The Mantis

Caley used to regularly skelp Scottish League teams in the cup, a bit like Lithgae and far better than Talbot who have still not beaten anybody. When Caley Thistle joined the league they obviously strengthened the squad and actually topped the table after 5 games but as the season went on it just got harder and harder. Eventually they finished 6th out of 10, 35 points behind the winners. Compared to the Highland League I thought the 3rd division was faster and more physical and the players were bigger and stronger and possibly less skilful.

Nae doot, he likes being a big fish in a wee pond.

Been Osprey-hunting again for the first time since last July. Maybe post a few here or the bird thread when I get round to editing them. Had to feel sorry for the group of photographers, pretty much all from England, who paid top dollar and were in the hide from 4.30 am for 5 hours, and saw nowt. I went in at noon and paid £15 for a half day unsupervised. Plenty Osprey action, plus a heron that killed a 1lb trout then nearly choked itself trying to swallow it

I think that's a bit premature as the LL clubs will be voting on it tomorrow night at the AGM. My gut feeling is you're probably right though.

Seaview or The Showgrounds would be just grand. I had an old mannie show me round The Showgrounds in 1998 but never seen a game there. Tidy wee ground. You guys were good craic at the Caley Stadium.

Beat me to it

My missus is a native speaker from Lewis and I did a learner’s O Grade back in the day (no Granny Danger jokes please). Also we had a week at Sabhal Mór Os***** a couple of years back, a learners course for me and a cultural type thingy for her. My view is, no use forcing road signs etc on people in the wrong areas especially when they seem to just be made up half the time. On the other hand, I’m somebody who believes every day is a school day. I used to be a teacher and tried to make the subject (maths) interesting by dropping in extra wee anecdotes, puzzles etc. You always got people who said “will this be in the test? Then why are we doing it?” You also got people who had a very fixed idea of what they would need in their future job, so completely dismissed anything different from that. So when people say, what’s the point of Gaelic, I’m never going to speak it, etc, even though they live in a town like Inverness with Gaelic placenames, mountains etc all around them, or even Glasgow, and they’re not interested in even knowing the meaning of them, I think of those kids, except it’s adults saying it, and I despair.

Club Merde?

Sam Robertson was on the bench for Cove at Cowdenbeath last week.

OK can the guy not get toeclips if he's not confident then?

Depends if you're old enough to remember Rab Prentice.

Apologies for the naive question, I'm not half as committed as you guys judging by your exploits, but a lot older by the sound of it Are we talking about cleats here? Or toe-clips? Are toe-clips a thing of the past?

Forgot about that. Every cloud etc.

I think you mean the LL here?

It's a deceptive shot, they're tiny wee pies and the coffee is in an eggcup

Thought you might like this wee piccy from when Whitehill visited for a friendly

Ahem...

FTFY

Brought my blog out of hibernation https://scottishfootballgroundswordpresscom.wordpress.com

I actually considered Kirrie yesterday now the WW season is finished. Went to Tweedmouth v Eyemouth instead though, at Old Shielfield. 6-2 and pretty entertaining even if the standard is poor with two of the worst sides in the EOS. About 40 there I would say. A bonus is you can wander around Shielfield if the game is boring

Sir John Greig Dunbar was the Lord Provost of Edinburgh in the early sixties. His son Greig Dunbar opened The Steading pub at Hillend in 1972 and I had a job there as a student. He sold it on after a few years though, all the extended bits came later.

Abbey Hulton Utd just up the road. That was the first one I found but there’s probably more. Get the Groundhopper app by Kepermat for the phone, then all the grounds will appear on the map and you can tap them to get fixtures.

*buffoon

Maybe we’ll get a development fee for him. Great news about Doran.

Rab does the work, I get the greenies *Edit - mind you, the cover photo’s mine I suppose