Charles Bannerman

Unfortunately this thread took on a Separatist dimension round about post #6, to which it has been necessary for a number of posters to respond. Before suggesting that the thread should return to its original theme of gold medals for Team GB, I would only want to point out on the motto theme that I am very pleased to be a member of the increasing majority north of the Solway - Tweed line for whom "Patria" = "Britannica". But to return to the Olympics - maybe we should mark Team GB's stunning success by adopting a motto for that as well. How about something like "Better Together" maybe?

But hey... what are six Olympic titles when set against Archie Gemmill's goal?

You mean "Glasgow's" Commonwealth Games - which they will be to us in the Highlands just as much as the current celebrations are "London's" to the separatist faction, who must now be blubbering into their whisky at the current success of Team GB and the national pride which that is generating. Please remember that a lot of objections which the Scottish separatists come up with regarding rule from London apply at least as much to us in the Highlands with respect to rule from Edinburgh - which a Yes vote in 2014 would endorse. More so, perhaps, given the current Holyrood trend to focus power in the central belt - ie on themselves - for instance by creating single Police and Fire and Rescue services and trying to buy "yes" votes by ordering a Council Tax freeze - hence depriving local councils of a lot of freedom of operation and concentrating even more power in Edinburgh. But to return to a sporting theme - I can't think of a more overstaffed and inefficient quango than Sportscotland! PS - as I write, Hoy has just won that magnificent sixth gold medal! But this is a total which he would never have reached if he had had to rely on back up from members of Team Scolympia rather than Team GB in team events - a fact which I understand the great man himself is more than willing to acknowledge, along with the importance of the training facilities and partners he has had in England. I have a strange suspicion that should the worst come to the worst, a lot of potential Scolympians would suddenly unearth English grannies

Fund Team Scolympia with Barnet Consequentials I say! Very interesting, though, that you seem to think that a wee population like 5 million is going to find medal capable team mates/ partners for the likes of Hoy, Stanning, Grainger etc etc in the same way as one of 60 million did. And of course that's assuming that people like Stanning and maybe a few others who were born in England would even half think about competing for separatist Scotland at all when they have the reassurance of the bigger base to play for. In fact I doubt if Stanning - possibly along with others - is even eligible for Scotland. Presumably your sports facilities will come out from what's left of this imagined "bottomless pot" of cash AFTER it's been used to pay for all the separate embassies and consular facilities across the world and various other facilities which would presumably have to be created as a top priority?

I am quite aware of that. It's exactly as they should be. Scottish competitors who are members of a team are credited with the proportional part of the medal - just like the non Scottish ones are.

Mmmm... well that doesn't quite seem to square with this statement - The majority of Team GB's medals are from English athletes, with 13% from Scotland, 2% from Wales and 4% from Northern Ireland. Another 9% are from overseas originally, although all Team GB athletes are British. Nearly a third of English medal winners are from the North, Yorkshire in particular. Which in turn is a quote from from this Guardian database... http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/datablog/2012/aug/06/team-gb-medal-winners-background#home And of the Scottish medallists, just about everybody (apart from Murray in the singles and the swimmer who got silver) who got medals as part of Team GB did so in events where they were partnered by non-Scots and would REALLY have been struggling even to qualify to be there at all if they had had to depend on Scottish partners as part of Team Scolympia. And that's before you consider that fact that Team Scolympia would be left scratching about north of the border for non existent training facilities which they currently enjoy elsewhere, and mainly in England, as part of Team GB.

So I wonder how the cycle Team Sprint would have fared if Sir Chris had two Scottish sidekicks rather than the ones he had? Then there's rowers Katherine Grainger and Heather Stanning and canoeists Tim Baillie and David Florence. What price their pairs golds with purely Scottish partners? Sir Chris... that's the guy who has said that he couldn't have done what he's done without input at GB level and who trains in England along with the British team because there are no suitable facilities or partners in Scotland... as is the case with the likes of 400m hurdler Eilidh Child, modern pentathlon world champion Mhairi Spence from Inverness and a host of others. I really don't think Team Scolympia, fending entirely for itself, would figure very prominently at all on the medals table in individual and especially in team events, where the vast majority of Scolympian combines simply wouldn't be viable or even able to reach Olympic qualifying standards. Team Scolympia is simply a recipe for a great majority of Scottish sports performers to under achieve.

Are you taking the p*ss Yngwie? I do actually know a little about him though. I read that BBC item a couple of weeks ago and immediately remembered reference Alex Main had made to him in "Caley All The Way". Cornet was a major player for Caley in the early years of the 20th century. He was huge apparently and played in a variety of positions including RB and GK - perhaps the prototype for Ross Tokely! He used to train at the old Montague Road baths which ceased to fulfil that function in the 1930s when the Friars Street pool opened and became a Coop for a while in the 80s before demolition. Arguably Cornet is right up there as one of Inverness's greatest ever sports performers but would be seriously challenged for that accolade by the likes of Ian Young (Empire Games 100 and relay bronze medallist), Eddie Alexander (fourth Olympic cycle sprint 1988), Ewan MacDonald (3 times world curling champion) and more recently Mhairi Spence (2012 world modern pentathlon champion who competes on Sunday 12th in London). Then you could add in other Commonwealth Games folks like the Riddle brothers, Neil Fraser the hurdler (and former Caley youth player) and Myles MacKintosh the swimmer.

Yes, great to see. Heather Stanning also spent much of her youth in Lossiemouth where her parents still live (and there are plans to paint a post box gold!) This also took the wind out of the sails of certain noisy red top tabloids which had large front page splashes this morning about the cyclist dubbed "Wiggo" in tabloidspeak becoming the first Team GB gold medallist. But the great thing about today is that not only did Team GB get its first gold, and the first ever rowing gold for British women, but Bradley Wiggins also matched that later in the day to become GB's most bededalled Olympian ever. How these guys have managed to recover so quickly from the Tour de France is quite remarkable.

Today at the stadium I came across promotional literature for the ICT "Walk of Fame" where, for £80, a name can be engraved for posterity on the likes of a step in the main stand. Accordingly, I think we should have a whip round on here for the £160 that it would cost to engrave, in a prominent place, the names of "DOUGAL" and "BUENOS HORNELL" :lol:

I've just taken a look at my copies of both publications and the situation appears to be as follows - Caley all The Way - ambiguous. It says "Copyright: Alex Main, Caledonian Football Club, Inverness" which to me doesn't make it clear whether copyright is held jointly by Alex AND Caledonian Football Club or by "Alex Main OF Caledonain Football Club". Given that CFC voted in 1994 to invest its assets in ICTFC, I would imagine that any copyright entitlement of CFC would be transferred to ICTFC. I would suggest that Alex himself and maybe Jimmy Falconer or Ally MacKenzie could be consulted and then Kenny (who gave approval for my book) approached on their advice. Hub of the Hill - even more ambiguous. There is actually no copyright declaration that I can see although some photos are attributed do the late Dennis Eames who, his widow Anne told me a few months ago, was also responsible for at least the majority of the text. Once again ITFC voted to invest its assets in ICTFC so maybe Kenny could clear this again, possibly also after a "courtesy call" to Anne Eames. I think it would be a great idea to have these two fine publications online on CTO.

This is a football match we're talking about here, not a blooming seance!!! :lol:

Would that be Scotsmac or Pomagne?

Let me guess.... you are Peter Corbett in disguise? :lol:

Did you get your "coupon" at the same time? And did to have a very long wait while Diggar went out on to Grieg Street to shout good natured abuse at John Brooman or any other unsuspecting passer by before returning to complete your short back and sides? Good days, dodgy haircut, probably the short back & sides led me to joining the Army. Mixed fortunes witht the coupon, mainly losses As I recollect Diggar was actually an ex Army barber, I think originally at Fort George. He was certainly in the Burma Star Association. Maybe it was when he was over in that neck of the woods that he started the tradition of the North Korean "dodgy haircut" like the one the Little Fat Leader has. And IHE... given the rarity of the "Jeggie" publication, I suspect it may be worth rather more than 5p!

Do you think they would bend the BV rules if Afghanistan had a team in and allow them to compete in burkhas?

For a start, do too many people give a hoot about the men's BV? There are already lots of stories about the bars being packed when the men's events are on but emptying spontaneously as people (well mainly blokes) flood back for the women's. On which subject - sport or gratuitous titilliation? The stuff of Grandstand or Towie? Should the venue be Horseguards... or would Basildon, Braintree or Harlow be more appropriate? I was less than surprised that The Sun contrivied to publish a substantially enlarged rear view of the more "svelte" looking of the British duo this morning. Two of the more interesting rules of women's BV (and I kid you not!) are that the bikini bottoms must have no more than 6cm width of fabric at the hip and can only be dispensed with in favour of shorts if the temperature drops to 16C or below! It's interesting also that Prince Harry seems to have grabbed a job as some kind of Royal Ambassador to the BV. I suppose his excuse is that the venue is quite handy since his granny has got a place just up the road. I have to say, even though I found myself a bit irritated by the spontaneous outbursts of raucous music, hand slapping and hugging every time a point is scored, that as a sporting spectacle I found it quite entertaining to watch.

Did you get your "coupon" at the same time? And did to have a very long wait while Diggar went out on to Grieg Street to shout good natured abuse at John Brooman or any other unsuspecting passer by before returning to complete your short back and sides?

The Stanning family have got strong Lossiemouth links originating I think from the father's military posting there. So, although born in Yeovil (her Wikipedia entry wrongly states that it was Lossie), I understand that Heather was also a Lossie resident for a number of years so maybe even a local day pupil at Gordonstoun. I also think the parents still live in Lossie. The subject of Zara Phillips reminds me of a classic Colin Baillie anecdote. Colin was refereeing a rugby match between Millburn and Gordonstoun of which Zara's brother Peter Phillips was team captain, so at the start of the game, Baillie flips the coin and says "Right son - tails or granny?!"

There are still quite a few copies in circulation although it's not been on sale for very many years now. I managed to get my hands on one when I was adding the preliminary chapter to Against All Odds when it was put on this site last year and it was absoultely vital. "Caley All The Way" is an excellent book, as you would fully expect from Alex Main, despite the fundamental disadvantage of a lack of archive material since Caley's records unfortunately went up in smoke when the old Telford Street grandstand burned down in 1950 - the first of a series of such conflagrations which affected the three Inverness Highland League grounds (Caley 1950, Clach 1988, Thistle 1995).

One of the two, Heather Stanning, is a former pupil of Gordonstoun and has connections with Lossiemouth where her parents still live. That was a great performance! And of course the other big local interest is our own Mhairi Spence, Inverness Royal Academy FP (I think a couple of years ahead of Doofer) and world Modern Pentathlon champion. That on the last day of the Games, August 12th.

Are you quoting from the menu in a North Korean restaurant there?

BUY the Sun??!! "Yerjokeenmun!" as we say in these parts. I wouldn't BUY the Sun.... I merely caught sight of the front page of a copy wedged in the dashboard of a White Van in the car park at the new Asda store Seriously though I do tend to take a read.... well OK, a look since there's nothing much to read apart from Bill Leckie.... through a copy if there's one lying about in Cobbs excellent cafe at Highland Industrial Supplies to whose bacon rolls I am especially partial. But there's a job for you Norma... headline writer for The Sun. I already have my application in to them to become one of these people who seem to spend their entire existence hanging about in bedrooms in their underwear in Deidre's Photo Casebook. Or alternatively they could let me write the "Dear Deirdre" letters from people claiming to be the likes of benefit cheats having sex with their wives' best friends while their wives are out at work etc etc.... Got to say.... I'm fed up with the Olympic football already. The only interesting bit has been and that was the Korean flag gaffe.

SUNREADER!!!! :lol: That was their front page headline today!

What we have to remember is that North Korea is basically an ultra Stalinist Lunatic Dictatorship where 60 years of oppressive brainwashing of the population means that there's effectively nobody left who has any experience of what "normality" is. Unlike other (former) Communist states, North Korea has managed to be so isolationist (at the expense of the welfare and human rights of its population) that it has not been subject to many of the internal and external pressures which led to the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and to its significant modification in China when China began to give GDP priority over the principles of the Red Book. The North Korean brainwashing machine also possibly needs a natural enemy in order to focus loyalty to its regime of a succession of strangely geeky looking overweight, but nonetheless inherently vicious individuals with hilarious hairstyles which make me wonder whether Shane MacGowan of the Pogues' dentist is still alive and well working as a barber in North Korea!