Charles Bannerman

On the first part of that quote, what is being described is an essential feature of broadcasting and indeed of journalism as a whole since the written press need to be equally selective about what they use. In many broadcasting situations, outwith dedicated sports programmes like Sportsound, it's not realistic to use full length interviews and this is even more true of TV than of radio. In a 2-5 minute all-sport round up within a news context, what is known as "clipping" is more or less the only option available. Then, of course, when clubs do all-in press conferences as opposed to one to one interviews, the chances of anything more than a clip being used disappear more or less altogether. On the other hand if people are desperate for full length interviews they can get these in all their objectivity and impartialityon individual club websites. On the second part.... well I actually thought it was just Rangers and Celtic that the whole world was against

For obscurity that one is surely straight out of the "tall ships passing behind Tomnahurich" stable! I am minded of a variation on a famous photo caption from a 1993 issue of LSM (the Caley fanzine) - "Right lads, what to you want do do? Keep trying to be the greatest Highland League team in history or build a Scottish Cupwinning club down the dump with Fiona Larg?" The irony of the original caption lingers on!

The idea of Caledonian Thistle really began to emerge mid December 1993, although it had been talked about before that. Earlier that month, Caley passed the merger in principle for a second time, but with insufficient support also to secure asset transfer. This led to the Rebels suggesting that a merged team called Caledonian and playing in blue would be acceptable to them. This is turn forced Thistle to the brink of quitting a bid which by now had been past the point of no return for over two months. A couple of weeks before Christmas, INE Chairman Norman Cordiner spent an evening of shuttle diplomacy between the two sides - Thistle at Kingsmills and Caley in the Kingsmills Hotel. (It had to be Norman and not his CEO Fiona Larg because women weren't allowed in the Thistle boardroom!). The product of these knife edge negotiations was a three fold agreement - the club would be called Caledonian Thistle, the new park would be called the Caledonian Stadium and the team would play in "predominantly blue" strips (there are still plenty of people around who remember what that actually worked out as). Even though they were the minor partner in just about every respect, this still represented a significant concession from Thistle. As a result, since Caley weren't going to accept any name without the C-word in it and Thistle weren't going to surrender the small bit of the action they had got, they were walking a tightrope on that name. Having been in Caley's Rose Street meeting and having doorstepped the Thistle one ten days later, I really do believe that this was the only name that was going to be remotely acceptable at the time and the name was just one of a range of issues on which the entire deal - and SFL football for Inverness - could have collapsed. At this point, all other possible names departed the fray.

Probably some jakey who found himself regularly transported there by G4S or whoever their predecessors were.

Given that the term "Thistle" appears to be reserved exclusively for a less successful club from Maryhill, they do seem to have narrowed their options on that one.

I'm really glad I'm not doing a broadcast report on this one! Look at the Dundee 16, 22 or even 26! Having these three guys on the team sheet is in no way compensated for by a very straightforward "Nick Ros"s. And to think I used to worry that the boy Bolochowecki might come off the bench when he was at County. Commentators' nightmares all of them! (Not Nick!)

I know! You could write a book about all this.

Well Inverness Union, along with Crown, is where the Jags originated from! But it could have been worse. Yes Highland could have had their HQ in something like Union Street.... hang on a minute....

I still think ICT has it by a short head if you go on syllables. ICT - 10. LTHV - 9.

Pardon me if I nitpick benevolently and only slightly about this and Kingsmills' post which has just gone up. The original name was indeed Caledonian Thistle, first publicly mooted in December 1993 and agreed soon after as the only politically acceptable solution to one of several problems which threatened to sink the m****r deal, and with it SFL football for Inverness. The "Inverness" was added in the summer of 1996, not as a quid pro quo for the £900,000 Common Good Fund grant but for the earlier Highland Regional Council agreement of 1994 to grant a 99 year lease of the current stadium site. That agreement had included a "best endeavours" clause about the name - in effect once any addition at all became politically possible, which happened to be in 1996. The £900,000 CGF grant wasn't actually given by the District Council but by the new Highland Council as one of its earlier acts after it was formed in 1996. There had been a very belated IDC agreement late in 1995 to award that money from their own funds, but opponents within the council fought a temporarily successful wrecking campaign on this, based on QC's opinion of what the word "payable" meant in an IDC motion to pay the money put down by David Stewart. This delayed payment past IDC going defunct on the formation of HC which, in the face of earlier threats of possible legal action, very quickly - and indeed willingly - agreed to pay this from the CGF, control over which also transferred to them in April 1996. As for what this money was for, let's start with HRC's planning committee's requirement that the club also paid for an access road for the stadium. This resulted in a severe curtailment of the stadium itself and road + stadium being classified as a single entity - the "stadium project", with a budget of £5.4M, and defined as such by then Chairman Dougie McGilvray. Hence, when the £900,000 application came along it was in practice for the global project, but was presented as being specifically for the road to make the request politically more acceptable. But one way or another the road from roundabout to stadium, which was put there at ICT's expense to allow access to the stadium and which was then "adopted" by the Council, has indeed been of massive economic benefit to the area by way of it being linked by an extension to the Harbour which opened up the entire seafront. Councillor Clive Goodman was, I think as Chairman of the Harbour Trust, the first publicly to moot this extension and illustrate its potential benefits, and that was certainly one "Eureka moment" during what was a very tortured process.

David Balfe managed OK in 1996. Many didn't like it but I thought it was OK. Regarding the name, on one side the forum is getting requests not to mention the m-word. Then on the other there are questions like this which, although understandable, do require the wheel to be reinvented and the m-word to be revisited in order to answer them.

I'm sure you would, but you can always hope that your reading age may, one day, progress to higher things.

Bang on Fraz! But what the original poster needs to remember is that Caley Thistle is the latest stage in the evolution of organised football in Inverness which goes right back to the 1880s and possibly before. The OP was as yet unborn even when Thistle and Caley played out their latter games in the 1990s but he has to appreciate that for over a century these clubs were at the centre of the continuous thread which very many people still regard as highly important although there will be some who are not of an age to be able to do so. Thistle and Caley winning the Qualifying Cup or beating Kilmarnock or Clyde in the Scottish Cup is part of exactly the same historical thread as Caley Thistle winning the Scottish Cup. This awareness of Thistle and Caley will not survive forever and in perhaps 60 years there will be no one left who still remembers them. Active memory of them will by then have literally died out, just as there is no one left now who remembers Crown and Union which were partners in the process which formed Thistle in the 19th century. In the early 20th century it would have been just as valid for their former fans to have marked their past as that is for Thistle's and Caley's now. OCG is bang on the money with what she says too, while Sneckboy makes a fundamental point which begs the question of Deano - in the event of the formation of a Highland United would you want to ignore the act that ICT and its already proud history ever existed?

That would appear to be a bit on the sensible, fan friendly side for the SFA but you never know. And I wonder how favourable the Police would be to such a harmless arrangement for the fans of two non OF clubs? Or will the claimed existence of organised hooligan elements within 35 of the 42 SPFL supports emerge as an excuse?

I did - 2 hours before you posted yours (but you may well have known that.)

Who are you calling an inuit?

Better be careful advertising this function under that title. To do so these days is almost inviting a police raid!

You mean occasions on which you WEREN'T arrested?

If your friend lives somewhat east of Inverness and found himself excluded from football for about a year before being completely cleared, it's probably the same person as I had a post-match session with in the Social Club on his return. The tale was so absolutely outrageous that I used it as a basis for a Highland News column illustrating the potential liabilities in attending football matches. If some of these people have such sensory awareness that they can quote verbatim what is said by one individual in a stand of screaming football fans, then why are they just stewards?

Funny how I wasn't surprised to see the name of Roman Golobart among the own goals. I also see an o.g. by a Dave Bus. Any relation of Gordy?

I have to admit that I had to Google that term, although the context had already told me that this is not a garment which is worn below the waist.

That's Armageddon for you!

I have to say that last night - as always - Richard Gordon and match commentator Liam MacLeod, who are both openly Aberdeen fans, were scrupulously "down the middle" in everything they said... as was ICT legend Barry Wilson who was summarising. What get up my nose - and every club has them to a greater or lesser extent - are individuals like the impeccably named "Diddy" who, in the case of Aberdeen, positively ooze with Gothenburg Syndrome and tend to give that club a bad name for that reason. I actually quite like Aberdeen in that they represent another chance to take honours out of the central belt and in particular away from the Old Firm. However the likes of Diddy give their commendably enthusiastic and loyal support a certain reputation.

Was that white smoke not simply a symbolic announcement that Celtic had been appointed the next champions - "Habemus Championes!"

Sheep tend to.