Andrew Hood & Neil Boston

In late December 2020 the Chairman of Nottingham Squash Rackets Club Ltd. (NSRC), Gawain Briars, instigated a sequence of events resulting in the permanent exclusion from the club of Andrew Hood and the expulsion of Neil Boston via the convening of illegal disciplinary hearings.

Those illegal hearings were intentionally timed to happen the day before the 13 January 2021 Annual General Meeting to prevent their automatic election onto the Board of Directors – their automatic election onto the Board of Directors being guaranteed due to there being fewer candidates than available Director positions.

These events followed two unilateral pronouncements by the Committee (Board of Directors) of the intention to:

Close the club for the whole month of December 2020 (subsequently revoked)

Reduce the opening hours of the club, from 114/week to 40/week, commencing 4 January 2021 (subsequently implemented)

Having been registered as a limited company some years ago the Club and its Directors are required, by statute, “to act in accordance with the company’s constitution“. As the the club’s constitution requires both of the above actions to be approved by the membership their implementation, without membership approval, rendered them illegal under the Companies Act 2006.

Andrew Hood, having received wholly unsatisfactory responses from Gawain Briars in respect of his several emails (copied to all Directors) politely requesting explanations for the above unilateral pronouncements, wrote back:

I’d be grateful if you’d extend to me the courtesy of providing a direct and adequate response to my specific queries and to not simply refer me to the 58 pages which constitute the Articles and your minutes.
If I don’t receive an adequate and full response today I will take action with or without further reference to you as I see fit.

Andrew Hood to Gawain Briars (NSRC Chairman):
(29 December 2020)

A few hours later Gawain Briars responded – bizarrely portraying the above wholly legitimately expressed ultimatum as if it were some sort of menacing threat. Equally bizarrely, having exchanged several polite email communications over a period of time via their respective personal email addresses, Briars then suggested that Andrew Hood had acted improperly – stating that he (Briars) hadn’t given him (Hood) permission to use that very same email address by which he’d been corresponding:

I am most perturbed to read the content of your below email. You have threatened me, as Chairman of the squash club, which I do not take kindly to. I am notifying the committee of your action for their consideration.
In addition, you have been writing to my personal email address without my permission or authorisation. Desist immediately from doing so.“

Gawain Briars (NSRC Chairman) to Andrew Hood:
(29 December 2020)

Click here to view/download the full email chain

That evening both Andrew Hood and Neil Boston separately received notices of disciplinary proceedings. It appeared that Gawain Briars had conceived a plan to prevent their election onto the Board of Directors – via the abuse of the Club’s disciplinary procedures. In the space of a few hours he’d convened two unscheduled meetings of the “Gang of Four” Directors following which disciplinary notices were issued.

The first meeting, that afternoon, described in the minutes as a conversation between Directors, was convened, seemingly, to inform the other three directors of the plan – to instigate disciplinary proceedings. The second meeting, that evening, described in the minutes as an “Emergency Committee meeting”, was convened, seemingly, to rubber stamp the plan to instigate disciplinary proceedings against Andrew Hood and Neil Boston to prevent their automatic election onto the Board of Directors.

The [disciplinary] process was discussed and it was felt that these issues required finalisation prior to the AGM, and thus if a decision was to be made it needed to be today as required a 14 day notice period by the Articles.“

NSRC “Emergency” Committee Meeting:
(29 December 2020)

Unfortunately for the Directors there were, at that point, only 12 ‘clear’ days before the AGM. The above quotation from the minutes demonstrates that the Committee had been fully aware of the legal requirement to provide 14 days’ notice of any disciplinary hearing. Reasonably assuming that the Directors could count up to at least 14 it surely follows that they had decided to, wilfully, act illegally in convening the hearings the day before the AGM.

Believing the intention of the Briars-led Committee was to prevent them from becoming directors by expelling them from the club Andrew Hood and Neil Boston appointed a solicitor. He wrote to the Committee clearly pointing out, amongst several other procedural failings, the illegitimacy of the disciplinary notices – failing to provide 14 day’s clear notice of a hearing thereby breaching the Articles of Association and the Companies Act 2006.

The minutes are helpful in evidencing the committee’s determination to prevent our clients from standing at the AGM. It is for that reason that the disciplinary notices were so very rushed and that is clearly stated in the Minutes.“

Hood/Boston Solicitor to NSRC:
(9 January 2021)

In their response of 11 January 2021 the Directors, contrary to their clearly illegal actions, bullishly proclaimed the disciplinary notices to have been valid. Some four months later, through their legal representatives, the Directors eventually admitted that the disciplinary notices had been issued in breach of the Articles of Association, hence in breach of the Companies Act 2006.

It has been acknowledged that your Clients were afforded [only] 12 days’ notice of the disciplinary hearings rather than the full 14 days’ notice as required by the Articles.“

NSRC Legal Representative:
Response to the Hood/Boston Letter Before Action.
(6 May 2021)

Despite that acknowledgment of its illegal actions the Gawain Briars-led Committee, at that time comprising him, Steve Payne, Richard O’Connor and Gerry Hargreaves, remained intransigent.

Though the composition of the Committee was altered with the appointment of several new Directors at the November 2021 AGM, with Gawain Briars continuing to lead the Committee as Chairman, the persecution of Andrew Hood and Neil Boston continues to this day.

In respect of the British National Masters Squash Championships 2022, recently held at NSRC (9 – 13 February 2022), Gawain Briars wrote to the Chairman of England Squash Masters, Stuart Hardy:

…It was agreed by the committee that I should contact you as soon as possible because we think there is a chance Mr Hood may enter the above event; and I am to inform you that he would not be permitted to come on to our premises in any manner, due to his expulsion. May I ask you to keep the content of this email as confidential as possible please as it remains, understandably, a sensitive matter.“

Gawain Briars (NSRC Chairman) to Stuart Hardy (England Squash Masters Chairman):
(9 December 2021)

Click here to view/download the letter

Subsequent to issuance of the above correspondence England Squash Masters unilaterally withdrew the legitimate entries to the tournament of both Andrew Hood and Neil Boston. This action was taken, apparently, without challenge or question by England Squash Masters.

In respect of the Nottinghamshire Squash club leagues – in advance of a team match between an NSRC based team and Andrew Hood’s new club, David Lloyd WB (for whom he plays #1 string), the NSRC Committee wrote to the David Lloyd WB team captain:

Mr. Hood has been permanently excluded from the Club and has been informed he cannot use any of the Club’s facilities, therefore, the Committee reaffirmed that Mr Hood would not be allowed on the premises.

With regards to Mr. B Cripps, he was a member of the previous Committee, but subsequently resigned his membership as well as his Committee position. The committee discussed his position and importantly the impact he would have on the staff if he were to be allowed on premises. It was decided that to support the well being of the staff Mr Cripps would not be allowed on premises.

NSRC Committee to Leckie Dow (David Lloyd WB team captain)
(3 March 2022)

Subsequent to issuance of the above correspondence Hood and Cripps were informed by the captain that they would not be selected for the team to play at NSRC. It would appear that David Lloyd had decided to field a weakened team rather than challenge the legitimacy of NSRC’s refusal to allow two of its players into the club.

To clarify, Brian Cripps had been an NSRC Director immediately prior to Gawain Briars becoming Chairman and, until this point, had been wholly unaware of having been excluded by any subsequent Briars-led Committee. Neither has he been informed of the reason.

It would appear that his only ‘crime’ was to have been a director sitting on the Nick Duckworth-led Committee immediately prior to Gawain Briar’s accession to the role of Chairman. Read more…Former Directors excluded without notificaton or explanation

The above simply provides an overview of events so please do read the below detailed statements – there is so much more.

Statement of Andrew Hood (Nov 2021)

To read full details click on the above link or here.

Statement of Neil Boston (Nov 2021)

To read full details click on the above link or here.