Charles Bannerman

Was it not 1950? (not that I was around at the time!)

I couldn't make that out, but that's conclusive. I have fond memories of attending the lunch which launched the Matchwinner deal and that was in the spring of 1992 for season 92-93, so you're spot on. That was a massive feed in the Haughdale. Was that not the green away strip? Also, if someone remembers the back of the stand being black and red when it burned down, then that's what the new boarding must have been painted so that corroborates some time between 1992 and 1994. By the way, there's a Ken MacPherson picture of the stand actually burning down on that Sunday afternoon in 1995 in Against All Odds. Good also to see the Telford Street stand from the excellent Mantis site. I still haven't been able to establish what happened to the two footballs at the Telford Street entrance though! That Telford Street stand was a replacement for the one which also burned down in 1950. So when the Jags stand burned down in 1995, that completed the set, since the Clach one also met the same fate in "undetermined circumstances" in 1988.

So the boarded up version was actually painted black and red was it? My memory must be a bit faulty since I thought the boarded up version was bare boards and the photo might therefore have shown the original but I think iI may have called that the wrong way round. What about the apparent absence of a flag and thistle on the flagpole? I was trying to do some dating from the adverts in the 2nd photo but they're not very visible apart from the Tomatin which we all know was at the centre line of the enclosure and a Budget which I can just make out at the near end but which tells little. I have to say, subjectively, that the "look" is early 90s.

It may be interesting to see how this goes down at Celtic Park on Saturday, given the strong Irish links of a large slice of the Celtic support. Antipathy towards the British military establishment on the part of those of an Irish persuasion is, fortunately, receding but has deep historical roots. For instance it was the British Army which put down the 1916 Easter rising with considerable force and which played a large part in its aftermath which in turn led to the War of Independence in the early 20s. The Black and Tans etc from that period were also recruited from ex British World War 1 soldiers. Responsible for, among other things, the Croke Park Massacre, they were hated by the Irish. Indeed the Gaelic Athletic Association (hurling, Gaelic football etc) for decades discouraged its clubs from competing against representatives of the British forces or police and the GAA also for a time banned "British" activities such as rugby. (Now thankfully the Irish play rugby internationals at Croke Park while Lansdowne Road is being redeveloped.) In World War 2 the Irish Free State maintained complete neutrality and rebuffed an attempt by Winston Churchill to get them involved. Then, of course, there was the role of the British Army in post 1969 Northern Ireland with Bloody Sunday etc. It therefore wouldn't surprise me if at least some people with a (non unionist) Irish background didn't have a great deal of sympathy for anything relating to the British Military, irrespective of how fundamentally worthwhile it is.

Look at the back of the stand. I'm wondering if that's the original black and red backing before Jock had the rearmost rows boarded up to avoid having to comply with the Taylor Report. (Apologies for again referring to Jags' legendary parsimony!) I think that alteration was made around 1990 and I also think it was ordinary unpainted wood boarding as opposed to the black and red that's there and which looks like the genuine back of the stand. What about the flagpole? Was there not latterly a Thistle on the top of it? There doesn't seem to be in this photo. There also appears to be no flag but pre 1987 there were King Willie's two from the 70s so that's possibly not a lot of help.

Pea and Ham, from a chicken? Now that's clever! ...."no.... that'll pee the pea and ham...." (There aren't actually going to be too many on here who have a clue what we're talking about here!)

.... who also wasn't a bad keeper by many accounts I've heard!

Jim Smith was a great keeper and the first Caley goalie I remember from the mid 60s. Scarlet Pimple has been in touch with him in Canada.

Yes it would... especially after Jock had the back of the Kingsmills stand boarded up to reduce the capacity below the need to comply with the Taylor Report!

Oh dear DC... you're reminding me of a few skeletons in my own Dalneigh cupboard! Our fireworks exploits reached a zenith when we stuck a Roman Candle in Mrs Anderson the Dalneigh Primary 5 teacher's hedge in St. Ninian Drive and let it off. Alternative.... Banger Chicken sounds like the kind of thing kids from Millburn would do!!! Hilarious though!

You mean that was the only time he was full of himself????

During the hearing, did his supporters set off the fire alarm, throw the Chairman's papers about the place, let off fireworks and declare the Tribunal expelled from office and appoint D deM B as the new Chairman?

Well you can add my rant to your anecdotal evidence!

What kind of money did the man actually pay for books? My only dealing with him was when I placed two manky looking tomes from his shelves on his counter and he tried to charge me 18 quid for them! I left them lying there and departed, making voluble and unfavourable comparisons between his establishment and a jumble sale.

Penny bangers were great... but anyone remember the twopenny ones?! There was a huge wasps' nest in the garages between St. Andrew and St. Ninian Drive with exit and entrance from a small hole in the concrete. The hole was just big enough to push a twopenny banger through! Also, remember "genies" when you would open up a banger (or two or three), pour out the gunpowder and set it alight? Then the old adage... Tommy:"Please miss, Johnny stuck a banger up a dog's ?rse". Teacher: Tommy, it's "rectum". Tommy: Rectum? Bloody near killed him!

Fond memories indeed of that! The one I used to go to was the one just along from the garages beside the electric flats and it was indeed great fun steadily piling up the combustibles during the preceding days and weeks. Then there was also the duty of "guarding the bonfire" just in case outsiders came and set it alight prematurely. We used to light a wee fire beside ours and sit round it, hoping to God that we wouldn't get a visit from the Ferry. I cringe at the thought that I used to keep quite large piles of firweorks in the cupboard below the stairs. we really were so careless with them.

Thanks to TBB, Kingsmills and Mantis for that. I didn't follow football so much during the 70s, a slice of which I spent in Edinburgh, and just don't remember these games at all. The day Kingsmuills refers to is also a rare occasion when all three Inverness teams played in Inverness simultaneously unless they were all drawn at home together between then and 1994 in one of the local cups. A few weeks ago, and last Saturday, ICT, Clach and Inverness City all played at home. Very useful site which I'm glad to have a note of. I was most surprised that the "Honours" section is as extensive as it is, although I note that Jags' most frequently won trophy was the "Charity Cup" which would appear to confirm their status as a "Charity case"!

Clach are at home to Division 3 leaders Stenhousemuir in Round 3 on 29 Nov. ALL the north teams have home draws. Ross County v Dumbarton Elgin City v Annan or Spartans Wick or Edinburgh City v Brechin Forres or Keith v Dalbeattie Star Peterhead v Morton Now there's an interesting point! There seems on the face of it to be a fairly high chance that there will have been an Inverness Derby at some stage in the Scottish Cup, but certainly not within my memory, nor indeed do I recollect having read of one in any of the official histories of Thistle, Caley or Clach which go back to the 1880s. Citadel? The only derby clash I can remember would be if you take the Qualifying Cup as theoretically part of the Scottish Cup in which case I will delight Kingsmills et al and point to the Q Cup tie at Kingsmills Park in September 1993 just 5 days before the merger votes when Jags knocked out Caley. Anyone aware of an Inverness Derby in the Scottish Cup proper though?

Scotty.. did you take a walk down Baron Taylor's Street? (see the latter posts on the Eastgate thread.) And the road works! Don't start me! Even outwith the city centre it's taken them about 3 months to progress quarter of a mile digging a trench along Culduthel Road to total traffic confusion. What is the function of the unattended holes in the ground at what we oldies would call the Rendezvous and the end of Baron Taylor's Street which have been there for much of 2008? And what on earth is this "streetscape" nonsense? Is this simply a case of digging up more town centre streets to produce further atrocities like the squinty paving stones with the trees growing out of them which have appeared on Church Street? If some pretentious clown wants to create an entry for the Turner Prize, I really wish he would take his misguided, artless chunterings as far away from Inverness Town Centre as possible and simply let the traffic flow instead.

Anyone old enough to remember when Munros the cycle shop was there? That business was owned by the family of the wife of another ex Provost Robert Wotherspoon. I think it must have been the passing of the Thistle Club that started the rot! The smell of fag smoke and stale drink these days is absolutely dreadful.

As it happens I met Allan at the game on Saturday and he confirmed that he had shops at 16 and then 68 Eastgate. The mealstore part of his business came about when the owner of the original meal shop was killed in a car accident and Allan was asked to add this to his original lines. Then he moved into the Health Food side of things, eventually ending up in Baron Taylor's St where he bought the shop there from Burnetts the Bakers. His son Martin now runs the shop. I made the point that the Health Shop is a sole beacon of good living in Baron Taylor St which also has two bars (including the less than salubrious Moray and Keg(?) as well as two bookies. In fact if you add to that the boarded up former Arnotts (Benzie and Millers or Young and Chapman if you're even older!) and the defunct Thistle Social Club along with the less than healthy looking people who stand outside smoking fags (with the smell of smoke filling the street!)... then Baron Taylor's St. has to be about the most depressing thoroughfare in Inverness.

Allan Sellar's mealstore may well be before my time but you are very possibly right. You are definitely right about him having the Health Shop. Allan was also instrumental in his role as a Councillor and Provost in getting the Caledonian Stadium where it is and he had the honour of doing the official "kick off" at the first SFL game there v Albion Rovers (good strike too if I remember!) He is in addition a member of the ICT Trust which owns the Caledonian Stadium.

The Sunday Post regularly publishes a "Half Time Table" of how the SPL would look if games had stopped at half time. For a while ICT were actually top and I have a feeling that the last placing I saw was second, so that would appear to contradict what may well be a subjective observation that ICT play better in the second half.

Because only machines in England are programmed to discriminate in the way which I have described. By the way, apart from using the code 1707 to override this system and, as Spectre has reminded us, 1066 for sterling in France, everybody in Larkhall has the same PIN number - which is 1690.

"The English are not a very spiritual people. So to give themselves some idea of eternity.... they invented cricket." (George Bernard Shaw)