Charles Bannerman

I was talking to Darren (commercial manager ??) at the hospitality for the Plastic Whistle match and he says they never switch it on just now as they can't afford to run it - it costs something like 5 or 6 grand a day to run ?? Not sure if the figures are right - but I doubt the lost revenue for having to play a few games mid week would be more than the cost of running the USH ?!?!? FYI - 1) The undersoil heating costs something between ?1500 and ?2000 a day to run, depending on the current oil cost. 2) In the SFL it is not obligatory to use it if you have it. It's up to the clubs. 3) It was switched on late this morning and it is currently expected that tomorrow's game will go ahead.

Alex... maybe if we could just concentrate on the football..... Perhaps the "missing man" is still away fighting for Oliver Cromwell. :huh: Seriously, though, as a great enthusiast of the Inverness football heritage I am delighted to see the revival of the name and wish these lads well.

At the Drunmossie?!!! At their prices, do you appreciate the magnitude of the commitment you've just made? No Minimum Pricing debate up there! The offer stands, if you fix up the transport I'll buy you a drink and I'll throw in a blow by blow account of our 7 goals! I suspect this experience could last a LOT longer than a single drink!

Maybe the Aberdeen fans, or at least a section of them, should take a good look at themselves and ask what contribution they themselves have made to the club's current status in what has been almost 30 years now since the "Gothenburg myth" was born. For a geographically peripheral club with limited resources and no major benefactors, I find the expectations of a lot of Aberdeen fans quite staggering. For many it never seems to have been grasped that Aberdeen FC was lucky enough to benefit from a once in lifetime spell of success for about half a decade, a major factor in which was their sheer good fortune in attracting one of the world's major management figures just before he was ready to step into that very top international tier. I would not, however, want to detract in any way from the great success that Aberdeen enjoyed around the early 80s and especially the marvellous achievement of winning the Cupwinners' Cup. However these days are now in the distant past. After that euphoric bubble had run its course, Aberdeen had the opportunity to settle back into a more realistic level within the game. However achieving that has been made considerably more complicated by manager after manager being harassed and hounded out by the expectations of fans who seem to have great difficulty in understanding what the club's true level really is. Mark McGhee is merely receiving the same treatment as the likes of Alex Smith and Jimmy Calderwood whereas in reality "Gothenburg" was the gross exception rather than the rule. That myth, however, is perpetuated to this day, for example by the use of the "G word" whenever possible by a certain Aberdeen newspaper - most recently yesterday when it was reported that "Gothenburg Great Jim Leighton"....... had become a goalkeeping coach at Huntly!!!! It rather looks to me as if rather too many North East Men still view the world through a delusional pair of red tinted spectacles. I am sure that there are other factors as well, but it cannot be a comfortable matter to be manager or even a player at Aberdeen, given the unrealistic expectations of a significant slice of their support. Hence so many banana skins such as flirtations with relegation and cup disasters. That said, the frequency with which they have been booted out of cups by lower league teams is quite staggering - and that over a period of jurisdiction by at least two if not three different managers which really does perhaps add just a little bit of mystery to the above thoughts. So what about the contents of the "Aberdeen Book Of Scottish Cup Triumphs" (which sits on my shelf between books of Free Gifts and War Heroes, the ethnic origins of which might best not be stated in the current PC age)? This particular Aberdonian "Shortest Book in the World" possibly has but a single chapter (post round about Alex Smith), recording how they lifted their game beyond all recognition and exceeded all expectations to eliminate - at the death, in a replay and with a wonder save from Huntly's future goalkeeping coach.... the Victors of Celtic Park!

First car leaves The Thistle Hotel at 9am. Stage 1 - Daviot. Stage 2 - Mulbuie (Black Isle) Stage 3 - Near Strathpeffer. Stages 4 and 5 - Tain. First cars expected back at The Thistle Hotel around 3:50. So it seems Mannie's detective work is spot on. I am aware that the organisers will want to sell as many programmes as possible, but I wouldn't imagine this information is classified. Otherwise how would an expected 20,000 spectators know where to go? I was certainly given it very freely earlier this evening. Interestingly 13 of the top 16 seeds among 123 entries are Mitsubishis this year and the top seed Reay MacKay of Fort Augustus has actually switched from a Metro to a Mitsubishi since he won last year's event. Here's a largely unrelated thought. Citadel Inn - CLOSED Clachnacuddin Social Club - CLOSED EXCEPT FOR SPECIAL EVENTS. Caledonian Hotel - NO LONGER EXISTS. NOW THE RAMADA JARVIS. Thistle Hotel - THE NAME LIVES ON!

At the Drunmossie?!!! At their prices, do you appreciate the magnitude of the commitment you've just made? No Minimum Pricing debate up there!

Well, well! Knocking on 60 years of age and he still remembers it fondly. Must have been a very rare occurrence! :D :fighting04: 50th anniversary celebration in the Drumossie in 2019 maybe?

As a matter of interest Don, how physically did you track that down? What I do when I get a project from a kid in school which I suspect may be plagiarised is to take a sample five or so consecutive words and Google them with inverted commas round them. In my case it usually, inter alia, comes up with link to a Wikipedia article which reads almost identically to sections of the "project". In this situation here, the source is clearly a little different. The other thing I have to say I notice when I do this is the number of different sites that the technique leads to containing the same stuff, which does ask questions about how much genuinely original material there actually is out there on the net? By the way... what the HELL is the original post on this thread actually about?

You mean a bit like darts or golf? Except that it's a bit of a stretch to apply the term "athlete" there... well maybe not in Tiger's case - now there's a real ATHLETE! I actually think golf would be smartened up a whole lot if it took place against the clock and the person to get the ball in all 18 holes in the shortest time was the winner irrespective of the number of strokes. It would be up to each player to decide how many clubs he wanted to encumber himself with. Look at the way 20/20 has made cricket tolerable. Mind you I would imagine Colin Montgomerie would find this version of golf a great deal more difficult even than the existing one! :D

Who on EARTH was on duty in the Procurator Fiscal's Office the day they decided to proceed on that evidence!? I'll say from the outset that I have no time for bigotry and find Protestant bigotry especially offensive (even though I was "brung up a Proddy"). There was a lot of it around when Rangers came to visit... and this seems to be the best the Police and the PF can come up with! Strangely enough I don't actually find The Famine Song all that offensive on the grander scale of what these people are capable of. Certainly there's a massive inconsistency here in that The Famine Song seems to be illegal but on the other hand the organised, systematic and institutionalised bigotry that you get from the Grand Glorious Worshipful Intergalactic Orange Lodge still fails to make that a proscribed organisation. The same could be said of the bunch of clowns who dress up in their funny gear and hold their annual trek down to the Portland Club (which itself should also perhaps also become a proscribed organisation.)

You mean you're from "up ee rodd"? True but how do you ken wicker accent? I think most people know "up ee rodd" which tends to be your non Wicker's token item of "Weekspeak" but, although Invernessian born and bred and by inclination, two of my grandparents came from around Canisbay and one from Wick. I could therefore easily sustain a conversation in broad "Week" but would cringe at the prospect. The other grandparent, my paternal grandmother, was a Fraser from Shore Street in Inverness and would have remembered the crowds going to watch Citadel.

There is a lot of wisdom in what you say there Mannie but I don't see much change in the current situation in the current age of Carbon Fascism where limiting speed will increasingly be seen as a means of reducing the jolly old "footprint" and also where Government needs to pull in evet bit of revenue it can. It doesn't need too many people zapped doing 35 to pay for the cleaning out of an MP's moat, after all.

You mean you're from "up ee rodd"?

That was the Romnanian team I was meaning. And would the Danish have been from their "Second Division"? :) T6NY - I may well have mentioned this at some point since 2006 or you may have read the stuff I did for the Highland News at the time. But I don't think I've said anything recently. I remember the Bolton friendly in the less than friendly summer of 1994 very clearly since it was CT's second ever match after the rather uninspiring debut game against Simmurn. The night of the Bolton match was best remembered for the discovery and quick covering up of the Caley Rebels' painting of the Telford Street untinals black and red after plastering the rest of the place with blue and white!

I was at the Montecatini game in 2006 although I had to get back to Inverness before the second one. The Montecatini game broke all manner of records. It was (I think) 12-0 ICT which remains the biggest score in any ICT game. It also produced the fastest goal and the smallest crowd which, excluding a Highland media corps of four, numbered something like 11 at kick off before rising, Clachnacuddinesque, to about 25 later on. Just the previous day I had watched the players train in the searing heat on the same pitch while I did my own session on the running track which went round it. I think Golly's heart monitor converted to the highest work rate in the sprints. But as for that game - if you thought County's annihilation of Stirling Albion was one way traffic..... The small crowd of course meant relative silence punctuated only by the referee's whistle, the usual shouts of the players on the park..... and the incessant whine of Lambretta scooters which Italian youth seems to ride manically absolutely everywhere. Not as manic, though, as the following night when Italy won their semi final of the 2006 World Cup. The locals just went mental... two on a Lambretta... three on a Lambretta.... three on a Lambretta waving flags and drinking Peroni. The procession went round and round Montecatini for much of the night as the ICT players tried to sleep in their hotel right in the middle of it. And that was just the semi. Unfortunately I had gone home by the time they won the final. The thing was, though, there was a good humour and complete lack of aggressive edge to it all which would have been difficult to replicate in Britain. I would not have felt so safe in similar circumstances in the UK. I was unable to go back the following year but apparently the Romanian side Universiatea Craivoa were the biggest bunch of divers, cheats and chancers you ever saw. (Sorry Stevico!)

The best candidate to date by far for the CTO "word of the season" award! :025: You stick wi me Charlie boy,eh'll broaden yer vocabulary wi words ya never kent existed Having said that, I believe the spelling is actually "formulaic" (cf "pie") :025:

The best candidate to date by far for the CTO "word of the season" award! :( It does also sum up one of the two things I was really trying to say, which I have since clarified by text with L_G and which I will repeat in more detail here. First and foremost, please be in no doubt that I thought Saturday night was an absoutely excellent occasion, free from many of the "formulaeic" :( aspects of the classic Sportsman's Dinner. HOWEVER I think there are drawbacks with the venue which is in a position to milk the fact that it is the only place in or around town able to accommodate relatively large numbers. The Drumossie's monopolistic position means that the drink is far too dear and they seem to charge organising bodies quite a lot for food which I think isn't all that good. It seems other disagree but quite frankly, when the main course arrived I underwent what has become my normal, reflex reaction there which is to look for the separate roast and boiled potato dishes and then realise that their absence is explained by the mousse-like semi colloidal substance which is hiding under the vegetables. The Drumossie is also too far out of town. Then, moving on to your "formulaeic" :( :( Sportsman's Dinner (which Saturday was NOT... it was several leagues above that.) Here you have speeches (often TWO) which in themselves are becoming a bit of a rapidly forgettable cliche ridden tedium. After that you count up the additional cost of the "heads and tails", raffles and an auction (which on the other hand is of no real interest to many attending.) Apart from all that, these functions tend to be a bit of a Fat Cats' Paradise with tables of corporate largesse and of limited attraction to normal punters from the general public. Once again, I emphasise that was what Saturday was NOT but on a personal note I think I have now got to the stage that the Drumossie and the Sportsman's Dinner, never mind both, are weary and overpriced solutions so, apart from my commitment to Clach, I will be giving anything with either of these components a miss.

I have to say I'm certainly becoming a bit weary of these dinners at the Drumossie and the Stadium would be a welcome change of venue. I was very pleased to be at the Drumossie for Saturday's excellent 10th anniversary celebrations and will definitely support next month's Clach one given the current climate. But I think that's me for a while, irrespective of venue. There's something of a sameness creeping into these Drumossie functions and I think the venue has quite a bit but not everything to do with that. For a start it's pretty expensive (before you think about a return taxi to an out of town venue) and the food really isn't all that good for what you pay (and I speak from over 30 years' experience of school dinners). It's usually a plate of soup, a rather small and prefabricated main course with soggy mash and frazzled courgettes, some kind of arty looking but not really all that substantial sweet followed by coffee. The service can also be very slow. Moving on to the bar, it's extremely expensive. On Friday I paid ?4.75 for a small glass of house white and ?6.20 for a large one. The barmaid was actually extremely apologetic and empathised with my observation that you can buy two bottles of perfectly drinkable wine out of Tesco for ?7. The only reasonably priced drink I could find was Carling which is actually their only lager (astonishing for a place like that).... and I'm prepared to listen to anyone who might suggest that ?3.15 for a pint of p**h is not in fact "reasonable". I'm not surprised wedding guests at the Drumossie smuggle in carry outs and the only thing that surprises me about the Old Firm's defection to Tennents is that it's even worse. Then there's the rather hackneyed Sportsman's Dinner format. You come in and you cough up a further tenner for your red and yellow cards. You then get tapped for more for the raffle. After the meal a couple of people stand up and crack a series of jokes, frequently expletive ridden, which may make you laugh quite a lot at the time but next morning you've forgotten 90% of them. Somewhere in there there's the euphemistic "comfort break". Why can't they just use the word "toilet"? Anyway during even a single visit you will watch upwards of a fiver's worth disappear down the pan. But most people don't really need a "comfort break" because most people can go to the toilet while those with enough cash are bidding breathtaking sums in the auction. Then you stand around tables having OK quite a decent crack with people but by now the bar staff are wanting to chuck you out so it's off into your premium rate taxi. By the time you get home, only the most abstemious are less than ?100 lighter for the night. I was actually wondering whether the venue was maybe a factor in Saturday's numbers being just a little bit down. I suppose if you're on a freebie at somebody's corporate table it's OK, but if you're paying your own way it's a lot of money for what's become (Saturday excepted) "just another Drumossie dinner" the gloss is maybe wearing off if you've been to a few. Maybe the Kingsmills Suite will revitalise the proceedings which were conspicuously rescued on Saturday by the interviews!

That's because Catriona is currently presenting Reporting Scotland on BBC1 at 630pm. You'll just have to change your viewing habits young man.

Steady laddie!!!! ;) :clapping03: :clapping03: Some people, though, do seem to need a medium through which to express what must be their fundamental frustrations with life - some of these, I think, quite deep rooted and maybe even subconscious. Football seems quite frequently to be adopted as just that medium. You know the kind of folk I mean. They nominally latch on to a particular club and actually appear to be quite fervent supporters. But when you look more closely at their behaviour, the most common trait by far is the consistent expression of dissatisfaction, apparently caused by and the fault of a player, manager etc of the football club although what they are really expressing is actually something quite separate. This tends to be at its worst when the football club fails to supply them with their craved for shot of self gratification. I think the Old Firm suffer from this quite a lot. Freud would find these people very interesting indeed.

Was that not when they elected the guy? :)

Make no mistake about this. County were absolutely devastating here against a Stirling team that weren't actually all that bad. County were a good deal more than competent and the Stirling keeper had a few good saves, including one early in the 2nd half which denied Gardyne his hat trick before Wood, deprived of the opportunity to take the penalty by Brittain, eventually got his. During the last 20 minutes I thought County looked especially strong which I think may well be down to the Brewster influence in what seems to be a very effective partnership in Dingwall. What I have just said might not go down very well here, but that's how it was.

You mean The Pope arriving in Scotland on an orange plane!? :D What a publicity coup for The Lodge! What next? A Civic Reception at Ibrox with a menu of Eggs Benedict and Pope's Eye steak, all washed down by a cheeky wee glass of Chateauneuf du Pape. Entertainment from The Priests.

As long as we retain Biggles and Algy, we can leave the area bombing of Teheran to the Yanks. :D

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think this was a TV commentary game for anyone. In fact in discussion with L_G and Vic, who is producing the DVD, we can't even remember if it started out as a radio commentary game and suddenly became one when it was evident that a huge shock was on the cards. Certainly it was a radio commentary game by the second half because, unable to get there, I stopped my car in the middle of Culduthel Road for Paul Sheerin to take the penalty! I would certainly back up what L_G has said about the alternative to the commentary, although I also haven't heard it myself yet.