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Page 1 of 9  "You've Got Egg On Your Shirt"
Here we go again with another fun packed episode in the life of a 'long distance' Highland Marcher.
The SPL fixture list once again gave the route planners a major headache because of the 'split' in mid April. A further pain for the planners came about however because the season ended a week earlier than normal to enable players to be released for the World Cup.
To accommodate that, the SPL computer penciled in a mid-week fixture in the final week of the season. This meant that, if the HM was to continue with its original format, we would have to walk from Wednesday to Saturday (or Sunday depending on a top six finish - complicated innit?). ICT didn't really help matters either as their quest for a top six position faltered at the last hurdle - had they secured 6th, we'd have had an extra day to make the distance. But not to worry, you do what you've got to do and get on with it!
Anyway I digress...
Team Gringo had already decided that there was no way we would be able to do the 'penultimate game to the last game' thing so it was our intention, initially, to walk from Saturday to Saturday. As the fixtures stood it would have meant a seven-day walk from Livingston to Dunfermline (about 25 miles in case you don't know the area) - which isn't very exciting or interesting whatsoever. There aren't even that many pubs en route! However, as our penultimate game of the season was at home and the last one was away it was decided, therefore, that Team Gringo would walk from Inverness to Dunfermline, starting on Sunday 30th April, a day after the Livvy game and three days before the Falkirk home match.
Team Yompa, on the other hand, were attempting the traditional route by starting from Tulloch Caledonian Stadium after the Falkirk match and heading south to catch up with Team Gringo by Friday night, a truly amazing act of sheer determination and one you're rarely likely to come across, I'm sure, during a Highland March.
With Team Gringo's destination now known, we had approximately two and half weeks to plan a route, book accommodation and get the troops to battle stations. Most of this went easily enough but, with two weeks to go before the off we are hit a body blow when our support driver had to pull out because of work commitments. We were now left with no driver, and potentally new digs and route to find! CaleyD, however, stepped in at the last minute to put the whole show back on the road again - legend!!!
 Marchers were soon to follow in the 'drop out' stakes, when Radio Caroline, Stingofthedump, Mrs Gringo and Beatonio were unfortunate with more unforeseen circumstances. Beatonio, proving early on that pain is only a 4-letter word, broke his arm playing football but still reported for duty, albeit with a stookie on his arm. All of these problems were eventually overcome and it was all systems go for HM4, so all that remained for myself (and Jnr) was to get to Inverness in time for the off. In typical Gringo style, we headed south (from Coventry Nil) to London to catch the overnight sleeper service to Inverness. Setbacks again occurred however, as a delay at Kingussie left us almost an hour late& After a build up like this, what did the week ahead have in store, I wonder?
 Saturday morning was spent doing the shopping for the troops and meeting up with new recruit EGG. She was resplendent in her MFR Highland March top and soon came across Gringo Jnr. "Pleased to meet you" was responded to promptly with "D'ya know you've got Egg on your shirt" - what an introduction to HM'ing this was for her! We kicked Jnr out of the car near the town centre and let him loose on the unsuspecting public before the early morning raid on Tesco began. Jnr hit the town in search of armaments for Team Gringo's assaults on the way down the road and he returned with a haul of cap guns, blow-up swords and bows 'n arrows. Strange child!
We gathered later at the Innes Bar to meet up with CaleyD, before heading off to the MFR Studio, where we did an interview 'live' on air during the sports programme... another HM tradition. This went well (for us) with Yompa and Egg doing all the gassin'. We were a little concerned over the absence of Beatonio for this gathering, thinking that he might have had cold feet at the last minute. We shouldn't have worried however, for none of us had given it a thought that he could be down at the game in Livingston - doh!
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