the times | Saturday September 5 2020 2GM 17
News
Since 1835 Cambridge University’s
most exclusive drinking society has
been a bastion of privilege. Now, how-
ever, as a cash crisis bites, the Pitt Club
is discovering that penury is the pits.
The club, established in honour of
William Pitt the Younger, and which
has survived a devastating fire and a
whisky drought over its 185-year his-
tory, is now appealing for £50,000 to
rescue it from financial disaster.
In an email sent this week, its trustees
warned alumni that the club was in a
“perilous position”. The society, often
Cambridge’s Pitt drinking society pleads for help as funds run dry
Charlie Parker regarded as Cambridge’s equivalent of
Oxford’s Bullingdon Club, rents out
part of its Jesus Lane building to the
Pizza Express chain at present. Mem-
bers use the rest for socials.
The club, whose former members
include the Prince of Wales, the actor
Tom Hiddleston and John Cleese, has
had no rental income for nine months
and is likely to lose half its earnings for
next year, it said.
Its finances were hit after Pizza
Express entered into a company volun-
tary arrangement — in which an insol-
vent company tries to reach an agree-
ment with its creditors — and an-
nounced the closure of 73 restaurants,
cutting 1,100 jobs.
The club’s committee says £50,000 is
needed in donations, recommending a
minimum gift of £100, according to cor-
respondence seen by the student news
site The Tab. “In short,” the email said,
“the survival of the club in its present
form is at risk.”
Previously an male-only drinking
society, the Pitt Club voted in 2017 to al-
low women to join.
The email, sent by George Greenber-
ry, a senior trustee, said: “The club is in
a perilous position. We have received
no rental income for nine months,which is unrecoverable. As such, we
need your help and hope to raise
£50,000 in donations over the next year
to allow the club to continue in its cur-
rent form.”
It added: “The club’s only substantial
source of revenue has been reduced to
a level which cannot support essential
operational costs. Without support
from its alumni and members, the club
will not be able to open the premises on
7a Jesus Lane or afford essential busi-
ness costs during this academic year.”
The Pitt Club is also understood to
hope to raise £500,000 by its 200th
anniversary in 2035. The email adds:“The club’s spirit is still marked by the
same characteristics of friendship, ec-
centricity and above all, good fun,
which you will remember from your
time in Cambridge. However, in order
for that spirit to endure and flourish for
future generations, the club now needs
your help.”
The club had to be completely reno-
vated in 1907 after a fire gutted the
building. It experienced a recruitment
crisis and had to close between 1917 and
1919 as a result of the First World War
when many members joined the armed
forces. After the war, it was knocked
back by a whisky shortage in 1920.owns more than a dozen racecourses,
including Aintree, employs 650 people
and in 2018 made operating profits of
£48 million, which went back into the
sport.
Ms Bushell had been given the posi-
tion over Nevin Truesdale, a board
member and the chief financial officer,who was made acting chief executive
after her departure.
It is understood that not long after
her appointment, a small group from
the club’s 168 elected members shared
concerns with Mr Dudgeon and his
deputy Julia Budd about Ms Bushell.
A source said: “The word that keptIt is horse racing’s most esteemed orga-
nisation, governed by royal charter and
with the Queen as its patron.
So when the Jockey Club’s newly
appointed chief executive resigned
after a senior executive lodged com-
plaints of gross misconduct it rocked
the sport.
An investigation by The Times into
the departure of Delia Bushell, 48, the
high-flying former Sky and BT execu-
tive, has uncovered allegations that her
ousting was part of an “old boys’ coup”,
with a network of connections between
the club and leading political figures.
The complaints against Ms Bushell
were made against a background of
petitioning by a small but determined
group of “backbench” members who
were upset at what they perceived as
her “sharp manner”.
A source said: “There is a feeling that
this had been planned for months by
senior members of the club who did not
agree with her being the new broom.”
It is the latest revelation in the saga
surrounding the departure of Ms Bush-
ell a year into the job after taking over
from Simon Bazalgette.
In her resignation letter last week Ms
Bushell said she was the victim of a
“deeply unpleasant stitch-up” over
what she claimed was a flawed disci-
plinary process, which accused her of
bullying, racism and sharing inappro-
priate material.
The Times can reveal Baroness Hard-
ing of Winscombe, the Conservative
peer heading the NHS Test and Trace
programme, was present during the on-
line meeting when Ms Bushell was told
the results of the inquiry into her con-
duct.
The intervention by a key political
figure is by no means the club’s only
connection with leading members of
the Tory party. The Times has estab-
lished that it commissioned Tulchan
Communications to oversee the PR
for Ms Bushell’s departure.
Lord Feldman of Elstree, the
party’s former chairman described
by the Financial Times as “David
Cameron’s oldest political
friend”, is a managing partner at
the company and worked per-
sonally on the case.
He helped draft a press re-
sponse to the letter, which said
that the inquiry had found evi-
dence of “bullying behaviour to-
wards colleagues, inappropriate
racist comments and sharing of-
fensive materials”.
Ms Bushell was ap-
pointed through the
headhunting firm
SRI Executive in
September. A page
on the company’s
site, since deleted,
trumpeting the
announcement,
said: “Just like a champion hurdler, she
thrives on overcoming new obsta-
cles.” At the time, Sandy Dud-
geon, the club’s senior steward
— effectively the chairman —
praised Ms Bushell’s experi-
ence “at the top of media, sport,
technology and business
management”. The clubOld boys ‘coup’ ousted Jockey Club boss
being used about her was ‘belittling’.
Her manner was felt to be ‘sharp’ and
there were claims that some of her staff
were close to a nervous breakdown.
“But she could perhaps rightly argue
that she had been brought in to shake
things up and people who were affected
by her modernisation were bound to
feel their noses were out of joint.”
Mr Dudgeon and Ms Budd dismissed
these claims and a source said that with
Ms Bushell gone, the pair, who had pre-
viously enjoyed good reputations
among members, felt “vulnerable”.
Rancour towards Ms Bushell was fur-
ther heightened during the negotia-
tions with ITV over the rights to screen
races at courses owned by the club.
When she took over the deal was “all
but done”, but Ms Bushell, who had
been hired because of her experience
overseeing BT’s £1 billion TV and sport
division, decided the club should ap-
proach other broadcasters.
The decision infuriated executives at
ITV and members of the club who were
anxious about souring relations with
the broadcaster.
ITV sent a legal letter to racing chiefs
and withheld a quarterly payment
shortly after meetings were suspended
because of the pandemic.
The situation was resolved after Ms
Bushell resigned from the Racecourse
Media Group, which handles TV rights
negotiations on behalf of venue own-
ers, in May and a deal with ITV was sub-
sequently struck, on improved terms to
the previous deal with the broadcaster.
Not long afterwards a complaint was
made.
Jack Mitchell, a barrister specialising
in employment law, was brought in to
oversee an inquiry and interviewed 19
witnesses, including Ms Bushell.
On August 23 he submitted his report
to the sub-committee, including Lady
Harding and found six of the 22 allega-
tions were upheld. The following day
Ms Budd and Lady Harding revealed
the result of the inquiry to Ms Bushell.
The club had been in discussions
with Ms Bushell planning her exit but
the following Sunday she wrote her res-
ignation letter alleging “collusion by a
number of male witnesses, all senior ex-
ecutives in the Jockey Club”.
Ms Bushell declined to comment.
In a statement, the club said: “Follow-
ing the conclusion of a thorough and
independent review into the behav-
iours of Delia Bushell and her treat-
ment of colleagues it was clear that she
could not continue in her role of CEO
and the board accepted her resignation.
“The Jockey Club is certain that the
decisions reached were done so fairly
and properly, and based on evidence.
Serious allegations were made against
Delia and her behaviour which The
Jockey Club Board felt were sufficiently
serious to warrant an independent in-
vestigation into the matters raised.”
Tulchan Communications declined
to comment.Ben Ellery
STEVEN PASTON/PA; ALAMYDelia Bushell
resigned after
an inquiry into
alleged
misconduct.
Baroness
Harding, below,
was involved in
the process