Choke on it

If there's one sliver of gratification to be gained from recent events, it's that for the final two years of the RR lease, Ben Pickering will reap his slice of gate receipts from the ladies team and the reserves. No disrespect to them, but I hope the extra £4.22 makes him very happy.

Well done Ben, you've managed to bugger this one up.

Now that the deal is done let's hear the last of any BP appeasement. "Ben saved the club in 1985". "Ben is just a businessman, you can't blame him". Various people claimed to be "close to Ben". And a fat lot of good it did us. For the last 26 years BP has profited to a quite extraordinary extent from his initial £70k investment, gifted him by a callow bunch of directors who to our eternal dismay never tested the willingness of the fans to put up or shut up. Maybe they wouldn't, but we'll never know.

Instead "Ben" has earned a fortune doing nothing except sit tight and occasionally tighten the tourniquet.

So enjoy the last few quid coming your way until you can eventually turn the old ground into houses. Well done you. Once there was a chance you could leave a legacy beyond pounds and pence. Not any more.