WHAT REALLY HAPPENED - Noel Kelly and Nuneaton Borough Football Club

Ten Great Years

From 1977 to 1987 I was Director and Chairman of Nuneaton Borough Football Club. My aim was to give excitement and passion to the people of Nuneaton, the town my father settled in when he brought my family over from Dublin in 1952.

Enter Shooter & Broadhurst

A football club is a business; its financial health has to be secured before big plans can be put into practice. Sometimes that means changing the mix, bringing new elements into a happy team. And in business – especially one as high profile as football – politics and ego are never far away.

Harry Broadhurst – the Man Banned from Football… For Life

Harry Broadhurst had been NBFC secretary in 1961.

He was taken to court after being caught opening lottery tickets in search of winning tickets, and choosing ‘lucky’ winners himself.

Injunction, Bad Solicitors, Bad Judge

Two days before the second EGM, a legal document was hand-delivered to me at home. It was a notice of intended action issued by Shooter, supported by an affidavit from Broadhurst.

It sought to restrain me, and fellow directors Sean Gallagher and Jim Rowley, from voting at the EGM at which we were seeking to oust Shooter from the club. Critically, the injunction also sought to restrain us from exercising any powers as directors of Nuneaton Borough FC.

Shooter Wreaks Havoc

May 1987. Shooter was in charge, with myself, Sean Gallagher and Jim Rowley suspended.

So… what was Nuneaton Borough’s court-appointed, self-proclaimed saviour going to do to improve things at the club?

Nothing. In fact, the opposite.

Relegation?!?

A letter from GM Vauxhall Conference league secretary Peter Hunter five days later, informed Shooter that the management committee wanted details of improvement work planned for Manor Park. Hunter wrote: “This will be helpful when we consider your continued membership of the league following the closure of your main stand.”

Second Case – Kelly Fighting First Solicitor

The Second Lawyers – Needham & James

I had lost my position at my beloved club and was being blamed by the town for the club being relegated when I’d seen them brought low without a fight. I realised that my solicitors were massively at fault for letting Shooter have all the documents enabling him to fabricate a case. I could no longer fight for them as an insider, but as a fan I could do more – if I had the right advice…

Shooter Resurfaces

Before N&J had even managed to recover all of my files from VH, things took an unexpected turn. I received a call from Sat one morning. “Noel, we’ve had a letter from Joe Shooter’s solicitor. He’s complaining that he never received the shares in Nuneaton Borough.”

WHAT???

Shooter Leads the Club to Bankruptcy

Shooter did reappear, and walked back into Manor Park for his second reign on 16 July 1990 – but within 24 hours the future of the football club was again thrown back into the balance.

Incredibly, after emerging as victorious from the High Court, this weird man suddenly didn’t know whether he wanted to be Boro chairman. The judge had given him the right to buy my shares – against my will and at a devalued price. I was devastated by the decision and then amazed to read the headline in the following day’s Tribune: “Fresh Twist in Boro Saga”.

Seeking Justice from the FA and Football Conference

I could do nothing to save Nuneaton Borough. But I was being blamed – to my face and behind my back – for the club’s demise. In 2005 I had had enough – I decided to approach the Football Conference to again challenge the Boro’s illegal relegation in 1987.

I wanted nothing financial, just acceptance that they had wrongly relegated Nuneaton, and confirmation that I was not responsible for their decision to relegate.

The Watchdog With A Bark But No Bite

The legal system had failed to protect me or provide justice, and I was at my wits’ end. Then one day in 1991 I was introduced to a man called John Flynn, who styled himself as The Solicitors and Barristers Watchdog.

The Noel Kelly Trophy & Life Membership

With John Evans, I was instrumental in the formation of the Alliance Premier League, which went on to become the Football Conference and now the National League. With the subsequent introduction of automatic promotion, the National League is now firmly established as English football’s “fifth division”.

What Can You Do?

You may read the events outlined on this site and decide to do nothing.
The corrupt people who did me down are no longer in post. But injustices still occur on a regular basis. The perpetrators rely on an attitude of apathy – the “I can’t do anything about this” view that we as individuals feel is a reasonable reaction.

But while we sit down and take this sort of behaviour, we give the corrupt even more power. And it costs nothing to take action. If you want to help prevent injustice in the future, please do one of the following:

Little Fecker

And you can read more about my early life, and what brought me to live in and love Nuneaton here:

Nuneaton Borough FC – The Kelly Years 1977-1987 – An Objective Appraisal

By Dr John Evans

H L Broadhurst seeks to denigrate Noel Kelly’s years in office as being years of failure and stagnation. This description, in fact, scarcely accords with reality, and any objective view of the decade 1977-1987 sees it emerge as the most glittering in the first half century of the existence of Nuneaton Borough FC.

A Small Selection of Correspondence

A huge amount of correspondence has been exchanged over more than 35 years of my fight for justice. I’ve resisted the temptation to share much of it, but I feel the following give a taste, add weight to my argument and provide other viewpoints.