them to play for Derby. On 8 August Morton Betts, Secretary of the National League of Baseball of Great Britain issued a statement, in response to “incorrect statements” given to regional press by Ley, on events leading up to Derby ‘retiring‘ from the National League. It was stated that on the 9 July Ley agreed to only use his professional American pitchers in games versus Aston Villa, and that under this new arrangement Derby had lost four out of their six matches, harming their championship prospects to the degree that Ley broke a number of bye-laws, under threat of his Derby club withdrawing from the league, including refusing to field a nine on 6 August and giving the League Board no option but to erase the National League record of Derby. On 11 August the Birmingham Daily Post wrote that three of the four National League clubs were being financed by Spalding Bros, whereby Derby were financed by Ley, leading to various financial disagreements. On 15 August the Derby Daily Telegraph published an article claiming that the Derby had won the National League, under Section 21 of the league constitution, under which it was said the club with the highest win percentage will be the winner of the pennant. The club claimed that up until their ‘withdrawal’ from the National League, on 5 August, they would have a win percentage that would have been unachievable for the remaining clubs, based on their completed season stats to that date. In reality Aston Villa were the first and only professional baseball champions of Great Britain, being awarded the pennant for the season, with Derby's record expunged from the official stats. Derby Baseball Club 1890 National League players: Dan Allsopp H. Bates Edwin Booth William C. Bryan Sim Bullas James Mellors H. M. Middleton W. North S. Presbury John Reidenbach Dissolution and new Derby Baseball Club In August 1890 a meeting at the Athenaeum, Derby, took place to discuss the idea of forming a new baseball club for the town. It was noted that Ley was to be elected as Chairman of the new club, given that his old club had been dissolved. Ley agreed to the town's new baseball club being tenants of the Ley's Recreation Centre (known later as the Baseball Ground) rent free until the club was making a profit. It was reported that “for all practical purposes it (the