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.”
On 11 May, league chairman Jim Thompson wrote to the home of Boro secretary Keith Allen. The letter said, “As conveyed to you verbally, the committee are unable to accept the plans submitted for temporary work to be carried out to re-open Manor Park with an approximate capacity of 1,750, as these would not meet the GM Vauxhall Conference standards.”
The letter went on to request an up-to-date audit report, operational and financial budgets for the following season, any agreement for a ground-sharing scheme and, “as soon as possible”, plans for the rebuilding of the stand.
Then came a crucial statement: “Failure to comply with any of the above requirements could result in Nuneaton Borough FC being removed from membership of the GM Vauxhall Conference for season 1987-88.“
Thompson offered a lifeline, stating that Boro could remain in the league the following season, and possibly the season after that, if they came to an acceptable agreement to share another club’s ground.
Why Didn’t They Act?
Boro’s fate was on the line. If I had received such an explicit statement concerning the future of the club, I would have acted with the utmost urgency, as I had on several occasions in the past. But, astonishingly, Shooter and Allen did not even respond to the letter.
So, just over two weeks later, the management committee took the decision to “terminate forthwith Nuneaton Borough’s membership of the GM Vauxhall Conference and relegate the club to the Southern League”. Peter Hunter’s letter to Allen added: “This decision has been taken because your club have not complied with the requirements of the league as stated in the letter dated 11th May.”
This is important to note, because, firstly, Boro were NOT excluded until AFTER the season had ended, and secondly, we were NOT allowed to appeal.
I sent a letter to the management committee on June 2, countersigned by 18 other shareholders, demanding that the club be re-instated. On June 4, Allen signed an official appeal, explaining that the exclusion notification had been made after the end of the season and pointing out that two clubs, Stafford Rangers and Northampton Town, had offered Boro the use of their grounds on a shared, match-to-match basis.
The GM Conference League Annual General Meeting
Despite all this, Boro found themselves thrown out of the league. When the annual meeting was held at the Pembroke Hotel, Blackpool, on June 6. I attended, as a life member of the league. The club was represented by Shooter and Ted Kay.
The previous night I had spoken to all of the league club Chairmen to rally their support. Their response was overwhelmingly positive, and I was confident of their support.
Next day, I was surprised to see no item relating to the expulsion of Nuneaton Borough on the meeting’s agenda. I couldn’t see how such an important issue could be omitted, and for a moment I imagined that someone somewhere had seen sense, and the matter had been resolved.
But out of the blue, in between two agenda items, Thompson announced his proposal to eject Nuneaton Borough from the league. He asked for a show of hands in favour. Silence. Not a single hand went up. I was so pleased, so relieved that justice was to be done.
Amazingly, Thompson simply ordered a second vote! He distributed copies of the letter he had sent to Keith Allen on 11 May, and asked for another show of hands. This time, a few hands were raised, but certainly well short of a majority. I was keen to note how many, and started to count them. There were perhaps eight hands. But before I could scan the room, Thompson announced “motion carried”, and the hands went down. Just like that.
Northwich chairman Derek Nuttall was the only man in the room with the guts to stand up and denounce the decision, but he was ignored.
Nuneaton were out of the league. Just like that.
Neither Shooter nor Kay offered any objection. Our downfall was decided in a matter of minutes, against all proper procedure. To say I was sick and stunned is an understatement.
At the end of the meeting my mind was in a whirl. I approached Thompson and said, “What you have done is grossly unfair. I intend to appeal.” He replied, “That’s a load of shit. You are out of the GM Conference and that’s it.”
Expulsion – but why?
The club’s new ‘leaders’ made no effort to appeal, or even query, the decision, But I wasn’t going to let it lie. I knew after leading the club to promotion in 1982, that getting back into the top flight of non-league football was no easy feat. Looking at Shooter I saw no sign of the ability or desire it would need to give that to the town.
I was furious at the injustice, the cavalier method with which rules were twisted and overlooked. My first question and it was a big question, was: WHY was Nuneaton Borough thrown out?
According to Thompson’s letter of 11 May, which he used as ‘evidence’ at the AGM, it was because the club had not fulfilled conditions regarding their ground. This would suggest that the Boro were expelled in contravention of League Rule 1(e):
“Any club not maintaining standards set for the league will be excluded at the end of the season.”
However, the rule adds: “Clubs so concerned will be notified, in writing, before the end of the season and will have the right of appeal within 14 days of the date of notification”.
Clearly, if this was the reason for expulsion, the league had neither notified the club before the end of the season, nor allowed the right of appeal. So I set about challenging the expulsion, and demanding an appeal, on this basis.
But the legal system moves far too slowly to achieve anything useful in a relevant timescale, so the Boro took their place in the Southern League in August 1987.
Keith Allen and Ted Kay
I was gutted by the role club secretary Keith Allen played in this whole affair. It was vitally important, especially with the club’s future at stake, that he was present at the league AGM and actively pursuing an appeal. So, where was Allen during this critical period in the history of Nuneaton Borough? He was sunning himself in Majorca!
This holiday was booked at very short notice by Ted Kay, Boro director and travel agent, and Allen paid just £150 for a two-week holiday for six people. How convenient for anyone wanting to jeopardise Boro’s hopes of survival to make sure the club secretary is suddenly unavailable!
Allen told me that he always went on holiday at that time of year, but in my experience he was always at Southern League and Conference AGMs, these meetings always held at “this time of year”.
In my capacity as a Boro shareholder, I demanded an appeal. My cheque for £25 to pay for the hearing was returned with a curt note: “You have no business or authority to do anything about an appeal.”
Disgusted, I called Thompson, who told me the league could only discuss matters with the club secretary. When I told him that Keith Allen was away and out of contact, he laughed.
So my next move was to locate Keith Allen. But even though Ted Kay himself had booked the holiday, he flatly refused to tell me where Allen was.
I never fathomed why Ted Kay sided with Shooter. I was the one who had invited Ted to join the board in the first place, and we had always got along fine. Ted had had a rough time health-wise, and was confined to a wheelchair after having a leg amputated. I always made sure Ted was looked after when we went on away matches. I would make the necessary arrangements in restaurants, so there was never any inconvenience or embarrassment for him. If we stopped on the motorway for a break I make sure Ted got a mug of tea, so he wouldn’t have to struggle on and off the coach. Back at the club, late at night, I would often take Ted home in my car.
So, we had a friendly relationship – I don’t remember ever falling out with the fellow. But, for some reason, when Shooter arrived on the scene, Ted Kay decided to turn against me.
It’s likely that Shooter promised to put a lot of money into the Boro. Shooter was always making exaggerated claims about how well off he was, and this can be attractive to a fellow director who might be asked to put his hand in his pocket from time to time!
I wasn’t prepared to let Keith Allen sit in the sun while the club went down. I made discreet enquiries and came up with the name of his hotel.
I phoned, and expected Allen to sound surprised at being handed the phone as he lay by the pool. But he was expecting my call – I later discovered that Kay had called Allen to warn him. This proved to me that Ted Kay, along with Shooter, was angling – and happy – to see Nuneaton thrown out of the league.
I told Allen I needed his signature so we could appeal. I had the paperwork typed out, and paid for director Sean Gallagher to fly to Majorca. He met Allen at Palma airport, and Allen signed the appeal document – perhaps signalling that deep down Allen did want the best for the club. The appeal was sent to the League on June 4. This was before the annual meeting. But it was apparently ignored.
In a letter to my solicitor some time later, Thompson stated: “The management committee decided that this matter be placed on the agenda of the annual general meeting on June 6 under Rule 18(a) in that the conduct of the club had been detrimental to the good conduct and name of the league”.
He added: “I would emphasise that Nuneaton Borough were not removed due to their failure to meet a ground-grading inspection on 14th April. Their removal was based on their non-compliance with league rule 18(a).”
The letter – dated 21 October 1988 – was the first mention of “detrimental conduct”. The words “detrimental conduct” were not used at the AGM or in any prior correspondence, and did not appear in Thompson’s letter of 11 May that swung the illegal second vote. I can only conclude that Thompson and Hunter realised that they had not correctly applied Rule 1(e) and decided instead to adopt Rule 18(a), to get themselves out of a hole.
I had been to court and got the judge’s permission to act on behalf of Nuneaton Borough in any appeal, provided the temporary board agreed. The board met, one evening near the end of June, while I stood in the social club, anxiously waiting to be called in. I had the evidence for the appeal under my arm.
I insisted that former secretary John Evans – a true football expert who had helped to draw the APL rules when it was formed – was invited to advise on the way forward and to help constitute the board. He gave the interim directors strong advice that top of the list was to appeal “again” to the FA against wrongful expulsion (the FA had ignored the first appeal).
John Evans came out of the meeting and left them to sort out the matter. John Harris was acting chairman. Just before midnight, Keith Allen came into the social club.
He looked straight past me and spoke to John Blaney, the club steward. He said: “John, we’re finished down there. You can switch the lights out.” Then he turned to me and said: “Oh, by the way Noel, we’re not bothering with the appeal.” With that he walked out. I was dumbfounded.
I don’t know what happened that night. I was told later, that Shooter claimed after the AGM that he and Ted Kay were told in no uncertain terms by Peter Hunter before the meeting that it was pointless objecting or appealing the decision because if they did so, Nuneaton’s place in the lower Southern League would be at jeopardy and they might even be relegated two leagues.
It was too late to stop the relegation but I was still fighting to regain my position at the club. 18 months after the interim board had been appointed, the Boro had been expelled into the Beazer Homes Premier Division and then relegated into the Midland section. In other words, the club’s status had dropped three levels in an alarmingly short period – while I had been forced to stay in the wings and while Shooter had still been continuing to use his influence and pursue whatever his intentions were.
The hearing for control of the Boro started on 2 June 1989 – over two years after the injunction was issued. Five days later Justice Harman delivered his verdict: that I be ordered to sell my shares to Shooter and leave the club.
Harman’s decision was a massive, distorted overreaction and totally without legal precedent. I was losing the majority shareholding in a company for allegedly failing to hold two meetings!
His judgement centred on the way the EGM’s in 1982 and 1985 had been called. This put into doubt the validity of the two new share issues, which then questioned the validity of the shares issued to Shooter, Rowley and Gallagher.
He admitted it was an odd case, because, at the end of the day, according to his deliberations the company only had 2,000 issued shares, and not the 100,000 recorded as having been allotted. Many of which I had paid for!
Harman actually said: “The averments against Mr Kelly’s honesty are wholly unsubstantiated and are wholly unproved. I entirely acquit Mr Kelly of any sort of intent to do harm.”
His judgement went on: “I do believe that Mr Kelly came to consider that the affairs of the company could be conducted by him in whatever way he thought fit and without any regard for formalities or legal obligations; those were simply to be brushed aside and the company should be treated as his pawn. That conduct is not normally blameworthy in a man who, himself, put up very large sums of money and procured that his own company also put up very large sums of money for the benefit of this company, although it was unfairly prejudicial to the interests of other members.”
Harman’s judgement failed to identify any damage caused by my apparent misconduct, to the club or to any member – including Shooter. The only damage to Shooter was my refusal to give him the club.
I had battled to keep control of the Boro – and lost. Now I was facing a war over the financial implications of it all. I had to prove how much money I and my company had ploughed into the football club over the years. I had to prove that nothing had been repaid. I had to prove the loans were given in good faith, to keep the club going. I had, somehow, to put a value on my shares. And I also had to try to get back the costs of having to defend myself and clear my name.
Seeking to set a value for my priority shareholding in what was (before Shooter) a successful and respected club, I obtained opinions from several Conference chairmen, who each rightly suggested a sensible and not insignificant value on my shares.
In response, Shooter approached a “respected valuer of businesses” – who happened to be a personal friend of the judge… This expert valued my controlling interest in Nuneaton Borough FC at just £20,000.
Harman accepted this valuation without question, and allowed just £97,000 of the £140,000 in loans I had proven over many expensive days of trawling through numbers in court. He told Shooter to pay me £117,000, and then I should hand over all my shares and relinquish all control of the Boro.
£117,000 never appeared…