Delia's 42 per cent share-holding cost ?700,000

Yet PC is now being quoted ?16m for shares, albeit a higher percentage.

Damn that's some steep inflation...makes you think doesn't it?

Don't worry Delia, there are still enough mugs out there who'll support you no matter what. Hell, you could even wonder on the pitch drunk, have a go at us for not signing, and they'd still clap you....

THE TIMES

December 23, 1997

DELIA SMITH BUYS A SLICE OF NORWICH CITY

BYLINE: PHILIP DELVES BROUGHTON

LENGTH: 429 words

WHILE the rest of the country turns to her Christmas recipes, Delia Smith has given herself a non-culinary treat: a plump shareholding in Norwich City Football Club.

She and her husband, Michael Wynn Jones, a publisher, have bought 42 per cent of the shares in the club, reckoned to have cost about Pounds 700,000. No more queueing for season tickets for them.

The couple, who live near Stowmarket in Suffolk, became directors of Norwich City in November 1996 after they lent the club Pounds 1 million, the interest on which was to be used for special club projects.

Since then, Ms Smith, whose cookery books and various offshoots have made her one of the wealthiest women in the country, has introduced the players to high-carbohydrate and low-fat breakfasts before training and more of the same afterwards.

She has also provided them with recipes for baked tomato risotto, Irish tea bread, and carrot cake to make and eat at home. Her own diet surrounding matches is not so virtuous: fish and chips on Saturdays, McDonald's midweek.

'It is extremely exciting and gives us an awful lot of pleasure,' said Ms Smith yesterday of her buy. 'We are supporters and season ticket-holders and in the past year we have had a chance to see what happens behind the scenes. If you showed me a profit and balance sheet, I wouldn't now which way up to hold it - but I have other gifts.'

It was Mr Wynn Jones, the editor of Sainsbury's Magazine and a supporter of the Canaries from the age of 11, who introduced Mrs Smith to Norwich City. Her football fever began with England's 1966 World Cup win, but support for Norwich gave her a more day-to-day focus. The couple have been regular visitors to Norwich games, both home and away for nearly 26 years. They bought their shares from Geoffrey Watling, 84, but have no interest in ousting the present chairman, Barry Lockwood. 'We are not going to go in with all guns blazing, and nothing like that is on the agenda,' Mr Wynn Jones said. The plan is to boost the club's annual revenues by Pounds 1 million through catering, sponsorship and commercial activities.

On the footballing side, there is delight. Mike Walker, the club manager, said: 'It is a very pleasant surprise and stabilises the club. They have been successful in business and if they want to bring that success to the football club, it's got to be brilliant.'

For Ms Smith, the purchase is more than a financial transaction.' I think everyone wants to give the talents they have,' she says. 'It is very nice when you reach middle age and you can go in another direction.'

Posted By: Lol Morgan, Jul 11, 11:39:47