Charles Bannerman

Indeed HC, witchhunts DO still occur in the modern era and these days the victims are mainly users of fossil fuels. In post Renaissance Europe strange old women were needlesly persecuted ... in 1950s America it was alleged Communinsts... and in 21st Century Britain it's poeple with cars and central heating who are demonised on fabricated evidence. Carbon Dioxide... the 21st Centruy's answer to witchcraft. But, to avoid getting bounced to "Anything Goes" I would conclude.... don't worry Charlie, the Little Green Men (and I don't mean Jinky Johnston and Fergus McCann) will ensure that man's fundamental need for something to victimise will soon focus away from you and on to people who use conventional light bulbs.

I've been out of circulation today but my BBC colleague Kenny MacIntyre in Glasgow did manage to get a fairly extended 3+ minute interview with Charlie this morning in response to what the papers have been saying. This was broadcast at 8:30 on Good Morning Scotland and in part on the local bulletins just before 1. I have only heard a couple of clips of this so far, but according to them and to what those who have heard it in full have told me, Charlie is firmly dismissing and denying the newspaper claims about him threatening to stand down. He does agree that there were heated words in the dressing room post match and says these have been misrepresented. Remember this is straight from the horse's mouth whereas the newspaper reports have no quotes. I would presume that what the newspapers had arose from some kind of dressing room leak. Charlie also raises one or two issues which I understand he will be discussing with Graeme Bennett and Alan Savage over the next few days. These include player recruitment (specifically scouting) and the wage structure. He seems to feel that Caley Thistle has come thus far under its present arrangements and the time has now come to adapt in accordance with the club's current status. This corresponds strongly with what he said at the post match press conference at 5:30 on Saturday where he spoke about the club having "reached a crux." And having listened though again to what he said there....just minutes after these alleged heated dressing room exchanges... I can't, even with the beneffit of hindsight, detect any hint of an inclination to stand down. I would also not be surprised if temperatures in the dressing room have already begun to return to normal. I would imagine that management and directors will all now be hoping for the kind of tolerance and support from their fans which they need in order to implement the kind of evolution Charlie seems to have hinted at. This adaptation is presumably very necessary for a club which has had to cope with going from the Highland League to the middle of the SPL in little more than a decade.

Apart from asking the questions to two interviewees during recording, I have no input or influence in this. I'm also not sure what the copyright implications might be. Oh and by the way, the non appearance of this item in recent editions of Football Focus.... that's Charlie Christie's fault too of course!

Captain... there is a cheap alternative in shirt names. Finland's Olympic curling bronze medallist is called Markku Uusipaavalniemi. On the back of his shirt he quite simply (and possibly economically) has "M15". So all Markus P's fans need to get should be "M11"!

You speak for yourself!

Sorry people. I don't know what happened there. The club were also told that it was going to be on yesterday.

It's our understanding at the BBC in Inverness that the Football Focus item on Caley Thistle originally scheduled for 3rd or 10th March will now be transmitted tomorrow (17th.) But don't expect a documentary. This was only ever conceived as a 3 minute look at the ICT success story. The piece was packaged in london but I expect that it will comprise interviews with Charlie Christie and Willie Fisher who managed the grandstand contract for Tullochs... plus Billy "The Legend" Urquhart wandering about the Telford Retail Park, reminiscing about scoring goals from the washing machine department of Comet!

Caley 100.... it's a wee bit more like "This isn't just food, this is outrageously over priced Marks and Spencer's food." This isn't just arithmetic..... JUD and Gordy Bus.... the Einstein and Heisenberg of crowd calculation.

Once you've completely mastered Statistical Thermodynamics, Quantum Mechanics and Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, you are then ready to start an elementary study of the enigmas, anomalies and mysteries of working out the official crowd at a football match.

This idea is absurd and should have been kept under wraps until April 1st. It means that there's a huge swing of six points on the lottery of a penalty shootout. It also leaves no means of proportional reward for two well matched teams. If they want any change at all, perhaps they could think along the lines of "bonus points" which Scottish rugby uses where you get a bonus point (in relation to four for a win) for scoring more than a certain number of tries or for losing by less than a certain number of points.

C100... I believe it was 204 from DU but let's not split hairs!

To my recollection no. I think the first Provost I remember in the early 60s was Robert Wotherspoon who had a widespread reputation of being an out and out crook. When he died (and he IS deid Scotty so don't worry about defamation!) Miss Barron at The Courier tasked her Chief Reporter to write the Obituary. He only direct instruction was reputed to have been "and under no circumstances mention the word integrity!" Then there was Bobo MacKay of old Caley memory. In the 60s it was regarded as a bit unusual to see Provosts' lamps outside a Council House. (I seem to remember an earlier debate about whether it was Caledonian Road or Lilac Grove.) There may have been somebody else between Bobo and Iain Fraser and then we moved into the era of Bill Fraser (the butcher) and Allan Sellar. These gents are quite frequently to be seen together at home ICT matches. It has to be recorded that both played their parts in the early history of ICT and Allan is still a Trustee. The present incumbent is Bill Smith. Then there was the man who came so close so often but never managed to clinch the top joband that was Tom MacKenzie.

Yes Canuck, but Paddy did also have a leg problem - which usually afflicted him around 10 o'clock on a Saturday night! The problem was that his legs seemed to cease working! 10 o'clock it would have been in these days too - that was closing time right up to the mid 70s. Violet (Mrs K) was heard more than once to remark that it was New Year every Saturday night in their house. I also seem to recollect that the Kavanagh family had quite a late addition, a wee girl some time after "Kavvies" had become resigned to being an only child. Did Paddy not work on the railway? I seem to remember going through the cemetery near the Bruce Gardens gate a few years ago and coming across Paddy's grave. I have a vague memory of the Sutherlands as well. Just over the road, in the last Swedish houses on the angle of St. Andrew Drive there was also an old guy called Fraser who used to be Heedie at Hilton. The other half of that semi was occupied by Billy Robertson who I think used to play (in goals?) for Caley or was it Clach or both? On the same side of St. Valery but slighly further up there was a Mrs. Mitchell who was the mother of Ronnie Mitchell who also used to play for someone in the HL. Mrs. Mitchell worked in Salvadori's in Greig Street. The MacIntyres - Elizabeth, I believe, was the oldest, then Duncan who took up a scholarship to Fettes College which my mother always thought was a bit ironic given the Rev M's strong Socialist leanings - but that of course was a few decades before New Labour. Sheila is the same age as I am and Helen (the blonde a lot of the guys used to fancy) was a year younger. Hamish (who was killed in a mountaineering accident) was a couple of years younger than that and Jean was a further two years younger, so four in five years there. No wonder Mrs Mac went prematurely grey! We lived in St. Andrew Drive in one of several Swedish houses which backed on to The Manse. When we arrived first, Jean was still in the pram and my mother said she'd never heard a baby make such a noise. I wish I could remember who it was who had been in the Manse one day and was the only person we ever heard claim to have seen the hairless MacIntyre cranium, on to which the "rug" was about to be placed.

Johnboy.... RESPECT!... so nice to see somebody who knows a past participle when he sees one. This can be a rare species in football when we frequently hear statements such as: "We should have saw that they would have went straight up the park and scored." Johnboy... I don't suppose you have any ideas why, over the last four or five years, managers and players seem to have changed from the past to the perfect trense when they are describing a game AFTERWARDS? eg "McGeady has hit a great strike but MacGregor has pulled off a fantastic save." This one has been mystifying me for a while.

I like to think of it as a verb, or a "doing" word...!! If you add "in" at the end, as I'm quite sure Charles's friend does, then it becomes an adjective.... :017: It's a present participle used in the form of an adjective.

Gas lamps. The last ones I remember were in Bruce Gardens and Park Road.

David Thom was indeed starter at a lot of athletics meetings and school sports in the area. The shop at the top of Stephen's Brae has been a number of things over the years and is currently a flower shop.

Johnboy.. have you ever tried one of Gordy's gammons? Huge steak, mountain of chips, TWO fried eggs, peas, onion rings, mushrooms, tomato. And all for £4.50. You can upgrade that to steak for a fiver! And you're completely right about the predictability of this old guy's adjective!

The school teacher in charge of the 3rd BB woyld have been David Thom, Depute rector of the Royal Academy. Did you not also go to BB Camps at Carrbridge? I had a very interesting chat with Jackie Sutherland at a recent ICT game. Jackie, it seems, still keeps an interest in the old BB Campsite at Carrbridge. iOM if you're an old boy from the Crown you might be taken aback to learn that the Royal Academy playing field has now been blitzed to accommodate the new Millburn Academy. Do you also remember Morrison's the Bakers and their wonderful pies. It's now an optician's. The Heatmount and the Corrie are still there of course. Frankie Jew's (aka Galloways) is now a gents' barber's. The Royal Academy is now the Tecky College. The Crown School is still the Crown School though.

Many years ago my dad took me to the Scotland v England international at Hampden. We could have got standing room but he went for the expensive North stand seats - 30 shillings - a fortune at the time. However the whole game was ruined by the constant foul mouthed abuse (and I mean the whole 90 minutes) from this one guy in the row in front. I've never forgotten that. Nowadays I'm more concerned with swearing in the Social Club. I had been in the habit of going in there for my tea on a Monday night but really I've got so fed up with having to listen to this foul mouthed old Weegie geezer who parks himself at the corner of the bar and Effs incessantly. It's mindnumbing, as if he needed the alternate Eff word to give him time to think up his next normal one. (Shame because Gordon's gammon steaks are excellent.. if somewhat demanding on the waistline.)

And it seems like just yesterday that Sergeant Major Shutup, to the hilarity of millions on "Ain't Half Hot Mum", was telling his troops "You are ay Bunch of P**fs!"

Perhaps Kingsmills could help us out on this one. Could a fan be proceeded against if he was able to demonstrate "veritas" - in other words what he was saying was true?

Perhaps I should have added earlier on the thought that in some respects Ross County's SFL bid in 93/94 was actually stronger than Caley Thistle's never mind Elgin's. In particular I would point to the fact that Ross County was a stable , existing club while CT's bid materialised at a time when it was far from certain whether there would even be a club there. The bid actually squeezed through during a narrow four week window of the "phoney peace" when the Rebels suspended their actions against the Committee. I would also point to how much better County have done than Elgin after they eventually got in but, as Kingsmills says, this is ancient history and I'm only too pleased to see all three North teams in national league football... the higher up the better for all three And congrats to Robbie for getting Elgin off the bottom at last!!!

Smee... I can't even come close to agreeing with your suggestion that Ross county only got into the SFL because Elgin City "cheated". I'm assuming you're referring to the adverse effect that the Teasdale Affair and the stripping of the 1993 HL title had on Elgin's SFL bid. I certainly don't think that did City any good, but I also don't think City ever were going to get in ahead of superb bids from both Caledonian Thistle and Ross County. I saw County's efforts to be elected at first hand and their really presented an excellent case. The contribution of Bobby Wilson shouldn't be underestimated here. They absolutely deserved to get in on merit and that has been confirmed by their progress since which, although not as dramatic as ICT's, has still been very good. They have also, throughout, maintained a very professionally organised club structure. Obviously things have not been so good "overthebridge" this season and they're now bottom of Division 1 and 5 points adrift of safety. I for once sincerely hope that Ross County weather this storm and remain in the First Division.

I've been following the Clach saga for the last 20 years and find it quite fascinating although, as someone who wishes them very well, I'd prefer if there wasn't a story there to follow in the first place. Clach struggled and declined through the late 80s under the second generation Rodgers and Willie MacLennan era until the club was snatched from the jaws of the receiver (the winding up order had actually been signed by the Sheriff) in 1990 by the consortium put together by Davie Love and from which David Dowling emerged as the major player. They got rid of much of a large 6 figure debt by selling off the part of Grant Street Park which had accommodated the stand which mysteriously burned down around 1988. On the park, starting with one signed player (Derek Rudkin), Roshie Fraser rescued Clach from a situation where they'd ended season 89-90 on three points (3 draws) and 153 goals conceded. By 1993 they won the North Cup and have had other larger triumphs since, notably the League and League Cup, losing the Q Cup on penalties, in 2004. Then in the mid 90s they were hit again by a combination of factors relating to economic conditions in the Merkinch and the growth of Caley Thistle - these are detailed in the second last chapter of Against All Odds. They came within a whisker of moving to Dingwall with Ross County in 1997 but eventually stayed at Grant Street Park which was sold to Caley Thistle Properties for £280K which saw off this latest financial crisis. However, irrespective of how much fuss the Merkinchers may have made on these two occasions when it looked as if the club would be lost, they still haven't matched this with their cash. Attendances continue to be poor and the latest problem has been a decline in Social Club income. This is partly a national problem although the recruitment of Kevin Duff to the Board (NOT as a representative of Carlsberg as has been implied in the Courier) has also sharpened up the management of the Social Club. I also notice from their accounts that they have managed to cut a lot of costs and the Scoial club is already turning round considerably. Certainly the current situation is pretty tame compared with 1990 ansd 1996. But the fundamental problem is that this club which is meant to be so close to the hearts of the Merkinch (and you should have heard the fuss when they were going to go to Dingwall) is not getting the income it needs to survive. They've also been forced to sell much of the "crown jewels" to solve the two earlier financial crises and more or less all that's left now is the capital value of the Social Club. David Dowling says he believes Clach will be down there "for many years to come". I'm sure he's right. I certainly hope so.