Club Information

Background and update

As you may know we defaulted on our original 25 year lease which gave us a new ground to the same standard as Ford Meadow within 6 miles of our current location.

Tony Rosenberg renegotiated a new lease last year which ended today 31 May 2011. When I became Chairman in October I spoke to the landlords solicitor to ascertain what would happen at the end of the lease he thought it would be renewed but suggested I email the landlord for clarification which I did on 28^th October I also offered a higher rent for a longer time period or if was not going to renew the lease to let us know so we would have time to relocate.

I have chased him on a few occasions but have been told that he is very busy and never gets back to people. I sent him another email on 20 May to say although the lease will have ended I would pay the Rates, Insurance etc. and send him Junes rent whilst we wait for the new lease to be drawn up which he did finally reply to saying he would not be renewing the lease and he wanted vacant possession.

I have since had several emails and conversations with him to try to save the situation. I have asked for a small extension or that we just have the pitch and they have Ford Meadow club and car park area as you cant build on the pitch part and over the weekend we offered him £6,000 in advance to clear what the previous committee had defaulted by followed by 11 months at £1,100 which is a total of £18,100 rent against our original rent of £12,000 which I think is very reasonable but would still only be for one year but it would give us time to relocate. However the landlord wants £22,000 for one year in advance which we simply don’t have.

Anyone wishing to pay this will be more than welcome. This is a real shame because we had turned a big corner with all the bills paid and money in the bank unfortunately not £22,000.

I Have kept Phil Smith at Padbury informed as this also affects them and to their credit he had offered to double their rent and pay us the whole £2,500 in advance to go towards the deposit which he didnt have to do.

I have been speaking today to our league and they will be very supportive towards us while we look for a new home which in the long run will benefit the club as we cant continue to be held to ransom every year and always have the ground being sold over our heads.

I have also been speaking to John Bercows office today and although John is away until Thursday he is going to join the fight to save the club and help in any way he can.

As soon as I get any news I will let everyone know.

Vince

The Great Escape

Time to take stock, and think how far we have come as a club to be disappointed with a draw on the last game and not finishing bottom of the league, which a few weeks ago would have been a pipe dream.

Well they did, and in doing so Dan and his team have achieved the same points in two months as the last two managers combined last season and nearly three times more points than we had picked up in the seven months before Dan joined.

Sixteen points in April is the second highest equal with Kempston and 19 goals which is also second highest behind Kempston the league winners to put that in perspective we had scored 22 league goals in the seven months before Dan joined.

We could put the last result down to several things but thats football, who would have thought after putting eight goals past Rushden and taking 6 points off them in a week they would beat Thrapston, but thats football and thats why we love it.

 

lets be fair we dominated the game and possession we just lacked a little something which could be down to tiredness playing ten games in four weeks and four games in ten days takes its toll, playing with knocks and injures and U18s playing for both teams with the young lads helped and supported by the captain Jared.

This was a great achievement and I would like to thank all concerned with this result and the previous results which made this possible and the fans who travel home and away throughout the season, its very easy to support BTFC over the last two months on championship form but the previous months and seasons could not have been easy so thank you. also a special mention to Joel and his family who have attended all the games home and away since his injury and he contributed seven goals in ten games for Dan which was only eclipsed by Ash who had 8 in twelve games but Ash is a quiet and shy lad and would not mention that to Joel.

When you look at the table it is hard to believe when Dan took charge we were 16 points behind Harborough and finished a point above them and Chenecks had 15 points on us and two games in hand and we reduced that to 2 points and even at the top half of the table we were 31 points behind Olney and reduced the gap to 16 in two months, with the exception of the top three teams we reduced the points deficit by a considerable margin.

Once again a massive thank you to Dan and all the players for an unbelievable end to the season and thanks to the fans for sticking with us.

Vince