And it’s Goodnight from them…

Wippo: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/13738222.stm

Clive and I have been diametrically opposed regarding Rushden & Diamonds; he cursed them because of the Max Griggs connection, while I went to see them more often than my own beloved football team.

The news that they have been expelled from the Conference and thrown into the lower leagues is woeful news for a team that have existed only 19 years and reached the heady position of 4th in League 1 for a few weeks seven years ago. The 3,000 loyal fans will be gutted and will be again pointing the finger at Griggs after the former sugar daddy quit as life president over a row regarding land adjacent to the Nene (pronounced “Nen”) Park stadium. In fact, since the multi-millionaire former owner of Doctor Martens quit the footballing stage R&D have struggled to exist as a fan led cooperative.

Once known as the Manchester United of non-league football because of their grandiose (for lower leagues) stadium and seemingly bottomless pockets of their chairman are now the Rushden & Diamonds of the Conference North, a league they last appeared in during the 1990s and one they won without breaking sweat. I doubt history will repeat itself…

Clive:

There are two Rushden & Diamonds. The vanity project created by Griggs in 1992 at least partly funded by the savings he made in moving his shoe production overseas at the expense of the livelihoods of hundreds of good local people including my immediate family, and the one given to the supporters in 2005. I had no time for the former for reasons that are obvious, and also for the fact that as a genuine dues paid Cobblers fan they foisted an artificial local rivalry on my beloved but hopeless NTFC, whose real rivals in my mind have and will always remain Peterborough Utd, unless Kettering Town (a “proper” club) make it to League 2. On the other hand I have nothing against the post-2005 R&D as in my opinion by sinking back to whence they came, are (for the next day at least) at their proper level, and good luck to them.

According to the BBC article, should they survive Monday’s winding up order, they are going to apply for membership of the Zamaretto League, which should they be accepted into the Central Division, will find them three steps down the football league ladder from where they were two days ago. I do really hope they make it through the court hearing.

Finally, Cobblers fans may well be breathing a sigh of relief, there-but-for-the-grace-of-God stylee. A year or so before Griggs created R&D he offered to buy the perennially cash strapped NTFC on the condition he built them a new ground in a cow field six miles out of town. To their eternal credit NTFC’s board were having none of it, and this at a time when we were in desperate need of finance and a new ground. Phew!