Charles Bannerman

It has indeed. Such draws were regarded as a ticket to the next round for HL sides and I well remember the utter shock the once Caley were taken to a replay by Spartans, I think in the late 80s. Unfortunately as far as the Highland League are concerned, scorelines like QoS 2 Ross County 6, Caley 2 St. J 2, Caley 1 Airdrie 1 (Caley won on penalties), Caley 3 Clyde 1, Thistle 3 Killie 0 and Elgin beating Arbroath to get to the quarter finals in 1968 look unlikely to be repeated, even with the kind of money the backers of the Aberdeenshire HL contingent seem top be putting in. And if scorelines like the above v SFL teams were not uncommon 20 or so years ago, what chance did ESL or SSL teams have (qv Ross County 11 St. Cuthberts 0... I really expected a team from the Edinburgh Cooperative to do better! :015:) In fact HL teams probably had had to put better sides out in the North Qualifying Cup than they met from the SSL and the ESL in days gone by in the Scottish Cup. In contrast, I was Sportsound match reporter at Lossiemouth v Spartans in December 2005 where it was a 0-5 scoreline going on 0-10.

One day whwen we were about third year in school, a large group of us were gathered together discussing our dentists. At one point I embarked upon an enraged rant about what a butcher my dentist Mr. Cameron in Queensgate was... how his injections ripped into your mouth.. how his drilling techniques created agony etc etc. Once I had said my impassioned piece, a girl at the back of the group piped up "Oh... that's my dad!" It was at that point that I thought it safer to head up to Eddie Sharpe at Hilton.

Mark McCulloch v Dundee United, Scottish Cup replay 1998?

Was it not "PT" in these days? Did the 4th not excel at swinging clubs around in one of their routines? (Who the **** let the "Fighting Fourth from the Ferry loose with clubs!?) :015:

It would be difficult to overestimate the huge amount of effort and the contribution Bobby made to Ross County's election to the SFL in 1994. bobby joined County in 1987 when they were ?250,000 in debt and unable to pay players. By the early 90s they were Highland League champions in addition to many other trophies won and had several famous Scottish Cup victories to their credit. Bobby had previously been manager at Keith and Raith Rovers.

A Highand Theme Park is a place where St. Mirren fans can come to admire Ross Tokely (Biological classification - Rossus Tokliensis) in his natural habitat. :015:

The rear to Limetree Avenue surely? They're getting mixed up with their trees! (I was there 1958-65).

This being a sport that only the Americans play, it presumably has a "World Series"? :015:

Your dad gave a whiole BOOK of matches for a ha'penny!? Frankie Jew just gave one match! That would be 4/2d he'd sell a box of 100 for which would only have cost him about 5d in the first place. 900% profit - not bad. I don't remember getting as much as 6d for a lemonade bottle. 3d for MacKintosh's ones down the Caley Park on a Saturday. Paraffin out of the tank... yes and from Harry Barclay's van that used to come round the houses.

I'm just wondering how Frankie Jew would have managed in the current climate which has become so anti smoking that the things are going to be concealed below the counter. (I support this by the way.) For the benefit of those who are either too young or who lived/ were educated on the other side of the Ness, Frank C MacKay (aka Frankie Jew for fairly workable out reasons) was a legendary Hill Street retailer with whom many would have had the following conversation in the 1960s (subsequently decimalised in the 70s) "Single please, Frank". "Threepence" (Frank always first stated the price whilst instinctively holding out his hand for the money.) "And have you got a match?" "Ha'penny." On one occasion at a school concert we had a parody of the Twelve Days of Christmas with not a Partidge inm a Pear Tree in sight.. instead it was ".... and A Single out of Frankie Jew's."

But on the other hand there might not..... :015:

Sorry KB, don't have them off the top of my head but they were constantly changing in any case with unlimited subs. Motherwell were subbing every few minutes and even Wim the Tim (great to see him back again!) was ringing the changes very frequently. But fundamentally it was the Celtic team that won the title in 98 against the Motherwell team that won the Scottish Cup in 91, Phil O'Donnell having played for both sides. As far as the parading of the trophy was concerned, this was very much done AFTER the game any anyone who didn't want to wait had ample opportunity to leave. It really was as low key as it could be and realistically Celtic must have had no choice but to do something, given that 50,000 Celtic fans were congregating in Celtic Park 3 days after they had made it 3 in a row with "Tommy's Title." I think we've just run into the Churlish Wing on the Motherwell Supporters' Club here.

5-1 Celtic. Weighorst got the first. Larsson grabbed a semi acrobatic second and brought the house down. Bratbakk's shooting has clearly improved since he left Celtic Park to become an airline pilot because he got both the third and fourth. 4-0 half time. Darren Jackson got number five and appropriately David Clarkson got Motherwell's goal although it was a simple walk across the line. Very enjoyable, dignified and good tempered afternoon.

Just in case my colleagues at Scorguie are reading this... it's only a joke! I think the Green Final has been gone now for something in excess of a decade. It's changed days now when you can log on to your computer in eg Toronto never mind Inverness and have live discussions with your friends as to how Caley Thistle are getting on at Tannadice. I'm not aware of Peter ever having had a newsagent's in Grant street. He was certainly a milkman before he went to manage Caley in 1984. Might you not be thinking about Rodgers newsagent in Grant Street owned by the family which used to run Clach until it went pearshaped in the late 80s and they passed it on to Willie MacLennan before Clach got worse?

Well otherwise I don't think they'd find qualifying games away to Iran, Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia all that much fun. :015: And could you imagine what the Arabic version of the Eurovision Song Contest might be like? :020:

Wyness is God... were you there to make your own judgement rather than be influenced by the inevitably biased views of the minority grouping involved? I was as it happens - and I was actually quite pleasantly surprised that it was I suspect deliberately kept away from being a "Celtic" affair to the extent that it was. Perhaps the reactions of these Motherwell fans on their website are no more than an interesting reminder that paranoia among football fans is not the monopoly of the Old Firm. This was a match which obviously had to go ahead at Celtic Park rather than Fir Park to ensure that the Phil O'Donnell Fund benefited from the inevitable 60,000 sell out which the match was. And quite predictably the vast majority of the fans there were Celtic fans although I was quite impressed top see large swathes of claret and gold intermixing with hordes of green and white. Yes... INTERMIXING... it was so refreshing to see a 60,000 crowd at a Scottish football match with no segregation and amid the most pleasant of atmospheres. (As an aside, could such a good tempered and public spirited affair have taken place under similar circumstances at Ibrox? Just a question.) Indeed, both sets of fans appeared to join with equal enthusiasm in the several chants of "Let's all laugh at Rangers". The date of the match had been fixed for weeks and it was simply a consequence of events that it should take place additionally hard on the heels of the death of Tommy Burns and Celtic winning the SPL. Inevitably when you have around 50,000 Celtic fans in the same ground just three days after winning the SPL, this will loom large on the mood. Inevitably when you have a crowdpuller like Henrik Larsson making an appearance in the hoops at Celtic Park and scoring a goal, you will get a massive reaction from these same 50,000 people. I thought that, given the overwhelmingly large majority of Celtic fans who were there at their own ground, in the wake of a further bereavement and an SPL title, Celtic FC did quite well to keep the proceedings AWAY from being a Celtic Party. For instance there was no little leprechaun singing the Ferret Song 3 minutes before kick off, there were no Gerry and the Pacemakers at half time, Phil O'Donnell's contributions to Celtic and Motherwell received equal attention on the big screen presentations and the announcer went out of his way to emphasise Motherwell's success and their qualification for next season's UEFA Cup. Yes, the SPL trophy did make an appearance, but only at the very end when Motherwell fans had the opportunity to leave - many of them did not. Celtic FC could hardly have done anything else in the face of such a huge number of their fans so soon after winning the title. And if the TV coverage refererred to was Celtic TV, then what do they expect on a TV channel run by and subscribed to by the supporters of one specific club. I really think this is a (predictable) over reaction to what was a wonderfully good humoured and appropriate tribute to Phil O'Donnell.

Was that not their magazine The Warcry?! Just wondering what kind of state you must have been in to confuse the two? :015: Maybe you were one of the people most in need of help and Salvation from them! :015:

That's the one!

There was a renowned occasion many, many years ago (although i don't know if Rangers were champions or not) when Ayr United beat Rangers with 10 men. this prompted an Ayr supporting minister the following day to enter his pulpit and adresss his congregation with the opening gambit of "Auld Ayr wham ne'er a toon surpasses, Ten men against eleven lassies." (It's a parody of a quote from Tam O'Shanter if you're not sure where it came from.) It's also worth remarking that if Rangers had won the title, it could have been said that Caley Thistle would have played a big part in it, losing (unlike the previous season) to Rangers three times and also beating Celtic. On the other hand if Celtic had taken it on goal difference, a certain 5-0 would have contributed generously to that.

That would be the 1870s! Seriously, though, yes Iain did work at the HN before moving across to the BBC in the mid 70s and he's been there ever since. In fact I'm logged on to his computer writing this. And Coutts did indeed sell papers, as did at least one of the Italian cafes (the one towards the top of Academy St.... the name has escaped me for the moment.)

Are you not perhaps thinking of Alexander Frasers off licence on Tomnahurich Street. I remember we used to go in there at a ridiculously tender age, more or less stretch up to the counter to put half a crown on it and say "A bottle of cider please!" The response would usually be "And what kind would you like sonny?" Or was there another Duncan Fraser apart from the butcher's in Queensgate? Old newsagents... and old newspapers! The Football Times of beloved memory! I even remember the pre pink days when it was white. That was how you got your Highland League football results in these days. I'd come back from Telford Street and go down to Jocky Lawson's shop and wait there until the paper came in at the back of six. Some boys (I think Davie Love may have been one) used to cycle in relays with copy from the 3 Inverness grounds to the Football Times at Diriebught Road after the reporter had written it up. I suppose that was the only way the old technology could get the paper out so quickly. (Having said that, the Courier's deadline used to be midnight on Mondays and thursdays in the hot metal days. It's now several hours earlier.) Northern Chronicle? Did Jock Watt not used to work there? People's Journal... also long gone.

Did the Greig Street chemist not also belong to Charlie Forbes for a while? I certainly remember Tait Grant. The other grocer's apart from Jimmy Munro's and Grant's... was it on the side of King Street where Robert McKendrick's computer shop is now (next door to Munro's) or was it on the other side in succession to Baddon's bike shop and next door to Diggar's?

It was the one on Queensgate, on the right just before the entrance to the market as you came up towards Academy St. I've forgotten its name now but it was originally a proper licensed grocer's. Lamont was an apprentice grocer there, perhaps in the late 40s or early 50s but certainly in the days when you scooped various products out of open sacks. The message boys (bouchers) used to hide Lamont's scoop and he would go about the place asking "where's my scoobies"... hence the nickname.

Frank Hill. And in my days in Greig Stret the Post office was run by a Mr. Cushnie who had a bad limp. Other Greig Street shops included jimmy Munro the grocer, Baddon the bikeshop (which is now a newsagent among other things) and of course Salvadori's Cafe (where the Chinese is now) which has been discussed on another thread here. Oh.. and the legendary Diggars which is probably the only Greig Street business which has effectively been unaltered in the last 50 years.

Scarlet.... I think the Lifeboy leader you remember was George MacKintosh. He was still leader of the 1st Lifeboys when I joined in the 60s and for a while after that although he's been dead for about 20 years. He never seemed to have a job as such and lived off some kind of private income which meant that he effectively did BB stuff all the time.