Mexborough times, July 17th
Denaby United Football Club
Debt steadily Decreasing
Presidents Interesting Review
The Denaby United football club, at their annual meeting held on Tuesday evening, decided unanimously to leave the question of continuing football during the forthcoming season in the hands of the committee , who were instructed to act accordingly the decision arrived at by the Sheffield Association as to their running a competition.
In his annual report, the SECRETARY (J.T.Clayton) stated that the club had lost a number of good men to enlistment, and they managed to pull through the season with a decent record. In the Association league they finished fourth in the table having played 28 matches, won 14 lost nine, scored 44 goals against 37 and finished with 28 points to their credit. They also managed to lift the Montagu charity Cup.
The second team they had to drop on account of so many players having joined the colours, so he thought they would agree with them that they had done very well.
The financial side had also been satisfactory, but he must say that the state of affairs was due to the hard work put in by the committee.
As regarding the running of a team during the forthcoming season, he asked the meeting to give the question serious consideration before they attempted to answer it.
Through the action of the Committee the debt now stood at only £342 3s and of that £234 3s 3d was for the stand. The club was considerably helped by the Christmas draw.
There was an account of £10 each owing to the Hull and Grimsby clubs, but an offer made by the Denaby Club to pay them £4 each had been accepted.
The club owed something like £35 to players and he was very pleased to be able to say that the majority of these players were good enough to give the money back to the club in a very sporting manner.
Referring to the playing season, the PRESIDENT (Mr H.W.Smith) said that the club had been fairly successful. They were doing exceptionally well for a time until six of their best players left them to serve their country in one way or another.
The second team ran for a time, and after three players had enlisted it dropped through.
So far as the players were concerned, they had done their part to carry on the club and all through the season they had “played the game”.
He offered on behalf of the club, the heartiest thanks to the secretary and the committee for their work during the past year.
The PRESIDENT further said that it was depressing to find that out of the nine guarantors only two were present at the annual meeting. It made one inclined to the opinion that it was hardly worth a candle to have anything to do with football at all. He did not think that it was right that the guarantors should keep away from the Annual meeting and leave all the work and the burden of the club on other shoulders. It was most depressing, and one felt really inclined to let the whole thing slide altogether.
The Treasurers report was then carried.
It was decided to place on record a list of names of all the members and players of the club who had joined H.M. Forces.