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Inverness Citadel ?


Hsquad12

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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!

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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.

It is Russel Cameron - Last I heard ( a couple of years ago ) he was CEO of BAT Asia based in Hong Kong. Mind you from memory Russel was more a rugby player than a football player so was not aware he made Captain of the football team.

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It is Russel Cameron - Last I heard ( a couple of years ago ) he was CEO of BAT Asia based in Hong Kong. Mind you from memory Russel was more a rugby player than a football player so was not aware he made Captain of the football team.

That's the one Culduthel! Thank you. I seem to recollect as well that Russell was also a basketball player. But I further recollect that one J. MacKenzie on one occasion told me that HE (IHE)had been captain of that team and hence the boss of BU and DM! :irritated:

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

Yes, I agree it's a bit conventional but remember these lads were only in 2nd and 3rd year at that point and the Rector, W.S. Macdonald (Willie Fatlips, had been remarkably successful in his ongoing battle against creeping hair lines. However it was a battle which was inevitably destined to be lost and you don't have to look at school magazines much further into the 70s to see a big change, which in fact had begun even by around 1970 among some senior pupils.

By the way, I sometimes wonder what the crack was like in the Citadel Inn the night Citadel won their only Highland League title in 1909!?

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thanks for posting the IRA picture - its a collectors items for me as i thought Billy lived in Davie's back pocket. i am closing in on the names for the Citadel picture. apparently there was a 28page booklet printed up by George Campbell in 1990........... i should hear back in a couple of days if the picture is of the Citadel team

here is another blast from the past for the old scrotes. enjoy......

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Edited by Hsquad12
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I am now thinking that when I eventually manage to cast of the shackles of employment, some research into the history of Citadel FC might be a worthwhile project. And as I said earlier, with my dad having been born at 37 Shore Street, this might be quite appropriate.

The problem will certainly be lack of sources. There will be very few people left who can remember Citadel since the club went defunct in the late 1930s and I don't expect documentation to be all that abundant. For instance I would doubt if any minute books survive although I believe Alex Main managed to write Caley All The Way without any pre 1950 minutes since these were destroyed in the first of the three grandstand fires which assailed Inverness football over the next 40 odd years. Someone spoke earlier about a 20 page booklet and inevitably there will be newspaper sources as well as old Highland League records.

Sounding like a bit of a challenge.

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here is another blast from the past for the old scrotes. enjoy......

post-5983-0-78223000-1291588919_thumb.jp

Is this one of those Ardath cigarette cards? I've bid for them once or twice on eBay but no luck. OK if I use it on the Caley site? You want a namedrop?

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here is another blast from the past for the old scrotes. enjoy......

post-5983-0-78223000-1291588919_thumb.jp

Is this one of those Ardath cigarette cards? I've bid for them once or twice on eBay but no luck. OK if I use it on the Caley site? You want a namedrop?

aye this is an Ardath card. i will send you a better scan and also the back side with the names to the address on your johnblair.co.uk website tonight

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I've got the booklet Charles - think I got it from Stewart Davidson in Renfrew who publishes a lot of non-League stuff.

When my Hut 68 escape tunnel emerges on the far side of the Inverness Royal Academy perimeter fence, I may well get back to you on that.

But nah! I've been watching too much of Colditz on the "Yesterday" channel and the analogy became too tempting. I'm not all that desperate to be gone but I suspect that the point at which it becomes possible may just about correspond with the stage when the Curriculum for Excellence begins to irritate me terminally.

That might be a cue to start researching into Citadel instead.

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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

My father sent me a photo of the Citadel 2nd XI from 1928 last week and there is a W. McKenzie listed in that. May or may not be the same person.

I have posted it on the photos page:

Citadel photo

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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

My father sent me a photo of the Citadel 2nd XI from 1928 last week and there is a W. McKenzie listed in that. May or may not be the same person.

I have posted it on the photos page:

Citadel photo

Thanks TBB.

Its tough to tell from the 2nd XI picture but I don't think the W Mckenzie in that photo is my GU given that he would have been 20 and the guy shown looks a lot older. Thanks anyways for posting the pic. /es

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It is Russel Cameron - Last I heard ( a couple of years ago ) he was CEO of BAT Asia based in Hong Kong. Mind you from memory Russel was more a rugby player than a football player so was not aware he made Captain of the football team.

That's the one Culduthel! Thank you. I seem to recollect as well that Russell was also a basketball player. But I further recollect that one J. MacKenzie on one occasion told me that HE (IHE)had been captain of that team and hence the boss of BU and DM! :irritated:

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Good lord! These fellas were born before the Pimple. How can anybody remember any one of them. :biggrin:

Charlie

My father had his business.."The Northern Tyre Service" on Shore Street--do you remember it or him by any chance?

There was a wee house next door which was attached to the business property and he allowed a dear old lady, named Mrs Chisholm, to stay there. She formerly lived in Nairn, at a house which was much favoured by me in the Summer, due to the proximity to the beach and the Shows....you know, the Herchers.

I am scared to make any comment about the photo in case someone remembers me; although I think that Charlie Chaplin, before he got smaller, is a more appropriate descriptiont than Hitler.

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I was the captain in the 5th year but I got it taken off me - I was the captain in the 6th year and got it taken off me - that must be the Under 14 or under 13 ICT team - and remember the North of Scotland Under 14 squad that did so well that year - IHE beside Pele Paterson and Milroy and Urquhart on the bench and Ali Dunnett in midfiel

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks to TheMantis for helping me put the names to the faces.

Here they are for the history books:

Back Row: Robert Ogg (President), unknown, Jock Munro, Tommy Brindle, Phillip Smith, Jock Paterson, Jock Henderson, Robert (Bobby) Reid, Willie MacIntosh (Trainer), unknown

Front Row: Kenny McLean (Capt.), Arthur McKenzie, Robert (Bobby) Logie, William (Willie) MacKenzie, William (Oggie) Munro

Charlie - I think you should start working on the story of the Inverness teams in the Highland League before it truly becomes ancient history for us all, and in part to remind the ex Caley and Jags fans what they are missing. Maybe more of us should make it a New Years resolution to watch Clach occasionally and to support the local boys while we still can.

Happy New Year.

post-5983-0-40268200-1294022111_thumb.jp

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Charlie - I think you should start working on the story of the Inverness teams in the Highland League before it truly becomes ancient history for us all, and in part to remind the ex Caley and Jags fans what they are missing. Maybe more of us should make it a New Years resolution to watch Clach occasionally and to support the local boys while we still can.

Happy New Year.

As it happens I write this shortly before leaving for Grant Street Park for today's Clach v Fort game....

Yes - the Inverness teams in the Highland League. Now there's a paradox! The original Highland League comprised seven teams.

(It was actually eight for the first couple of months before Ross County resigned. Now my Dingwall based colleague John MacLeod insists it was because the Inverness teams weren't well enough behaved but he would say that, wouldn't he! :biggrin: )

Anyway, the seven teams were Forres Mechanics plus no fewer than SIX from Inverness - Clach, Caley, Jags, Union, Citadel and Cameron Highlanders. Union and Camerons disappeared at a very early stage, Citadel in the mid 30s, Thistle and Caley in 1994... leaving ONLY Clach of that original six and here's hoping that their jacket will succeed in hanging on a progressively less shoogly peg as 2011 proceeds.

It's been a real change around for the town where the Highland League was founded in the Working Mrn's Club on bridge Street in 1893 going from having six teams in the league to a significant danger of having none at all.

Yes, I really would like to do some research into early Inverness football and will have to add that to at least two other major projects I've got lined up for after I hang up my blackboard duster. But it's something I would very much like to do.

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And here is the final table from that first season....

Season 1893-94

PS - Herr Bannerman retire his duster - in the words of Victor Meldrew "I don't believe it" - me thinks you enjoy the challenge of bashing Sneck loons and lassies into shape too much - I suppose though with the Euro regulations etc and whatever else that is now in place that belt of yours was retired many years ago.... :amazed:

PPS - always wanted to get the time myself to make it down to see the Inverness Football Times collections that are housed in the London archives just to see some of those match reports from 1893....especially the first Thistle Caley derby.... :biggrin:

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And here is the final table from that first season....

Season 1893-94

PS - Herr Bannerman retire his duster - in the words of Victor Meldrew "I don't believe it" - me thinks you enjoy the challenge of bashing Sneck loons and lassies into shape too much - I suppose though with the Euro regulations etc and whatever else that is now in place that belt of yours was retired many years ago.... :amazed:

PPS - always wanted to get the time myself to make it down to see the Inverness Football Times collections that are housed in the London archives just to see some of those match reports from 1893....especially the first Thistle Caley derby.... :biggrin:

TBB... a few points from that post. Firstly... the belt actually departed the scene as long ago as 1985! Seems an age ago now and I think in practice it was barely used after the early 80s. I certainly remember lending mine (which you seem to remember :smile: ) to an Art teacher, never getting it back and never noticing that I no longer bothered to use it.

The inaugural HFL table is fascinating. Your motive for displaying it is, of course, totally understandable. I wonder how many of Jags' 59 goals were scored by Jock McDonald? :laugh:

Something in the back of my mind tells me that locally held copies of the Football Times may have been lost. If that is the case it is especially interesting to hear that there are archive copies in London should I manage to pursue the research I am thinking about.

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Charles - the British Library in London has an extensive football related collection from early newspapers to modern day fanzines:

For Inverness sports newspapers they have the following:

The Inverness Football Times (Saturday evening edition of The Highland News)Inverness

7 May 1904 - 9 February 1907 - Nos. 1075-1219

Continued as: Football Times

16 February 1907 - 19 January 1963 : Nos. 1220-4003

Continued as: Highland News and Football Times (Saturday edition)

26 January 1963 - 17 September 1976 : Nos. 4004-4775

Incorporated in the Inverness and Highland News.

Unfortunately no listing of the Green Final (but that may be hidden away under Aberdeen newspapers)

You can get further information from the contact details below (and also on their web-site) but unfortunately you can't view any documents on-line at present and you have to make an appointment to be able to view any of their records (the usual stuff):

The British Library

Colindale Avenue

London

NW9 5HE

UK

Tel: +44 (0)20 7412 7353

Fax: +44 (0)20 7412 7379

E-mail: newspaper@bl.uk

The British Library

PS - nope - never felt the force of your belt (physics man myself not chemistry) but do recall that it was pretty effective on one or two of your students - it appears the belt departed the scene shortly after me :biggrin:

Edited by Tichy_Blacks_Back
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Charles - the British Library in London has an extensive football related collection from early newspapers to modern day fanzines:

Thanks TBB. This is possibly a couple of years away yet but from what you say, the British Library does seem to offer me the possibility of becoming the Karl Marx of Inverness football. :laugh:

It's a pity the FT doesn't go back to the earliest days of the HL in the 1890s, but The Courier will do that since the HL in its earliest form was largely an Inverness league(changed days!)

What the FT does include is the period of Citadel's one and only HL title in 1909.

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You might have a bit more luck with the National Library of Scotland. I don't know anything about their online resources but 20 years ago I used to go in there a lot and request some pretty obscure things.

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You might have a bit more luck with the National Library of Scotland. I don't know anything about their online resources but 20 years ago I used to go in there a lot and request some pretty obscure things.

Cheers... I've now checked their website and it seems they have the FT from right back in 1888.

They also sappear to have LSM! And quite rightly so.

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  • 8 years later...

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