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North Caledonian League Expansion


Robert James

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On 19/07/2020 at 19:20, Sherrif John Bunnell said:

Aye, second tier of the local welfare league according to this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverness_and_District_Football_Association

Sign of the times how amateur football has fallen over the years. I played in the Inverness and district amateur league back in the early 90s when there was about 40 teams playing. Rosshire had their own league with I think 13/15 clubs from Gairloch to Fortrose. Now we have a combined league of 26/27. I don't think it's competition from.other sports I think the issue is sufficient volunteers to run and admin these teams.

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8 minutes ago, dwl123 said:

Sign of the times how amateur football has fallen over the years. I played in the Inverness and district amateur league back in the early 90s when there was about 40 teams playing. Rosshire had their own league with I think 13/15 clubs from Gairloch to Fortrose. Now we have a combined league of 26/27. I don't think it's competition from.other sports I think the issue is sufficient volunteers to run and admin these teams.

Boys working most weekends and not being able to commit doesn’t help. Many also choose The Sesh over football in the free time they have too, which is the downfall of many decent players in my experience :whistle

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3 hours ago, Spyro said:

Many also choose The Sesh over football in the free time they have too

From what I've seen of the lower ranks of the NCL quite a few combine the 2 in an unsightly mix.

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Massive sales of Loch Ness FC's football shirts, apparently "world wide" sales.  Amazing success for the new North Caley League club.

Which of the 3 new shirts, do you consider has the best design/colour ?  And has anyone bought one ? 

 

Edited by Robert James
additional question added
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New NCL 'grounds for a change'. According to Non League Scotland:

 

Alness Utd   will be playing at the new Alness Academy, as soon as the facility is fully available.  On the Academy's website, there is an aerial photo of the adjacent sports area. 

Loch Ness will be playing at Bught Park, on an interim basis, until an alternative venue is found. Achievable, but never easy in Inverness.

Scourie will play the majority of their home games at Achochan Park. Have visited the area, but I can't recall seeing the ground.

Inverness Athletic will be playing at Pavillion Park, Muir of Ord, for the foreseeable future. A very good venue.

Nairn 'A' are listed as playing their home games at Riverside Park, rather than Station Park.  Has anyone been there, as I haven't ?  

 

 

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45 minutes ago, Robert James said:

Scourie will play the majority of their home games at Achochan Park. Have visited the area, but I can't recall seeing the ground.

Is it not just right beside the main road heading through the village? Sure I’ve seen them playing there before when I’ve been passing

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19 minutes ago, Spyro said:

Is it not just right beside the main road heading through the village? Sure I’ve seen them playing there before when I’ve been passing

 

On 23/06/2020 at 15:34, welshbairn said:

Achlochan Park, home of Scourie Football Club. Think I'll have to get there early before the groundhoppers get all the seats.

image.thumb.png.04b3b28582ec775627bf8cab34cc077f.png

image.thumb.png.7c49bc05b33b51b78fde9ad423713467.png

 

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2 hours ago, Sherrif John Bunnell said:

Riverside Park is just a public park next to the river in Nairn. It's been the main Amateur/Welfare venue in Nairn forever. I remember it being very waterlogged in the winter, so they might need a backup venue.

On the positive side, it's got seats. Well, park benches, anyway.

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9 hours ago, Robert James said:

Massive sales of Loch Ness FC's football shirts, apparently "world wide" sales.  Amazing success for the new North Caley League club.

Which of the 3 new shirts, do you consider has the best design/colour ?  And has anyone bought one ? 

 

If I'm biased I would say the white away strip is the best simply because of the big diagonal nessie across the shirt. The black home strip is really neat and a close second though with the horizontal pin stripes and wee nessies.  The blue third strip is also a close runner and of similar design to the black one.

I've bought the white away shirt but due to demand it's on pre-order so could be anything from 2-god knows how many weeks. Defoe worth the wait though😊😊😊 

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10 hours ago, Robert James said:

Massive sales of Loch Ness FC's football shirts, apparently "world wide" sales.  Amazing success for the new North Caley League club.

 

6 hours ago, Robert James said:

Loch Ness will be playing at Bught Park, on an interim basis, until an alternative venue is found. Achievable, but never easy in Inverness.

Richest club in Britain to play their home games in a public park. Maybe they can use their designer tops for goalposts if it's booked up.

Edited by welshbairn
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39 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

 

Richest club in Britain to play their home games in a public park. Maybe they can use their designer tops for goalposts if it's booked up.

With Athletic looking for somewhere to play too, it will be a tough ask. There’s a really nice looking pitch over the hill in Inverarnie, don’t know what the situation there is though

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3 hours ago, Spyro said:

With Athletic looking for somewhere to play too, it will be a tough ask. There’s a really nice looking pitch over the hill in Inverarnie, don’t know what the situation there is though

That park at Farr hall is where Athletic used to play, isn't it?

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15 hours ago, Cyclizine said:

On the positive side, it's got seats. Well, park benches, anyway.

The Riverside pitch in Nairn is not technically a public park, the land was donated years ago for the specific reason to create a football pitch and the Welfare League have been the lease-holders for years.

The land used to be maintained by the council, but the Welfare League have taken over the maintenance of the pitch.  The pitch has been moved slightly to stop the corner getting flooded when the rain water runs down from Queenspark and the changing rooms have been done up.  As there hasn't been any football played this year the pitch will be fine for this season, may be slightly different in future years but I would assume the Welfare League have any additional maintenance that will be required under control or County might be willing to help out. 

An added bonus is that the area around the pitch is not covered by the no drinking in public by-law, so you can have a beer while watching the game.  The by-law stops at the Jubilee Bridge which is up by the changing rooms and the parking spaces.  There is a toilet at the back of the changing rooms, which may or may not be left open while the game is taking place.

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23 hours ago, Cyclizine said:

That park at Farr hall is where Athletic used to play, isn't it?

Yes that’s the one, didn’t realise Athletic played there previously. So it must pass NCL standards, I just wasn’t sure why it wasn’t being considered.

It’s not like these teams are going to be pulling massive crowds from the streets in Inverness. Tbh Athletic might be better realigning themselves as a Muir/Black Isle club to attract some regular support. There doesn’t seem to be any interest in Inverness for any of their football teams, they can’t even provide pitches for the kids and amateur clubs to play on. Having decent, established teams like Drakies and Merkinch unable to play in their local area of the city is a travesty, coupled with the whole Alness playing in Dingwall situation... it’s hardly inspiring 

Edited by Spyro
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9 hours ago, Spyro said:

Yes that’s the one, didn’t realise Athletic played there previously. So it must pass NCL standards, I just wasn’t sure why it wasn’t being considered.

It’s not like these teams are going to be pulling massive crowds from the streets in Inverness. Tbh Athletic might be better realigning themselves as a Muir/Black Isle club to attract some regular support. There doesn’t seem to be any interest in Inverness for any of their football teams, they can’t even provide pitches for the kids and amateur clubs to play on. Having decent, established teams like Drakies and Merkinch unable to play in their local area of the city is a travesty, coupled with the whole Alness playing in Dingwall situation... it’s hardly inspiring 

When I enquired, I was advised that the pitch at Farr wasn't available for all of the winter period, which was the reason Inverness Athletic relocated.  I have no idea why (apparently) this was the problem (?)

Alness United intend to relocate to a pitch at the 'new' Alness Academy, when the required ground works have been completed., (See "Non League Scotland" website).

 

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9 hours ago, Spyro said:

Yes that’s the one, didn’t realise Athletic played there previously. So it must pass NCL standards, I just wasn’t sure why it wasn’t being considered.

It’s not like these teams are going to be pulling massive crowds from the streets in Inverness. Tbh Athletic might be better realigning themselves as a Muir/Black Isle club to attract some regular support. There doesn’t seem to be any interest in Inverness for any of their football teams, they can’t even provide pitches for the kids and amateur clubs to play on. Having decent, established teams like Drakies and Merkinch unable to play in their local area of the city is a travesty, coupled with the whole Alness playing in Dingwall situation... it’s hardly inspiring 

Farr Hall isn't much closer to Inverness than Muir of Ord. The A9-A82 connector bypass was an ideal time to set up all weather facilities for football in Inverness, instead they just threw millions at Rugby and Golf and killed off Inverness City. For some reason the Council has a real bias against grass roots football in favour of cricket and rugby.

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