John McLellan: £1m rugby '˜ransom strip' sold for £12k by cricketers
The sale of the so-called 2ft-wide ransom strip at Edinburgh Accies' Raeburn Place rugby ground by the Grange Cricket Club to its former chairman, property developer Douglas Lowe, for a reported £12,000 means this sorry saga may yet have a final twist.
I find it quite extraordinary that one sports club should deliberately try to stymie the attempt of another to secure its future, and Mr Lowe is not wrong in describing the failure to come to amicable agreement as “lamentable”.
The fact land which Grange had valued at £1m has gone for £12,000 indicates where the fault lay, although the low sale price enables Mr Lowe to maximise the profit he has promised to share with the cricketers.
There will still be a bitter taste in Accies’ mouths, and if they ever have some spare cash maybe they’ll hire a couple of West Indian fast bowlers for Carlton.