Charles Bannerman

If you can groundshare in the Champions League, you can groundshare in the MacAllan League. There already is a perfectly adequate cricket pitch at Fraser Park and Counties should be sharing with Highland there. It's not realistic for Inverness to have two areas, one of them a major asset, tied up by the very restrictive requirements of the ultimate minority sport of cricket. Things move on and the situation is such that an increasingly vital and major asset like the Northern Meeting Park can't simply be frozen as a cricket venue while other much bigger users go wanting or have their use reduced by what are extremely restrictive requirements of this sport. Northern Counties may well have been at the Meeting Park for a long time but, taking all the circumstances into account, that doesn't mean that they should have effective control of this valuable publicly owned asset for all time.

Yes, you are quite correct, that is what you did hear on Radio Scotland - or at least the local Highlands and Islands news bulletin. But that will be it from me since I have now passed this story on to colleagues because it heavily involves the Council - my "day job" employers, so I don't cover Council stories. Not being involved in the story does, however, allow me to comment on it here. It's my understanding that on Wednesday of last week, someone from the Scottish Junior FA travelled North to meet with representatives of the Council and Inverness City to examine at first hand the proposed location for City at the Bught. However it seems that the project is not as far advanced as the SJFA had either understood or expected. So when they then met on Sunday, they decided not to allow City to be promoted to the Superleague, which has certain ground criteria. "ictewd" says above that City are due to play at the TCS on Saturday. What I have heard here is that this was the plan, but that the SJFA knocked this back because the TCS, despite having met the criteria of the SPL no less!, was not registered with them as a ground. Now IF this is the case, all I can do is to drop a into this post and simply ask how far up themselves the SJFA actually are? It would also need to raise the question of how much of a Jobsworth culture is alive and well within the SJFA. SMEE mentions the Meeting Park but here I understand that much of City's interest has switched to the Bught which they presumably regarded (until last week perhaps) as a more reliable bet than the Meeting Park where the cricketers seem to be totally entrenched. The main problem is that the cricket season, plus the long period they seem to need to get the place ready for it, significantly impinges on the football season. I had my say on that one in the Highland News a few weeks ago in response to the latest girn from a cricketer - this time to the Simple Minds concert going to the Meeting Park. It seems that what has to be just about the most anonymous and poorly subscribed sport in Inverness has an incredibly strong hold on what is a major venue near the city centre and seems to have a huge amount of sway as to what happens and doesn't get to happen there. I'd also like to know how much rent the cricket club pay for their use of the park and the extent to which they also deny that use to others.

From Luxembourg?

Just to say that commentary from Paul Mitchell will be on 810 medium wave as well as 92-95FM in the Highlands and Islands. This means that it can be got on MW on your "tranny" throughout the country (and a bit beyond given the reach of medium wave). There's also Open All Mics with Charlie Mann on 103.5-105FM and the TV Results Programme is on air from the earlier time of 4pm this afternoon.

C'mon Manfer. Let's get a bit of Highland solidarity going against the Central Belt hordes! The SFL made TWO excellent choices in 1994. They have BOTH done the Highlands credit ever since, remembering the sterling efforts of the rest of Scotland for decades (Ferranti etc) to keep our entire area out of national football. So whom do you prefer - Ross County or Ferranti?

This must be the shortest matchday thread ever!! Can I just take this opportunity to express my delight that Ross County will now survive in the First Division this season after their stoppage time winner at Falkirk (short of an inconceivable 11 goal defeat by Cowdenbeath next Saturday)? A Highland team in the SPL and one in the First Division is a major asset to the game in this area. (I am prepared to accept a mixed response to this sentiment on this forum! :biggrin:)

That is also very much the way the story grabs me. From readng the HN, it looks to me as if Caley Thistle made their travel arrangements and as early as February 25th also came to what they thought was an agreement with the organisers that the final, if they reached it, would be brought forward to allow them to catch their ferry. This seems an eminently sensible step rather than shell out extra time and money just in case they reached the final in a situation where they had no prior indication that they would actually be streets ahead of the other teams. However it then looks to me as if one member of the local organising committee has taken the hump at how much better the Inverness boys were than the rest of the teams and coerced his colleagues into reneging on their earlier commitment. I also share Alex's question about what really would be quite an extreme reaction on the part of Cairngorm, even if he DID have a diect axe to grind... which he apparently doesn't even have.

You mean you're believing the Daily Mail?

George also did a good interview with Jim Spence at half time at Perth, effectively welcoming the DU development.

I wasn't that aware England had a heart. :biggrin:

I think Donald's caution is realistic even if it is not what most Caley Thistle fans would ideally like to hear. Inverness Caledonian Thistle worked wonders to reach the SPL just ten years on from what was a very messy creation. Ever since, survival in that 12 team league has been something which has had to be worked hard for and which has by no means been guaranteed (look no further back than May 2009). In 2010, a combination of a great run of persistence, belief and results, combined with Dundee's attempt to buy their way back up suddenly running out of bottle achieved an immediate and in some ways unexpected return to the SPL after the 2009 relegation. Had that not happened, against the odds, the financial consequences might have something which ICT fans now only wake up in the night screaming about. Given Caley Thistle's marginal financial position and limited fan base, they are one of a fistful of clubs which can never feel 100% long term confident about avoiding relegation - irrespective of the skill of the management team and the commitment of the players. So even with the best will in the world - maybe even in another season where 37 points is not enough to secure safety - relegation could happen again, accompanied by another £1.5M budget cut. If that did come to pass, what chance would there be of another single season dash back to the SPL coming to pass? And if that dash DIDN'T happen, what would the financial outlook be for the second and subsequent years post relegation? What's the longer term prognosis in such an eventuality? Then the clinching question - how much more likely is the scenario which I have described should the SPL shrink to ten teams rather than expand to 14 or 16?

Go on Mantis... play truant... it's exam time!!!

You may very possibly have been unreliably informed once again Miss ICT! As far as I am aware, by far the most likely date is May 4th although I would never 100% believe it until I saw confirmation from the SPL. As it stands, May 3rd looks highly unlikely, given that Celtic have a game two days previously.

To be fair Donald, it was Terry, who had seen the fixtures before I did, who pointed it out to me - and indeed to several others in the media where I expect the issue will be looming large tomorrow. Just another couple of points... Capital - I don't actually think there's a specific pot of money for this televised game. It's just one of those which make up ESPN's tally and their money gets divvied out according to the rules which the SPL will inevitably have for this. I actually suspect that this game and the later one at 4:15 that Easter Monday afternoon are being shown by ESPN quite simply because they have run out of Old Firm Away Days to show. Gringo - I do think you are expecting just a little too much by also asking for a "nearby" fixture on the last day of the season. To be fair, the SPL does have a difficult enough job here without having to make allowances for end of season parties. Having said that, though, I do believe that the SPL have totally missed out on what would have been the most popular fixtures scheduling of the season. Had they fixed a full SPL card for Friday 29th April with the same kick off time as the Royal Wedding they would have given a whole lot of people a golden chance to escape from it!

More likely Wednesday May 4th I'm told, but yet to be confirmed by the SPL. This means three home matches in a week - May 4, 7, 11. Having spoken to the manager about this at lunch time, I don't think I'm out of order telling you now, an hour before broadcast, that his other concerns are having to play in Perth at 2pm on a Monday (with classic TB understatement he suggests there will be "about 10 people there") and the last five games of the season (based on Celtic being May 4th) taking place in 15 days.

The SPL told me yesterday (Tue) that the post split fixtures should be available later this week and that in Caley Thistle's case, that release would include the Celtic game.

Very true, and I well remember how delighted ICT fans were to win this cup in 2003 - as well as how disappointed they were to lose the 1999 and 2009 finals. A big well done to Ross County and it was good to hear Jimmy C in his post match interview give credit to Derek Adams who took the team through the earlier rounds and who was watching the final from the BBC commentary point. I would now like to think that this cup final victory can give Ross County the boost which will finally take them away from any threat of the relegation playoffs, a danger which they should not be facing in any case.

What did John Boyle say? This one could run almost as long as Charlie Christie and Alex Bone at Dingwall!!

BBC reporting that Annabel Goldie has cancelled the Scottish Election on May 5th due to not having enough support to become First Minister. Lobbying the electorate to change their minds will continue however.

You're thinking of before New Year when the SPL pulled the entire Sat 4th December card on Wed December 1st but it turned out that the Inverness pitch was playable on the Sat and the A9 had been capable of transporting 4000 skiers to Cairngorm that weekend. The game was then rescheduled for Tuesday (I think) Feb 15th and it emerged at around lunch time that there could be a flooding problem due to heavy rain. The SPL, who had been advised of the problem at an early stage, refused to allow anyone other than the match referee to inspect the pitch even though there are referees, albeit not still active but of vast experience, including at least two Supervisors, based locally. The match referee didn't arrive until about 5pm and we can only speculate as to whether he was under pressure from the SPL to get the game on since he took an eternity bouncing balls on the surface and running up and down. The game was put off at a time when the United team bus was in Aviemore and their fans were on their way. There are bound to be several people on here who well remember that the TCS pitch, after it opened in 1996, for years had a reputation of never having had a game postponed. In fact I think it was well after the turn of the millennium before the first postponement and these were also very few and far between after that. However I am in absolutely no doubt that the pitch has become more liable to flooding since the USH was installed for the return from Aberdeen in January 2005. Apart from the direct effect of the installation of the pipes, there is also the problem that the surface can only be forked and spiked to a few inches for fear of bursting the pipes. I found the observation by an earlier poster that the USH has possibly caused more postponements than it has prevented very interesting! However I might also observe that this problem does seem to have become more marked in the recent past so, although the USH is a very likely culprit, perhaps some investment is also needed in a surface which now over 15 years old.

I fell asleep at around "choose Feb 8th 2000" and missed myself! Good resume of last 20 years or so, though!

Well said DD! You've called it spot on. The only reason I find any interest in this topic is totally academic since I followed and studied in great detail the entire merger process which is still of that kind of interest to me. Other than that.... * A merger took place in 1994. * Some people didn't like it. Their prerogative. * But all the same it resulted in Inverness being projected from the Highland League to the SPL in a single decade and around five times as many people come to watch football in Inverness now, and in a 7700 capacity stadium, compared with the pre merger days - so who gives a toss!!! "They will none of them be missed!"

Now that sounds really like a quite well informed former Caley fan of 93 who was seriously disgruntled at the time and still has a festering axe to grind. You may not be Buenos in person but you still hurt, initially at what happened and possibly even more so nowadays at the stunning success of the eventual result of the whole process. A phonebox full of refuseniks against what has happened over the last 17 years is a mere pimple on the backside of the recent stunning success of football in Inverness. As the Lord High Executioner almost said in The Mikado: "There will none of you be missed!"

I'd just like to clarify a couple of questions regarding Radio Scotland coverage tonight. As someone stated pre match, midweek and Sunday football is almost always medium wave only because it's not realistic to take over the FM frequencies as well since there are listeners other than football fans to consider. This meant live commentary from Inverness and updates from Pittodrie. On the other hand from 1200 to 7pm on Saturdays, all frequencies are dedicated to football so Radio Scotland can actually go out on no fewer than FIVE different threads in various places - commentary on 810 medium wave, Open All Mics on 103.5-105FM, another commentary on 92-95FM, Caley Thistle games on 92-95 in the Highlands and Islands and Aberdeen games on 92-95 in the Grampian area. The only exceptions are rare such as 6 Nations Rugby and the Camanachd Cup Final. At some points on Sunday afternoon you can get what 810 is producing but in better quality on 103.5-105FM. However David Begg is very likely to be replaced by Gaelic psalm singing at some point since it's their frequency when they have programming on air. The cause of the loss of commentary tonight was that the power socket in the radio area blew. This was possibly because someone further along in the stand had overloaded that circuit with a high power electric heater. The club were right on the ball and produced a duty electrician very quickly indeed but the fastest solution was to run an extension cable into the press box to take power from a socket in there which was unaffected.