text: thames valley royals proposal shortly before the end of the 1982 – 83 football league season , robert maxwell , the then - owner and chairman of oxford united football club , announced that he had made a deal with the owners of nearby reading to amalgamate the two teams to create a new club he proposed to name " thames valley royals " . this appellation combined a loose term for the geographical region , " thames valley " , with the reading team 's nickname , " the royals " . with each team having financial problems , maxwell claimed that both were on the verge of going out of business and that uniting them was necessary for the region to retain a football league club . maxwell envisioned thames valley royals ' future home as an unspecified location somewhere between oxford and reading where a new stadium would be built , perhaps didcot ; home matches would alternate between oxford and reading in the meantime . both sets of supporters promptly embarked on mass demonstrations against the merger , including protest marches and a 2 , 000 - man sit - in on the pitch at oxford before a match on 23 april . maxwell pressed on with his plan regardless , insisting that " nothing short of the end of the earth " would prevent its fruition . the proposed amalgamation was stopped by the actions of one of reading 's board directors , roy tranter , and roger smee , a businessman and former reading player . smee disputed the legitimacy of the controlling interest in reading held by the faction of three reading board members that backed the merger plan , including the chairman frank waller , and tranter launched a legal challenge to the sale of certain shares on 22 april 1983 . waller and his boardroom allies resigned under pressure from the rest of the reading board on 12 may 1983 , and at an extraordinary shareholders ' meeting in july , smee took over the club , ending the amalgamation plans . context during the 1982 – 83 football league season , both oxford united and reading competed in the football league third division , then the third tier of english football — equivalent to today 's league one . managed by jim smith , oxford challenged for promotion throughout the season , while maurice evans ' reading team languished near the relegation zone for much of the year , despite possessing one of the division 's top - scoring forwards in kerry dixon . the colourful media mogul and former mp robert maxwell owned and chaired oxford , having prevented the club 's bankruptcy by buying it in 1982 . one of the world 's oldest football teams ( established in 1871 ) , reading were a public limited company , chaired by frank waller , a prominent local businessman ; while owning oxford , maxwell also held 19 % of reading 's shares . the two clubs share a local rivalry . at the time , both were in financial difficulties , particularly reading . maxwell sought to build a new stadium for oxford united ; he had negotiated with the council over potential locations since the time of his takeover , favouring a site in the northern suburb of marston , but had yet to win council permission to buy the land . proposal on 16 april 1983 , about a month before the end of the 1982 – 83 season , maxwell told the bbc that he was close to acquiring a controlling interest in reading , and that he was intent on merging that club with oxford . the merged club would be called thames valley royals , a combination of " thames valley " , a loose term for the geographical area , and the nickname of reading football club , " the royals " . " if we in thames valley are to retain a league club we 've got to unite reading and oxford , " he explained . " everything in the world that cannot pay its way must go the way of merger to combine into stronger units . " maxwell made this announcement on a saturday when most football league clubs , including oxford and reading , were playing league fixtures . oxford were playing away at doncaster rovers . jim smith learned of the announcement shortly before kick - off at doncaster 's belle vue ground from john ley , a journalist with the oxford mail , who had heard the news from another newsman by telephone . smith immediately called maxwell to ask whether or not he would be retained to manage thames valley royals , and was told that he would be . maxwell issued a statement announcing that oxford united were poised to acquire reading by purchasing all of that club 's issued share capital , comprising 73 , 000 shares , at £ 3 per share ( a total cost of £ 219 , 000 ) , and that waller and a group of reading board directors , holding a majority of the shares in reading f.c. , had " irrevocably accepted " this offer . the two clubs would continue separately for the last few weeks of the 1982 – 83 campaign , and thames valley royals would begin play at the start of the 1983 – 84 league season . maxwell claimed to have support in principle for this from the football league . he said that the amalgamated team would ultimately be based at a new stadium to be built somewhere between oxford and reading , and that in the meantime home games would alternate between the two old grounds , elm park in reading and the manor ground in oxford , both of which would eventually be sold . the general public learned of the proposed merger in the late afternoon on 16 april , when it was announced by david coleman on the television show grandstand following the report of the day 's football results . reactions the majority of both teams ' supporters reacted negatively to the merger proposal . while many oxford supporters acknowledged that maxwell had been instrumental in saving the club the previous year , most perceived merging with another club as tantamount to killing both oxford united and professional football in the city . a spokesman for the oxford united supporters club called the idea " crazy and unworkable " . most reading fans likewise reacted to the scheme with revulsion ; mike , chairman of the reading supporters club , said " our fans can 't stand oxford fans and i can 't see them travelling to oxford to watch the new team " . supporters and pressmen alike ridiculed the " thames valley royals " name , which the sports historian john bale later described as " mid - atlantic " ; observers at the time variously perceived it as sounding more like an american football , ice hockey or speedway team than a football club . some oxford fans supported maxwell 's proposal , saying that with a new stadium and the pooled financial resources of oxford and reading , an amalgamated team might be successful , but these were a minority . one angry fan wrote to the oxford mail that " i will not follow thames valley royals or whatever their name is if they played at the end of my street " . players at both clubs received the news with apprehension . as ley put it , " when you merge two clubs into one , you cannot have a squad of 45 . " the oxford team learned of the impending merger and the new name from smith in the dressing room at belle vue just before the match against doncaster on 16 april . mark jones , one of the oxford midfielders , recalled that the room " went totally quiet " , and that his first thought was that it might be hard to him to keep his place in the first team with reading 's players also on the books . according to jones , smith attempted to assuage the oxford players ' fears by telling them that " we 're only doing it so we can buy kerry dixon . all your places are safe " . alan judge , the reading goalkeeper , reported his team reacting in a similar way — indeed , he described the reading players as even more worried as oxford had far outperformed them in the league that season . ley , who accompanied the oxford team on the bus ride home after the game , recalled that the players were almost silent , their victory over doncaster overshadowed by " a feeling of incredulity , confusion , worry and fear " . oxford united 's board of directors unanimously supported maxwell 's proposed amalgamation at a board meeting held on 20 april 1983 . their only reservation was regarding the name ; they preferred " thames valley united " . the chairman of the football league , jack dunnett , described maxwell 's proposal as " a bold and imaginative move which i 'll be watching with interest " . meanwhile , maxwell re - entered talks with oxford city council over local stadium sites , repeating his preference for the marston location . the council again refused . the mayor of didcot , a small town about halfway between oxford and reading , suggested that thames valley royals could build a ground there , on a site that had already been picked out for non - league amateurs didcot town . wallingford , a similar proposition just east of didcot , was also proposed . the residents of neither didcot nor wallingford showed much interest in hosting thames valley royals home matches , partly because they were concerned about football hooliganism . controversy oxford and reading supporters embarked on a series of demonstrations against maxwell 's proposed merger . the reading evening post set up a campaign called " save our soccer " , while oxford fans launched a similar initiative called " save oxford soccer " . before oxford 's match against wigan athletic at the manor ground on 23 april 1983 , about 2 , 000 fans sat in in the centre of the pitch , delaying the start of the game by half an hour . maxwell , in the directors ' box , was jeered by supporters , some of whom spat at him , and was confronted by a number of banners around the stadium reading " judas " . after the match ( which oxford won 2 – 0 ) , maxwell called the demonstration a " bloody disgrace " . he reaffirmed his commitment to the thames valley royals project a few days later through a phone - in on bbc radio oxford . " if they want to become supporters of someone else , they 're entirely welcome , " he said . " if the deal does not go through , both reading and oxford will be dead before the beginning of next season . nothing short of the end of the earth will prevent this from going through . " steve daniels , an oxford fan opposed to a merger , called in and claimed that maxwell 's amalgamation proposal was a ploy intended to alter the council 's line regarding a new stadium in oxford . meanwhile , efforts to stop the merger were stepped up at reading by roger smee , a former reading player , born and raised in the town , who had become a millionaire in the construction industry . smee , who strongly opposed the merger plan , had read the club 's accounts the previous year , and so was aware of how the team 's stock was allocated . he knew that waller and his boardroom allies , leslie davies and john briggs , had not held a controlling interest in the club in 1982 and that a large number of reading shares had then been noted as unissued . his interest was therefore piqued when the thames valley royals deal was declared " irrevocable " on the basis that waller 's faction controlled the majority of the shares in reading . " a year ago they didn 't have a majority , " smee later said , " so how on earth have they issued these shares to themselves while reading was a public company ? that would be against the law . " smee contacted roy tranter , a director at reading who opposed the merger , and tranter 's legal team filed a complaint with the high court objecting to the sale of the unissued shares . on 22 april 1983 , just as waller and maxwell were about to officially announce the merger , tranter 's solicitors handed waller a high court injunction temporarily blocking sale of the disputed stock . three days later , the high court imposed a further injunction preventing any dealing in reading shares until a further hearing on 3 may . maxwell insisted that there was no problem , calling the legal challenge a " side show " ; he made a fresh bid to all of reading 's shareholders . on 1 may , the oxford chairman told the press that he and his supporters at reading controlled 40 % of the shares . meanwhile , oxford city council offered oxford united a new " £ 6 million sports complex " in the western suburb of botley . maxwell said that he was still pursuing the merger with reading , but would look into the botley proposal . reading supporters marched from the town centre to elm park in protest against the merger before the team 's match against millwall on 30 april . two days later , oxford and reading met at manor road in what the glasgow herald commented might be " the last thames valley derby " . oxford fans held another protest march before the game , which reading won 2 – 1 . at the high court on 3 may , mr justice harman sided with tranter and smee , and handed down a new injunction forbidding trading in reading stock until 13 june 1983 . following a reading board meeting on 12 may , waller , davies and briggs resigned their positions , and returned the disputed unissued shares to the club . the reading evening post saw this as the end of the episode , and jubilantly bannered the news across its front page on 13 may : " we 've won ! merger off " . the next day , reading played wrexham at home on the last day of the league season , needing to win to have any chance of avoiding relegation to the fourth division ; they won 1 – 0 , but still went down because of results elsewhere . the club held an extraordinary meeting of shareholders in july 1983 , at which a vote was taken to decide between maxwell 's takeover bid and a rival offer from smee , supported by tranter . the latter proposition narrowly won , and smee took over as chairman of reading , putting an end to the planned merger . aftermath maxwell reluctantly dropped his amalgamation plans , but retained his 19 % stake in reading . under smee 's chairmanship , the team won promotion back from the fourth division at the end of the 1983 – 84 season , and won the third division title two years later , taking it into the second division . smee remained at the helm until 1990 , when amid a financial crisis at the club he sold it to john madejski . meanwhile , maxwell made oxford united profitable , and oversaw two successive promotions for the club during the 1983 – 84 and 1984 – 85 seasons . the team played in the first division , then the top level of english football , for the first time during 1985 – 86 , and won its first major trophy , the league cup , in april 1986 . despite maxwell 's reservations about the manor ground , the club remained there throughout this time . maxwell ended his chairmanship of oxford in 1987 , when he took control of derby county and became that club 's chairman ; still owning oxford as well , he installed his son kevin as chairman there . in late 1987 he attempted to buy watford from elton john , prompting the football league to institute new regulations preventing the major shareholder of any member club from owning more than 2 % of another league team . while maxwell was able to keep his stakes in derby , oxford and reading under a grandfather clause , the new rules prevented him from adding watford to his football empire . he grudgingly accepted this . he retained his football club shares until his mysterious death in november 1991 , when he apparently fell off his yacht near the canary islands .