costs. At the end of the day (as they say in football) how much does it actually cost for the afternoon?

Does the Press box still get Pies and Tea/Coffee delivered Charles Are they Lindley or McDougall and Hastie ? Absolutely not! We get tea, coffee and plain biscuits which may indeed be Tesco "Kilmarnock Home Strip" Value varieties. The days of O'Brien's sandwiches have long gone and pies are not to be seen. And it is perfectly fair that the Fourth Estate should find themselves at the forefront of the efficiency savings which ICT implemented from May of last year. I would confess to a single aberration and that is at Clach Park, which I have managed to visit lamentably infrequently this season, where Molly's sandwiches, pancakes and rock buns are placed before me and I simply cannot resist. However in my defence I would have to say that I manage to maintain my BMI of 23.3 partly by the fact that temptation is no longer placed in my way most of the time. I would submit the supportive evidence that I am currently 10lb LIGHTER than I was at the start of the current season.

I sometimes really wonder how much the food at football stadia contributes to obesity and other ill health. The standard fare seems to be pies and burgers... dripping with saturated fat and crammed full of calories. In fact I laughed out loud when I saw a vehicle outside the Caledonian Stadium marked with that ultimate oxymoron "The Gourmet Burger Company" On the other hand I would imagine that salad sandwiches and other healthy options wouldn't go down a bundle at football matches but of course the other option is the "zero option". After all, if you have a decent enough lunch, then, especially in the case of local fans who are home in time for tea, is there really any need for food in the 2 hours that someone is at a football match? Abstaining would not only restrict obesity in those prone to it but would also restrict the ingestion of these nasty saturated fats which clog up the blood vessels and at the same time save the pocket. And if the fare or the service are not up to scratch, then that would surely make such an approach all the easier, with the added benefit that queueing fans would not miss a chunk of a game they might have paid 15 quid to get into. But in any case, even if people are not prepared to give up their half time nosh, judging by recent noises from Holyrood, I wouldn't be surprised if such obesity promoting activities were not soon legislated against by the Scottish Government.... aye, that's the one headed up by yon big laddie who looks as if he's enjoyed rather too many ?9000 lunches!

Full commentary on Tuesday night on Ross County v Hibs in the Cup on Sportsound which is coming live from Dingwall on Radio Scotland 810 medium wave. However there will be reporters at all four First Division games. Jim Spence will be at Dens, I'll be at the Caledonian Stadium. I'm not sure what the arrangements, if any, are for that programme being received online outside the UK.

Sorry I can't help you with this one even though I was on that programme. It looks as if whatever was said came after I had switched my equipment off so could no longer hear what was being said. Mahonio - are you sure it was Euan MacIlwraith because he was doing the same as I was but at the Aberdeen - Dundee United game so I can see neither the reason nor the opportunity for him to have made such a statement? It is, I suppose, possible that Ewan "Cyril" Murray may have been a studio guest and you are confusing your Euans. I don't know if that was the case since one or two technical problems meant that I actually heard very little of the programme even when I was hooked up. However the best approach for ICT fans is possibly to look forward rather than back and the comment that was heard possibly originated from some of the things some posters on here, who may subsequently have been holidaying in Damascus, were saying some months ago now. Inverness are on a 12 match unbeaten run and pushing for the title under a manager who has just extended his contract at the Caledonian Stadium. Possibly the point being made related to ICT's recent fine form.

Same ABV and volume as a bottle of wine and hence contains approx 10 units. At that price, it converts to something like 27p a unit which is well below the level at which wee Nicola and her mates start stressing about it being too cheap.

OCG... you are spot on there! The Highland League DOES have its own unique smell (no satirical jokes please!). For me that's the kind of smell that comes out of the Grant Street pie shop. That instantly says "Highland League" to me. The only other smell, albeit very similar, which epitomised the HL even more to me was the smell of the pies which came out of the Telford Street tunnel from the Boardroom on a Saturday. In fact that was so much so that, when Telford Street was on the point of departing from Inverness football history (OK - in body but never in soul!) in the autumn of 1996 I wrote a lengthy nostalgia feature for the Courier based on just that thought. At the centre of the whole thing was the smell of the pies but there were also so many other Highland League memories like the penny dainties from the Caley shop which stuck your jaws together for a whole 45, collecting MacKintosh's lemonade bottles and getting the 3d refund on them and climbing over the gate at the Howden End with Mike Shewan to avoid paying the 9d to get in. In some respects the Highland League hasn't changed a lot over the last four or more decades and at the time of the merger I was pleased to see Clach act in such a way as to maintain HL football in Inverness. From that point of view alone, I would be so disappointed if Clach folded and HL football disappeared from the town where it was founded and which at one point had SIX Highland League teams. I really enjoyed last night where you could watch two Inverness teams face each other on one of the town's old grounds. OK the occasion was only a shadow of what many of us witnessed in decades gone by, but if the Inverness Cup with its 100 year plus history isn't wanted for competition among the wider Inverness FA clubs, then last night was a great way to decide it. And PS - it was great to inhale robustly every time I went past the Grant Street Pie Shop!

Largely agreed. I think that's the permutation of results that Jocky Scott will be praying for because it would go a long way towards knocking the challenges of BOTH Highland clubs on the head. I have to say that having been at virtually every Highland derby since the very first one in August 1994 in Dingwall, none of them has had nearly as much at stake for both clubs as the two which now come up in a period of ten days. It could be argued that it was a clean sweep of four derby wins in 96-97 that secured the Third Division title but that the the Third Division and there were nine points to spare in the end. There were also of course derbies in promotion season 03-04 but I'm not sure for various reasons that there was the same level of awareness at the time they were played that SPL football might be a possibility and also they were not in the "dog eat dog" category which this month's most certainly are.

NOBODY is more fussy about grammar than I am, but I have to refer you to this ballad about the indecisive Battle of Sheriffmuir during the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion. There's some say that we wan and some say that they wan And some say that nane wan at a' man But one thing is sure that at Sheriff Muir A battle was fought on that day man And we ran and they ran and they ran and we ran And we ran and they ran awa' man However in the Ballad, "wan" is being used as a past tense whereas Caleyrule is using it as a past participle. On the other hand... let's just settle for "won"!

It only opens when the Administrator reckons the session will be profitable - i.e. things like social evenings, match days etc. Johnboy's question above about a decent pub near Grant Street rather unfortunately reminded me of how many have closed. The Clach Club is virtually closed, the Lochiel is closed and so is the Thornbush (but on the other hand he did specify "decent" :024: ). Actually the demise of the pubs and the near demise of Clach are ust symptoms of the same problem as experienced down the Merknich - and indeed elsewhere.

Maybe nobody told her The Thornbush had closed. Send the woman a price list from the Drumossie. At ?6.20 for a glass of wine, that should soon throw her off the scent!

You mean disproportionately large like the settlement itself under the Barnett Formula?

Darren is the son of Jim Jarvie a former ICT director in charge of youth football and is indeed a former pupil of Culloden Academy. He is a final year PE student in Edinburgh and is doing a placement with us at Inverness Royal Academy. (He was also, along with Ally MacKenzie's son and Craig Maclean's daughter one of the three mascots at Tannandice v Rangers in 1996.) He was on ICT's books for a time but then went to Nairn County and played for them in the Highland League. He was then loaned out to Edinburgh University although Nairn retained his registration. A complex set of negotiations then saw him go from Nairn to Strathspey who, I have heard reported, paid a touch over a grand for him since Nairn weren't prepared to let him go for nothing.

He does it incessantly because it's in his political interest to try to spread as much discontent with Westminster as he can North of the Border. Before Holyrood came along he used to whinge away about "The English" but now it's Westminster. In this instance he quite simply tries to blame spending cuts on the "tight settlement" from Westminster. Of course it's a tight settlement from Westminster! What does he expect? There's a recession on and public finance right troughout the UK... indeed the whole world... is being similarly squeezed. It's just that Salmond can pass the buck elsewhere because he doesn't have any revenue raising powers. If he DID, then there would be no hiding place. The buck would stop with him and he wouldn't have his chance to spread discontent with the UK Government.

didnt realsie brora had moved to in and around inverness :021: 60 miles isn't a long distance in Highland League terms. I remember being at a cracking Final, I think it must have been, at Telford Street around 1992 because it was Ross County and Brora who were playing. I think a young Barry might have scored that night.

Does anyone know why that game was played on a Saturday? Was it an international day? I have a feeling it might have been because it was the old First Round of the Scottish Cup which sent the SFL programme into abeyance and both teams had byes. I checked Against All Odds but it seems I haven't specified there. What an afternoon that was! It was Mike Teasdale's and Brian Thomson's debuts and Iain Stewart got a hat trick and MoM although many felt that Daisy Ross should have had a shout as well. He was in one of his classic "get the heid doon and blow the oppostiion away down the left wing" modes. I don't expect tomorrow night will be quite the same occasion. But the game is certainly worthy of support at least for the fans of one Inverness club which has had quite a lot of good fortune to show solidarity with a club which has had a lot less luck and whose survival would also ensure that Highland league football survives in the town in which it was founded all these years ago. Miss ICT asked about the team. I would imagine it will be quite "fringe" and I don't know much more although the manager told me Nick Ross will be playing and Roy McBain told me he also will be in action.

Very interesting thread this, especially as it appears at a time when there has never been more at stake between the two Highland clubs, given the current league situation! I have never been in any doubt since before the two inner Moray Firth clubs were elected into the SFL in 1994 that the success of BOTH is important to the health of football in the Highlands. Obviously I wouldn't expect that view to be shared by diehards from either side of the water so I am pleasantly surprised to see a number of positive comments above. I certainly remember on this site say, seven or eight years ago, when both clubs were also in the First Division, the anti County rhetoric was quite vitriolic. That seems to have moderated considerably this time round, despite the fact that both are in contention for promotion to the SPL over the next few weeks.

Much as I might be tempted to take a swipe at politicians, I don't think this is actually anybody's fault, with the possible exception of the likes of Fred Goodwin. Simply we are (hopefully) emerging from a recession and part of that cycle is severe restriction of public finances. For instance Greece is almost broke. Outwith the Council Tax, the Councils get their money from Holyrood which gets a block grant from Westminster which is having to cut back on everything for the reasons stated above. One worry is economists. One large group is saying cut NOW, another is saying don't cut for another year. Two questions arise. To what extent are these groups of economists simply singing from the hymnsheet of their chosen political party? And do economists in general actually have a clue about what the hell is happening if they are as divided as that? Salmond and his mates, of course, take every opportunity to use this as an excuse to pick another fight with Westminster because it is in their political interest to make another attempt to make Westminster look bad. Basically there is no money about whatever party would be in power wherever and I suppose the public concern has to be that the cuts which Highland Council have to make will in fact be made as painlessly as possible and in areas where the least loss of amenity results to the smallest number of people.

The Inverness Cup is a very old trophy going back to the late 19th century but the competition has fallen into abeyance of late following some epic finals in the 90s (such as ICT 5 Ross County 2 at Grant Street in 1995 in front of a crowd of 2500). It was administered by the Inverness FA and contested by the clubs in and around Inverness - Thistle, Clach, Caley, County, Brora, Nairn, Forres and occasionally Elgin. The final has to be played in Inverness. It was actually at an Inverness Cup semi final between Caley and Clach at Telford Street that the famous "bus" merger protest took place in 1993. The current idea was to revive the trophy and put it up for competition between Caley Thistle and Clach in a one off game with the proceeds going to the Clach Survival Fund. I am led to believe that an unnamed club objected to Clach getting the money and this nearly sank the plan but that objection has now been withdrawn. As a result the two clubs will meet at Grant Street tomorrow night (Monday) at 7:30pm. Clach - 1 defeat in 6. ICT - 1 defeat in 12. Should be some encounter. :004: :)

My understanding is that only Foran is suspended and Nick Ross is likely to be a direct replacement - as suggested by Johnboy quite near the top of this thread! B)