Yup, it was for me

Was for me too

Yes it was for me.

new one on me too plus the 3 lads i go to games with.

Nope so my assumption could be correct after all. Something very few know about and something of interest brought out at timing of a book launch.

Normally I hear about stuff like this, I've heard all of the recent rumours going about but no one I go to the match with had heard about the letter before.

Very odd that this one never got around!

I'm almost certain it was talked about (on the stage) at the Centenary do, everyone must have been too pissed

I must say, this is the first time I've heard the story too

Ive never heard about it before & Ive got decent links to the press so would have thought I'd have heard something about it. Not that it bothers me like!

I think whether people has heard the story before isn't really the point, it's Tree's venomous cynicism towards most things the club do I mean as if they'd just invent a story to make more people buy the book, we're Hartlepool United not the fooking X Factor. The letter is true.

Surely everyone who supports the club will buy this book, it's one of those things as I Pools fan like the 1990 promotion video that you should own.

Nothing to do with being venomous. Its good business sense surely anyone can see that?

No need for you to apoligise

Apologise for what, pointing out how ridiculous some of the stuff you come out with is!?

This is like the laughable comments you made the day the kit was realised, because it was after you went on holiday and your birth date!!

It's about supporting the club and not cynically picking holes with everything they do. You are basically questioning the chairman and author of the books honesty, yet asking ME to apologise for I don't know what.

You are fooking priceless

Where did i cynically attack the club or say the story wasnt true?

I pointed out its came out to light to the general public at this point because they are releasing a book. Its a good idea and as i said, good business sense.


But thats having a go at the club apparently

Why would the club do it to sell a book yet put the jist of the story in yesterdays Northern Echo which costs 45p?

Have a day off Tree.

Can i ask why celebrities put parts of their books in the newspapers before they are released? etc etc

Have a day off.

The letter, and the clubs reaction to it caused all sorts of issues with the refs association squad which involved legal teams from both sides in lengthy 'talks' and if you want conspiracy think about the refereeing of games for the following season...

The letter was very real, and IOR took it very seriously

Well, first I've heard of it too. Also don't know what it says, as link to Echo doesn't work on my work machine and I don't buy that tat paper.

First I've heard about it too.

IOR/Pools are very good at keeping things in house and those few that had heard about it had either kept it to themselves, or dismissed it. I'm surprised they have mentioned it now to be honest, must have finally let it go

Any chance of telling me what it's all about then? Although there are now references to it on here nobody has said what is in it?!

The hidden mysteries of nature and science....and pools

First I've heard of the letter too but let's face it, how much info gets out of the club? No surprise that this would have been kept quiet.

To give you some idea as to the seriousness of it, Russ Green met Keith Hackett ( the refs chief) over it. I think the meeting took place at an hotel in Wetherby if my memory serves me right. I think Keith Hackett's reaction on seeing the letter was " Oh shit"
Subsequently Russ is alleged to have got a bit of cold shoulder at Football League meetings. The conspiracy theories regarding our relegation the following season were rife.
Have a word with Russ, I'm sure he'll tell you the tale.

The same hotel where Bob Newton signed for us?

Curious and curiouser...

Where's Miss Marples when you need her?

It was the one on the old roundabout, mate. Name escapes me.

I just wish, as probably do the club, that the letter had been opened before the game.

Imagine us giving a copy of it to Jeff Stelling who subsequently handed it to Sky and then they brought it to light at the appropriate moment.

Can we be honestly expected to believe that of all the HUMAN BEINGS that officiate at football matches up and down the country and elsewhere that a teeny weeny percentage of them aren't liable to succumb to temptation??????
Especially with these international betting syndicates that operate nowadays.
Say £100k for sorting out a result...............would you consider it???

Of course I'm just being hypothetical and wouldn't imagine for one second...................

They wouldn't would they?????

NAH

If the Club reported this letter to the police, then the police would have had no choice but to investigate. Miss Marple, however, being an intelligent lady, would never have got involved in the case. For one thing, there's no evidence at all that the letter was written before the match, except for a post mark that could easily have been forged.
Secondly, the person who was supposed to be in the know was an old gentleman with copperplate writing?? Do her a favour. Everyone knows these messages are sent via untraceable typewriters or by using pasted bits from newspapers
Thirdly (she will have wondered) what happened to the old gentleman's prophetic talents on other occasions, such as when we had a penalty wrongly awarded against us playing West Ham?

or maybe the decision was made in good faith at the time and the ref just got it plain wrong?





Nah i dont think so either

Oh aye; if it wasn't for the letter, Miss Marple would have exposed the ref in no time.

You be careful your boss doesn't catch you asleep, mate.

I'm another one of the never heard about it brigade, and can't understand why it has never been discussed on here.

Meanwhile, I remember going to a Reserve game, when Mike Fagan made his debut, and thinking he looks like a class centre half. When he came to play in the first team he was bobbins, I've never been able to trust my judgement of a good player since.

[x] Agrees with chip

I find the whole tale very boring.

When i read that there was some letter i thought oh right that might make an interesting story.

But i found it as dull as dishwater.

You are all missing 1 stark piece of evidence which clearly points to it being a conspiracy -

that effing b*stard with the whistle gave a penalty from 20 yards behind the play through a crowd of players when no offence had been commited and then sent him off.

Area 52 - dunno,
Di murdered - probably not,
Twin towers an american government demolition - they couldnt could they,
JFK totalled by the mafia - dunno,
George Reynolds an undercover Poolie - ha! I hope so,
Jesus had a baby - possible,
Margaret Thatcher bialzibub in drag - almost certain,
Big Foot - some hairy red neck
Beast of bodmin - rubbish
Alien abductions - what would they want American trailer trash for anyway


It was never a penna!

But we got relegated because we were shite..... Although Rotherham still cheated though

I agree with you mate, I'm only trying to tell you the theories of the day.
All the emotion has gone out of it now, but at the time murder could have been committed.

Where's Grassy Knollington when you need him....?

I'm shocked there hasn't been a massive shift towards chips post because he used the ubiquitous []

Could it not have been someone just messing about?

The chances are decent that a penalty may decide a game, he/she might have just guessed.

True. But also, if that letter turned out to be for real....

The letter was probably been sent by some Wendy on a wind up and the outcome just happened to be a coincidence.

I'd never heard about it before this.

Aye.

But six of them are Dibble.

The letter was real. It's just that it didn't mean anything, still less prove anything.
Let's have a bit of reality-testing here, like.

Yes, you see, my theory is that the letter was meant to cloud the issue of the cheating, erm,
sod of a ref.
The conspirators knew there'd be an outcry about the penalty, so they arranged this letter, which would make Pools look ridiculous if they made an issue of it.

You can't beat female logic, Mr ADG.
No Sirree.

No, I know it's complicated but try again. I'm saying the letter was both real and intended to be real, but that it was so ridiculous that no-one ourside the club would believe it.
I know the inside story because I wrote it myself.