Charles Bannerman

So how much were you thinking about investing, Top Six?

Although maybe not as many as 10 out of 11, that, I think, is the vital observation. In ascending order, the margins by which the club in question has gone down over the last 11 seasons are - Goal difference (ICT in 2009), 2 points, 4, 6, 7, 2x8, 9, 12, 15, 17. The clear suggestion is that most years, the relegated team was right off the pace so was likely also to have been bottom at New Year. So far this season, after 20 games, ICT are bottom on goal difference and only five points adrift of the top six. It's been very clear for some time that there's very little indeed across the bottom seven so current league positions aren't an accurate predictor. There's every chance that relegation will go right to the wire and I just hope it doesn't boil down to something stupid like a refereeing mistake. The other consideration, though, is that looking at the top of the Championship, I wouldn't necessarily feel too secure either in second bottom place.

I'm sure I did! As it happens, a couple of days after IBM's post I then happened to be in Hugh's company in the Caley Club both pre and post match.

Scarlet... that "first photo above" is Plug from the Beano.... who actually featured in a University Challenge question last night! I assume you mean the Thistle 1958-59 cup winning team a lot further above, in which case I think Jupie may well have moved on to Thistle from Caley and indeed did he once score 10 in an 11-0 defeat of Fraserburgh by Caley... or did I dream that one?

Absolutely!!!!

A rare example of a pretty poor illustration on here. Apart from the painting's sort of general Lowry-like depiction, the Castle looks nothing like itself and St Columba High Church is missing altogether. The date is post-1864 since the Northern Meeting Park is there. St Columba church dates from 1852 so should be there but isn't. You can see the main Steeple (which perhaps looks a bit too far away from the Castle) and then it seems a great distance along the river to the Free North (post 1843) and the Old High (very old). But there is a steeple missing in between the main Steeple and the Free North. I'm not sure if that's meant to be the old Royal Academy centre right, in which case the date would be post-1895.

I really hope we never had to rely on the old duffer second from the right at the front in any emergency at any date after the Crimean War!

Any kid producing one of these on the High Street these days would instantly be cornered by cops with real shooters hot foot out of McDonalds.

Was that photo taken this morning?

Looks like Elvis in a kilt up at the mic!

Much ado about nothing. As far as inter-club banter goes, that's well towards the mild end of the spectrum. What's happening here? Is the "offence" culture invading football forums now as well? Bob... do you not remember the still fairly recent old Highland Derby days when chants about ethnicity and the non-permanence of residence came from one end in response to less than complimentary remarks about the South Kessock area of Inverness from the other? Then the law, in its vain attempt to address politically motivated sectarianism and religious hatred in West Central Scotland, came up with the extremely blunt instrument of a wholesale ban of anything more inflammatory than "Excuse me but I respectfully beg to disagree". Let's see which derby.... Glasgow or Highland... passes off in a more civilised fashion on Hogmanay.

and Given what's being rumoured about the state of repair of Ibrox, "Away In A Manger" might be appropriate for this weekend. Looking out of the Kingsmills Suite windows "I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In" would be appropriate. "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" could help boost attendances. Another couple of defeats and it's "In The Bleak Mid Winter". "Hark The Herald Angels Sing" for the Young Team. If Richie signs Billy's two brothers then it must be "We Three Kings Of Orient Are". Arrange a festive friendly in Liverpool and we need "Once In Royal David's City". If Tommy can't clear the pitch for the Motherwell game, then try "See Amid The Winter Snow". It's a pity Aberdeen aren't visiting this Christmas because there are choruses from Handel's Messiah entitled "Worthy Is The Lamb" and "All We Like Sheep".

Granville and Willie Bell I definitely knew (albeit not in the Biblical sense which would have been very "baaaaad"). Toich I only know by repute, mainly courtesy of accounts from IHE who I believe once told us that Granville was to sheep as Toich was to lamp posts.

As far as I recollect, Scotty's was much nearer the Greig St Bridge, but on the same side of Greig St. Diggar's is the second shop after the junction with King St on the North (Telford St) side of Greig St. The shop on that corner is now an Open All Hours but back in the 50s it used to be Baddon's Bike Shop. The other barber's shop - which I take to have been Scotty's - was just a few yards from the bridge end of the street but, although it kept its red and white pole etc, I believe it was occupied for many years by Pat Grant the Hoover man.

You seem to be saying that there were two missed infringements, but the only one the referee should have acted on was the one which benefited ICT. I have to say I didn't see the zoom-in in question and it's more or less impossible to spot anything even from the slo-mo in the highlights, so I just don't know about the alleged first one. But IF there was an missed hand ball by the Inverness player before the missed handball by the Hamilton defender, the second one surely becomes irrelevant since play should have stopped at the instant of the first infringement.

I have to say that rather reminds me of Mourinho's statement the other day that if ManU had won all their drawn matches they would be top of the league!

To dismiss "Diggar" (that's actually the spelling on the shop front) as "a barber" is to write IHE off as a chap who enjoys the odd, quiet visit to a football match. Yes indeed Diggar was a barber and he cut my hair from the age of 3 right up until I went to university in Edinburgh at 18. I believe that he began in the business as an Army barber at Fort George, having served in Burma during the war (and he was an active member of the Burma Star Association thereafter.) But Diggar's shop was far more than a barber's. He did a major line in football coupon distribution and it was unknown for your haircut not to be interrupted by Diggar going to the pile of coupons near the window sort somebody out with their weekly flutter - or indeed for him to depart to the front door to shout benevolent abuse at some passer by of his acquaintance, not infrequently John Brooman. Mrs MacGillvary was Sarah and the two kids were Dennis (who I think still runs the shop although he will be around 70 now) and the much younger Jill. In football terms, Diggar was the ultimate Blue Nose - Rangers and Caley to the hilt and a regular in the Howden End. I think he died in the earlier part of 1993 because when I met up for interviews with the Caley Rebels the day after the Rothes pitch invasion, one of the memorable, albeit somewhat hyperbolic and over dramatic quotes came from Young Brooman - John's grandson: "Diggar MacGillvary is hardly cold in his grave and they're doing this to the club!" Diggar was what one might call "an ardent conversationalist" and the story goes that he once attended a meeting of Ballifeary Road residents on energy saving. The meeting had been proceeding in an orderly fashion until Diggar proclaimed "But of course I'm all gas" whereupon the proceedings simply fell apart with mirth.

I can confirm that they (sort of formerly "we") most definitely do!

Gotta be Urquhart!

Yes indeed... the problem with Leishman is that he just didn't "get" Highland League football and was also a warning prior to the Baltacha situation with CT in 1994-95 that an absentee manager isn't a great idea - irrespective of how nice a room he may have had in the Crown Court. I think one of the worst decisions Jock made was to sack Lofty and this was also the root cause of Jock's own departure at the end of 1991. I think there was maybe a lack of realism there when it should maybe have been appreciated that, with Thistle's means and likely income streams, winning the likes of the League and the Q Cup in 1987 and 1988 was never likely to be the default position. On the subject of Jags "unveilings", I also remember the new strips - including the green away one - in about 1992. That press call was especially memorable for the incredible buffet they laid on at the launch in the Haughdale. The conventional wisdom was that Jock's Jags just didn't do that kind of geniality! And in turn, on the subject of the Haughdale, it was on the front lawn there in July 1994, when it looked overwhelmingly as if the new Inverness club was going to be strangled at birth, that Jock made one of his better calls when he told me categorically in an interview "the new club WILL go ahead"....

In that case it looks as if it might have been the launch/extension of a Tomatin sponsorship? I also seem to recollect that Lofty got sacked about six months later for failing to live up to Jock's expectations - especially in the Scottish Cup.

That's such an atmospheric photo! Funny also how it seems to suit black and white as opposed to colour, as a lot of older photos do. It's probably just a trick of psychology since most visual images of earlier days are in black and white and that's what we therefore expect. For instance when you see colour images of WW1 and WW2, they sometimes don't "feel right". I am also trying to imagine what it would be like to watch an episode of, for instance, Sgt Bilko or Dr Kildare in colour. As it happens I drove up that very incline just a few minutes ago and immediately thought of this photo which I first saw last night. There have been quite a few changes over the years! I notice that Castle Tolmie has already been demolished and Bridge St appears to be going the same way which I think may date the photo to vey late 50s? That would also be consistent with IBM's date for the car.

Is Colin Mitchell still a mascot or is he a player? That's very likely late 80s, maybe into the 90s, since Corbett took over as manager in 1985 and left for Clach in 1991.

That's a pretty formidable apparatus he's got between his legs!

Somebody is, of course, taking the **** here. Royal Academy dances.... "innocent gaiety"...."blameless mirth"......yer jokeen mun!!! I believe that photo is of the 1954 school dance. There's something at the back of my mind telling me that the toothy guy at the front went on to have something to do with Frasers the Auctioneers and the guy in the black jacket may have become an estate agent in the US.