Charles Bannerman

"Black and red" and "Predominantly blue".

Robin Hood, William Tell, Sir Francis Drake, Ivanhoe, Huckleberry Hound, Fireball XL5, Criss cross quiz, Crackerjack (hooray!!), Bill and Ben, Andy Pandy, Magic Roundabout, Bosscat, Swallowsand Amazons, Listen with Mother (OK that was radio), Robinson Crusoe. A golden era of kids' TV.

I too would (albeit from the grave!) be unhappy if the histories of Caley, Thistle or Clach were ever forgotten. Clach of course is still alive (and well) and there is also The Lilywhites book which takes the story up to the 1980s. Alex Main's Caley All The Way also takes that tale particular up to the 1980s and their rermaining decade is very well documented. However there does appear to be relatively little on Thistle. There is the smallish Hub of the Hill booklet, of which there don't sem to be many copies, but little else apart from media coverage. On the other hand that became much more extensive in lattter years, both newspaper and TV. I am intrigued to hear that Catch my Pal had a successful football team! That particular "temperance" (probably in reality "total abstinence") organisation was set up the the original William Anderson of Anderson the bakers (Been doing our best for you since 1892.. remember that on the vans) of Academy Street. Their shop is now Blythswood. Catch my Pal met in premises owned by the Andersons near the baker's shop. Mr. Anderson's son, also William, a World War 1 verteran now also long gone, I believe played for Caley. They were a big Caley family. The original Mr. Anderson's grand daughter was a lifelong Caley fan and also supports ICT. The idea was that you would "catch your pal" as he came out of the pub and entice him along for a dose of religious conversion and alcohol aversion. I would hope that if they had a football team that they would be a bit more "temperate" with the invective which would usually follow that immortal Invernessism "Refareemun!"

Interesting to note that Nairn's Highland League career apparently got off the ground in the manner in which it almost invariably continued! :015:

And presented by the Caley committee to the rebels in a further gesture of appeasement as being like "an old Caley away strip".

TCF... you're not the first person to ask this question (as Messrs Cordiner and Byrne of INE would have told you!) This is horrendously complicated. The colour of the strip was a major sticking point in the merger agreement. The original arrangement for 94-95, at a time when the Caley side were being particularly aggressive, was "predominantly blue" - which meant a Caley strip. Jags threatened to pull out just as the first game was about to be played. This would have sunk the whole venture and league football in invwerness so reasonable concessions were made which kept them in at the 11th hour. One of the effects of these was that in the second season the strip became 25% black and red through vertical stripes. It's been variations on that theme more or less ever since. If you can get a copy of Against all Odds, it's explained in full there.

The interview was published in the Highland News ages ago as part of a series also including Charlie and Doc.

TBB... we learn something every day! I had always thought that the tower was part of the original Citadel and hadn't realised it was an 18th century creation. By the way, it has been suggested that it was the presence of Cromwell's garrison in the town in the 1650s which has led Invernessians to speak the most pure English in the lend. Righ'eenuffmun. Yersee'en it!

Given that it's 72 years since Citadel folded, there must be very few, if any, former players left. The only one I ever met was Dodo Sinclair's dad Butch. I had arranged to get an interview with him but unfortunately he died before we could get it done. Interview material with Citadel veterans would be like gold dust but they'll by now be as rare as Old Contemptibles and I think the opportunity has gone. One of my earlier interviews I did for the BBC around 1985 was with an old chap Davie Goodall who had played for Clach when Noah was in nappies. I think it was before WW1. That was an interesting morning. My father lived on the Shore as a boy until 1932 and remembered Citadel, but again I never got round to talking to him about it in depth. I have a FEELING, but am prepared to be corrected, that Citadel's ground may not have been very far behind Cromwell's Tower.

I have a habit of missing some of the big moments. I couldn't make the Airdrie game because of family commitments, I couldn't make Celtic Park on 8.2.00 for practical reasons..... and I didn't go to watch Jags v Killie in 1985 because I reckoned the Jags didn't have a snowball's! Thistle 0 Caley 1 in the League and Caley 0 Thistle 3 in the Q Cup, both in 1988, were, I believe, watersheds in the pre SFL football history of Inverness and I was at both of them. I also made the St. Johnstone game in 1992, Tannadice in 1996, both cup semis and the replay in 2003 and 2004, the Challenge Cup Final in 2003 and the St. Johnstone game in 2004. Come to think of it... I've maybe not done too badly after all..... :003:

Smee.. that's what I mean. 108 has conveniently ignored one of Caley's most embarrassing moments by making the rather unnatural stipulation of "league".

You seem conveniently to have forgotten the 1988 Qualifying Cup replay at Telford Street. Caley 0 Jags 3. :blah01: :blah01: The Airdrie game must have been a great night. I really regret having to miss it.

Given that it was in 1950, you're probably the only person who can! DJS... these smells were so memorable. I don't know what Tokely embalms himself in before games but the whiff of it as he ran past me to warm up on Saturday took me right back to changing trooms in the 1960s. I doubt if it was the horse linament of these days though. Ther other abiding smell of the Caley Park was that of pies drifting out of the tunnel just before half time. It was perhaps the subtle blend of pies and horse linament (hopefully from separate sources!) which was particularly distinctive. Oh, and also whisky fumes of the entire gamut of vintages from seconds ago to the previous night as you walked through the packed Howden End. In the days when the Distilleries were still there you could add them in too.

And was the "Michelin Man" shouting "Get off ma f*****g pitch!"?

This is my hopefully accurate memory of an interview I did with Donald a couple of years ago - he played briefly for Caley before playing for Hearts as a student in Edinburgh. Donald comes from the Fort William area.

We've possibly started another thread here - "Back in 1993 - what did you expect?" From my own point of view I think I sort of expected to become another Montrose or Albion Rovers or similar. Possibly, in addition to years of watching the Highland League, I didn't know football well enough at the time to think otherwise. As a result, when Dougie McGilvray asked me to phone the Off the Ball studio so he could place his bet with Tam Cowan that ICT would be in the SPL by 2004, I thought Dougie had lost it. One thing I have become very aware of over the piece, and this was a strong feature of the merger too, is the tiny margins by which certain vital steps in the process have taken place. I need look no further than 2004 for two examples of that in the First Division title win followed by the SPL eventually opening the door. I would also say that I can't help but have a wry smile about the complaints about the Board on other threads, given the unbroken rise over which so many directors have presided over the years. All of this helps me see the Rebel point of view too. Set against expectations which might not have been all that high, I can understand but not necessarily agree with a preference to stay in the Highland League as Thistle or Caley rather than drift into merged mediocrity in the SFL. But if, on September 9th 1993, someone had visited the Rannoch Lodge and the Muirtown and said "I can GUARANTEE that the club you are being asked to vote to form will be in the SPL by 2004"... what might the outcome and the immediate aftermath have been? Ian Broadfoot might still have found himself writing a book in 2004 but, given its very different nature, I very much doubt if there would have been enough drama for me to produce one in 1997.

Smee... that's a very interesting point. So would I, except that since 1994 I have taken the opportunity of relying on Clach as a means of continuing my Highland League interest. I go there whenever I can which is perhaps easier for someone who wasn't especially affiliated to one of the three original clubs. This also reflects my own attitude to the merger right at the start in 1993. For the first 3 months I was a bit sceptical about it, but probably would not even have been that if I had realised the huge progress which it would catalyse for Inverness football. In particular I was apprehensive about losing a Highland league presence in Inverness where the League was formed, so when Clach pulled out of the merger in the August, that was a problem solved for me. Although I was a Caley fan when I was young, latterly I had always had a lot of regard for all 3 Inverness clubs so when Clach pulled out I immediately saw this as the continuing Inverness presence in the Highland League while the other two got together to create the national dimension. And what a season for Inverness football 2003-04 turned out to be with ICT winning the Challenge Cup and the First Division and reaching the semis of the Scottish Cup while Clach won the Highland League and the League Cup and reached the Qualifying Cup Final!

ICT you could very well be right. It was certainly well back into season 96-97.

CH2... you're about 6 months too late!

SP...I put in my tuppence worth (2d rather than 2p to someone of your vintage!) at the top of the "Brewster in perspective" thread. As reagrds the spelling ang grammar at the top of this thread, apart from what's very probably a typo ior two, it looks reasonably "up to IRA standards" but it wiznaeme! As for the Board, I take the view that Caley Thistle, from a very inauspicious start, seems to have come a very long way in 13 years for the Board to have been deficient over that period - give or take the odd ?2 million debt!

This thread was NOT initiated by anyone on the board nor by anyone with a particular interest in the manner in which the board is perceived, nor by anyone directly linked with Caley Thistle (nor by me!)

What appears to have happened is that the power had to be switched off at Broadcasting House Inverness all afternoon as part of a huge rebuild that's going on there. It would appear that the 103.5-105 Radio nan Gaidheal frequency must be routed through there and could not be used as a result. I suspect that production in Glasgow was not aware of this technical issue in Inverness. On reflection, this was maybe one of the better games for Caley Thistle fans to miss commentary on. I'll perhaps just add that the BBC is now able to broadcast commentary on up to six matches on a Saturday - three on national frequencies plus three more local to Caley Thistle, Aberdeen and Gretna.

Scotty... you're right as ever. It was indeed the penultimate Saturday in August but by no means as big an error as the Chancer otherwise known as Mantis describing himself as a "teenager"!!!! at that time.

Already... it seems like just yesterday! The book was published on the last Saturday in August 1997 and culminating in the Division 3 Championship which featured so many of the prospective Hall of Fame members who will be on show at the Legends' Night which is now just two weeks away. The launch took place on a day when the team lost 1-0 to East Fife in its first Division 2 home game. And if you think this season has been a bit slow to get going, 98-99 took something like 9 games to produce a win. It got much better after that... and eventually led on to much better things. So don't panic Captain Mannering!

I'm just a little bit dismayed at the incredibly negative comment on this forum about the return of Craig Brewster and I believe that at least some of it may be the result of misunderstanding and misinformation. I believe that there's a lot of (unjust) anti Brewster feeling because the nature of his departure in January 2006 has not been fully understood. Weeks before he left, he was unfortunately "ambushed" into indicating that he was at ICT to stay. Then a very persuasive Eddie Thomson came in with an offer he couldn't refuse. I was there when Brewster made that first statement - which was solicited rather than volunteered - and he really couldn't have said anything else, nor could he have read the future. Then when he did leave, it was only after a great deal of persuasion, a great deal of thought, yes, a very good financial offer but who wouldn't be influenced by that? Then most of importantly of all, he refused to leave unless Caley Thistle got very generous compensation. This last fact is not very well known and the cash concerned created that year's profit. There are also complaints about his record and his style of play. His results at Inverness were pretty good and you cannot take into account his poor statistics at Tannadice. He did not suddenly become a bad manager overnight, but he did move into a much less positive football environment overnight. I don't believe many of his United players (despite their hefty pay cheques) were prepared to put in the work he demanded and I think that when he went there, working under Eddie Thomson was not quite what he expected.... as many other managers have found. On the other hand the Brewster - ICT combination has already been proved to work. If there is concern about his style of play, don't panic. You may very well find a positively different and more experienced Craig Brewster from the one which left 19 months ago. But he will certainly not have changed in his desire to produce a fit team. I also think that some of the anti Brewster sentiment has been generated by the fact that the new man will NOT be Neil Warnock. For some reason a lot of fans seemed to be drawn into a storm of pro Warnock hysteria... but on the basis of what? A statement from Warnock which smacked seriously of the shop window? Did the directors ever really rate him as a realistic option? Would his financial requirements have been realsitic? How big a risk would there have been of him being away in months to the Premiership or the Championship? Does he really know much about Scotland outside the Old Firm? If fans feel deprived of their high profile manager, think back to Jim Leishman and Sergei Baltacha. These were both high profile managers taken in by Thistle and Caley in the early 90s and both proved to be failures. Apart from the refusal of both to relocate to Inverness, neither understood football at the level at which they were managing and this was the main reason for their failure to produce. I believe Neil Warnock may well have fallen into the same trap and then we might well have got a lot more of the dressing room dramatics which someone at Wednesday night's meeting said they witnessed on U Tube. Craig Brewster is here... or at least he will be on Monday. I don't really see much reason for Caley Thistle fans not to get solidly behind him and the team who really do need to feel a positive message from their supporters and not carping about the new manager.