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Inverness Citadel ?


Hsquad12

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My great uncle Willie Mackenzie played for Ross County, Nairn County, Caley and Citadel before WWII so by elimination I'm thinking that this team photo could be the Citadel side of ~1936 around the time the Ardath cigarette pictures were taken. I've convinced myself that the dark shirts are maroon plus photos for the other local teams of the era already exist online. The building in the background was used for a number of Highland League team pictures in the 1930's that can be seen on the current Clach and the Jags and Caley nostalgia sites.

Willie Mackenzie is second from the right one the front row.

Here is a link to Willie in a Nairn County side in 1933 taken in front of the same building - http://www.forres-ga...unty,_1933.html

Any help identifying the picture and any of the players would be appreciated. cheers. es

post-5983-0-70682400-1291355260_thumb.jp

Edited by Hsquad12
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no bother. am very impressed with the comedy input. keep up the good work.

for the crumblies on the forum that remember Ginger McKenzie and cimbing the trees at Telford street pls put on the snow shoes and walk this photo around the hospice before the sneck runs oot of old scrotes.

Cheers. es

Maybe we should open a poll :laugh:

Sorry, Hsquad12, none of us are taking this very seriously :tuttut:

Don't give up hope yet......

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Av certainly heard my dad talk about Ginger Mackenzie. That was his generation ( I think).

Others he spoke about were bobby and Freddy Neild, Joopie Mitchell and the like. Am i correct in thinking Joopie Mitchell once scored 10 goals in one game in The Highland League?

Edited by SMEE
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Im not sure...but i think back row...second from left....might be Hitler :tongueincheek:

Nah.. it's John Cleese!! Hitler, chancing little Austrian git, was busy remilitarising the Rhineland in 1936... and bricking it at the black athlete Jesse Owens winning Olympic titles.

Intriguing tale though behind Citadel (aka The Sheepbags since their ground was right beside the slaughterhouse at the far end of Shore Street). They won their one and only Highland League title in 1909 but for a short time were one of no fewer than SIX Inverness teams in the Highland League - the others were Camerons and Union which I think eventually became part of Jags. (And we are now struggling to sustain one :irritated: )

Anyway... my dad was born in 37 Shore Street in 1920 and lived there and in No 7 until 1932. He had a clear recollection of Citadel which went defunct a few years later.

I just missed the bus in terms of getting an interview with an old Citadel player. I had been told that Dodo Sinclair's dad Butch - who eventually became a very senior Jags committee man - was an ex Citadel player but unfortunately Butch died before I could speak to him about it. Given that Citadel went out of existence over 70 years ago it is highly unlikely that there are any surviving players now.

The oldest ex player I ever spoke to was a guy called Davie Goodall who was in his 90s at the time around 1985. He had bee a member of a great Clach side just before the First World War. (Funny how many "Great Clach Sides of the Past" there have been but you could include 2003-04 in that.)

Maybe in terms of Caley and Jags we should be getting the recollections of Messrs Milroy and Urquhart etc recorded before they become too decrepit or senile to recount them. (Or maybe the Old Gits are past it already :rotflmao: )

Mantis... I suspect you would empathise with around 50% of that suggestion! :biggrin:

Edited by Charles Bannerman
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Maybe in terms of Caley and Jags we should be getting the recollections of Messrs Milroy and Urquhart etc recorded before they become too decrepit or senile to recount them. (Or maybe the Old Gits are past it already :rotflmao: )

Actually.. I am now seriously wondering if that might be quite a good idea. For instance most days I sit with Derek Dewar at school lunch and there are so many anecdotes. The other day we had a long conversation about that Inverness football institution The Bankers.

Now these guys are all already ordering zimmers (Corbett is probably already on one! :biggrin: ) and there is so much Inverrness football history to record.

It's very easy to conclude that the era that YOU lived through in your relative youth was some kind of Golden Age but I have to say that the ladt decade or so of the Caley - Jags - Clach triangle WAs very special for a number of reasons.

When I look back through Against All Odds, one of my regrets is that I didn't say enough about the latter HL days. On the other hand it was an ICT book. Maybe we should have some record of the great latter days (1983-88ish) before ICT came into force - when Inverness football ruled the North.

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Actually had my season ticket next to Davie Milroy in the main stand that first season we came home at New Year from Pittodrie. Top bloke. Last time I saw Urq was at Hamilton the other week.

When I was a Great Big Prefect at the Royal Academy in 1970 I had a great regard for these two wee guys in the under 14 team - Davie Milroy who was their star striker (sic!!!) and Billy Urquhart who was an ace defender (also sic!!!). As it happens the captain of that all conquering team was... as I recollect.... one John MacKenzie. :rotflmao:

Over the years I have had a large number of conversations in pubs with Davie and Billy about so many pieces of football nostalgia. One day I may also be able to achieve some clarity from their Glorious Leader on the same subject - but if the venue is a pub that looks a little unlikely. :biggrin:

But to become serious again... maybe some record of the latter days in the Highland League really is required.... before these Old Gits finally disappear!

Edited by Charles Bannerman
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Davie Milroy who was their star striker (sic!!!) and Billy Urquhart who was an ace defender (also sic!!!). As it happens the captain of that all conquering team was... as I recollect.... one John MacKenzie (Sick!)

Finished your sentence for you.

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Found Willie's obituary online and think that the picture must be a Citadel side of the 30's. Never did collect his medals from my Granny. hohum........ The SQC one belongs in the Hampden museum i guess.

for the Highland League historians out there Willie was also crowned the fastest player in Scotland after winning a series of sprints against players from all the Junior and Senior teams in Scotland. The competition was held at Easter Road but again I need to dig out that paper-cutting next time i'm home.

would still like to know if anyone get an independent confirmation on the team being Citadel or put some names to the rest of the team.

thx

/es

EXTRACT FROM RJ: L.A.C. WM. MACKENZIE, DINGWALL

L.A.C. William Mackenzie, RAF, who died at Aberdeen on 22nd January, 1942, was well known throughout the Eastern seaboard of Ross-shire. He was serving with his unit when he took ill and was taken to the Royal Infirmary, Aberdeen, where he was operated upon successfully. Later he had a relapse and passed away as stated.

Deceased, who was 32 years of age, was the only son of Mrs Mackenzie, Poyntzfield, and the late Mr Mackenzie, well known in the Invergordon and Tain districts.

An outstanding footballer, he gained a wide reputation as a centre forward or outside left. Playing with Citadel, Inverness, he was one of the team which first brought the Scottish Qualifying Cup north, an achievement then, as the whole of Scotland was included in the competition. From Citadel, he went to Ross County and to them was a valuable asset. A keen athlete, he competed in many of the Highland Gatherings in the North with marked success in the sprints, but was probably quicker with a ball at his foot, his breakneck thrusts through an opposing defence being a feature of his play, and thrilling episodes to the crowd.

Prior to the war the was employed at Lochinver, where he resided with his wife, a daughter of the late Mr Hector Mackay, and of Mrs Mackay, Scotsburn, Station Road, Dingwall. Much sympathy is extended to his mother and young widow and her young boy and infant girl.

Interment took place at Mitchell Hill, Dingwall, when there was a large turnout of people, which included many of his football friends and associates, among whom were the last President of Ross County Football Club, Mr Stewart MacCulloch, and Members of Committee.

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When I was a Great Big Prefect at the Royal Academy in 1970 I had a great regard for these two wee guys in the under 14 team - Davie Milroy who was their star striker (sic!!!) and Billy Urquhart who was an ace defender (also sic!!!). As it happens the captain of that all conquering team was... as I recollect.... one John MacKenzie. :rotflmao:

Surely not this particularly ugly looking bunch!

post-151-0-62178000-1291471639_thumb.jpg

I wonder where they are now.

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Well - it was a long time ago, but I think that's Andy Smith bottom left (brother of famous Inverness author Ali Smith) and surely that's not multi-millionaire Jeff Macdonald on the other side of job centre supremo Mr. Milroy!

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When I was a Great Big Prefect at the Royal Academy in 1970 I had a great regard for these two wee guys in the under 14 team - Davie Milroy who was their star striker (sic!!!) and Billy Urquhart who was an ace defender (also sic!!!). As it happens the captain of that all conquering team was... as I recollect.... one John MacKenzie. :rotflmao:

Surely not this particularly ugly looking bunch!

post-151-0-62178000-1291471639_thumb.jpg

I wonder where they are now.

For some reason or other, Johndo isn't there. Maybe he was in the Heathmount at the time. I'm now wondering if he was captain at a later stage?

I'm not so hot on the back row but second right is Colin MacLeod, now a lawyer in Edinburgh. Front row Andy Smith, Davie Milroy, Jeff MacDonald (Kevin's brother), Russell ????, Alan Watt, Billy Urquhart.Is Ali Smith Andy's younger sister? Anne, who is a doctor, was the oldest, then Gordon and I recollect that there was rather younger one as well. They lived in St Valery Ave - last house before the electric flats. Father owned Smiths electricians and I think was a great Caley man.

Edited by Charles Bannerman
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Ah, the Neild brothers! As I lived just down the road from them (Dalwhinnie as compared to Kinguussie) we were friends and I used to go to the odd game with them. I remember a dramatic match at Telford Street when Bobby got punched in the face during a penalty box stramash and Freddie fell to the ground! I guess this was around 1971 so anyone who thinks "diving" is a recent innovation....

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Im not sure...but i think back row...second from left....might be Hitler :tongueincheek:

Nah.. it's John Cleese!! Hitler, chancing little Austrian git, was busy remilitarising the Rhineland in 1936... and bricking it at the black athlete Jesse Owens winning Olympic titles.

Intriguing tale though behind Citadel (aka The Sheepbags since their ground was right beside the slaughterhouse at the far end of Shore Street). They won their one and only Highland League title in 1909 but for a short time were one of no fewer than SIX Inverness teams in the Highland League - the others were Camerons and Union which I think eventually became part of Jags. (And we are now struggling to sustain one :irritated: )

Anyway... my dad was born in 37 Shore Street in 1920 and lived there and in No 7 until 1932. He had a clear recollection of Citadel which went defunct a few years later.

I just missed the bus in terms of getting an interview with an old Citadel player. I had been told that Dodo Sinclair's dad Butch - who eventually became a very senior Jags committee man - was an ex Citadel player but unfortunately Butch died before I could speak to him about it. Given that Citadel went out of existence over 70 years ago it is highly unlikely that there are any surviving players now.

The oldest ex player I ever spoke to was a guy called Davie Goodall who was in his 90s at the time around 1985. He had bee a member of a great Clach side just before the First World War. (Funny how many "Great Clach Sides of the Past" there have been but you could include 2003-04 in that.)

Maybe in terms of Caley and Jags we should be getting the recollections of Messrs Milroy and Urquhart etc recorded before they become too decrepit or senile to recount them. (Or maybe the Old Gits are past it already :rotflmao: )

Mantis... I suspect you would empathise with around 50% of that suggestion! :biggrin:

If that Mr Goodall lived up the Leachkin he was a good friend of my granda (he offered to leave his house to my granda, who refused being a stubborn Merkincher).

I think you should get on to that project Charles, an oral history of Inverness football. It's too valuable a heritage to lose.

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For some reason or other, Johndo isn't there.

He's there all right. Just not as much of him as currently :rotflmao:

Hang On A Minute! That's not Johndo in the back row back on the left is it? :rotflmao: If he's in the photo then by a process of elimination, that must be him! :rotflmao::rotflmao: God, it is!!! That "harmless looking little chap" actually has a slight look of IHE!

And no, that's a different Andy Smith. The one you're talking about was a financial adviser and was on the Caley Committee. He had an office on Tomnahurich Street and lived on Dores Road.

Edited by Charles Bannerman
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If that Mr Goodall lived up the Leachkin he was a good friend of my granda (he offered to leave his house to my granda, who refused being a stubborn Merkincher).

The very same. I remember going to an old house about half way up Leachkin Brae to interview him for the BBC about 25 years ago and he was about 93 then. He must have been born about 1892 so probably played for the Clach team which my Highland League handbook tells me won the League in 1911-12 (three years after Citadel, to bring this thread back on topic!) Mind you, if I recollect the state of the house, I don't think your granda missed out on much!

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If that Mr Goodall lived up the Leachkin he was a good friend of my granda (he offered to leave his house to my granda, who refused being a stubborn Merkincher).

The very same. I remember going to an old house about half way up Leachkin Brae to interview him for the BBC about 25 years ago and he was about 93 then. He must have been born about 1892 so probably played for the Clach team which my Highland League handbook tells me won the League in 1911-12 (three years after Citadel, to bring this thread back on topic!) Mind you, if I recollect the state of the house, I don't think your granda missed out on much!

Thanks Charles. My granda would cycle up the "Lachkeen" to visit DG, but must have been around 15 years younger than him, going by your dates. DG's house must have been like my granda's then! No B&Q back in those days.

My granda actually played for Citadel in the 30s, but is not in that photo.

By the way, it's hard to believe that IRA photo was taken in 1970. The swinging sixties must have by passed that lot.

Edited by dougiedanger
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