"Gerreminangerremout!"

He used to chew through 3 tongues if it was a close game!

so is there a few ex Crigg players here???

I must admit I did swing the bat around in my younger days

come on lets have some names! i was only a kid when Durz dd the tins! but thet guy is a legend!

I played for Crigg in the 60s. Derek father was the scorer and a very good one. I was lucky enough to play with some really good cricketers. Greenwood,Barraclough,Buxton,Mann,Green,Froggett to name a few. We used to struggle to get a 2nd team together and turned up short for matches. I remember being in the side when we struggled to make 20!!!
Those were the days.

Buxtons lad (Andy) is now the chairman and plays when needed. top bloke.

i seem to remember the floodlights being dropped down on a pivot when they need maintenance, but i may have dreamt that. wouldn’t that mean that if we put up these magical temporary stands then we’d have to consider relocating the floodlights in order that they could be maintained?

either way i think that the temporary stands are a waste of money as it would be money out of the game and the rfl would surely it be pumped into something long term rather than transient.

Far from it; if the temp stands get us a SL franchise, then an investment of around £400k on ground improvements will result in 3 years worth of SL money, gate receipts, sponsorship, advertising and merchandise, totalling millions.

A pretty decent ROI, don't you think?

yes of course i agree with the roi, however if i were the rfl i'd prefer that 400k to go into rl rather than into the hands of the firms providing the structures. that's all i'm saying.

one thing that frustrates me here is that if we can bring the ground up to scratch for the price of a couple of family houses then why the hell didn't we do it years ago?

On the first point I totally agree, but then this is the RFL we're talking about, and they covet shiny stadiums that are devoid of atmosphere but full of seats and baby-changing facilities above all else.

On the second point - maybe that one will be answered in Ted's memoirs?

Because most family houses have more spare cash coming in than any RL club. TBH you could say the same for Cas, Bradford or Saints.

Problem is fans. Fans are cash but they want the best players or they tend not to watch. It would be a brave Chairman to stop signing players and build stands for five years. It would take an even braver set of fans to keep turning up for 5 years, i mean it's been bad enough.

OK, but it's not just Ted is it. Cas have had more success as have Bradford and both have failed to invest. Hull, and Hudds did it on the back of football teams etc.

Blame Ted as you clearly must but he is not the one who allowed BV to reach the state of no return. It was a 2 1/2 side one roofed crap hole before he turned up.

That distinction goes to previous owners and the Council.

In the late sixties we built the Theatre club in an attempt to ape Aussie League clubs - the gambling laws were never passed to allow it to happen but we'd already built it. All other clubs were building stands. We could have built a nice cantilever stand that would probably just need a lick of paint.

Then some doylum director knocked the covered and best stand down to allow a supermarket to be built, it was pure speculation that failed. All that stand would need now is a new roof and an upgrade to the bogs.

The Council forced us to pull down the old main stand, it wasn't needed and others got away with it.

The Council forced us to replace our floodlights even though the ones at Cas were worse and there's stayed. This could have allowed us to replace the old main stand.

Did you know.... that about four years ago the club wanted to build a bridge connecting Cats bar to the flats. Logical as it allows the club to have a proper reception and it's fairly straight forward you'd imagine. The club was told it did need planning permission even though one of the structure was temporary. They duly applied and low and behold it was rejected, on the grounds that it would cause extra traffic congestion





I think at that point they gave up any hope of upgrading BV - and it's interesting that all the proposed upgrade are temporary - for obvious and not so obvious reasons I suspect.

Yes the old regime might have done better been more imaginative etc etc I accept all that but the starting point was so low and the obstacles so high it was almost impossible - for anyone not just them. The mess this club has got itself into over the past 40 years should be turned into a guidebook on how not to run a sports club.