Stupid damn cold. Stupid broken car. Stupid no football on Saturday.

It has all gone quiet again in Terras land, after the club Director Paul Cocks revealed he didnt even know who the Channel Islands 5 were (even though they were doing their bidding through the press) I think we all wondered if they had credibility?

So who is interested in buying the Terras and taking it out of administration as soon as it goes in?

Maybe its those who don't want the land deal scrutinised? Until a few minutes ago I hadnt thought of that.

Enjoy a soccer free weekend people.

I know that the Poole fans were wondering why the hard core Terras fans were dancing in the cold last night after beating their side 3-1 in the Dorset Cup last night.

It was nothing against their team or themselves. I think many of us feared the club would vanish without winning another game so it was a relief to win even one more. Even though it was against a team three leagues lower than us (currently!) and in a smaller cup competition.

But I don't need to tell anyone how good it feels. 

I am currently following tonights match on the Poole Town forum. Great little club with a good website. Big night for them and the gulf in class is obviously not as large as we would have expected. Having said all of that, how good does it feel to be 2-0 up eh?

They may be three leagues below us but I think us Terras fans are going to have to stop thinking about Rushden and Stevenage and start thinking more local and supposedly smaller clubs for our watching pleasure. And if it is to be the Southern League or worse let's get it all sorted and get ready for next season. 

The one thing I would be desperate for is keeping Ian Hutchinson signed up as manager. Legend. 

A good FA Trophy run would bring in some much needed cash after the FA Cup flop. At home to Dorchester Town is the perfect draw. The Ridgeway derby will be a great occasion and I hope that those who are drifting away from the club expecting it to fold might be tempted along if we limp that far in our current format. 

(Edit, its 2-1 now, bollocks) 

Ok so getting on to the purpose of this post and it is a bit of a rant against the Conference (again). 

I fail to see the upset of Histon supposedly beating Terras into administration this week. Histon have never been a village side that has made good as they have been portrayed. They have been ably backed by a number of benefactors and anyone who thinks their rags to riches story is a sign that football success can be achieved on the cheap is deluded. 

Their poor crowds (for a conference club, not a village team) were always going to catch up with them and the fact that the local FA are hosted at their stadium and they connections on the Conference board has kept their finances out of the firing line so long. 

But as we found out under some of Weymouth's previous boards and off field management, if you dance with the devil long enough you get your fingers burned. 

We have and we will have to take the consequences... they are coming of course. 

(edit 3-1 Terras!!!) 

We are around the Haloween/Bonfire Night season and it wouldn't be TerrasBlog without the annual reproduction of one of my favourite bits of TerrasBlog's history (which now stretches half a decade).

We could talk more about the planned meeting with new investors today or the terrible refereeing that took us out of the match on Saturday. Instead, there is this...

A world away...

...Imagine if you can a country where children spend dark nights begging on your doorstep for any scraps of food or cakes that you may have.

Explosions go off in the background, lighting up the night sky. On the breeze you can hear the shouts of a woman taken by surprise by the intensity of the rockets "boom".

Where are you... Basra? no... Kabul? Getting a bit nearer...

Must be the former Yugoslavian republics somewhere?

No... You are imagining being in any bastard town or city in the uk over the past few days.

Kids "Trick or Treating" scavenging food off you or else they'll let your tyres down or put paint through your letter box.

Fireworks, once exclusive on 5th November now any day or more especially night in the week before or after that "Magical" date.

What a country eh?



Guy Fawkes-a lot to answer for..

So an as far un-named South Coast based consortium is looking to save Weymouth from the chop and will meet wit the board and proposed administrators on Monday.

They have approached the administrators first which means they will not be saving the club as it stands at the moment. We would be going into administration, we would see our creditors having to agree a rate in the pound for their debts and we would have to take a 10 point deduction before being relegated (if we did then stay up). 

So whilst there is a flicker, it remains just that as opposed to a bona fide attempt to save the club lock, stock. But having said that this consortium are one of two things. 

1. Savvy enough to realise that the best financial deal for them and the best opportunity for the club to survive an ulitimately prosper is to take the club from admin.
2. Skint and can only afford to take it on without the debt.  

The other thing to note is that there is no clear indication of what will happen to the legal action against Malcolm Curtis and ownership of the Wessex.

Terras travel to St Albans City today in what would have been a relegation 6-pointer before this weeks administration news. But wouldn't it be nice to end our losing run against them and hopefully drag them down with us?

I would love that. 

Really.

 Not the last time we will see the famous old shirt?

The clubs statement via Paul Cocks yesterday set out clearly where Weymouth FC is right now.

We are looking to enter administration which becomes a lottery because the board have no control over who takes on the club. It will be out of their hands. 

The other risk now is that no-one will want to take it on and despite the debts going away the club will vanish too. 

The third issue as I see it will be the good will of local business who will be sold short in getting their monies owed by the club. 

Whichever way forward is agreed in the next week or so we are likely to see a much changed version of the club (again).  I remember posting back in the summer that stability is the gong to be the key for the Terras to survive but it looks destined to never be the case. 

Peace breaking out at the Wessex Stadium could forever remain a pipe dream. 

Weymouth FC has filed notice that it is looking to appoint an administrator as the loyal supporters worst fears were realised.

What the notice means is that no creditors can apply to the courts to wind us up in the next two weeks. But what is also means is that a rescue package is needed within that period, ideally before the weekend. 

The Board of Directors who have stuck with the club through this period and who have tried to sort out the shambles they were left with deserve everyones support and commitment for two more weeks whilst they try and salvage whatever they can from the Wessex Stadium debacle. 

Don't forget that an administrator can sell what is left of the business to whomever they wish (if they decided there is anything left to sell) so the nightmare could go on. 

One thing that would appear irrelevant is the deduction of 10 points. After a true battle with Bath last night the ultimate defeat means that even without losing points relegation is a near certainty. 

But...

Hats off to Ian Hutchinson and his players for keeping going. You are a credit to the shirt. 

We are still backing the board and the lads, and still hope that a white knight can save the club. 

 

Terras play Bath City tonight. If I were a betting man most of my stake would be on Marcus Browning playing and scoring after a flowing move involving Stuart Douglas, Raiff Gwinett and Sido Jombarti.

When your luck is out, your luck is out and the Terras seem to be on a downward spiral that not even my enthusiasm can see out. 

Fair play to those of you turning out tonight and going down to support the club. You deserve better than how the footballing gods have treated you over the last few years and my admiration for you guys is total. 

It is easy to pick and prod at the board and the club on the internet but it takes balls to go out in the dark and cold knowing that you are 75% certain of seeing your team take nothing from the game.

Terras fans have been different class since the day Martyn Harrison left the club. In the main. The problem is that we will always be damned by those who couldn't keep their gobs shut when times were good and who seem to want to put the boot into the club they profess to support now. 

It is these folk who look like being rewarded with a judgement day that sees the club probably vanishing up the swannery. 

The people who actually support the club will be those who lose out. Not those who treat it as a soap opera and who like to help the gossip, rumour and ill feeling along. 

Having said all of that... something tells me that we could win tonight...

Nothing much to report at the moment. Terras are playing Bath City tomorrow night but most eyes are on the planned restructure of the clubs finances due for announcement on Wednesday.

The silence surrounding all of the affairs has been refreshing and I hope that this is a positive thing. Like many I am not blessed with unlimited patience and a desire to punish myself with all this for ever. 

I remain positive and confident that something good will happen to the club (so not Gary Calder Jnr and his land deal) and that we can start to focus on football again. 

The alternative is of course administration and liquidation and starting again in a lower division. And to be honest in the last few weeks that hasn't look a bad option. 

But of course it is important that whilst the club continues in its current guise we all keep going. 

The surprise yesterday was not that Terras were beaten at high flying Basingstoke, more that the performance would appear to have deserved more than 0 points for the umpteenth game running.

When things are going against you it is easy to approach matches with no expectation and when it got to 2-0 before half time the nonleaguefootball live vidiprinter went off the pc screen and I retired for a cup of tea. 

The main news though of course surrounds off the pitch allegations surrounding former Dorchester Town Chairman Eddie Mitchell. 

Now the supremo at Bournemouth (another club who has been through admin and has a transfer embargo) he is alleged to have offered Weymouth's board £5,000 per month to have his amigo Shaun Brooks as Manager and his son Tom playing regularly. 

I assume he would also be covering his wages. 

Tom hit the headlines in the summer when Eddie (after death threats) made him and his brother owners of Dorchester. It has since changed hands again and Tom has been left out of their team. 

Mitchell denies all this saying someone has set up a fake email address in his name. 

Is anyone else utterly bored of this shit now?

I have never been closer to chucking it all in (even though I know that apathy is what will kill the club) and saying "on you go, bulldoze the whole place".

What ever could possibly happen next?

When you read people whose opinion you respect like Corbz saying that he is close to jacking it all in with Terras you have to sit up an take notice.

Whilst the current board are doing their best to keep the ship afloat whilst the pack of vultures circle ready to nab the scraps damage is continually done to the name and reputation of the club. 

I suppose I am lucky that 224 miles gives you a sense of perspective and I can see that there is more to life than Weymouth FC and that the world should, all being well,  continue spinning when the fate is known one way or another. 

But that doesn't stop some from getting so close to what is going on that they live every email, text and forum post. It is this level of intensity that will ultimately kill Weymouth FC dead. Too many people know bits  that they put together and it becomes dangerous. 

Small town mentality? harsh on those who just see the club as somewhere to go and watch football as opposed to a soap opera. But there does seem to be the most intricate network of detectives and spies lurking in every shop doorway on the high street with titbits of information fed to them by either one side or the other. 

I suppose you could say that this website has been guilty of either passing on information and rumour or putting its oar in with opinion over the years. 

It is for that reason I remain considering the future of the site, regardless of the outcome of all this financial and court stuff. 

This should have been a bit of fun, a website poking fun at Dorch and Yeovil but there is no fun in being connected with this club anymore and I wonder for my own sanity and that of my close friends and family whether the time is right to say "no more". 

I cannot stand the whole sorrowful business of the clubs financial predicament being played out both in public and on the internet. 

I don't have the solution and as I told one of the directors the other day, even if I wont millions on the lottery it would not be used to bail Weymouth FC out.

Are there too many people who want their proficy to be self fulfilling and to see the club die so they can say " I told you so" for the club to carry on?

There is some good news, the decorating is nearly finished so TerrasBlog can return to the fray. Not sure how long for though.

The circus surrounding Weymouth FC continues and lurches from one crisis to another with the emergence of Essex bookmaker Gary Calder Junior, of the company Gary Calder Racing. He is now a property magnate. 

But it is nothing to do with his Dad. Yeah right. Do a bit of Googling on the Calders and their company. We would be no better off with this pair and the fact that they are bypassing the club and dealing directly with Malcolm Curtis tells you plenty of what they are all after. 

I will give you all a clue, it isn't to do with football, more to do with land and prices going up for the Olympics.

Thankfully having sold the land to himself (in a round about way), Mr Curtis isn't keen on dealing with the Calders, Colin Hill, Garry Hill Jamie Oliver, Danny Dyer or any other fecker from Essex who fancies a bit of land daaaaaaarrrrnnnn sssssssssaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrfffffffff for the olympics. 

Shaun Hennessey and Paul Cocks continue to try and keep the club in its current guise going, but I fear that the battle is starting to go against them and the lottery of administration, where any numpty can make an offer to buy what is left of the club, is looming. 

Hope I am wrong though.

Morning readers, a couple of days away from the blog and its all change again!

Firstly, the result yesterday was certainly unexpected. I think we would have been happy with a four or five which kind of tells you how our morale is right now. 

I was in range of BBC Solent yesterday and despite a hopeless match report saying how lucky we were to keep the score down it was clear from the interview with caretaker boss Ian Hutchinson that his levels of attainment are high enough to make us respectable if not get us out of this mess completely. 

At last we scored a goal, it feels like weeks and what a great boost it was even if it was too little too late for the result. 

As Hutchy said it was the defending that let the Terras down for both goals. If he can sort that out we might become a bit more competitive in matches. 

Off the field it remains very tense as Shaun Hennessey told that radio station whilst successfully dodging any direct questions on the subject of Malcolm Curtis and his intentions. 

I would ask Malcolm one thing in the next few weeks (and I will ask him this directly as well should he wish to chat with me). 

Do the right thing for the supporters of the football club. Not the Directors or anyone you may have a personal quarrel with. Think of the people who have been the true lifeblood of the football club, the fans. 

Some of them undoubtedly do deserve to have their football club taken away from them (I am sorry to say). But the majority of us are hard working, honest decent folk who just want to watch a game of football on a weekend. And we want a club to be proud of.

Don't take that away through personal issues.

The name of Colin Hill keeps cropping up, but ask the supporters of Peterborough United how him owning their ground is working out for them at the moment... 

We need this to work as it is, with local ownership and local players. 

The message board is buzzing with talk of the fans creating their own club. I have been through the ringer with that a year ago, and if you look back through the blog you will see a post explaining why I got involved and how far that project got. 

I have said all I want to say on that subject on that thread of the forum, but for now I am still focused on what we can do to keep this version of the club afloat. 

One step in the right direction for survival is the arrival of a shirt sponsor for the club. 

There is still an appetite for keeping the Terras going in its current guise, let's try and tap into that and see off the vultures. 

Morning all, you may or may not be familiar with the 1980's American sportsman Greg LeMond.

He was to cycling what Weymouth FC are to football. He surged into the forefront of peoples mind by taking on his main rival Bernard Hinault (who will be compared to Yeovil Town for the first time in his life) to achieve success by winning the 1986 Tour de France. 

But as with the Terras his success was the start of a lengthy unraveling on his life and sport.

As he rested before preparing his Tour defence he somehow managed to get in the line of fire of his brother in laws shot gun. It was a near fatal blow (you can see where this is going now!!) and Le Mond battled for his existence losing blood and parts of a kidney.

But he wouldn't die and he wouldn't give up on cycling. In 1989 he was back on the start line of the Tour but no-one paid him any attention. Frenchman Laurent Fignon (who we will compare to those who want our club to fail) was the hot favourite although Greg bloodied his nose in the early days of that Tour taking the yellow jersey.

The Tour takes place over three weeks with nearly 100 hours of racing. Somehow with just the last weekend to go Greg looked in with a chance of winning the race. But then Fignon attacked with venom on the road to Villard de Lans taking more seconds from the American and stretching his lead to 50 seconds. I remember vividly the commentator screaming into his mic as the Frenchman crossed the line with his arms aloft... "Laurent Fignon has won the Tour de France, I am sure of that".

So now Greg was in what I will call his "Terras moment". Back from the dead once and surviving the race against all expectations. What would he say in his tv interview? It was a single simple sentence.

"This race is not over, believe me"

Two days later the 50 second deficit became an 8 second lead and Fignon was left crying on the cobbles of Paris with Le Mond the winner of the Tour by the narrowest margin.

Just read that quote again...

Do any of you out there reading this want the Terras to die without thinking that you had done all you can to ensure it doesn't? No me neither, that is why there is no mention of apathy or of struggling to deal with the pain of supporting Weymouth anymore.

Things might be getting worse and we might be miles away from getting a result, but the race is still on for the Terras and it can still be one we win.

 

The sun is not setting on this football club...

Sometimes being a TerrasBlogger can be one of the worst jobs in the world. Don't get me wrong I have enough perspective over football to know where things rank.

But this football club is continuing to struggle for survival and I don't know from one blog to the next if I am going to be still doing this. 

Add in the fact that the apathy disease striking down many a Terras fan has hit me too and I am looking forward to next weeks holiday for a bit of valuable R+R. 

Here is a summmary of where the club is as I see it...

• Curtis doesn't want all of his money back yet. He is looking for the Directors (that are left) to cough up. Though I am a bit confused as to why he is still guarantor for the overdraft.  
• The club are issuing legal proceedings against him for mismanagement and something else that I can't even pronounce let alone know what it means.
• The club remain in the financial stum but there are a couple of interested parties although I do have to say why I am not sure.

It must be about the land because as I see it (and I am ready to be corrected) the club is circa £500k in debt with few assets.

Would you invest?

Unless there is some real confidence that the land can be recovered. 

So where are we?

It looks like going to the wire in a courtroom. I am off for a long lie down in a darkened room.

The clubs official website is reporting that both Ian Ridley and Dave Higson has resigned from their position as directors of Weymouth FC.

This latest blow comes in a week where the club has lost three key back room staff as well as the Manager.

I already have plenty of correspondence telling me the "real" reason the pair have upped sticks and left but here is the official statement in full.

latest news from the club: monday 12th october 2009 Dave Higson and Ian Ridley

Weymouth FC announces that David Higson and Ian Ridley have stepped down from the board of directors. Ian has stepped down because the pressure of his involvement with the football club is exacerbating his illness. The door remains open for him to return to the club in the future when his health problems are resolved, and in the meantime he remains supportive of the club and continues to offer advice and assistance on footballing matters. Dave has decided to step down at the same time as he has business commitments which prevent him from contributing to the club as fully as he would like at the present time. The remaining board members wish to place on record their appreciation of the enormous contribution made by both to the survival of the club over recent months, and look forward to seeing them at the stadium when circumstances permit in the future.

Despite the positive spin of the statement, for me this is as bigger blow as when Martyn Harrison pulled the plug all those years ago.

There are, of course, those rumoured to be interested in getting involved in the club but I am happy to go on record again as saying I want no part of a football club presided over by those individuals.

Whether there has been a row or not is irrelevant, whether this brings Macolm Curtis' ownership of the stadium closer (and we will come on to him in a minute) is also not really the point.

The pressure on Paul Cocks and Shaun Hennessey will now be immeasurable and dsepite wishing them well in their task to keep the club going, my fear is we will see a proper unravelling in the next few hours let alone days.

And what of Mr Curtis, roundly criticised in an article on this site which had to be subsequently pulled.

He is the prime target for those that remain in power at the Wessex as this statement (neatly positioned after the Ridley/Higson announcement on the website) indicates.

If it was unfriendly before, the gloves are truly off now.

latest news from the club: monday 12th october 2009 Gross Negligence and Misfeasance

Weymouth Football Club announces that it has instructed Lawyers to investigate the urgent commencement of legal proceedings against former chairman and majority shareholder Malcolm Curtis. The Club has received preliminary advice from lawyers that there appears to be a strong case against Mr Curtis both for Gross Negligence and Misfeasance during the time of his directorship of the company . The club will be providing detailed instructions to lawyers in the next few days.

It's time for a TerrasBlog climb down and another tail between the legs posting.

I was confident that the misery would end this weekend but sadly things got even worse with Weymouth losing 5-0 at home to Maidenhead. 

After the match, manager Matt Hale offered the board his resignation which was accepted. It is understood that Hale will be staying on as a player. 

Ian Hutchinson has been appointed caretaker for the moment. During the usual level of banter of the club forum about this topic yesterday it was revealed that the club was subject of an FA transfer embargo at some point during the last week, but it is not clear whether this was the reason we did not obtain the services of the two loanees from Exeter. 

Just when you think things can't get tougher for the board of directors eh?

But I am sure that they will continue to battle away, despite the crowd being reported at less than 600 this weekend. 

Believe me, I am not knocking the stay away fans in any way at all. There is only so much pain that everyone can take and with no credible knights in shining armour coming in we are going to have to tough this period out as best we can.

Matt Hale has resigned as Terras manager this evening after the clubs 5-0 home defeat to Maidenhead in the Blue Square South.

Morning all,

It is a sunny day up here today and with a bit of luck some of that sparkly bright light will be shining on the Wessex Stadium come 5pm this afternoon.

The Terras shocking run on form cannot continue forever and the visit of in-form Maidenhead United this afternoon can be the catalyst to a long overdue change in fortunes. 

I am not going to waste valuable weekend time re-iterating some of the points that have been made on the ever less frequent blog updates during the week. Saturdays are for football and let's hope that the players cross the whitewash this afternoon with the attitude and application needed to get three points and bring some more positive vibes to the club.

Cast your mind back to the unexpected draw at Newport the other week. That ensured a couple of moan free days on the forum, I repeat what I said at the time, just think what a win would do?

So for me the rot stops here and it stops today. I know this post is kind of recycled and there have been a couple of Sunday morning climb downs, but I am keeping belief that things will go our way. 

I would say "why on earth would anyone spread a rumour to the local media concerning whether or not the club would be leaving the Wessex Stadium to ground share with Dorchester"... but I have been doing TerrasBlog too long now not to know why.

And I suspect you have all be reading TerrasBlog for too long not to understand how those on the fringes of Weymouth FC operate. 

Maybe the Dorset Echo should have completed some journalistic research before publishing their hashed story yesterday in which Terras Finance Director (there's a job up there with Prime Minister for no win eh?) Ian Winsor actually had to defend the club over this rumour. 

Should they not have done what I did and have some dialogue with the club itself? Sometimes I wonder who's side they are on. 

Paranoid? not really. It is interesting to see that those who are desperate for the board to fail are resorting to more and more extreme measures to try and kill the club off and then emerge from the sidelines as heroes who can preside over the re-birth.

With phrases like "we can see the light at the end of the tunnel" being issued from the board of directors, what better response could the wannabes come out with than "Terras are groundsharing with Dorchester" what next, a merger?

See todays Echo for more, I am sure.