I am Craig. I have now hit the ripe old age of 35 and still enjoy the odd game of football!
My first competitive game of football was when I was in the fourth year (ages 8-9) of primary school. The team was run by the head master (Mr Jones – the only male member of the staff). All I remember is that I was sub, coming on for Robert Watson and we lost. I cant remember any more of the games I played in that year but I do know that in the following year we were unbeaten. I captained the team and played in centre defence. We won all our games except for one where we drew 0-0 against Yarnfield.
There was little football played at middle school which I moved to in the following year. However I got ‘picked up’ to play for Stone Gems, managed by Mr Haswell, in the Newcastle lads an’dads league. We were the second best team in the league, but just could not ‘touch’ the Newcastle team. Hence we finished second in the league. We lost in the early rounds of the cup to Newcastle and then some how lost to Audley Aces (half of our team was missing) in the subsidiary cup so no silverware. Let me see if I can remember the original team. Bobby Thompson in goal. Paul Haswell, Michael Rice, Brent Wheat, Kevin Day and me in defence. Mark Dickman, Steve Taylor, Robert Banks, (?) West, Graham (Jock) Simmin midfield and Paul Bardsley and Steve Wright up front. Our tactics were defend the best we could and then boot the ball up front to Paul and Steve who were lightening and clinical!
From there-on-in my footballing career went sort of downhill. The next year we went up an age group, Mr Atkinson took over as manager and got hammered most weeks. It would have been much worse if we hadn’t got the excellent goalkeeper Steve Randall between the sticks. The year after wasn’t much better as we moved to a league in Stafford to allow Mr Atkinson’s son (who says nepotism doesn’t live) to continue to play. I got moved to full back and to be honest I struggled, and lost a lot of confidence.
It was now high school and joined Mr Wheat’s team that contained a handful of the original Stone Gems. Now playing in the Blurton Lads an Dads league, even though most of the players were a year younger than the older teams we did quite well. Within the Blurton league there was a sub-competition between the three teams from the Stone area. We won that quite comfortably. Looking for stiffer competition we moved back to the Newcastle league for the final season of Lads an’ Dads.
So after out growing lads an’ dads I had a bit of a baron patch with football. There would be the odd school game, but I spent most of the time on the bench (and we had a very poor team) and four ‘inter-house’ matches. Come the sixth form there wasn’t even the school matches. I tried my hand at playing adult football in the city traders league for the Plume of Feathers (remember that name). I must have played about ten games but after a really heavy defeat I didn’t get the call to play again!
But saying all this, within this time, my biggest achievement in terms of football occurred. The Boys Brigade company (2nd Barlaston) that I was a member won the North Staff’s U18’s cup. This was a mammoth achievement as we beat the 4th Stoke company in the final. They had won the cup for how many seasons previous and had a much older team. We played with the wind in the first half andtook a 2-0 lead. In the second half, they absolutely battered us but we managed to only concede two goals taking it to extra time. Then came the magic moment. I substituted Chris Jones for Matt Khan (I managed the team) and after only a few minutes Matt somehow won us a penalty. I cant remember who scored it but we did. It was the turning point. We went on to secure a fourth goal to give a England/W.Germany-esk 4-2 extra time cup victory. The next year….we did a Coventry and lost in the first round!
My footballing ‘career’ much improved when I left for university. I went for university try-outs just to see what it was all about. Not suprisingly I didnt make it through, but I did meet Mark Ollard who was setting up a ‘diggs’ team. So I joined “S.S.&C.” FC (or to give it its full name, Snog, Shag and Chunder FC). Our first game started with a defeat to WGAESB Utd FC (We’ve Got An En-Suite Bathroom FC) who would come our arch-Jack Martin-rivals. Fora first season it was not bad. We made it through the league stage of the Sunday competition to the plate competition but lost to the said WHAESB Utd. Record – Played 10; Won 5, Lost 5.
In the second season we took thinks a lot more seriously. A Wednesday league was established, to provide weekly matches, which we joined and did fairly well. (This time WHAESB Utd (WGAESB becoming We Had An En-Suite Bathroom) defeated us in the Wednesday league cup semi-final). We again got through to the plate competition on Sundays and made it all the way to the final thanks to winning goals from me in both the quarter and semi- finals. We lost, to the Union side Charles-Charlie-Charles, 3-1. In someone’s attic there is a video of the whole game. If I remember correctly, watching the video, we made one good footballing move all game. Record – Played 27; Won 11 Drew 6 Lost 10
Our last season followed a similar pattern. For a while we were in contention for the Wednesday league but fell away in the latter part of the season. We made the semi-final of the Wednesday league cup, absolutely out-playing RMT FC (Release Me Trevor FC) but ended up drawing, 1-1. Yours truely missed the 7th penalty in the shoot out. Well, actually saved rather than missed. After making sure we got through to the plate competition rather than the much more competitive cup competition we easily made it to the semi-finals. But it then things started not to quite go to plan. In the semi-final we were down and struggling until I came up with an equalising goal. In the end we did win 5-2 (against The Rise and Fall of the Velvet Underpants). We probably went in to the final thinking that the plate was ours. Big mistake. We again played poorly. 0-0 after 90 minutes. Then diaster. A pot shot from 30 yards beats Marshall in goal 5 minutes into extra time and we are 1-0 down. Luckily I got to redeem my penalty miss by coming up with the equaliser. I could say that it was a bullet header from a Smythe free-kick, but to be honest I totally miss connected and the opposition keeper making a complete hash of it letting it slip under his body. I wasn’t going to complain. In extra time I even went on to win us a penalty, but manager Ollard had it saved. In the very last minute Marshall made the best ever reflex save I have ever seen to ensure we at least got to penalties. Obviously I was down at number 11 to take one. Sutcliffe, Smythe, Smith and Ridd-Jones all converted and Marshall made two great saves to give us victory. Just. For the record the team was; Lee Marshall, Steve Kilvington, Paul Shackleton, Ian Humber, Alex Smythe, Stuart Ridd-Jones, Sam Pater, Gavin Edmunds, Me, Tim Sutcliffe, Mark Ollard with subs Justin Smith and Steve Rogerson. Record- Played 28; Won 15, Drew 5, Lost 6.
Over the three years I played in 64 of the 65 matches and scored 18 goals.
So my university days were over and I was back home. What to do? John Keeling was the club secretary of The Plume of Feathers (I told you to remember the name). So I went along to pre-season training. It took me about half a season to establish a place in the team (even though I was better than a lot of the players – my potential only tends to shine in matches and I have to play to show it).
I can’t say that there were any particular highlights for playing for The Plume of Feathers (later The Duke of York). We got to a couple of league cup finals but lost both. In 1999 I moved down to Sutton Coldfield, but continued to travel back each Sunday to play because even though the whole team changed around me there was always a great team spirit. But then in my 10th and what was going to be my last full season I was rewarded with my first piece of silverware with the team. We only won 3 league games but the performance of the season saw us thrash The George and Dragon 4-0 and set up a final against Wethervane. It was probably the worst ever game. 0-0 after extra time. I did end up playing a further season in 2006-07 as the team struggled for players and even a couple of games in 2007-08.
Lets rewind a few years. As I said I moved down to Sutton Coldfield in 1999. I never dreamt that I would start playing football on a Saturday. Originally I only went down to Parkfield in 2002 to take advantage of pre-season training as I couldn’t get up to The Duke of York. Then helping out in a couple of the pre-season friendlies for the 2nd team became playing the season. Although I didn’t even make the 14 man squad for the first league game, by October I was a regular as the centre-back stalwart. Then by Christmas I got my call up to the 1st team. The 1st team ended the season with only one defeat after Christmas and got promotion back up to division one.
The summer of 2003 saw my first serious injury. I had previously struggled with bad knees, but that was just too much sport. This was something more damaging. I twisted my ankle. What might of been not so bad was made worse by trying to play on for the first three months of the season. In the end I had to miss the most of January and February. Eventually I did recover although it would come back to haunt me. I was awarded the 1st team player of the season for 2004-05 but in the following season my ankle problem came back with a vengeance. In the close season I went to the doctor to get a medical opinion. In true NHS style it took a whole year before I got put under the knife. Therefore in the meantime I got one more full season. Although it was very much a struggle (especially on a Sunday) somehow I managed to be awarded player of the season again for the 1st team.
So my football career, spanning more than 25 seasons, can be summarised by a lot of defeats and just 3 cup final victories. One after extra-time and two on penalties. However, to be honest I have been very lucky. Even though my ankle injury has got the better of my footballing career, previous to 2007-08 all told I probably only missed the equivalent of third of a season through injury.
PS Well done if you are still reading!! 
