Charles Bannerman

Having just returned from Hamish's funeral, I thought I would just pen a few words. Regulars at the Social club, and many, many more ICT fans, would have known "Wee Hamish" who died last week at the age of 71. Although he also played on the wing for Clach, Brora and Elgin, he was Caley through and through, having coached as well as played at Telford Street. Following the formation of ICT he became a regular in Section C of the Main Stand and there was also his continued presence in the Social Club post match. During the merger he played a brief but vital part in the realisation of ICT through his involvement with one of the motions which eventually sorted out the assets question. There was a huge turnout at the funeral in the East Church this afternoon and a large number of those present were from the Inverness football community. It is not the purpose of this post to give a biography or a tribute, which Hugh Crout did admirably in the church - merely to mark the passing of an ICT and Inverness football stalwart.

Yes, a great deal of point although I'm not entriely sure if there is a second physio now. The functions of a doctor and a physio are very different and they complement each other. A physio is a specialist in the direct treatment and management of injury which is not really a significant part of a doctor's training at all. A doctor, on the other hand, is needed to cope with medical matters which might range from concussion to stitching and which, correspondingly, are not within the remit of a physio. Therefore both are required. The treatment of medical and injury issues in football has moved on a long way from the days when a wee man, often propelled by tiny, lightning quick steps, would dash on with a huge black bag, produce a can of freeze spray, and say "you'll be OK now son." Such people often called themselves "physios" but in reality often really weren't and "physiotherapist" is now a term protected by law. As far as I am aware, Caley Thistle's highly qualified personnel are Fiona Hogg who is the physio and Ian Smith and Deryck MacLeod who are the club doctors. There used to be a time when Ian and Deryck would alternate between team duties and being available for any emergency in the crowd but I'm not sure if that still applies. Rumour has it that IHE is also used in a professional capacity in the North Stand.

So Corran ferry ain't good enough....we'll try Lewis ferry.....what next Kessock?? According to that, the Bronsons seem to have been rather far travelled, even by the Beckhams' standards! :)

I know it was a long time ago now, but I would still point to Caledonian FC's massive problems finding a new location at places like The Carse, Kinmylies and the Bught area in the early 90s and also the Percy Johnston Marshall report of 1993 on a possible site for the then proposed merged club. Bruce Hare looked at something like 13 different sites which very easily reduced to a short list of just 4 which in turn equally easily reduced to East Longman (the current site) and Stratton Farm because so many were not suitable. Stratton Farm was hugely unpopular with fans and the embryonic Board at the time and I don't know whether that land is in use now anyway. If anyone has a copy of Against All Odds, the question is discussed in detail in the "Finding A Home" chapter. I saw Torvean Quarry mentioned earlier on in this thread among other suggestions, but Torvean was one of the very first to depart the fray in the Hare report. Indeed I would suggest that anything between the Ness Bridge and the south west (A82) extremity of Inverness is a non starter because, in the absence of a bypass, getting traffic in and out of there is a nightmare. For instance the Race for Life a fortnight ago caused prolonged gridlock. Indeed I suspect that for the same reason, anything any distance from the A9/A96 would be equally problematic.

That's so unlike you....

The music is specifically an item called "O Fortuna" from a cantata called "Carmina Burana" by the 20th century German composer Carl Orff. It initially shot to fame in the 60s and 70s when it was used to advertise Old Spice after shave.

I am not going to deflect this very worthy thread by raking over for the n-th time the usual speculative and highly anecdotal evidence on this theory. And of losing a few was the price to pay for a club which has achieved what it has since 1994 then, as the Lord High Executioner said in The Mikado... "they will none of them be missed!"

Oh dear... this weary old myth surfaces again!! Look - before the merger, not enough people in Inverness gave a toss about either Caley or Thistle to create any significant body of dissent in relation to a local population of 60,000. You are talking about (tops) two or three hundred people who didn't like something that happened almost 20 years ago - and most of them have either left Inverness, are dead, or have joined the fold.

I would thoroughly endorse what Kingsmills has just said. Apart from the fascination of following the birth and development of ICT over the years, I have also had the pleasure of reporting on the fairy story which has been Ross County since 1987 when they were ?250K in debt, amateur and working out of a " wooden shed" in Victoria Park, right through to the amazing revelations which we have seen this season. It's almost exactly 17 years since the SFL decided to create two vacancies and on this occasion at least they did the decent thing and let in the two strongest candidates. What ICT and Ross County have achieved in the intervening years has been absolutely amazing and fully justifies their election back in January 1994. Tomorrow's Cup Final is the very last act in what has been a phenomenal season for football in the Highlands. GOOD LUCK COUNTY!!

I don't know why that nickname doesn't stick.. fits him perfectly You should have seen Colin Mitchell when he was a kid in a Caley strip!! :021: Well done David and this is rather a nice idea on the part of the East Kilbride paper too, isn't it?

I thought I had better copy on here what I have just written on the Rumour Mill thread which was..... I seem to have misunderstood the situation here. I had heard this story so often about the town, including from 100% reliable sources, over the preceding three or four days that I actually assumed that it had already been done by somebody else and I had missed it so I thought I had better play catch up with a brief line this morning. However it has since emerged that it was simply a case of a story which was in wide public circulation but had not yet reached the media. If I had known that I might have waited since they might have preferred to release it officially.

Did Toich's interaction with lamp posts not amount to a bit more than simply talking to them? I have to say that the recent election would have been a lot livelier if Willie Bell had been standing once again and with Granville back as his Agent!

Are you just back from visiting Ally MacLeod on "the other side"?

Barry signed for the first time in 96.

As long as you don't have to travel Ryanair!

That I don't know.

From what I'm hearing, I don't think ICT fans will be disappointed with tomorrow's Courier.

I think I would also like to pay tribute to the contribution of my colleagues over at Scorguie. MFR did a really fine job on Saturday afternoon, splitting frequencies to give separate coverage of the "party" aspect of the day from Gino Conti and contributions from Ian Auld into the normal sports programme. This is what the local media are for and they did it very well. It's not an option we have locally with the BBC, although frequency splitting is the backbone of Saturday afternoons nationally. But within the MFR transmission area, especially given the interest in ICT, this worked very well.

Donald and EWS, I fully appreciate what you're saying but I obviously couldn't comment on the Record's sports editorial policy. All I'm doing is to try to shed some light on the general background to this scenario and in particular to respond to 12th Man's comment about BBC coverage.

There's maybe a hint there in the bit I've highlighted. The media can't go on covering this ICT story in depth forever. What you have to remember is that Caley Thistle won the title away back now on April 21st amid great media acclaim. In the case of the BBC, commentary on Raith v Dundee was laid on just for that purpose and Ross Tokely was on air within minutes of confirmation. Then there was a great celebration at Ayr and a 7-0 away win which also attracted a great deal of coverage - in the case of the BBC, Chic on Open All Mics and a great deal of follow up, including parts of the manager's impromptu speech. By the time you get to Saturday's event, yes it's a great day for ICT fans, but the fact that ICT did what they did is no longer NEWS. On the other hand, Stirling wininng the Second Division IS now news, and so is the relegation of Ayr and the ongoing Killie/ Falkirk scenario in the SPL etc etc. I think you also have to look at this from the perspective of the vast majority of people who use these media and who are NOT Caley Thistle fans. Newspapers and other media have a major onus to report breaking news and the kind of gratifying ongoing coverage which, OK the fans of successful teams really enjoy, is only a minority taste and there is therefore a limit to the extent to which it can be indulged. As for the BBC, coverage of Saturday's game amounted to the following - * Robbo on air all afternoon on Open all Mics. There was also commentary (I'm not sure if it was used live or otherwise - I certainly used it on this morning's local news report) on the moment Grant Munro held up the trophy. * A TV match report at 4:50. * Further radio coverage on Sports Report at 6:30. * An online match report on the BBC website from around 7:30. * Extensive coverage on the BBC local news bulletin this morning, including interviews with Terry Butcher, Grant Munro, George Fraser and David Sutherland. You also have to remember that something like this will obviously have a rather longer shelf life in the local media where it's a much bigger deal (but be prepared to be overshadowed very soon, possibly in all but the most very locally based Inverness media, by the run up to Ross County's Scottish Cup appearance). Nationally on the other hand there are far more fish to fry, so there really is a limit to which any one story can dominate other, breaking, fresher ones.

Aye but Terry's not trying to do it with a Learner at the wheel!! :(

They were repeatedly being kept out of national league football by a protectionist cartel of self interested Scottish League minnows who were scared to a paranoid degree about the conventional order of things being upset and of what has now actually happened over the last six years. However in 1994 that was sorted and the result has been evident ever since. Part of that amounts to challenging the notion that being a "big City" club with loadsa supporters doesn't really guarantee success. Commitment, bottle, ethos, a collective and organised desire to succeed and fundamental expertise count for a great deal as well.

How may gallons does it take to fill Les up? A LOT more than it takes to fill up your "place of work" I'm sure! :) But if he's as successful at filling up the Caledonian Stadium on Saturday as he was for Barry's testimonial, I'm sure there will be a few more V and Ks coming his way in the Social Club after the game.

I actually filled Les up with Vodka and Coke last night and he told me that it's going to be "Torridon and the Staggies" performing "We're On Our Way" live with a medley from the Dingwall Gaelic Choir as a supporting act.

I can exclusively reveal that it's the Alexander Brothers with Andy Stewart, Moira Anderson and the White Heather Dancers.