www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/s ... _chairman/ Onwards and Upwards.

www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/s ... _chairman/ Onwards and Upwards.

Interesting few weeks ahead.

Was it Caisley or Hood who said they would not sell Bateman?

Duckett I think.

The deafing silence seems to have been broken...

Mixed thoughts about this. I think he did an awful lot for this club, an awful lot of good things. It's jsut going to be forever tainted by the web of lies and hlaf truths that appear to have been told in the last few months.

I just hope now that Caisley is a man of his word.

Hopefully we can now start to move forward. Coulby (caisley) needs to act quickly and spell out his plan for survival. A strategic review with the predetermined outcome of going into admin is what expect to happen but hopefully I'll be proved wrong and they have investment lined up.

I think we may live to regret today

Over to you Coulby and Caisley - do you have the investors lined up ready to cough up? Your path is now clear.

Get ready for it getting worse before it gets better though. This is a step forward in terms of the power struggle to some degree, but this was going to happen on 23rd May anyway, so this is hardly anything unexpected.

The most important bit is whether that renowned business master Duncan Preston sees us as a viable business/operation. If not, Caisley WILL take us into administration. Once he can line up "his" administrators, he can time it all so he has his pre-pack ready and pretty much nobody can do anything about it.

That's one way of sorting out the shareholding issue anyway.....

Couldn't agree more with the above.

Some highlights and low lights below.....

Hood took the role of Chairman on when nobody else would.

For long periods managed to keep the club a float and cut our cloth so that we are at least still here today.

Asking Gary Hetherington for the 2 points that were "stolen" from us at Millenium tragic against the Rhinos with "that" try from Jordan Tansey.

Brought back 10k crowds to Odsal with the pledge scheme.

Kept Steve McNamara too long.

Brough Mick Potter back to the club - something he will not now have the recognition for should we see the team bear any fruit.

Signed "The Beaver" Steve Menzies
Released / allowed "The Beaver" Steve Menzies to leave

Signed "he who shall not be named" who basically wrecked all of last season.

Sold the lease to the RFL, which at the time seemed like a good idea as we pay less in rent than we do on maintenance and rent to the council.

Didn't pay HMRC on time (appears more than once or twice) which has resulted in the mass panic over recent months.

Sold Andy Lynch for a wedge of cash - more than he was possibly worth given his age.

There will be lots more!

We'll have to wait and see, but I fail to see how today we are any worse off than the position we were in yesterday, with enough money for one more months wages at a guess, deafening silence from a board saved by the fans, in-fighting and acting like spoilt chidren at boardroom level....the new old people have said they don't want administration, so I think we should at least start off taking them at their word. Lets judge them by their actions now not what we all think they will do.

Things may well get worse before they get better, we don't know, the future might involve cost cutting as well as investment, season ticket prices will return to more normal levels so the crowds will drop, we might not be spending the full cap next year which might lead to players leaving, but all that looked a certainty to me with Hood and his non investment, it now might or might not be, I'd take that chance at the moment tbf.

I also like the piece in his goodbye today where Hood thanks the fans for helping to raise 500k in a week...oh wait.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire?

Well it had to happen sooner or later so let's hope Caisley and co come up with the goods. As we've enough cash to pay this month's salries I figure we've until 14 June to come up with some new money. We'll see if Caisley's backers are the real deal.

I just wonder what price Caisley is going to have to pay for this new investment, will it be a we pay you go one which is very much on the cards, it was never a very clever move invoking an EGM which undoubtedly stifled an chance of investment prior to it, but it also weakens the Clubs hand with any investors coming on board, higher prices all round will be the order of the day however it pans out.

The group of majority shareholders will explore opportunities to revive interest from potential investors who had spoken to Hood and push forward talks with parties they have previously held themselves

Quote from the T&A - revive being the operative word....

I would like to thank Peter Hood and Andrew Bennett for trying to keep our club afloat, and restore it to its former glories. They failed in a big way, and they, like all sports administrators/club boards are judged by results on and off the field. They have been dire!!
The positives are outweighed by a couple of massive negatives. I think that Hood seemingly not wanting to accept the blindingly obvious would cover most of it.
We know he inherited a mess, but he carried on digging the hole rather than being open about how deep it was getting!
Time to look forward rather than back! Quite often the best person to get you out of a problem is the one who got you in it. Well, here you go Mr Caisley. The hole is a bit deeper than when you left it, but it should still be familiar! At least now we will have a board with the backing of a majority of the shareholders. They can be given approval in a fortnight at the EGM and try to move us forward.

It has been my view that a prepack admin could be a way forward and if I am correct, this would smooth the way for that happening. The RFL have an interest in us being in SL, and have set precidents that admin doesnt mean relegation or not getting a license. There is a lot for Coulby, Caisley, Tasker, Nobby et al to get their teeth into!

I hope that administration can be avoided, and that we can keep the crown jewels of our squad. But today sees a significant step forward, and just as we supported the club by pledging, we need to keep that up now. Ryan's going to be doing even more by himself for at least a few days, maybe weeks, so lets stay behind him!

Prepack administration?

Unless I have missed something, the money the fans raised paid off the bank and other debts; the lease paid off the RFL; and so apart from some tax to pay (which there always is in the pipeline) why would we go into administration now?

My understanding of our situation is we are struggling for the funds to pay ongoing accruals not to pay any historic debts. Administration would not increase our income streams by a penny, quite the reverse.

If that's not right - then who are the remaining big creditors?

Either way, he gave up valuable time and effort to try his best for the club we love. He could have spent this on other business interests, or with his family, but he sacrificed that for our club. Nobody can suggest that he did this expecting an easy road, he of all people would have realised how difficult it was going to be.

Was it a sucess? I honestly dont know. This can only be understood if people know of the total circumstances surrounding the last 5 years. I suspect us lasting this long is on a whole a sucess, but regardless, thank you for the efforts you made for our club.

That's exactly right, imo. By leaving now he's expedited the take over, the slow going nature of which was only making the situation worse. For better or worse we are now moving forward. Let's just hope CC and his 'cohorts' have the backing they appeared to be promising to have.

The £1/2m raised by the pledge may well have staved off administration being the only option.

I think it could be much much harder for an incoming management to argue now that administration is the only option, basically for the reasons the 'Vark says.

If you were looking to get rid of all the other shareholders, and pick up the assets - probably cheaply, since there would likely be few other bidders - off the administrator, and with creditors unpaid, then I guess the very last thing you would have been looking for would have been a successful pledge? Since to gain control of a going concern (even if a badly-struggling one) would almost certainly cost you more. And you might have a big axe to grind therefore with anyone who promoted or supported the pledge? Guess we'll just have to see over that?

But the previous BoD stated they needed more than just that £1/2m on an ongoing basis, so there may still be the opportunity for administration to be argued as the only solution. I would need to be convinced that it really WAS, and was not just a device to enable CC to acquire control much more cheaply.

Anyway, we've had two weeks or more of stasis, and that cannot have done anyone any good. Well done PH and AB in bowing to the inevitable and not dragging out the agony any longer. Lets see now what the next lot can come up with, and hopefully these inwards funds opportunities that appeared to go on hold once CC intervened can indeed be "revived".

I guess what happens next is entirely dependantvon what the incoming people find during the review. If Hood & co have been truthful about the situation then things should move relatively smoothly. But if they dig up a few more skeletons then admin may yet be the only option. Only time will tell now.

The previous Board said that they would only take the fans money if they were reasonably sure that they could raise the extra £500k. And they said that knowing full well the views of the major shareholders. So if the extra money doesn't materialise and my pledge money goes down the drain I will not be blaming the new Board. Unless they put the club unecessarily into administration (if that's possible) merely to strengthen their own position.

Following on from today’s inevitable news, I would like to thank Peter Hood for

- The Tong training facilities – the best in Superleague
- The current junior recruitment and overall set up – certainly paying dividends now, this has to be his finest achievement IMO
- Balancing the books – not an easy task I imagine
- Being a fan of the club and carrying out your duties for free
- Gaining us a grade B superleague license – not sure some people realise what that involves and what security it grants...

I sincerely hope the new incumbents carry on some of the good work you started and don’t p*ss it all away in the hope of short term success....


Welcome Mr Coulby - hope you oversee a period of sustained on field success and financial stability off field

I cannot believe that when we have gone cap in hand to the fans, and face administration, some people credit Peter Hood with balancing the books!!! ( I take this phrase to mean bringing financial stability, and not simply getting a pile of books and balancing them on his head, which he could be really good at!!!)

About time. Dead men walking from the last month. The new guys need to be clear and quickly about what they are going to do.