Four Teams to None; How Did We Manage That?
31 Dec 2007

FOUR TEAMS TO NONE – HOW DID WE MANAGE THAT?
This is a question that many people from inside and outside the club have asked. There is no single reason but a combination of factors. The main ones can however be summarised as problems maintaining the ground, players not paying and a total disregard in too many areas of ‘the club’ ethos.

When Colinthians moved to the Field Lane ground in 1996 they rented one pitch from an orgainisation known as the Old Moseleians Association. When the Old Moseleians (‘Old Mos’) Rugby club folded Colinthians moved in all four teams. Old Mos continued to hold the lease although the Old Mos committee now consisted entirely of Colinthians members. Although Colinthians now effectively controlled the ground, Old Mos and Colinthians were kept separate for financial reasons.

It was anticipated that Colinthians members would respond to the club having a ‘home’ and ‘muck in’ with jobs around the ground and fundraising. With a few exceptions this simply never happened. Back in 2004 it was apparent that the running of the ground as well as footballing matters had become too much for a dwindling number of volunteers.

It was suggested that someone else should take over the lease of the ground from Old Mos. Colinthians would simply rent the pitches as before but from a new landlord who would look after the running of the ground over which Colinthians would no longer have control.

A new landlord (i.e. leaseholder) was found who indicated that he would be letting one of the two main pitches to another Saturday club who competed in the Coventry Alliance.

Alternative affordable facilities were not good and without anyone to manage the 4th team anyway Colinthians withdrew their fourth team for the 2004/05 season.

The irony is that that the Coventry Alliance club disbanded and never played at Field Lane so in the end there would still have been room at the ground for a 4th team anyway.

The club continued with three teams for the next three seasons. During this time the landlord changed twice more. In the early stages there was some improvement to the interior of the clubhouse and the kitchen. Players expressed the opinion however that they would have preferred for the showers to be working properly. Several seized on this as an excuse to withhold payment of membership fees and match subs. Several others only paid up grudgingly.

Although news showers were eventually installed (whereupon payments of player’s dues showed no improvement), the playing surface, particularly the main pitch had significantly deteriorated and the landlord ceased to open the bar. Colinthians were starting to think about finding better facilities and Hampton Juniors (a club with several youth sides) were interested in taking over the lease. Word reached Colinthians that if Hampton took over, they would not want Saturday afternoon football at the ground. Colinthians stepped up their search for other options but their slack fee collection proved to be their undoing.

Digressing from the ground issue it is necessary to consider why Colinthians were so short of funds. An unacceptable situation had arisen over the past few seasons. Each year the club would set membership fees and match subs at a level sufficient to cover their outgoings. There was however little leeway for non-payment and fees were therefore set on the basis that non-payers would not be selected.

More radical proposals put forward at AGMs to deal with the non-payment issue were not accepted. Most of the time, the club was aware of who the offenders were. Some were one off lapses of memory but there were several instances of players bringing along mates who conveniently had no money and some players went several weeks without paying but the managers continued to pick them!

The financial records submitted by some team managers were either late or non-existent. This could be perceived as not wanting others in the club to know who had played in case (a) they were needed to move up to a higher team or (b) the committee should discover that individuals were not paying.

The club ethos had largely disappeared. Players regarded the team they had played a few games for as ‘their’ team and were unwilling (and in some cases refused) to progress upwards or drop down as form and availability required.

Players would offer to bring mates along to ‘improve’ a particular team, displacing paid up regulars but not paying themselves. Players dropped down would not be selected by the team below invariably leading to players being lost to the club. (We also nearly lost a kit through doing this.) It was not unknown for a manager not to know who one of his players actually was!

Everyone wants to win trophies and rightly so but at amateur level there is sometimes a choice between short term success and the long term future of the club. Do the lads want to win a few ‘pots’ and retire or move on or do they want the club to be there for future generations? A selfish attitude had become very deeply ingrained in Colinthians.

Back to the ground problems; A few enquiries revealed that decent alternative facilities would cost in the region of £1500 per team per annum. Worse still, some suitable grounds wanted the whole lot up front. At Field Lane Colinthians’ rent was due at the end of September, January and April. At the time (summer 2007) Colinthians didn’t have enough money to pay their 20007/08 league fees, so many players had ‘got away with it’. Clearly the club could not rent three pitches of a good standard with £4,500 which it didn’t have.

The only realistic option was to run just one side. The first team had won the Birmingham County FA Junior Cup in 2006/07 and it was anticipated that they would build on this success. A possible move 'next door'to the much more convivial 'Glades' was lost. A Midland Combination side had the money, we didn’t.

The offer of a £500 private donation kept hope alive and the club had a lengthy dialogue with Land Rover over using their ground. The Birmingham & District AFA had concerns (rightly so) that the changing facilities were not up to Premier Division standard.

The solution appeared in the form of a vacancy at the Civil Service ground sports ground. Funded by the donation, the club paid the £385 membership fee. Rental of £300 would be due at the end of September and the same amount again later in the season. Birmingham Exiles Rugby Club kindly helped Colinthians out by letting the club use their pitches for pre-season training and things were looking up although training numbers were low.

A few new players came along to training, some returned from the previous season, others promised to turn up but alarmingly several key players from the Junior Cup winning team showed no interest and were largely uncontactable. Suddenly help was at hand - a new manager expressed an interest in joining and would bring with him his own ‘back room’ team and three or four decent players of Premier standard or above. The previous manager willingly stepped aside but what of his successor? Most of us never saw him!

With the potential new manager never once seen at training, alarm bells started ringing when the new players he had supposedly sent to a pre-season friendly never turned up. The side took a 2-6 hammering and disaffection spread even further.

The day before the club was due to hold it’s AGM the proposed new manager sent the Chairman an e-mail saying he wasn’t coming after all. Six or seven people turned up for the AGM. It was never held. Most of those present were not potential premier division players, two more had defected. If the club carried, on how long would it be before regular heavy defeats resulted in players giving up and the club being unable to field a side? Pulling out of the league after a few games would be unfair on the other clubs. We had to pull out before the league season started; A reluctant but almost unavoidable decision. Forty-three years of history, enjoyment for hundreds of players, a once thriving club who the previous season had won a prestigious trophy, to be no more. The long drive home seemed even longer.

So, if you have read this far, with the benefit of hindsight what should the club have done? Should we have kept the lease under Old Moseleians? Should we have kicked out the non-payers? Should the club have ever taken on such a big commitment as it’s own ground? Did we simply choose a ground in the wrong area; in too close proximity to three already well established clubs well served by local people and miles from most of our own committee who largely were the only ones who did anything? Eventually it all came down to the willingness of individual members to pay their dues and ‘do their bit’. In the end there simply weren’t enough people prepared to do either.

From Humble Beginnings to County Cup Winners
27 Aug 2007

Founded back in 1964, the club has in recent seasons run as many as four open age teams in the Birmingham & District AFA on Saturday afternoons. Last season (2006/07) the first team were in the Premier Division, seconds in division three and thirds in division six.

The name Colinthians derives from Colmers Farm School. It was from the School, situated in Rednal that the club originated back in 1964 with a side of Staff and ex-pupils.

Since their first ever game on Cofton park the club progressed significantly, joining the Kings Norton league and progressing via the North Warwickshire league to the Birmingham & District AFA in 1975/76.

During the 1980s the club also ran a side in the Midland Combination sharing Bromsgrove Rovers ground. The excursion into Midland Combination football ended when Rovers decided to run a reserve team again leaving Cols without a ground of the required standard but much wiser for their enjoyable experience.

In addition to Cofton Park and Bromsgrove Rovers the clubs other former homes include pitches at Harris Brush, Northfield Park, Holly Lane, Erdington, Tythe Barn Lane, Shirley and Arden Hall, Castle Bromwich and lastly Field Lane, Solihull.

In 1996 in addition to Arden Hall, the club also began to use a pitch at Field Lane, sharing facilities with Old Moseleians Rugby Club. The subsequent demise of the Rugby club shortly afterwards meant that all four Colinthians sides were able to use the same site on two pitches.

Up to 2006/07 Colinthians were still to be found on Saturday afternoons at Field Lane where they shared the facilities with Sunday sides Blackwood, Hampton Juniors and Solihull Ladies.

Over the years Colinthians have won a number of honours, the most notable being the Birmingham & District AFA Premier Division in 1986/87 and the Birmingham County FA Saturday Junior Cup in 2006/07 (see photos elsewhere on this site).

Famous Colinthians
27 Aug 2007

A number of Colinthians players have progressed to greater things including currently Zat Knight (recently signed by aston Villa from and who won two England caps in 2005) and the now retired Gerry Peyton (ex Northern Ireland goalkeeper) and O'Neill Donaldson (ex-Sheffield Wednesday). In his post professional days former 1968 West Bromwich Albion FA Cup winning keeper John Osbourne was first team Manager at Colinthians. Also on the management side Steve Vaughan who successfully managed Cols' last championship winning side (division one) in 1998/99, subsequently took charge of the Academy at Southampton FC.