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I took a look today at the Kidderminster League that I played in until 2004 when I retired at 43.
Almost non of the sides from my era are still in existence and it’s also dropped from a total of seven divisions down to just four and each of those are with lesser numbers.
The Saturday League has gone completely which consisted of three divisions.
The Dudley and Cradley League I played in in the 80’s is now defunct......that was eight divisions during my time.
It seems that once kids pass 16 they no longer have the desire to play at this level.
How sad.
As I was driving down the Thorns Road last week I noticed there were no longer and goals up on the pitches where there were once three pitches.
No wonder our nation is becoming fatter.......very few have the desire to break sweat anymore.
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Where we once had open playing fields...we now have a few expensive astro pitches for kids,who can't afford them. There is nowhere left to throw your jumpers down to play a match. In winter we would play on the roads with the lamp posts as goals. The roads are jammed with parked cars now.Originally Posted by mickd1961
Changing times.
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It's the world we now live in mate. Media and celebrity fixated. Everyone would rather watch someone else do it and live it through all the sensational bull crap that surrounds it than do it themselves. OK the facilitys made available could be better but the truth is the culture has changed so much that there really is no pressure for things to change. Sad.
Wolverhampton Amateur league, once eleven divisions, all gone.
The Works league, which drew teams from all over the West Midlands and had facilitys at the time all most up to pro level, G.E Witton, Goodyear etc, all gone.
The Wolverhampton Sunday League still operates 4-5 divisions but the number of teams per division is quite small really.
It is a sad contrast to here in the US where the local game is booming for all ages. Parks are jammed with games every weekend.
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Park football (albeit Saturday pm not Sunday am) is thriving in rural Sus***. Very different to the football I played in the Sandwell & District in the 70's in that the vast majority of clubs are actually small town or village teams. There is massive rivalry between neighbours.
I am secretary for our local club founded in 1881 before many pro teams. We have 4 teams. Our 1st team are decent footballers, the 4th team aren't. There is also a midweek 6 a side league played on the astro pitch which lots of our players play in. The astro pitch means we can also train every week.
On Saturday mornings I coach the kid's team. We have over 300 players from 5 to 16. So organised junior football is much stronger and of a far better quality than back in my day. What is missing is the jumpers for goal post and playground football that me and me mates played every chance we got.
Last edited by 9goals2hattricks3pen; 26-01-2020 at 06:14 PM.
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You can’t replace those playing memories.
I wasn’t a quality Sunday player but I was a trier.
I can still remember all of my goals and the feeling as the ball left my foot or head.
I still see them and dream them in slow motion like I’m there and back in that moment.
There’s millions of people who watch football who’ve never had the feeling of pleasure that scoring a goal gives.
The last one I ever scored was in a charity type match when I was 48 and I picked the ball up in the centre circle and advanced 20 yards and unusually for me I let fly from 30 yards and it flew in the roof of the net.
A great note on which to call it a day but there was just one down side.
We were forced to play in Dingle “Doritos” shirts 🤐😩🤮🤮
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Division One Rejects In Tatty Orange Shirts.
Our school team colours Claret and Blue!
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yes ours as well 923,churchfields,gone now houses built there .
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Yep Churchfields 65-70. Rarely lost a game.
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My Dad and 3 of his brothers played Sat/Sun league for 20 years from mid 70s
So I grew up watching Sat/Sun league and there were some real quality players and it was also a great way to learn about real teamwork how a team of triers can beat a team of some gifted players.
Great times, I remember the smell of Deep Heat most weekends in the house and also taken to the pubs with the team after the games and being really looked after by everyone and taught some great lessons on life
Still see loads of the guys about in Smethwick when I am back there
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Don’t forget also that we didn’t get football overload on tv. The game is no longer is as exciting in my view because of that.
TV games often are boring as hell whereas there was a certain magic about games when just about the only live matches were the Cup final and the World Cup matches.
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