Charles Bannerman

I wouldn't go quite as far as "virtually confirming" C100, but on the basis of what I've been hearing and what most people would guess Sky would want, I'd be very surprised if this game is not on the Sunday. (I have to say there seem to have been quite a large proportion of "non Saturday" games at the Caley Stadium this season and I'm a bit of a traditionalist... or put more honestly, I like the routine of game... post match interviews... quick tea in Tesco... Social Club... Heathmount on a Saturday!)

I also notice from the commentary that Emily Goodlad, ex ICT, now seems to be Livingston's physio.... apparently sponsored by Ann Summers!!!

Mantis "Cannae" - was that not a Roman battle in 216 BC? Second Carthaginan War?

Caleyboy... this is not a gift. The 12% which the Supporters' Trust now has represents the £1 million plus of assets which Thistle and Caley put into the original merger. These assets literally belonged to the supporters (in the form of season ticket holders) of these original clubs and their resulting voting power is now vested in the supporters of ICT, many of whom are the same people. In the intervening years these shares had to be diverted for safety to the Members' Club. I could actually make quite a strong case that this happened because at the time, too many of the Thistle and Caley "Supporters" could not be "Trusted" to direct these assets in the best interests of the new club. So in more ways than one, the term Supporters' Trust is extremely appropriate!

The Trust, and what under the circumstances is a large but very fair 12% stake in Caley Thistle, is the up side of the Merger, now come home to roost in a comfortable environment more than a decade on from those difficult days. One of the key components of the eventual merger settlement was the creation of a Unified Members' Club which was designed to perpetuate within the new club the interests of the original merger partners. I for one was quite surprised at the time that junior partners Thistle agreed to this but in the end their much feared consumption by the much larger Caley faction never even emerged as an issue. The Suporters' Trust is now the natural successor of the original Members' Club. To start with the Members' Club had control of around half Caley Thistle's equity. This was only fair, given the proportion of the club's initial value which Thistle and Caley contributed. (Gross - Caley £1M for Telford Street (1996) plus an ongoing Social Club, Thistle £486,000 for Kingsmills (1995) plus the sale value of their Baron Taylor's St premises. Nett - after expenses and especially LEGAL FEES!, possibly something over 1M combined total.) As other sources of equity came in, such as Ian Fraser, the 1996 share issue and Tullochs, the Members' Club's share was progressively reduced by resolution of various General Meetings until it reached its current level of 12%. It could also be mentioned as an aside that it was Dougie McGilvray who, as Chairman, began this dilution process in the late 90s although he later disagreed with its continuation under David Sutherland. I think the central point here is that the very thing that created the greatest impediment to the merger - the fact that Thistle and Caley were owned by their Members, necessitating a series of large scale votes, and not by shareholders or directors - has now become the basis of this very generous shareholding held by the Supporters' Trust. In other words, Jags and Caley belonged to their members. These assets were eventually (!) converted into shares in ICT, stewardship of which was vested in the Members' Club, and, after appropriate dilution to 12%, that stewardship has now been rightly transferred to the Supporters' Trust. I cannot agree with Caley D's objection to a membership fee. After all it's less than half the cost of admission to a single football match and the Trust will have administrative expenses. In conclusion, I would add that I simply can't identify any of the devils which Clacher seems to imagine are lurking within but, in view of Scotty's excellent critique of Clacher's post, I need say no more on that issue.

According to the safety certificate, both the North and South stands hold 2601.

Just left Jimmy in the Heathmount after a great crack about years gone by and a few beers each so I really doubt it!

Perhaps (erroneous) speculation like this, if it has to be aired at all, could better be placed on The Rumour Mill. There was no press conference today although, on the strength of what appeared on this thread, I and a number of colleagues wasted a lot of time wasting the time of Bill McAllister, reception and the stadium and Charlie Christie checking this fiction out.

If he's looking for somewhere to stay, I hear there's a nice wee guest house out Gairloch way with a landlord who would be very pleased to take a booking for a double room from a Mr. E John and Mr. D Furnish!

Peterhead were chasing him too... until Pele realised his name wasn't "Putalineon".

Kingsmills.... I believe the term "Rector" strictly refers to the person in charge of a senior secondary school. Primary schools have head teachers and in the case of Millburn, when it achieved "promotion" from junior secondary to six year comprehensive status in the late 70s, the head teacher Willie Weatherspoon was similarly upgraded to rector. By the way, what's the Scots law equivalent of manslaughter?

The (Scottish?) Sun is pretty bad. On today's Page 3, Keeley says: "Atlantic hero Michael Perham has put the pride back into British sport. While our cricket, rugby and football teams all flounder, it's taken a 14 year old......" Well, apart frrom Keeley failing to mention Andy Murray, I think OUR rugby team (which beat the "world champions" in the Calcutta Cup) and OUR football team (which beat the world runners up) seem to be doing all right at the moment. And given what we're seeing in Australia, I think anybody's cricket team would beat theirs. Indeed I'm convinced that this Sailor Laddie is only getting the prominence he's getting as a media distractor from the possibly imminent first Ashes whitewash since 1921. He should be in school doing his Prelims! And yes, I DID only look at Page 3 to sample the profundity of Keeley's contemporary observations. PS - I actually have a journalistic ambition to be engaged by The Sun as staff writer of the "Dear Deirdre" letters. I'm probably a bit old to be employed as one of these people in "Deirdre's Photo Casebook" who seem to spend their entire lives hanging about in bedrooms in their underwear!

One or two things here. Firstly, during the afternoon I exchanged a bit of good natured banter with the reporter concerned (Colin Blane) and he sent me a copy of his tastefully amended script for later bulletins. This now reads: "Rangers have fallen well behind Celtic in the league where thery've already lost home and away to Inverness Caledonian Thistle." Also, "slander" and "libel" do not exist in Scots law. There is the general term "defamation". And yes, it is the case that a statement is only defamatory if it is not true. If someone can prove "veritas" - ie that it's true - they can't be done for defamation. This is what the News of the World failed to prove in the Tommy Sheridan case.

Interesting you should raise that one. There were pieces in Saturday's programme about both Billy and Davie and the Billy piece said that he was summoned to the Kingsmills Hotel after scoring two v Rangers in a friendly in I think 1978 and signed on the spot.

Caley100 - piecing my recollections together, and thanks to your assistance, Caley (sic) beat Alex Smith's Stirling in 84 to go to on to meet Rangers at Telford Street. Then in 86 it was Berwick with an Urquhart second replay header leading to a tie against Hearts at Tynecastle. Both runs ended in 6-0 defeats. And in 87, the year Rangers were famously beaten by Hamilton, a 3-0 defeat for Caley by eventual cupwinners St. Mirren. Come to think of it, what a period of Scottish Cup ties for a Highland League side! 1984 - Rangers, 1986 - Hearts, 1987 - St. Mirren, 1990 - defeat of Airdrie, 1992 - draw with St. Johnstone. Was there not a tie against Hibs in there somewhere as well around 1989? And of course we also have to throw in the epic Thistle 3-0 defeat of Kilmarnock in 1985 and progress to Celtic Park. The "new " Caley Thistle going out 2-1 to QoS in the first round in 1994 came as a real anticlimax after that lot! And an interesting blast from the past. Making the draw last month for this Saturday's 2007 third round were Alex Smith who won the cup with St. Mirren 20 years previously and Adrian Sprott who scored the goal which put Rangers out at the same stage the same season. Were Stirling not also the team which beat Selkirk 20-0... in about 1985?

DJS - if it's Caley (sic) you're talking about, why not go back a few more years to circa 1984 when Caley put Albion out of the Cup?! As it happens, when I went through to introduce myself to the then Albion manager Alex Smith, after he joined County, it was one of the first things we talked about. On an historical note, my memory sometimes lets me down on this one. Was it the Stirling or the Berwick game in the mid 80s which went to a second replay at Methil where Urquhart clinched it with a classic header?

Next to no pace? During the pre season training expedition to Italy I watched the whole squad doing their 60 metre sprints on the track near Montecatini and the player who had the edge was Alan Morgan!

een.... must have been Elizabeth MacIntyre that was in your class. Sheila was my age but I didn't know the Rev Hamish had been a POW. Aye... football and commandoes at the Back of Kavvies. I wonder how often we "killed" each other! It's funny, a couple of years ago I had a long discussion with some old Caley folk in the Social Club but none of them could remember Paddy Kavanagh. They could remember Brian (who I believe was a Rebel) but i have a clear recollection of a Supporters' Club membership card on which the club committee was listed, including the miss spelled "P Cavani". I think it was also on that card that they printed some supporters' club songs, including the cringeworthy "Come Away The Caley" to the tune of Mairi's Wedding which included the legendary lines "Parkhead, Brockville and Dens Park, Found our football was no lark." Mind you, even that might be better than some of the silence we get down by these days!

If it was Australia it must have been Perth in 1962. The Games in the 50s were in New Zealand, Canada and Wales. I certainly remember Maurice Campbell from St Valery. He was nearly as good as Barry Wilson!

That would possibly be Dr. Andrew Hay. His son David was a year ahead of me at school. Very clever guy but with an unfortunately high voice.

Row S - I note with interest the time of your original post. At the time in question, I happened to be out running and had just reached Scaniport when the rain descended big time. I can therefore confirm it was very wet. It seems that the pitch takes about 5 hours to clear significant wetness and Laura... don't worry too much about the wind. that will actually help a huge amount to dry things up. Glad you're having nice weather on the North Coast. I suppose most of the time it's "'eriboll"!

And before Leisuropa it was MacPherson's Sporting Stores! The Carlton was a strange mix. I remember when I was small it was a cafe/ restaurant and my mum used to take me in there if she was after a cup of tea in the town. The place used to be full of tweedy wifies and the waitresses used to wear those old fashioned black uniforms with starched white aprons and hats. Then it became a bar some time in the 60s and it was a notorious under age drinking den. In fact I may well have had my first illicit pint in there.

I think it's an apocryphal tale. There seems to be this "spitting in the fat" myth which seems to hang around various chippers in Inverness - and very possibly other places too - as an implication of seediness. By Rosie's Cafe do you mean the Eastgate Chipper? Favourite lunch time stop off place wih IRA pupils and presumably Millburners as well. Doesn't say much for the counter attraction of school dinners!

Derry's Walls were apparently being defended in very large numbers from the South Stand within the first five minutes of the game.

prendergast... Celtic1Caley3 is being economical with the truth! The club is actually called Caley THISTLE. Despite having had slight Howden End sympathies when I was a lad, I'm a stickler for the Thistle bit. It has a lot to do with why ICT is here at all.