Former Darwen FC boss gets back keys to club

8:40pm Sunday 20th July 2008

THE former boss of Darwen FC was given back the keys to the club after winning the first round of a court battle.

And Kevin Henry said he had set his sights on taking the North West Counties club into the football league.

Mr Henry, a Blackburn entrepreneur who deals in buy-to-let properties, won a court injunction banning Ted Ward - the man he agreed to sell the club to - from the Anchor Avenue ground on Friday.

It came after Mr Henry’s legal team argued in court that he had only been paid £20,000 of the £95,000 of the sale price agreed in January 2007.

The dispute will be resolved with further legal hearings.

But Mr Henry said he intended to take over the running of the club again.

After getting the keys back on Saturday, Mr Henry said Darwen FC could imitate the likes of Accrington Stanley and Morecambe by playing league football.

He said: “We are here today and we start again and we want this to be used by the community.

“The club is very important for the town. If you look at Morecambe then the town is slightly smaller than Darwen yet it supports a football club, as does Accrington which is slightly larger.

“There is no reason why Darwen can not be in a similar position.”

Mr Henry said there were also plans to make the Anchor Ground a haven for top class rugby league.

He added: “East Lancashire Lions played here in 2007 and did well and this season they are in the national conference so we’ll see how things go.

“When I first came here I explored the possibility of playing American football and baseball. The thing is not all children in Darwen want to be footballers so you get the idea that we want to put this to mixed use.”

At the court hearing in Birmingham it was alleged that Mr Ward had set up another company with a similar name to Darwen FC in to which he “diverted funds.”

Mr Ward was accused of ‘passing this off’ as Darwen Football and Social Club.

The court was shown evidence that no money had been banked into the account of Darwen Football and Social Club between December 2006 and January 2008.

Delivering her verdict, Judge Kirkham said the second company had been set up “to present a muddled picture to the outside world.”

Mr Ward claimed the deal to buy the club was dependent on another contract to buy 10 properties, which had not gone through.

Mr Ward said he had made improvements worth £127,000 to the club since taking over and that Darwen Football and Social Club had been unable to trade because of its reputation, adding “it’s a terrible statement to say we were diverting funds.”

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