Holker Street Newsletter 976 - 24th August 2002

Great news on the ground front. Read on McDuff.

Thanks to Richard Ingham and Alan Dunn for their help with today’s edition.

PRESS RELEASE FROM BARROW AFC LIMITED

The Board of Barrow AFC Limited is delighted to announce that this afternoon, at 2.40 pm, Alan Dunn as solicitor for the Club was able to exchange contracts with the solicitor for Jim Duckworth, the liquidator, to secure the purchase of the Holker Street ground. This is the result of a tremendous amount of hard work and dedication by the Board, its accountants, the Furness Building Society and, most of all the football supporters, without whose promises of money it would not have been possible. There are still a few hoops to be negotiated, not least because the formal completion of the purchase has to take effect on Friday the 30th August. In that time, all the legal documentation needs to be prepared and signed, the pre-conditions attached to the offer of loan from Furness Building Society have to be in place and the moneys promised by the fans must be in the Furness Building Society account by Thursday, the 29th August.

I can now disclose that AFC made a bid of UKP250,000 for the ground. This was accepted by the liquidator, but shortly afterwards, Stephen Vaughan made a counter bid of UKP265,000 and said that the money was available within 24 hours. The liquidator had no alternative but to accept the higher bid. After considerable soul searching, the Board of AFC decided to match Vaughan's bid. He did not increase his offer, with the result that the liquidator initiated a contract race. This meant that the first of the matching bidders to sign a contract at UKP265,000 would secure the ground. The contract was received on Wednesday this week by Poole Townsend, solicitors for the Club and the liquidator's solicitors had posted one on Tuesday to Vaughan. Nothing further was heard from him, which leaves people here suspicious as to the motives behind his offer. After the end of next week, if completion has not taken place, the liquidator will be under an obligation to meet interest payments on the loan which Cherry Tree Finance made to Stephen Vaughan, at the penal rate of 26%. This liability the liquidator has kindly passed on to Barrow AFC, as the buyers of the ground. We do not want to have to make these payments, so everything has to be done to have the money in the account, ready for use.

Alan Dunn, Friday, 23 August 2002


MAIL WATCH - FRIDAY 23 AUGUST
Mark Hulme will replace the injured Mark Salmon in defence for tomorrow’s game at Colwyn Bay. Salmon picked up a knock during the Runcorn game on Tuesday night. Simon Shaw is still injured and Tony Hopper will continue to deputise at right back. Barrow will play with four at the back in Wales, boss Kenny Lowe preferring not to draft in midfielder Lee Warren into the defensive line.