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Reflecting on the French Revolution, Edmund Burke wrote in 1790, "Because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field."
In the lead up to the ACU&S ballot, some voices were strident in their opposition to, and frequent condemnation of, the ECB and ECBOA. In the end though, the largely silent majority prevailed, taking a realistic view of the future prospects for ACU&S, and by implication rejecting the illusory benefits offered by ICUS. Memory is long and, for all that the Stuart-King clan had tried to conceal the damage they had inflicted on the association before they scuttled off (and then pretended the cause lay elsewhere), it is clear that they failed and few will ever trust them again. Meanwhile, King, to use the name he was born with, and his coterie will carry on for a while, like followers of a Melanesian cargo cult, except that in their case it is sponsorship whose arrival they eagerly await, despite its never once having turned up.
With the ballot result and the resultant amalgamation, the reason for this website has almost disappeared. King and his crew, controlling the ACU&S website and the magazine, had been able to keep their misdeeds hidden. We wanted to get the information out to ACU&S members about how they had been sold down the river. It looks as if we succeeded.
There is still a little more to do. Did Companies House contravene its own guidelines when it registered a company using the sensitive word "Institute"? Had the Charity Commissioners been told the full story when Community Cricket Trust was given approval? Both matters are presently being reviewed. This website will be kept open for a while until the answers to those questions are known.
Meanwhile, we thank those who wrote in to say something pleasant. You easily outnumbered the others. We wish you all good cricket, and lots of it.
Keir Hopley
Charlie Puckett
Peter Ray