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We have offered to cap any purchase price offered by a ship breaker......
From 'The Times' 19.6.1980: quoting Barrie King, Director of the Ark Royal National Preservation Campaign

We are proceeding with the development of our multi-page, professionally-designed, interactive ACU&S/How's That? website.....Our intention, when both the sponsorship contract for How's That? has been signed and the Web-Site has been approved to go 'live', is to launch both as a major press/publicity event at the Cricketer's (sic) Club....
February 1998:HT Issue no.255.

I am very grateful to Bob Patterson for reflecting in print many of the comments and (mis)perceptions I have encountered and am encountering during my 'speaking tour' of Branches and Affiliated Associations throughout England. That I profoundly disagree with some of the views expressed is irrelevant; what concerns me is how widely held these perceptions/mis-perceptions appear to be. (But at least he was in step).
April 1998: HT Issue no.256.

As your chairman, elected on a Manifesto of change, I am resolute...to provide...by expanding the association into a much more efficient, leaner, forward-looking, proactive, internationally-respected organisation, whose involvement and influence is acknowledged and sought by the Game's governing bodies....We need to set before members a detailed, time-tabled, costed, development programme...elimination of negative thinking...a sensible, positive, open-minded "can-do", "will-do", "must-do" approach.
February 2001: HT Issue no.273.

How do I, personally, define my responsibilities as the Association's Chairman? (1) To actively encourage, seek out, speak and listen to all/any members who have valid and valuable contributions to make....(2) to encourage input, advice and ideas from others....(3) To use all the resources and analyses available...whilst recognising that analysis is an aid to, not a substitute for, judgement and/or action. (4) To try and get decisions right...and change them if the turn out to be wrong....(5) to recognise that not taking a decision is the riskiest decision of all and an abrogation of my/our responsibilities to the Asssociation (6) To recognise that the true effectiveness of the Association has to do with its impact on the world......(7) To remember that...the interests, welfare and future of the Association's members comes first.
December 2001: HT Issue no.278.

....your Executive is working overtime to secure substantial, additional, sponsorship in both cash and kind from major 'blue-chip' sources complementary to the Post Office... Over recent weeks, we have been involved in several lengthy discussions with these prospective sponsors (none was named) about the Association's vision.....but the sponsors negotiators...are not prepared to..endorse....proposals....unless the new Constitution and Schedule 1 have the support of the majority.
February 2001: HT Issue no.279. (Sponsors had read them both carefully!)

I am the Chief Executive of, respectively, The Club Cricket Conference (CCC) - sponsor of the NRCC - and the National Recreational Cricket Conference.....If/when the project is approved I shall be the appointed Project Director.....I am also Chairman of the Association of Cricket Umpires & Scorers... a member of the ECB Recreational Cricket Advisory Group (RCAG) and Leagues & Clubs Committee.
9.7.2002: Planning Appeal re the former RAF Upper Heyford.

This is to advise that we have been consulted in this matter by the above-named member client, Mrs J.....R..... Yours faithfully, ACUS Member Protection Services, B. Stuart-King, Legal Consultant.
31 January 2003: Letter disputing an overdue Diners Club account.

Simply stating, in the absence of any authenticated supporting/substantiating evidence whatsoever, that..."the vehicle was caught on camera as travelling at 61 mph..." on a stretch of the M25 where the speed limit was 40 mph, brings into serious question the credibility of the evidence you purport to have...... Yours sincerely, ACUS Member Protection Services, B Stuart-King, Legal Support Services.
11 June 2004: Letter to Metropolitan Police, disputing "Notice of Intended Prosecution for Alleged Speeding."

I agree, we do need to meet and asap. As soon as the funding is cleared - I have asked for £470,000 for the 12 months commencing 1 August......what Pierre is not aware of is the extremely sensitive, brokered, 'behind the scenes' discussions currently going on at Executive level (i.e. involving myself and the principal players within the ECB and the other 'HQ' organsiations (sic).....Gentlemen, this is above and beyond Frank Kemp's level.....A major re-structuring of the ECB is imminent - the ACU&S and the three Conferences (NRCC) are VERY much involved and in line to play a major role...I want our cards kept very tight to our chest and any contact with the ECB cleared with me first.
19.6.2004: e-mail to Tony Bastable; cc Peter Danks, Pierre Tartari.

A major, to date unspoken, additional motive behind the creation of the Institute is to set the scene for the appointment - in 3 years' time when I exit from office - of a full-time Chief Executive for the ACU&S.........
19.6.2004: as above

I fully understand your concern and that of your auditors at the delay in payment. I, too have been extremely frustrated at the inertia and delay in the finalising of the NRCC funding....our re-submitted proposal for the 3 year funding has been favourably received...am meeting the Principals with our newly-appointed Chartered Accountant on 3 August to close the 3 year deal.
21.7.2004: e-mail to Tony Coles, La Manga Club re 2003 debt of 45,634 euros.

As, I am sure you are aware, it is our intention to change the name, status and structure of the ACU&S from an 'Association' into the independently-funded Institute of Cricket Umpires and Scorers, a 'not-for-profit' professional body Limited by Guarantee.........Prior to your invitation to (a former 1st class umpire) to become a full-time employee of (a major cricketing body) ..............I had invited him to take on the role of director, Professional Development (heading up the new 7-man Professional Development Board) for the Institute. I would seek your agreement to allow him to retain this position within the Institute....(Note: (another former 1st class umpire) has agreed, in principle, to be Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Institute.....)
26.7.2004: letter to the Chief Executive of a major cricketing body)

The meeting that was arranged with the Frontiers Group for Tuesday 3 August had to be put back to 12th August........In the meantime, I have gone back to an original (concomitant) source that I had earlier approached but who, although very positive and interested, was not prepared to go to the £2.25 million over 3 years that the NRCC needs. Their limit remains an immovable maximum £1.3 million that I tabled last week. We are meeting next Tuesday week......I would like you to be re-assured that I have no intention of not honouring our 2003 debt to LMC - indeed, in extremis and the unlikely event that all else fails, I would, for the sake of my own personal reputation, take out a second mortgage to repay it! I kid you not!...
Sincere regards Barrie. Barrie Stuart-King, Chief Executive, NRCC.
3.9.2004: e-mail to Tony Coles, La Manga Club.

This is to confirm that out Treasurer has countersigned the two D/D mandates...please confirm (i) the commencement dates of each Mandate (ii) the actual amounts that will be drawn down each quarter...(iii) the subsequent date/s in the specific/appropriate months when the respective payments covering both delivered consignments - i.e the 50 units we received on 5 September plus the 94 units we will be receiving.....
21.9.2004: e-mail to Rona Shaw, Elonex.

As the individual responsibe (sic) for securing our next 3 years funding, I am aware of the time-table. First tranche funding in closing stages of being finalised........the first tranche WILL be in place before the end of our financial year.
5.10.2004: e-mail to M Reed, P Freeman; cc D Harman, C Rawson, K Smith.

The sum of £6076.29 to cover the second stage payments due for the laptops and projectors issued to date will be paid tomorrow (1 December) into the NRCC account and immediately transferred on into the ACU&S Barclays account. The delay is due to our man at Pacific......I have had a VERY long conversation over yesterday afternoon and this morning about the continuing smouldering (and...understandable) resentment being displayed by one of the group company MD's who was most (adversely) affected by my request for the 'goalposts to be moved' AFTER having signed the initial agreement with him....I offered this...proposal/solution...in order to extinguish a serious and increasingly detrimental (to NRCC and ACU&S) internal rift within their group that was threatening the other aspects of our future funding.....
30.11.2004: e-mail P Freeman, M Reed, K Smith; cc C Rawson.

You will, I am sure, be pleased to know that I have a meeting in Leadenhall Street on Tuesday morning (14th) to review and discuss the proposed (now twice) re-amended Contract and the subsequent releases of funding tranches.....the £100K will not be transferred across until January.....So, please, let's have less of the negativism and threats about proposing suspension of the Association core activities. In addition, let's have fewer mass-circulation critical e-mails heralding doom and destruction and try, a instead, to be positive.
12.12.2004: e-mail M Reed, P Freeman; cc C Rawson, K Smith, D Harman. (So they were having a mass-circulation e-mail campaign of their own, then!)

Can you please advise the current status of our claim against QBE and Knowles Loss Adjusters? Did you manage to get hold of - and pass on - the information they requested (stalling tactics)?........We want/need the money in our account asap.
25.1.2005: e-mail to C Mico, MD of PCM Risk Solutions re the curious theft from a garage in Rainham, Kent of 2,800 umpires coats in late September 2004.

This is an extract from my response to (a former 1st class umpire - just the extract is all of 4 pages!)
...."My angst and concerns stem from the fact that (i) David Burden forwarded your e-mail to Roy Arnold.......and (ii) that Roy Arnold then mass-forward circulated it....Elonex and the sponsor I am trying to woo to take over the payments for the laptops....have, somehow, (I suspect with malice aforethought), got hold of a copy. What I am now most worried/very scared about is that if, by some means, Ace European Group get - have already got - hold of a copy of Colin's e-mail and yours to Burden, it will surely kill off our major funder/sponsor's involvement....If ACE do pull out I shall be pilloried, BUT MORE IMPORTANT AND DAMAGINGLY, the Association will face the prospect of a £60,000 loss instead of a £40,000 surplus.... Nobody else - NOT A SINGE (sic) SOUL - in either organisation has offered to help in unearthing/identifying possible sponsorship contacts - or gone out looking for them on their own supportive initiative.
20.2.2005: e-mail T Bastable, D Brandon, A Farnfield. Strangely, more than a month after BS-K, as CEO of NACLCC, had signed the debtor guarantee letter on 15.1.2005, BS-K was still worrying about ACU&S making the loss which had thereby been taken care of. Why was that? They had all agreed to issue the invoice, after much discussion, back in November.

I am writing, first, to apologise for the inconvenience we have caused you as a result of our late payment of the current due quarterly instalment under the above Agreement and, second, to request from you a full early settlement figure.
The reason for both is a direct result of our sponsor - who was funding the Association to enable us to cover the quarterly repayments for laptops and projectors - having been hit by a substantial six figure internal embezzlement and having to withdraw their support. We are taking urgent steps to restructure the sponsorship package with a replacement sponsor......
9.3.2005: Letter to GE Capital Equipment Finance Ltd.

In 2001, I secured £200,000 in sponsorship from the Post Office......
2005: From details of candidates for election at the 2005 AGM. (HT no.275, in which the sponsorship was announced, carried no such claim. The PO press release of 1.5.2001 had several quotes from Mr Basil Larkins, the ACU&S member who was MD of Post Office Network Banking, because it had been his brainchild. There was nothing about BS-K contributing to it in any way).

Thanks to the pre-election tactics of the Thames Region 'mafia', the Association has lost its laptops and projectors sponsor. In summary, their reason was that if only 1,500 out of a total membership of 8,300 could be bothered to vote and half of them voted for a candidate with no apparent policy for the future, then they saw no point, future, or potential return in putting their money or reputation into such an organisation.
30.3.2005: e-mail to D Burden; cc P Freeman, M Reed, K Smith, C Rawson. (So, it was the low postal ballot, then. But, they have always been low. Or, perhaps it was Dave Burden's manifesto of moderation. Or maybe it was a bit of both that caused them to pull out. Funny, that.We kept hearing it had been a malevolent, vitriolic e-mail campaign with copies to everybody that was the problem).

I am prepared to continue to retain/accept full personal responsibility and liability for the outstanding commitments entered into during my term of office....however, this indemnity will cease to be effective or enforceable IMMEDIATELY total funding/sponsorhip (sic) to the value of £220,000 (in cash or kind) is received into the ACU&S account as a direct result of my current negotiations. This should give you some indication of my confidence in their outcome!
30.3.2005: e-mail as the above. (Nothing of that order has yet been received).

Thank you for this prompt and for your patience. As you know from our previous conversations, having lost our previous sponsor, I am arranging for this agreement to be settled and consolidated through a new direct sponsor and anticipated this being finalised at the beginning of this month. However, in view of the delay/over-run - due in no small measure to my temporary force majeure absences during the past three and a half weeks for family reasons......
22.4.2005: e-mail to Weatherby's; cc P Freeman, M Reed, C Rawson, K Smith, D Burden.

My resignation does not - and should not be interpreted to - result from the publication of the Report by the Pearson Committee of Inquiry; a Report that, I regret to note, in which much of the content and structure, and many of the interpretations and opinions contained therein, are demonstrably flawed. (He does not demonstrate how).
I roundly and totally reject any suggestion that I either knowingly or deliberately misled, or set out to mislead, my fellow officers, colleagues, or the AGM....
I no longer feel able to continue to serve the Association under a Chairman whom I consider to be totally unprincipled, incompetent, and in whom I hold the most deep and profound distrust.
I should like to express my deep and sincere thanks to those of you round this table, and to each of the dedicated teams and individual colleagues....with whom it has been a privilege to work alongside.
22.10.2005: (Extracts from) Resignation Statement to General Council.

From what I have had read to me, your 'resignation' statement is permeated throughout with gratuitous and wholly unfounded allegations against your former officer colleagues, each men of unquestioned integrity...........
For the record - and contrary to pedalled (sic) rumour instigated by people like yourself and enthusiastically recycled ( by pedal cycle, no doubt) by the ECB - the Association is NOT on its knees..........
.....I have never trusted you (a distrust that you have demonstrated to have been fully justified)......
6.2.2006: e-mail response to Mike Charman's resignation e-mail. (Good of BS-K, having resigned his membership, to continue to take an interest in the financial state of ACU&S. Perhaps he is going to stand by that indemnity he offered. And why did BS-K make no mention of his distrust of Mr Charman in October? Odd).