Charles Bannerman

Nice one Bigtams! I'll ask him next time I see him (Clacher taht he is!) PS - where did you get the animated Lithium atome in that post?

Caley D.... 1) irrespective of who underwrites the debt, the fact is that the setting up of the ICT Trust was fundamental to saving the club from oblivion and the inclusion of sports other than football was fundamental to being able to set up the ICT Trust. That, however, does not detract from the fact thas it is the ICT TRUST. 2) You still cannot escape the fact that Caley Thistle owes its existence to the fact that substantial sums of public money were invested in the club. On a number of occasions between 1993 and 1996, the future of Caley Thistle hung on a knife edge. One of these was in 95-96 when the Common Good Fund's £900,000 was absolutely vital to survival. The "public" could just as easily have invested £1.3M in the link road, if it thought necessary, even if there had been no football club there. Then you have to additional contributions from INE, Objective 1 etc. 3) The "local and football politics" which you say led to going to East Longman were, in fact, entirely football politics. Stratton Farm was the strong choice of INE and a cross funded stadium could have been built there at minimal cost to the club. It was the CLUB'S insistence that they went to the more expensive option of East Longman (which planinng requirements then made even more expensive.) So in reality, the public money was needed to bale out the club's own more expensive preference. 4) A lot of public, Tullochs' and other people's money has helped football in Inverness to catch up on the performance levels enjoyed by other sports in the city for years. Perhaps now, with Tullochs' help, the entire Inverness sporting community can move forward together without becoming too partisan.

Caley 100.... I seem to recollect that, even when the ICT Trust was set up in 2001 (to rid the club of £2M of debt and save it from the receivers), the Trust had to be constituted to include the interests of all sports and not just football in order legally to qualify for tax breaks. Given that Caley Thistle were effectively saved from oblivion by this move and by Tullochs' money, I wouldn't get too territorial about what is the club's and what isn't. I would also, incidentally, mention the £1.8M of public money from which ICT benefited when the Stadium was built. However the ICT Trust is a completely separate issue and we are talking here about the new Tulloch promoted Inverness Sports Trust. Given the role that Tullochs have played in the transition of Caley Thistle from a near bankrupt First Division outfit to an unusually solvent SPL club, I think they should be left to support such sports as they see fit - which they've been doing for some time anyway.

Caley 100's memories of the smells of the Shows are spot on. I also remember continually looking over one shoulder in fear of getting a doing from the Ferry Boys!

Y'know.... I've got a funny feeling this thread would be better placed in the Old Folks Home section. "When Scotland used to qualify...." Can't be too many people who remember that. Possibly the 8 surviving World War 1 veterans featured on the news last night and that's about it.

DJS... had you never heard of that famous incident? When it was decided that Telford Street and not Kingsmills wouild be Caley Thistle's first home in 1994, Telford Street (Property of Caledonian FC) did get a degree of upgrading. This included quite a lot of painting and of course there were plenty of willing Caley fans.... including not a few Rebels... who were more than happy to help paint the whole place. The only exception within a ground which rapidly became "predominantly blue" (and white) (I understate for the sake of artistic licence) was the urinal in the Gents' toilet ....which became Black and Red!

Are you sure it wasn't 3-0? I was manning the studio at the BBC that Saturday afternoon so Hugh Dan MacLennan got the job of match reporting. The first Caley Thistle game I was at was the friendly v Bolton Wanderers, I think the following midweek...I believe that may have been the one where the Rebels painted the urinals black and red!!

Sandy... as a matter of interest, can you remember what a school dinner ticket cost in 1954? I certainly remember that for much of the 60s it was 1 shilling for the first child, and a penny cheaper for each subsequent one. Mr. MacIntyre the Dalneigh minister had so many kids that I think the youngest got their lunch for about 8d!

I definitely remeber it being built when I was in my latter years at Dalneigh School (I left in 65). I remember the building site. there was also a play park there with swings and a roundabout. I'm just trying to think WHOSE Memorial Pavilion it was.. McBean.. Morrison... MacDonald? John MacLeod used to live in the Moyness Hotel at the bottom of Bruce Gardens. He was partial to a dram or several. My only contact with him in school was when he took the Gaelic Choir (DON'T ask me how on earth I got into it!) The thing was, he wouldn't tell us what the phonetics we were singing from meant.

I remember when they built the "Pav" in the early/ mid 60s. It was a memorial to somebody but never seemed to be used very much. I could never see the point in this empty, and as DJS says, "cavernous" structure. I suppose it was inevitable that it had to go. I'm trying to remember who taught in R16 in Dalneigh school, at least when I was there in the early 60s (that was the one on the upper floor at the end of the building, wasn't it?). MacLeod the Deputy was in 15 wasn't he?

Still think it would have been far better if the Germans had actually caught the Von Krapps. It would have saved us a great deal of nausea and fury over the years. Julie Effing Andrews peaked with Mary Poppins.

Alistair... I think you mean Palgliaris blue van, the one that played the Harry Lime theme. "Pagliacci" is an Italian opera by Leoncavallo. The Greig Street shop was Salvadoris. I think the old man was called Salvatore. the son was Vaaro. Great ice cream... lovely raspberry sauce on it. I agree with Jagster though... the Ness Cafe was best by a short head with Stratton remarkably good for non Italian. As for Mr. Whippy..........

I can't remember exactly when the Empire closed, but I think it was early 70s. I certainly remember being at a performance there in 1969 (OK... I'll have to admit it... it was the Opera Company's production of Finian's Rainbow!) There was also the Arts Centre in Farraline Park which has now become our Local Council Tax Payer-accessible, "city centre" public library. Meanwhile Inverness's less than adequate Museum, much frequented by towrists, took over the much better site in Upper Bridge Street.... but I digress. I think the Palace became a Bingo Hall in the early 60s. I also seem to recollect that these Legion kids' outings were notorious for dissolving into bedlam! It was a wee bit like an annual re-enactment of the Battle of el Alamein.

Gerx13... thank you for that wonderful blast from the past with that photo of the Playhouse! Must be quite and old photo. I believe the Playhouse burned down as long ago as 1972. MFTJ... memories of coming through to Grantown from BB Camp at Carrbridge to see The Great Escape for the first time. (It hadn't aspired to the Christmas slot by that stage.)

And how could I possibly have forgotten the Guibarellis, especially as my daughter, when she was still at school, worked in the Hilton Chippie along with Mike G and Mike M, Caley D's brother? I believe JoJo, of course, was something of a character!

I would agree too. But I also remember being taken to the Palace Cinema (for years now the Bingo Hall on Huntly Street for the benefit of the under 50s) to see "Lorna Doone" when I was about 4. And as the hero kissed the heroine, I stood up and shouted something like "never mind about that, just get on with the film!" Memories also of regular visits to the front stalls of the Playhouse or the La Scala on Saturday afternoons when Caley were playing away. Usually the profit made from collecting the lemonade bottles at the previous home game would cover the shilling it cost to get into the pictures. It was strange to come out from three hours in the dark into bright sunshine (and several hours' scratching if it was the La Scala you were in!)

Goodness me, this thread started with memories of Eastgate but it's now producing some cracking reminiscences of old Dalneigh! I don't know if the waste land behind St. Valery etc was for safety reasons or not but what we used to call "The Back of Kavvies" (ie the area behind Brian Kavanagh's house in St. Valery) played a huge part in my early development. It was there that I discovered that I was no good at ball games - cricket or football - but the hours and hours spent running about attempting to play the latter probably epitomise the fitness gulf between my generation and the current one. Then there were games of "war" in the undergrowth where we liberated either Western Europe or Burma in battles where everyone had a machine gun (ur!, ur!, ur!, ur!, ur!, ur!..... yer dead!... No ah'm no.. yah missed!) Or if it wasn't war it was Hide and Seek. These games of War remind me of Commando comics which were so good at illustrating the seriously limited vocabulary of the Wehrmacht.... "Gott in Himmell", "Achtung Englander", "Donner und Blitzen", "Schweinhund", "Dumkopf".... and not much more. The Japs were worse. All they seemed to manage was "Banzai" .... and occasionally "Aieeee" if they got shot. (Strangely Germans didn't seem to utter "Aieeee" when they got the bullet which, in Commando comics, they did frequently). But I digress and to return to the "Back of Kavvies".... climbing up on the of the "Garages" and jumping from one to another was also a favourite pastime and of course as you wandered about the undergrowth you did, from time to time, happen across the odd abandoned copy of Parade. It was also there that we built our bonfire and "guarded" it for nights on end in case intruders from the Ferry or Laurel Avenue had ideas of premature combustion. Then, on bonfire night itself, everyone brought their fireworks (or at least the ones that hadn't been chucked into unsuspecting residents' gardens) for a wonderful, communal display of Roman Candles, Catherine Wheels, Squibs and Rockets. A long time ago now, though.....

Caley D.... where about on the canal (even) side are these numbers missing in St. Valery? St. Valery, like Hawthorn Drive, also has Swedish houses along part of one side. In St. V, they are part of a mini Swedish "estate" also comprising St. Mungo, St. Ninian and St. Andrew. I have had the impression (wrongly perhaps) that these Swedish houses are a little newer than the stone ones beside them. Was it the St. V stone houses or the Swedish houses or both which went up in 1954. We went into a Swedish house in St. Andrew in 1958 but weren't the first tenants. I remember that because of the complete tip the place was when we inherited it!

Still not convinced. I still have an ominous suspicion that this is Johndo in disguise. By the way, that 15-0 defeat by Caley of Golspie in the North Cup was en route to Caley's last ever trophy, the North Cup in 1994. The final ended in a 1-0 defeat of Forres at Kingsmills and the only goal of the game was scored by the man the Caley Rebels loved to hate.... Alan Smart! Caley 100... were you doing the Cross? I left just before 3:30 so you must have had a pretty decent time.. unless you were a walker, in which case, still RESPECT!

It was in the North Cup in 1994... January I believe. I remember taking my son to the first half and then having to go to Kingsmills for the second half of the last Thistle - Clach derby up there. On another matter... I'm just wondering if "f*ballers wife" might, in reality, be a BLOKE?! In fact I'm just sensing that this might be another of Johndo's wind ups in the best traditions of Greenbhoy Larsson?

I only met Mrs Bergamini once when she was and old lady getting a hip prelacement with my mum in 1980. Seems to have been a bit of a goer in the 50s and 60s.

Sandy! Now there's a memory! The sound of the wind in the Dalneigh school fence. It used to travel for a long way and could certainly be heard clearly in St. Andrew Drive about quarter of a mile away. It was, indeed, quite scary at night. Certainly when we moved into Dalneigh from Kenneth Street late in 1958 the school was complete and up to P7 and the Church was there. I don't remember a hut at all. Presumably Hamish MacIntyre was the first Minister. I only remember one person ever claiming to have seen him without that (not very natural looking) "rug" on his head. He used to come into our class every week to pick up the kids with polio and take them to the baths.

Fitness Suite? Don't worry about it! It's just gone the way all other terminology has in education. Pupils have become Students, The Remedial Department has become Support For Learning, asking kids questions has become "Assessment is for Learning", the timetable has become the Curriculum for Excellence..... and the ricketty old weights machine in the corner has become the Fitness Suite!

Sandy... are you sure Dalneigh School wasn't complete in 1957? I went into P1 there in August 1958 and I had always been under the impression that the school was new but not split new. If the Church wasn't complete in 57, does anyone know when the Rev MacIntyre came to Dalneigh? He was certainly in the Manse when we moved into St. Andrew Drive, which backed on to his garden (and apple trees) late in 1958. And did the Rooneys move to Dalneigh by the 50s. I remember a Mary Rooney in may class in Dalneigh. Scotty... might it be the Swedish houses between Caledonian Road and Limetree Ave that were newer than the rest of Hawthorn Drive?

Expensive! I really can't see the point of paying about 40 quid a month to look at a wall when you can go and run in the wonderful outdoor for nothing. You'd be amazed at how good an overall fitness regime you can devise for yourself without the cost of going near a gym.... where the training of the staff can be... to say the least... variable.