Missing people and all that!
by Paul Barker, 10th July 2008

Contrary to what some people might believe, I do have to work to earn a living and when PSP wrote asking if I did a mid-season report, it could hardly have come at a less convenient time. However, late in the evening, I thought, lets not disappoint those that want to read what I might think taking into account that there are probably hundreds who wouldn’t want to read such drivel.

So what you see is what you get and for those I have missed out, I am so very, very sorry. It is always bound to happen, no matter how much you try, someone will always be disappointed. So in particular I apologise to Mr. Brooks of Kiveton Park and anyone else I may have offended.

By the same token, several people have already told me that the point made about the money clubs in the Premier Leagues is 100% correct and not all of these are the ones that you would have thought of.

It is surprising how some people’s attitudes have changed so dramatically over the years.

I well remember some fifteen years ago now, a well-known respected player made a very decent and impassioned plea at the Bassetlaw A.G.M. stating that he was disappointed with the way things were going and that something needed to be done urgently to address the matter.

He wanted the league to be wholly amateur, with overseas players banned from being a part of it. His point was that not enough young players were being given the chance and that Nottinghamshire as a County were suffering because of it.

He might well have been right, but his club who are currently part of the Nottinghamshire Premier League now have a whole host of star names in it and members of the club are trying to tell me that they are receiving no remuneration for it at all, it’s because they love the club. Do you believe that, I do and I am also a first rate liar! If he didn’t think that it was right then, why has he changed his mind now, because he is still a part of the same club!

Some clubs will say that I have got it all wrong and two in particular have already stated so, but can you remember that old adage about income tax? I was always told you don’t pay any tax if you don’t earn it. Well why after inspections by H.M. Inland Revenue officials a couple of years ago wasn’t one of these clubs ordered to pay £3,000 and the other £19,000. Oh perhaps it was because the treasury was a little bit short of money and decided we’ll take a bit off these, was it, or could they have been bending the league rules to suit?

How many people can remember James Maude Cricket Club. If ever a side should have won the Bassetlaw League 1A it was them and why they didn’t is still a complete mystery. In that side were the best two Pakistani players that I have ever seen in League cricket, Rifat Alan and Saeed Azad in addition to Paul Newman who at one time was regarded as the fastest bowler in the country when he was firing for Derbyshire and Mike Rindell who played unofficial test cricket for South Africa when they were banned from playing because of apartheid.

What happened there? The rich benefactor pulled the plug and the club doesn’t even exist not at this level anyway. Its sad when that happens, but it ought to strike a warning note to other clubs that this sort of thing could happen and if their benefactor ever got fed up, how would they fare?

In fact I am given to believe that it has happened somewhere in one of the local Premier Leagues now and the club in question are struggling to compete at the level they have been used to. Next season unless they find another ‘Sugar Daddy’ quickly they might even be relegated. What a pity, I find I am laughing already.

Steetley are another club who should be mentioned in this scenario. For many years and this was a slightly different case, players from other clubs managed to land a cushy job at the Works rather than receive money and a full time groundsman was employed. When the company was sold, this all ended and this groundsman was dismissed and it meant that the members of the club had to do the work themselves in the evening. Remember this Club had won the Bassetlaw title 14 years in the previous 18. Nett result – the club folded!

One day and this is going to the very top Roman Avramovich will get tired of Chelsea Football Club and just think of the repercussions that will create. These people use sports clubs as a status symbol and when they get fed up, they simply clear off. That means the club are then in a mess but I don’t think anyone could possibly feel any sympathy for them. They rode roughshod over everyone whilst it lasted, so why should anyone have any sympathy now it’s gone. In fact I do believe that most people would be having a quiet snigger to themselves.

Don’t run away with the fact, I am against Professionalism because I am not. I just don’t like people bending the rules and then lying through their teeth and saying we don’t do it. I thought the idea of the Premier League’s was to bring talented players through into the County game and provide a production line for Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire in this area. Has it worked, I don’t see them coming through in droves, do you?

Instead people are coming through from the youth teams of some clubs and as soon as someone waves a book of first-class stamps under their nose, they are off to join someone bigger. I have every admiration for Paul Franks who told an umpires meeting about eighteen months ago that he owed everything to Farnsfield. They had looked after him from being eight years old and he said he owed them a debt of gratitude and hadn’t received anything from them, nor did he want anything. It’s a pity that others aren’t the same. As I stated before unfortunately the by-words today are those two horrible words, mercenaries and pot-hunters and sadly there are a lot of these about. 

I could go on forever, but it has got to stop somewhere. Lets face facts it almost destroyed two clubs in Derbyshire, namely Heanor, and Langley Mill and the sad point about it is nobody is learning from the mistakes which happened there, so don’t be surprised when it happens again. Full credit goes to the people at these clubs who since the bottom dropped out, have worked their butt off trying to restore the clubs to their former glory and are doing a damn fine job.

There is still some way to go, but one gets the impression that the people running these clubs today are beginning to win. They are much more responsible people who won’t spend 50p if they have only got 25p and that’s the way it should be. Unfortunately there are several who are taking no notice whatsoever.

I can also predict, that on the success of their last venture round our cricket clubs subject to the fact that they backed a winner last time out, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Inland Revenue will be plotting another purge. At one time I would have felt sorry if some clubs who had been found out, but after a lot of things that I have heard and witnessed since, I’m sorry but I seriously believe that they deserve to get caught.

Okay I’ve now said my piece and I once again emphasise that I have nothing against professionalism as long as everybody is playing on a level playing field and the rules of the respective leagues are being adhered to. We all know they are not, but how it can be stopped is another matter.