Coventry Choristers Football League

I went to All Saints 1949-55. I was on Northfield Road. Both Rayner and Wingate were in my class at King Henry VIII.

I played in the choristers league for St Marks and St Barnabas in the early to mid 60s. As others have noted cricket scores often happened. Our worst defeat was 35-0 and sadly I kept goal for the first half. My replacement in the second half fared little better. The remarkable thing was that our opponents from Nuneaton had half their team arrive late and they only had 5 players in the first half though we rarely had a full eleven in the team. My first ever game was at Gosford Green - the changing room at the bowling greens opposite still had gas lighting! We only lost that one 28-0 against All Saints I believe. Some of the pitches at The Memorial Park had a severe slope and were known as Heartbreak Hill. The leather balls got heavy in the wet and heading one was not at all pleasant. Some games were surprisingly far away. I remember games at Long Itchington (known as Short Scratchington of course), Stockton, Leamington, Chilvers Coton (Nuneaton) and St Nicholas Kenilworth when one usually had to shoo the cows off the 'pitch' - and you can guess what the cows left on the pitch. Such long distance away games usually involved the hire of a mini bus. The results were always phoned through to the Telegraph by the indefatigable Mr Gee, our organiser, to appear in 'The Pink', and it was a thrill to see them listed even though most games were a resounding loss. We switched to playing cricket in the summer with most games being at the Memorial Park. I assume that the league is now long gone!