At the end of the 2003 season Heanor Town had just been relegated from Division 3N and were struggling. Since resigning from the Premier League the club has gone into decline with a constant loss of players. Quite staggering as the ground and facilities are first class.
Stapleford Town on the other hand had a problem with attracting players as well as losing their best players to better clubs with better grounds. The problem Stapleford had was the "park pitch" facilities and ground. Not attractive to say the least and over the past couple of years the clubs league standing has declined considerably. The club finished a creditable 2nd in 4N in no small thanks to the 1100 + runs scored by Andy Brear. It was Andy Brear who started this whole idea of merging with another club. He joined forces with Paul Harrison and figured Stapleford Town as a club were going nowhere and our only hope of some better quality players were old ones returning, so some sort of action was needed otheriwse within 2 years the club would fold. The idea of Heanor seemed to grow on Andy, as the players who were still there, are very good and well respected players, cracking ground, and the thought of that going to waste was too good an opportunity to miss. Both clubs were struggling so common sense tells you that if the two were to combine, you would be much better off. Seems all very well in theory and some very fiery opposition took to the stage on Alan Rowleys "Sting in the tail" as many seemed to take a very negative outlook on this merge. Luckily not much notice was taken to what was written and after meetings with both clubs, a club vote the merger took place. It was quite clear players from both clubs wanted this move as the voting was unanimous from both parties bar a few.
Heanor chairman Alan Turner described the move as "a marriage of two clubs" which was quite a fitting point as without the marriage as he puts it, it is likely a few years down the line, both clubs would be no longer, so a bit of hard work and common sense has prevailed and has quite possibly saved two clubs from folding. Technically speaking, one club has folded in name. Seen as Heanor has the better facilities and would have better chance of attracting players, it was decided that Heanor Town CC would remain the club name and all Stapleford players would transfer to Heanor.
Now the merger has been finalised, 2004 promises to be a good year for the club, as the squad available to the two captains will be a very large and talented one
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