Charles Bannerman

There is a distinction between individual preference, which is a matter of personal taste, and the fundamental which is the unacceptability of one human being battering another on the head until one of them has been incapacitated to the extent he is no longer able to stand. (And if neither succeeds, declare a "winner" on the basis of the "artistic merit" with which their respective attempts to do so were made!) I don't particularly like watching certain types of "running" (I'm not sure whether that's to be taken literally or has been used as an uninformed simplification of the sport of athletics) myself and American football is - to me but not to those who like it - simply the most tedious activity on the planet. There are other activities which I do like and which others may or may not, and that is all a matter of personal preference. But there is something fundamentally uncivilised about boxing, and that is even before you look at the state of the face of the chap who got that award on TV on Sunday night. It is also before you begin to consider what Johnboy quite rightly highlights in terms of damage to the inside of the head. In addition, I reject the "apologist" (and slightly patronising) viewpoint that boxing "does an awful lot of good for these poor lads in deprived communities." There are plenty of other methods of diverting boys from "mugging old ladies" than encouraging them to mug each other.

It was a great save but I thought his decendents were from the Congo. I would have thought his descendants are largely as yet unborn. His ancestors, on the other hand, may be of Belgian colonial origin. In fact it's amazing the extent to which countries which formerly had colonies benefit in a sporting sense from immigration from these colonies. In the case of the GB athletics team, I don't think it would be up to much had we not had an empire. I have to admit that when I first heard of the Hibs keeper on the radio, I thought he was a Scotsman by the name of MacAlambie. Either way, he's an excellent goalkeeper and indeed both keepers were superb on Saturday.

What a terrible indictment it is of the Great British Public that, of the three BBC Sports Personality prizewinners, two should represent an activity where the main aim is to bludgeon your opponent into a state of incapacity and insensibility! Should this activity really have any place in a civilised society? One of these men, who had been "fighting" the night before, even appeared at the awards presentation with a badly cut face, presumably as a result of what he had been doing. What kind of message and role model does this convey to youngsters? I find it bizarre that absurd Political Correctness can dominate our daily lives to a ridiculous extent but yet this thuggery still seems to be acceptable. NB - this post, to which I don't expect a particularly positive response, is NOT a windup!

Commentary on BBC Radio Scotland 103.5-105 FM from Mr. Bill Leckie with summaries from Mr. Brian Irvine. For the sake of Scotty and the other "diasporate housewives" :003: I hope this is a game which can be obtained worldwide.

I once met this guy, an ICT fan, in a pub on Byres Road one Saturday night when I was down for an athletics event at the Kelvin Hall and Caley Thistle had been at Firhill. The poor guy had been lifted by the cops before the game and spent the afternoon in Maryhill Police Station. He was a primary teacher from the Edinburgh area...... but it wasn't Mantis!

Is that a pub in the Royal Mile? :003:

Absent Friend appears to have quite a clear understanding of the way these things work. Negotiations on contracts are quite often more complicated than is superficially apparent and the waters are often unhelpfully muddied by wild speculation in the media (q.v. the Neil Warnock affair). As AF says, a club cannot possibly make a categorical statement until the whole issue is beyond any doubt. That takes time even though it's perfectly obvious what is going to happen. There is also the additional complication that, from a PR point of view, it is far better for a club to make an announcement at a press conference at which the new incumbent is present for interview. In Malky's case, that is the regular ICT conference at 1245 tomorrow (Thur). One way or the other, there is often a lag between the point where someone is going to be appointed, barring the unforeseeable, and when he can be wheeled into a press conference as the new signed up man. During this period it is perfectly normal for the media to report the story as "fact" once they are reasonably sure that is what will happen although nothing can be confirmed by the club. It looks to me as if this, along with the statement on the Chester site over which ICT has no control, is what has forced Graeme's hand today, 24 hours in advance of plan. In fact it is by no means unknown for somebody to take a swing at a story even earlier than that and hope for the best, taking the risk of egg on the face and I have seen some very eggy faces! Chairmen and Football Directors often derive a whole lot of mirth out of reports from time to time that certain individuals have been appointed by them. For instance I recollect an authoritative statement in an Aberdeen based daily newspaper some years ago that Bobby Wilson had been appointed manager of Peterhead! The fundamental problem is that in football it seems almost impossible to keep what is known in business as "commercial confidentiality".

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark". It's a quote from Shakespeare's "Hamlet" (Prince of Denmark), made by one of the Elsinore palace guards when he sees the Ghost of Hamlet's Father. The quote is nowadays taken as indicative of something corrupt..... so, although SMEE used it in the context of Inverness Storewars, the most likely place you'll hear it at the moment is presumably in relation to Labour party finances!

A wineshed of Clachers. A dictatorship of Jambos. A genuflexion of Celtic Fans A fluteband of Rangers fans. A despair of East Stirling fans. A Carbuncle of Albion Rovers fans. A litigation of Partick Thistle fans. A relegation of Livingston fans. A linoleum of Raith Rovers fans. A Jail(end)ful of County fans. A parsimony of Aberdeen fans. A Woolmark of Aberdeen fans. A discovery of Dundee fans. A nursery of Falkirk fans. A misbehaviour of Milwall fans. A total lack of Gretna fans. A sting of Alloa fans. A Pele of Peterhead fans. A disappearance of Rangers fans (after about 75 minutes when they're losing) An expectation of England fans.

It wisnae me and it wisnae you, but let's not reveal anything more than that, Richie!! (Trust all is well with you?)

Naw.... just bad for typos... for my second "7" read "6"!

Strangely enough I did 7 years there and never got off the ground floor. P1 and 2 (Miss MacKenzie) R3. P3 (Miss Cameron) and P4 (Miss Fraser) R7. P5 (Mrs Anderson) R11. P6 and 7 (Mrs Ballantyne) R10. Also met Grassa making his way in when I was on my way out. Another Dalneigh boy.

That wouldn't do him a lot of good since the planning authority is Aberdeenshire Council and not City of Aberdeen.

SP... it was possible to do 7 Highers in Fifth Year in the IRA up until 1969 but for 1970, which was our year, they stopped that and reduced it to 7 so I dropped Latin, keeping up Chemistry, Physics, Maths, English, History and French. I didn't do any more in Sixth Year since I had my unconditional and fancied a year's "holiday", spending much of 1970-71 in my mate's Hillman Imp on jaunts to Nairn, Beauly etc. Were yours all in one year or across 5 and 6, D?

Yes, enjoyed it too. Bumped into DJS in Room 15! It's even longer since I left and there have been equally few changes in that time. I was just wondering how they managed to get 42 desks packed into these classrooms in these days. Met Davie Love who was in my class at Dalneigh and he was remembering when he was put in Mallinson the music teacher's cupboard in the GP room for misbehaving and then got belted by the headmaster for appearing wearing Mallinson's coat and hat. Lots of old photos, including those of football teams from various eras (I was never good enough to play though). They were all with John MacLeod the deputy headmaster who, I would emphasise, was the drinker and not John MacLeod the headmaster. They both happened to have the same name. The deputy lived in the Moyness Hotel in Bruce Gardens. I was also reminded of having to go down to behind the hall and collect the milk crates and take them to the various classes... ah the days of free school milk before Maggie Thatcher abolished it. And I didn't know Rod the Mod was a Dalneigh School FP!

Inverness Royal Academy finally moved out of Midmills into a single site at Culduthel in 1979. the embryonic Culloden Academy, some of whose pupils had been held at Millburn for a year or two, then temporarily moved into Midmills until their new building at Culloden was ready in, i think, 1981. Sorry... off topic.

That was MacKenzie and MacPherson (see my earlier post).

BUMP... just to remind people that the Dalneigh School FPs' open day is today between 4 and 7.

MacKenzie and MacPherson at the top of Raining's Stairs. Alastair MacPherson and Dunc MacKenzie. My dad and I both took our cars there. Then we went to Brown's near the Black Bridge.... until they forgot to tighten the nuts on one of my wheels one day. (Since then it's been F and R MacDonald which is alive, well and excellent.) There was also MacPherson's on Midmills Road. I think I used them once or twice in the distant past. Also, the Inverness Motor Company where I bought my first car.

You got this weeks Lotto numbers? I truly believe your are psychic (or is that psychotic, I always mix those two up) Both?

So let me just make sure I've got this one right..... With their team hanging on, sometimes precariously, to a 1-0 lead, there was a group of Caley Thistle "fans" at the game yesterday who were booing the goalkeeper :finger02: and then the substitute striker when he came on. Presumably these people had no worries at all about the possibility that the booing might have caused either player to make a mistake which could have cost "their" side two points? :020: :024: :33: :018: I'm just so sorry that the poor sensitive souls should feel so upset that the nasty goalie should have responded in kind. :cry03:

I also remember the days of gas (N2O - nitrous oxide or laughing gas). I used to get it from Mr. MacDonald in Queensgate when I was a kid. Then in the 70s Eddie Sharpe in Hilton started giving a different gas which became very popular although IHE probably relied on stamps.

Willie Ross. He delivered our groceries to Kenneth St and then Dalneigh for years and there was always a box of chocs at the end of the month when the bill was paid. He would phone my mum up for her list and within an hour or two the stuff was there. He was the man who introduced me to MacKintrosh's Queens Cup. However, as was the case with so many small shops, supermarket prices won out in the end and my mum reluctantly started going to the Coop. Willie used to stand on the wall at Greig's Garage on a Saturday afyernoon and watch the second half of Caley games from there.

Yes, and there are some of us on here who remember what YOU were like as an Academy "pupil"! :015:

Oh well, that sort of explains why Peter and not IHE is the fitness coach! :015: