Ah, here we are again! The latest article from our #Boro40 Blast From The Past series is hot on the heels of the last one – and it’s perhaps no surprise. To rewind four decades to the week is to stumble upon tales of a tug-of-war between the old and the new. In this outing, “Town Football Is Still In Balance”. The fate of Stevenage Athletic, it appears, was not a foregone conclusion to some. Well, maybe just one person. As a fledgling Stevenage Borough Football Club took flight, the future of football in the town was still to be settled.
As with all these articles, we’re not here to claim them as our own. First, because of the implication that anyone at BoroGuide HQ is that old. Second, because we’re happy to state (repeatedly) that all these articles come from The Comet via the archives at the British Library. And, where we can, we’ll tell you the author behind the piece. Anyway, it’s time to settle down and settle in for the latest episode from this topical soap opera. It’s also worth noting that we did some maths to figure out when this article hit the presses.
Article: Town Football Is Still In Balance
The future of Stevenage football club will now not be decided until next month.
A High Court decision on Friday [17 March] awarded club chairman Mr Javier Revuelta a 28-day stay of execution to allow him time and opportunity to pay rent arrears.
If the money owing, which amounts to over £3,500, is not paid within the time limit, then the Broadhall Way lease will have to be forfeited to Stevenage Development Corporation.
A High Court judge had previously agreed that the lease should revert back to the development corporation, but Mr Revuelta appealed, claiming he was never informed of the hearing.
On Friday, Mr Revuelta’s application for judgement to be set aside was dismissed with costs.
If Mr Revuelta manages to pay up, he will then have to decide what to do with the club.
But if the lease is forfeited to the corporation it is expected that they will hand it over the borough council.
Stevenage councillors were last week anxiously awaiting Friday’s decision.
The chairman of leisure services, Cllr Bill Lawrence, told a meeting of the borough council: “We hope the court decides this man has not got the interests of Stevenage at heart and hands the lease back to the development corporation.”
Unattributed, The Comet – 24 March(?) 1977
More To Follow?
Well, well, well then. Is Mr Revuelta going to forfeit the lease? Or will he come up the cash and keep control of the lease? You will have to keep your eyes peeled for the future #Boro40 Blast From The Past articles. Of course, you can assume the outcome of this story from where find ourselves today. That doesn’t help our stats, however. And we’d like you to come back, honest guv! You can rest easy knowing that we still have more to share from this court battle. All in good time, though. All in good time.
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…
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