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dougiedanger

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Can't stand rugby but I remember being taken to a game at the Northern Meeting Park when Highland were in the first division, I think it was Hawick who were the opponents. This was the 70s. Anyone else recall these halcyon days for the town's bourgeois brigade?

I can go much further back than that, to when Highland boasted a regular Scottish internationalist, in Nairn McEwan!

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Bit before my rugby playing days, but my brother-in-law played for highland in those days, and i do remember large crowds turning out to see matches at the meeting park.

Mind you Highland could raise 4 teams no prob in the 70-80's

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Can't stand rugby but I remember being taken to a game at the Northern Meeting Park when Highland were in the first division, I think it was Hawick who were the opponents. This was the 70s. Anyone else recall these halcyon days for the town's bourgeois brigade?

I can go much further back than that, to when Highland boasted a regular Scottish internationalist, in Nairn McEwan!

Thats when he's talking about :005: Nairn played for Highland in the '70s

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Can't stand rugby

Anyone else recall these halcyon days for the town's bourgeois brigade?

Oh dear, we seem to have huge Freudian problems with rugby as well as athletics! So maybe the key to the balance I was advocating on the Harriers thread is therefore to put the Rugby chip on one shoulder and the Athletics one on the other.

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Can't stand rugby

Anyone else recall these halcyon days for the town's bourgeois brigade?

Oh dear, we seem to have huge Freudian problems with rugby as well as athletics! So maybe the key to the balance I was advocating on the Harriers thread is therefore to put the Rugby chip on one shoulder and the Athletics one on the other.

Pommes frites, surely.

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Can't stand rugby

Anyone else recall these halcyon days for the town's bourgeois brigade?

Oh dear, we seem to have huge Freudian problems with rugby as well as athletics! So maybe the key to the balance I was advocating on the Harriers thread is therefore to put the Rugby chip on one shoulder and the Athletics one on the other.

It would appear that "Doogies Danglers" doesn't share your wide ranging taste or enthusium for sport in general Charles :lol: :021: :lol:

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  • 5 weeks later...

Can anyone remember the size of the crowd (it was huge) at the NMP when HRFC played Selkirk in the Div2 "winner takes all" match? Can't remember the year but team included the likes of Kenny White, Beans, Dave Aitchison and Colin High. :huh:

Edited by caleyboy
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Can anyone remember the size of the crowd (it was huge) at the NMP when HRFC played Selkirk in the Div2 "winner takes all" match? Can't remember the year but team included the likes of Kenny White, Beans, Dave Aitchison and Colin High. :huh:

It was February 1976 and there were reputed to be over 3000 at the Meeting Park (I know... cos I was there! :lol: ) to watch Highland beat Selkirk I think something like 20-0 to win Division 2 of the National Leagues and gain promotion to Division 1, the then top tier with the likes of Hawick, Gala etc. An early video of Bill MacLaren's Rugby Special still exists somewhere I think. Highland had entered the league at the bottom in Division 4 in 1972 and jumped up to the top with three straight promotions.

Of the list of players, I'm not sure if Kenny White was still playing for Highland 1st XV but Beans, Dave, George Halliday and Colin High certainly were, along with the likes of Chunky Hamilton, Alan Rose, international second row George Mackie and the legendary international wing forward and general inspiration Nairn MacEwan.

Baillie! It's not so many years ago that you could stand on the Queens Park on a Tuesday night and know from the tone of the whistle blasts over on the Canal Field that it was Colin coaching the team that night.

My first memory of Colin was when I came into 1st year at the Royal Academy in 1965 and there was this PE teacher of whom apparently all the 5th and 6th years were s**t scared and who used to make offending seniors hang from wallbars until they dropped off.

And, many years later, I can just imagine the response that a Millburn pupil would have got when he asked the question: "Mr. Baillie, how do you spell your name. Is it with one "i" or two?" :010:

You could write a book about Colin Baillie (and if I could find a publisher I possibly would) - but let this little known fact suffice for the moment....

In the late summer of 1940 with the victorious Hun staring threateningly across the English Channel and down the throat of a beleaguered people who stood alone in the world, how did the nation respond and achieve salvation?

"The RAF won the Battle of Britain" I hear you say, but you merely sniff at the periphery.

Britannia actually rallied with the Birth of Colin Baillie... to which the terrified Nazi Hordes spontaneously yelled "Achtung, achtung!! Alle ist kaput!" and cleared off in panic to invade Russia instead.

Yes folks, Colin will turn 70 this August!

Edited by Charles Bannerman
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Had Colin for PE a couple of times a few years back, and he was s**t scary, and would work you like a dog. Honestly, even the fittest were struggling for breath after the warm up. He is a character though and has done a lot for sport, not just rugby, in Inverness over the years.

David Aitchison was my Biology teacher aswell, and though he had some unorthodox teaching methods, he was really good. Was a shame, and a massive shock to hear of his death a few months back.

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Can anyone remember the size of the crowd (it was huge) at the NMP when HRFC played Selkirk in the Div2 "winner takes all" match? Can't remember the year but team included the likes of Kenny White, Beans, Dave Aitchison and Colin High. :(

It was February 1976 and there were reputed to be over 3000 at the Meeting Park (I know... cos I was there! :lol: ) to watch Highland beat Selkirk I think something like 20-0 to win Division 2 of the National Leagues and gain promotion to Division 1, the then top tier with the likes of Hawick, Gala etc. An early video of Bill MacLaren's Rugby Special still exists somewhere I think. Highland had entered the league at the bottom in Division 4 in 1972 and jumped up to the top with three straight promotions.

Of the list of players, I'm not sure if Kenny White was still playing for Highland 1st XV but Beans, Dave, George Halliday and Colin High certainly were, along with the likes of Chunky Hamilton, Alan Rose, international second row George Mackie and the legendary international wing forward and general inspiration Nairn MacEwan.

Baillie! It's not so many years ago that you could stand on the Queens Park on a Tuesday night and know from the tone of the whistle blasts over on the Canal Field that it was Colin coaching the team that night.

My first memory of Colin was when I came into 1st year at the Royal Academy in 1965 and there was this PE teacher of whom apparently all the 5th and 6th years were s**t scared and who used to make offending seniors hang from wallbars until they dropped off.

And, many years later, I can just imagine the response that a Millburn pupil would have got when he asked the question: "Mr. Baillie, how do you spell your name. Is it with one "i" or two?" :010:

You could write a book about Colin Baillie (and if I could find a publisher I possibly would) - but let this little known fact suffice for the moment....

In the late summer of 1940 with the victorious Hun staring threateningly across the English Channel and down the throat of a beleaguered people who stood alone in the world, how did the nation respond and achieve salvation?

"The RAF won the Battle of Britain" I hear you say, but you merely sniff at the periphery.

Britannia actually rallied with the Birth of Colin Baillie... to which the terrified Nazi Hordes spontaneously yelled "Achtung, achtung!! Alle ist kaput!" and cleared off in panic to invade Russia instead.

Yes folks, Colin will turn 70 this August!

A LEGEND! Looks and moves the same today as he did 20 years ago and here's to another 20. :bluesbros:

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A LEGEND! Looks and moves the same today as he did 20 years ago and here's to another 20. :bluesbros:

Ehhh.. when did you last look in a mirror Colin?

Not the same Baillie i saw last week.. looking like a frail old man.

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Can anyone remember the size of the crowd (it was huge) at the NMP when HRFC played Selkirk in the Div2 "winner takes all" match? Can't remember the year but team included the likes of Kenny White, Beans, Dave Aitchison and Colin High. :thumb03:

It was February 1976 and there were reputed to be over 3000 at the Meeting Park (I know... cos I was there! :lol: ) to watch Highland beat Selkirk I think something like 20-0 to win Division 2 of the National Leagues and gain promotion to Division 1, the then top tier with the likes of Hawick, Gala etc. An early video of Bill MacLaren's Rugby Special still exists somewhere I think. Highland had entered the league at the bottom in Division 4 in 1972 and jumped up to the top with three straight promotions.

Of the list of players, I'm not sure if Kenny White was still playing for Highland 1st XV but Beans, Dave, George Halliday and Colin High certainly were, along with the likes of Chunky Hamilton, Alan Rose, international second row George Mackie and the legendary international wing forward and general inspiration Nairn MacEwan.

Baillie! It's not so many years ago that you could stand on the Queens Park on a Tuesday night and know from the tone of the whistle blasts over on the Canal Field that it was Colin coaching the team that night.

My first memory of Colin was when I came into 1st year at the Royal Academy in 1965 and there was this PE teacher of whom apparently all the 5th and 6th years were s**t scared and who used to make offending seniors hang from wallbars until they dropped off.

And, many years later, I can just imagine the response that a Millburn pupil would have got when he asked the question: "Mr. Baillie, how do you spell your name. Is it with one "i" or two?" :010:

You could write a book about Colin Baillie (and if I could find a publisher I possibly would) - but let this little known fact suffice for the moment....

In the late summer of 1940 with the victorious Hun staring threateningly across the English Channel and down the throat of a beleaguered people who stood alone in the world, how did the nation respond and achieve salvation?

"The RAF won the Battle of Britain" I hear you say, but you merely sniff at the periphery.

Britannia actually rallied with the Birth of Colin Baillie... to which the terrified Nazi Hordes spontaneously yelled "Achtung, achtung!! Alle ist kaput!" and cleared off in panic to invade Russia instead.

Yes folks, Colin will turn 70 this August!

Nevermind Queens Park, you could be playing football in Walker Park of an evening and hear that bloody whistle from Canal Pitches! Always amusing to hear his dulcet tones wafting over the river and up the High Street when the annual Highland Games rolls around. Sends a shiver up my spine, recalling that same voice approaching at high speed with a clenched fist to rattle you on the head for some imaginary misdemeanour in school. Ah, those were the days!

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Colin Bailies more famous for his rugby exploits up this way, but he sure knows a good football team when he see's one :004:

A favourite question of his when selecting captains/players for PE football sides was "Which club last won the Scottish Cup in 1910?" As a bit of statto in my younger days, the answer was forthcoming. Much admiration from Colin. Except at my footballing skills, which were dismal!

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Highland Rugby brings two words to my mind ...... Colin Baillie

profile97133273.jpg

That's a cracking picture. I've never seen anyone look so much like a psycopathic serial killer. The right eye looks innocent enough, but the left one oozes pure evil and fits perfectly with his cold, stoney, look of indiffernece to the crimes he's committed. His day will come.

As it happens, i've always had a decent relationship with Baillie. He had mellowed a bit by the time i reached Millburn and combined his teaching duties with the role Deputy Rector. I played rugby from years 1-3 which definitely helped. For all that, i'm perfectly aware of some the less savoury things he used to get up to, and even towards the end of his teaching days he was basically still a bully.

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That's a cracking picture.

scary part is ... if you google Colin Baillie and switch to Google Images, it is the first picture that comes up ... you dont need to put Inverness, Rugby or anything else to get that ... how many of us can say that about ourselves :blink:

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This discussion on HRFC brings me back to the Rugby Club discos which used to be one of Inverness's main social highlights in the late 70s and early 80s. The place used to be packed on a Saturday night, albeit with a somewhat predominantly male clientele and the bar was permanently mobbed. That was mainly due to the huge number of people wanting served but the fact that the "bar staff" were just players doing their stint on the rota made things just that bit slower.

I also have the clearest of recollections of going out for a breath of fresh air one night to find a couple, without a stitch of clothing, copulating vigorously on the grass just outside the front door!

Edited by Charles Bannerman
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