Aye, good point.

Not generally a huge Grey fan but he is a big step up from Finney in fairness and did well today

Wait… what?

Stunned you’ve actually agreed with me

It wasn’t just the ground that disappeared, so did the factory, production moved to China and Thailand, never felt the same after that, not a comfy fit. [/quote]

They moved the majority of production to the far east. Just before they were about to open up, out there- apparently there was a massive earthquake and the factory literally ended up in a hole, so they then had to sub contract the work out.

It was shortly after that Griggs pulled out of R&D. Think also part of the reason they moved out there (apart from the manufacturing costs) was that they had become very fashionable in the far east- unlike Europe where they'd fallen out of favour for the first time.

When he left Rushden - think he handed it over to the supporters trust debt free, for a quid. But despite the set up they didn't have the fan base or expertise to be able to make a go of it.

Not forgetting that they had players on big contracts signed on from the likes of Luton, Northampton and surrounding clubs - which they struggled to honour and ultimately became their undoing.

Griggs was also the shirt sponsor for West Ham for a few seasons.

They still make the classic hand stitched boot in Wollaston - used to work in the village up until a couple of months ago. Gregg Wallace did an episode of his Inside the Factory TV show there last year. Whilst I find Wallace quite objectionable - the program was fascinating.

R&D was a team where I attended all the away matches (all three) and they had a nice new ground and spent on the team, but were a prime example of the hobby club with money ….. but a ‘fan’ base with no real history to hold the club together.
I was struck by the large number of family groups who attended the matches and the squeaky response to the goals, which sometimes sounded like those legendary annual schoolgirl hockey finals at Wembley years ago.
The first match was a Friday night match and we were staying down there at my eldest sons place in Northampton …… a Northampton supporter who he knew was taking us to the match in his car and we were looking for a pre match pub and after driving around for a bit we decided on this newish pub, but his mate said he understood all the Rushden fans met there pre match, but we thougt what the hell and went in …it was indeed full of their fans but it was more like family gathering at a school sports day…you could have had a reign of terror in there with a balloon on a stick.

they were not even a team like harrogate town or forest green. they were a made up affair of rushden town and irthlingborough diamonds. therefore it would not even have been liked watching your club because it did not really exist anymore. the reason why solihull moors will never take off as thats the same. darlo and spenny could have merged also but doubt that would have increased interest even if it was successfull. one thing about the R and D merger was it stopped refs going to rushton instead of rushden for games which happened more than once with telephone appointments.

R&D…the doomed offspring of an ambitious owner and mostly ‘good time only’ supporters.

it might have been a made up team but the facilities there and the ground itself were far superior to those at crawley, stevenage, harrogate, salford, fleetwood and the rest who have bought their way into the football league. fortunetly we,ll never see another mk dons situation as i think they shut that door firmly closed after what happened there.

Their facilities were really tidy with a conference centre on the side of the ground, with views over the pitch. Just feels criminal that the whole lot has been levelled, and is now just a disused wasteland - drive past it most days on my way to work.

After R & D went pop- Kettering moved in, from their Rockingham Road ground at the end of my Street, after a dispute with dodgy owner/ council. After rearranging all the seats to spell out 'KETTERING' - they went pop as well. (same year as darlo) Kettering fans wouldn't go on principle - though they were a proper club with a decent non league. pedigree.

The local council should never have allowed that to happen, and houses are currently being built on Rockingham Road - which has basically killed the club. They currently play on the edge of town now opposite the Weetabix factory -(bit like darlo) in a very basic set-up.

Wonder if any parts of what was a fairly new ground were sold on to other sports clubs for further use, would have been a shame to scrap it.
Surprised the local Council didn’t buy it as a dreaded ‘Community Stadium’.

it was a crying shame about kettering. at one time they were a leading non league club before the bankrollers arrived. should have had more real success than they actually had and could easily have sustained a league club as there nearest league naybour northampton was hardly next door to them. might have picked up many fans from the small towns nearby plus corby as well.