So, how many of us think of Darlo as a new club ?

[Trike1]

you got me thinking Lo as i was sure a darlo ladies played at Feethams and found this

Darlington Ladies FC as we were previously known were established in 1994. Currently we run two teams both playing in the Northern Womens League as the first team were religated from the Northern Combination League last season (2000-2001). We are now based at Darlington RA hence the change of name.

seem to be top of what looks like a ladies equivilent to the NL (DCFA div 1)

spraire ladies in div 2

[lo36789]

seem to be top of what looks like a ladies equivilent to the NL (DCFA div 1)

spraire ladies in div 2

Ah found them.

Shame they lost their association with DFC (was there actually officially one there?).

Wonder if there is any appetite to bring something back and make it a bit more mainstream (links through our official looking website etc.)?

We should only do it for the right reasons in terms of the community involvement, if there it would help with participation in women's football in Darlington, but as an aside surely it couldn't hurt any grant applications.

[mahruder]

Darlo FC was us, is us, will always be us. F*uck the rest, especially the FA!!!

[bishblues]

Always be Darlington FC in my opinion.

[mensamoo]

We can't be a new club. When we get a windfall payment we give it away with no benefit to ourselves. Can anyone explain this? A lot of fans feel the same way about the money we receive, whether its on the gates or from a past player contract. Why doesn't it go towards the future of the club?

[Quakerz]

What are you on about, mensamoo?

[John Tempest]

To me it's the same fan base from the same town. I still call a Snicker a Marathon if you get the jist!

[Quakerz]

It's more than just the fanbase John, how could we be entitled to clauses on Dan Burn if we aren't the same club?

[m62exile]

We can't be a new club. When we get a windfall payment we give it away with no benefit to ourselves. Can anyone explain this? A lot of fans feel the same way about the money we receive, whether its on the gates or from a past player contract. Why doesn't it go towards the future of the club?

You've lost me there.

[charlie]

We can't be a new club. When we get a windfall payment we give it away with no benefit to ourselves. Can anyone explain this? A lot of fans feel the same way about the money we receive, whether its on the gates or from a past player contract. Why doesn't it go towards the future of the club?

If it wasn't for the past players of the club we wouldn't have a club, they had to agree to wait for money owed which they did. We're not giving money away as you so call it it's money owed lawfully.

Whether we did right or wrong going down the route we did we are where we are and the money is owed.

[Quakerz]

If it wasn't for the past players of the club we wouldn't have a club.

Of course we would. We might have folded and a lot of hard work gone down the drain (the FA effectively made that so anyway), but surely the same great people like yourself would have got a new club going (without debt!) in the same way...we effectively started from scratch anyway

Don't want to go down the route of discussing what we did or didn't do and whether it was right or wrong, because it is what it is...BUT...to suggest that we wouldn't have a club if it wasn't for those players is just wrong I think.

[charlie]

If it wasn't for the past players of the club we wouldn't have a club.

Of course we would. We might have folded and a lot of hard work gone down the drain (the FA effectively made that so anyway), but surely the same great people like yourself would have got a new club going (without debt!) in the same way...we effectively started from scratch anyway

Don't want to go down the route of discussing what we did or didn't do and whether it was right or wrong, because it is what it is...BUT...to suggest that we wouldn't have a club if it wasn't for those players is just wrong I think.

I see your point, but as I said previously we are where we are and it's just onwards n upwards x

[Quakerz]

Yep, agreed charlie.

Now and again when we get people criticising us and basically putting us down and mocking us with the likes of... "You are a new club! You're also carrying old debt! Ran by idiots you should have just folded! And now you need more money? You'll never raise it", I must admit I've thought sometimes "yes maybe we should have just wrapped it in, went bust and started again" like they say...

But then I remember we rallied and raised hundreds of thousands of pounds, got some gates of 5,000 and 6,000 to watch essentially an out of its depth youth team plus several past it old players fail to compete, and kept going and going and going, when Strings kept "indicating" he was ready to do a deal (was he fuck), and then moving the goalposts again and again...and I remember that there are clubs that simply wouldn't have had the resolve or fanbase to keep going in those circumstances, and some followers of those clubs maybe just can't see why or comprehend we didn't do the same.

Basically we just wouldn't die. Yet they try and tell us we did. It's like they want it to be that way. But we didn't die. See the transfer clauses for proof.

[theoriginalfatcat]

Now and again when we get people criticising us and basically putting us down and mocking us with the likes of... "You are a new club! You're also carrying old debt! Ran by idiots you should have just folded! And now you need more money? You'll never raise it", I must admit I've thought sometimes "yes maybe we should have just wrapped it in, went bust and started again" like they say...

I've met people like this. Negative, bitter, know nowts, who with the aid of hindsight become miraculously transformed into experts.

But then I remember we rallied and raised hundreds of thousands of pounds, got some gates of 5,000 and 6,000 to watch essentially an out of its depth youth team plus several past it old players fail to compete, and kept going and going and going, when Strings kept "indicating" he was ready to do a deal (was he fuck), and then moving the goalposts again and again...and I remember that there are clubs that simply wouldn't have had the resolve or fanbase to keep going in those circumstances, and some followers of those clubs maybe just can't see why or comprehend we didn't do the same.

Agreed. Who could have predicted that Singh would act in the way he did. Where was his logic? What was his logic? While the F.A. - an organisation who should have tried to help us, simply turned their backs.

The people who stuck their necks out to save the club were dealt an impossible hand.

[Quakerz]

Agreed. Who could have predicted that Singh would act in the way he did.

Me.

It was clear on 50k in a suitcase day, that Strings did not care either way. We happened to temporarily foil the inevitable liquidation and for a couple of months we rode the crest of a wave. I thought "well, now we know. He was happy to see us gone. Didn't care", but then we built up a head of steam and believed we could save the club, as long as he waived the money that he never loaned us but really did, and that he stated he didn't want back in the press...

But he'd already shown on THAT day, that it was just empty meaningless talk.

Yet, just like everyone else I put that truth (that he was happy to see us die) to the back of my mind, and somehow deluded myself into thinking that maybe he had had a change of heart when he "indicated" this, and "indicated" that. Maybe he thought "well they've certainly fought hard enough, maybe I'll give them a break"...or maybe he was just pure evil, knew exactly what he was doing, and was loving it? Who knows?

In the end though, he had taken us on the longest wild goose chase ever. Really, we all knew deep down after a couple of months that this was not going to end well.

He wanted out, he knew he wasn't going to get his money back either way, a lot of people asked why he didn't just waive his claim and let us take over...who knows, but probably pride. Might have looked weak if he just said "there you go boys, have it all on the house, don't mind me and my million quid - I'll just scuttle off quietly, don't forget to send me a Christmas Card" Of course, not caving in, and still not getting his money, might make him look stronger, but at the cost of a football club.

Having said that, I think if we had taken over a team going into the Blue Square North, with those overheads and liabilites at that stadium, we'd have never made it work with the lack of experience we had. Perhaps it was for the best anyway.

Where was his logic? What was his logic?

I think he felt let down by the people of Darlo after he chucked a million or two in and we got nowhere. Once he realised that he wasn't going to be able to fund it any more I think it was a case of thinking "they don't deserve it" - possible revenge? Hard to say.

The people who stuck their necks out to save the club were dealt an impossible hand.

Yep.

[lo36789]

I have decided to try my hand at writing short stories. This is completely unrelated to the above situation but imagine this scenario.

The story involves Geoffrey Hogtown and Ronald Smith. It is based in the desert where there is an oasis, this oasis is unfortunately covered up by a massive rock which will cost a bit of money to move.

The rock has a sentimental value to a number of the locals but so long as it is maintained in a similar form they would be happy for it to be changed a bit to give access to the oasis but as long as it is still there, for them to visit on a fortnightly basis.

Hogtown invests in moving this rock but the environment agency say there are rules in place, as a result he puts his rock moving company into administration as a ploy to get the environment agency to lift the rules on moving it. The problem is that without his money to maintain it the locals would be unable to make their regular visits. Hogtowns business partner for this venture is Smith.

The ploy here is that the environment agency will see Smith as the saviour and will potentially grant him the license to move the rock so long as the interests of the locals are kept.

Unfortunately the environment agency didn't budge on this, and there were murmouring that negotiations didn't go as expected when he initially decided to invest in the rock. As a result Smith thought a similar plan to the one before would work, but on this occasion the desperation would be ramped up a bit so surely this time the environment agency would budge. That means it wasn't a coincidence that in the time of desperation Hogtown rode back onto the scene as a potential way out but only on the condition that the environment agency would allow him access to the oasis.

The locals took things in to their own hands. They actually raised the money that would be needed to keep the rock in place so long as Smith's original investment was wiped. The locals had come so far to preserve their rock, which by this point was actually owned by another company called Tot & Tizer. The thing is Smith attached some strings to any deal, who knows he may have wanted an assurance that if he waved his debt that even though he wasn't involved the environment agency would lift the rules which restricted access to the oasis.

The plan in the future would be for Hogtown & Smith to work together again to purchase the rock from Tot & Tizer. There may have been rules in place to allow the locals to visit the rock on a fortnightly basis still but they would be restricted in terms of accessing the oasis.

[Quakerz]

Very, very good fictional story, and funnily enough a few others have thought up the same story, how bizarre!

[theoriginalfatcat]

"Tot & Tizer"

Sounds like one of Jimmy Saville's 10am preferences

[mensamoo]

Thanks for your replies. My concern emanated from a story that £50 000 of the £75 000 we received for Dan Burn's Premiership appearance was to be used to pay debtors we had before the crisis. Maybe I have been misinformed.

[m62exile]

Thanks for your replies. My concern emanated from a story that £50 000 of the £75 000 we received for Dan Burn's Premiership appearance was to be used to pay debtors we had before the crisis. Maybe I have been misinformed.

Depends which crisis you mean, we've had plenty!

If you mean the Singh crisis then be reassured that's not the case, the company is in liquidation and that company has no call on anything to do with DFC 1883.

The recent short term cash flow crisis will no doubt take some, if not most of the 75k, but thats to keep our current club going, and hopefully does allow us to concentrate on finding funds to return us to the town which will be a huge boost to our revenue and survival prospects.

[mensamoo]

Thanks for your replies. My concern emanated from a story that £50 000 of the £75 000 we received for Dan Burn's Premiership appearance was to be used to pay debtors we had before the crisis. Maybe I have been misinformed.

Depends which crisis you mean, we've had plenty!

If you mean the Singh crisis then be reassured that's not the case, the company is in liquidation and that company has no call on anything to do with DFC 1883.

The recent short term cash flow crisis will no doubt take some, if not most of the 75k, but thats to keep our current club going, and hopefully does allow us to concentrate on finding funds to return us to the town which will be a huge boost to our revenue and survival prospects.

Thanks again. Just to say I thought we were somewhere near self sufficiency when we started in the Northern League i.e. gate money paying for the ground and staff wages etc. I would have been surprised if we'd had a financial crisis after that time.