THE chairman of one of the North-East's leading amateur football clubs has quit after being barraged by hate mail.

A series of poison pen letters blaming Bill Penman for Crook Town's desperate plight at the bottom of the Albany Northern League have been sent to the club's Millfield ground, in County Durham.

The chairman claims he has also been the subject of a whispering campaign, and has decided to resign from the post he has held for the past two years.

Mr Penman said yesterday that he had been upset by notes calling for his resignation.

He said: "People would push them through the door and I would be the first one to open up.

"They said it was all my fault that Crook are at the bottom of the league.

"I have been told that I have been bad-mouthed all over south-west Durham. It would be difficult for me to raise sponsorship when people have been saying I don't pay my bills.

"If I thought I was in the way of the club progressing, I would rather be out. I will continue to support the club.

"I have no bad feelings for Crook Town - they will come again."

Crook won the first of its FA Amateur Cup finals exactly a century ago. Their most famous victories came in the 1950s and 60s, when they won the same trophy four more times.

By the early 1990s, however, the once-proud club was on the brink of closure.

Mr Penman said: "When I first came in, back in 1992, the club was five figures in the red.

"A few of us worked hard to pull things round. I have done every job, from groundsman to bar manager.

"I haven't left them destitute. Financially, the club is not too badly off."

Vice-chairman Stephen Buddle has taken over as chairman until the annual meeting in June.