Not for the first time and (hopefully) not for the last, we’ve been trawling through the British Library archives. Our aim, obviously, is to join up yet more dots in Stevenage Football Club’s history. And what better excuse is there than Boro’s big four-zero? After ploughing through copies of The Comet, here’s the latest in our series of articles from Boro’s early days. The story here? “Council May Lease Football Pitch”.
Once again, we’re not aiming to take rightful credit from our local rags and their writers. It’s also worth mentioning that, due to the nature of the bound copies of The Comet, there’s a boo-boo. Near the end of the main piece, photos we took of the article don’t clearly show the full text. So, we filled them in to the best of our knowledge. We italicised those parts so you can see where they are too.
Article: Council May Lease Football Pitch 
While the legal wrangle continues over the lease of the Stevenage Athletic football ground, town councillors have been taking a look at the possibility of leasing the site themselves.
Stevenage Development Corporation, landlords of the Broadhall Way ground, recently won back the lease in the High Court following the collapse of the Athletic club.
Currently, however, the High Court decision is the subject of an appeal by Stevenage Athletic chairman and Bournemouth businessman Mr Javier Reveulta.
But, if the SDC win the appeal, Stevenage Council are likely to be the next in line for the lease.
Councillors on the leisure services committee last week agreed that, once the result of the appeal is known, and providing the corporation win, council chief executive officer Mr Richard Hughes should start talks with the SDC about leasing the ground.
Already, chairmen of two council committees have visited the ground in connection with the proposed takeover.
The council are currently owed £2,000 in rates on the ground, and they also have a financial interest in the draingage(sic) system under the pitch – badly damaged last October when, on the instruction of Mr Reveulta, a trench was cut right across it.
Councillors hope that, if they can get the lease themselves, the ground can then be rented out to one of the groups interested in professional football in Stevenage.
The ground itself would then be safeguarded in the event of the club using it folding up.
Unattributed, The Comet – 17 February 1977
Our work at the British Library has also thrown up some results from pre-United Counties League days. We’ll make sure we get them onto the site as soon as we can. Well, once we work out how we fit them in. For the time being, the 1980-1 season remains our starting place. We’ll be back to the British Library soon enough to dig out much more of our 1976-1980 history. Meanwhile, we’re still aiming to fill in the missing gaps between 1980 and 1992. If you think you can help, check out our missing match data page. Until next time…
