Rushden and Diamonds Football Club sold

Conference club Rushden and Diamonds has been sold by its current owner who does not think that he has the financial resources to secure promotion which he believes the new owners do have.   The new owner is Gary Calder, former Weymouth chief executive.   The sale price has not been revealed, but it is believed that chairman Keith Cousins has written off his loa

Conference club Rushden and Diamonds has been sold by its current owner who does not think that he has the financial resources to secure promotion which he believes the new owners do have.   The new owner is Gary Calder, former Weymouth chief executive.   The sale price has not been revealed, but it is believed that chairman Keith Cousins has written off his loans.


Manager Justin Edinburgh told BBC Radio Northampton that he was delighted at the prospect of having money to spend in the transfer window.   However, he warned, ‘It’s not a Crawley Town situation and won’t let us compete financially with Luton’.


Helen Thompson has been a stalwart of the club and has done much to ensure its survival.  She will remain as vice-chairman alongside new appointment Liam Bessant.   She said, ‘Keith Cousins has done a fantastic job in guiding us.   I’m very proud to say that we are in a healthy financial situation.  With the new investor coming in, we’re quite sure that in two or three years we’ll be in the Football League.’


Rushden and Diamonds was one of the most dramatic examples of a benefactor club.   Two lowly non-league teams, Rushden Town and Irthlingborough Diamonds, were merged by Max Griggs the power behind Doc Martens (DM), and a new state-of-the-art ground was built at Nene Park (see author’s photo) in Irthlingborough, including a shop for DM products.  


 I went to Nene Park on many occasions and sometimes you felt you were watching a company team with so many Griggs employees enjoying a day out in a box as a reward for good work.   However, Griggs did bring in a number of other local business people as sponsors (indeed I did some small-scale sponsorship such as match balls myself).


The ground was up to Football League standards and the club even spent one season in League 1 before financial troubles saw it relegated out of the Football League altogether.  Enhanced competition undermined Max Griggs’s business and even outsourcing all production to China, which was understandably not popular with those who lost their jobs, failed to solve the problems.


Max Griggs spent £20m on subsidising the club, not counting the cost of the land and the stadium.  He is known as the ‘King of Diamonds’ and is still a season ticket holder and keen supporter.   There were tensions over the Cousins takeover.


The surrounding area is not densely populated and deadly rivals Kettering are not many miles away.  The lack of chimney pots led one unsympathetic writer to describe the club as a giant Meccano set plonked down in the countryside.   But after the owner’s money ran out, he sold it to the fans for £1. Supporters formed a Supporters’ Trust to keep it going until Keith Cousins came on board in 2006 and prevented the club going out of business.