Coventry Choristers Football League

Anyone out there have any memories of this league from the mid to late 60's?

I used to have connections with St Christopher's Church on Allesley Park and the church choir had a team in the league. The vicar, Rev MacPherson, was a Southampton supporter so their shirts had red and white vertical stripes. They were looking for a team nickname and I came up with 'The Signals' as they matched a well-known striped toothpaste at the time. I think that the team was managed by Nigel Clift for a while.

You're right charabanc, the team was captained by his son Angus in the first two years of its formation and was managed by Brian Quigley.

I believe that everyone used to know Angus as 'Eggie'. He had an older sister Jane and a younger brother Andrew. Their mum used to teach part-time at Allesley Hall Primary. They later moved to Atherstone and then (I think) back to the Reverend Mac's homeland of Scotland.

Right again charabanc. Can you recall an invitation match in Bristol??

I don't think that I was around at that stage.

I was involved with this league for a few seasons when I was at school. We didn't play football at KHVIII and I had no interest in rugby at all, so I avoided all school sporting activities so that I could play football and support the City. Living in Binley, when I was 13 I found out that they were starting a team at St Bartholomews to play in the Coventry Choristers League. I have to say that there were precious few choristers in our team, and few even attended the church, save for training in the church hall. But it was about the only thing at St Barts that didn't involve the elderly. The new vicar bought the team a green strip and it was coached by a local chap called Bob Bache. As I recall, the age group was under-16s in that league. We became one of the three top teams in the league, along with St Catherines and St Annes. Others included St Michaels (Stoke), St Christophers, Charterhouse, Crist the King, St Mark & Barnabas, and St Nicholas who were in Kenilworth. Many games were played on pitches of very dubious quality, including Gosford Park. It was not very competitive in truth, with many dreadfully one-sided matches. I remember playing the same team two weeks running and winning 31-0 and 22-0. At one point our manager left and wanted to wind up the club as there was no adult left to run it. I agreed to run it to the end of the season and so got involved with the league itself, which seemed to be run by just one man. He was named Jeff Farnell and lived in Earlsdon Avenue North. He appeared never to attend games in any capacity and seemed to operate it as a paper exercise. When our players turned 16 we decided to keep them together and so left the Choristers League to join the much more competitive and well-run Coventry Youth League, run by Eric Hagard and his committee, of which I later became a member. But after a couple of seasons, still as St Bartholomews, the players decided we wanted to join the Sunday League. Players by then had Saturday commitments and we joined the general trend of teams moving to playing on Sundays. This, naturally, meant the parting of the ways with St Barts who would not sanction such a move. We changed our name and the club continued to exist for about 20 years more. My oldest friend is a team-mate from St Barts in 1967, who still lives in the area and I still meet.

I'm getting to like this site! I played for St Catherine's from 66-7 to 68-9. Like MisterD-Di, I went to KHVIII, so this was the only opportunity at the time for competitive football. We won the cup in my first year, beating St Mary's, Nuneaton 1-0 in the final and were runners-up in the league to them. Those two teams were streets ahead that season. Ironically, it was the Rev and Mrs Mac who had started St Catherine's before they moved to Allesley and set up St Christopher's. Angus played a few games for us in my first season before becoming a St Christopher's regular. Without the Macs, we had little adult support, and many of our better players were then too old. However, our captain, my friend Stewart Whitehead, took over the management and we managed to replace the players that had left. This neccessitated a number of visits to Mr Farnell's house to hand in signing on forms, usually on the Friday before a Saturday match. He took a dim view of this, but always accepted them. I took over the captaincy for my third season and Stewart continued to manage. Those two seasons seem to be confused in my mind, but I know we continued to be one of the top teams and won the league and cup at least once more. My medals are in my garage somewhere - I should dig them out. I think St Christopher's were also-rans in their first season, but beat us in the cup final in 68-9. St Michael's, including my recently deceased cousin Martin Jones, came good that season too under the management of my Uncle Tom! St Nicholas had been consistently awful, but even they managed a couple of decent results in that year too. I still have a cutting from "The Pink" noting our 37-0 league win over St Nicholas, a then record. When I started, seven of the 11 had to be choristers or altar servers, but that was then reduced to five. I tried out for the choir (the things we'll do for our sport!) but Mrs Mac told me I would be better as an altar server! I don't think there was ever more than eight teams in the league in my time and I think St Mary's and All Saints were the only teams to share a strip colour - green - so there were few away strips. I think St Bart's probably replaced St Mary's which would account for the green. We played in all white, which was convenient, but led to a range of types of shirt. Around that time a couple of under 18 and under 19 leagues cropped up, which most of us graduated to and I guess that contributed to the end of the Choristers' League - that and the lack of choristers!

I played in this league from about 1955 on for Whitley and Willenhall and later for St Anne's. My poor memory doesn't allow me to remember why I moved but the still have somewhere medals for winning the league and also pictures of the League team that played the Boys Brigade for the Luckman Trophy (?) at the old Butts Stadium. I played for the league and was given a book "how to play football" with an inscription. I also posted on the Facebook Willenhall site a blurred pic from the old Pink Newspaper of the Whitley and Willenhall team when we went through a season scoring 207 goals and letting in 2!! As I was the goalkeeper I think I probably left (or was dropped) because of the 2 goals!!!

Keepa, I played in the Choristers League for a short time in the early 50's. I played for St. Albans which if I remember correctly is in Mercer Ave. I'm fairly sure that after I joined the Royal Navy in 1958 my younger brother played I believe for St. Chads, can't remember where that church was.

I played in the choir league for All Saints in Far Gosford St from 1954 to 1957. The team was run by Eric Jordan who was the organist and choirmaster and a few names I can recall from then are Geoff Lines, John Driscoll, Alan Hughes, Roger Townroe, Terry Bayliss, John Comasky, Alan Clews, Bernard Ellery, and the Price brothers, one of whom became a well known tv and stage actor, I think his name was Brendan. My personal claim to fame (or would it be notoriety) was for once letting in thirteen goals against St Albans.

Still have the book. We played at the Butts, in the days when the pitch was probably the best in Coventry. I'll have a look to see if I still have the team pic.

I have fond memories of the Choristers league and played for All Saints, Gosford Street (a church that would later be demolished to make room for a road). I'm now 70 but can still recall the one sided matches and the sloping, uneven pitches. Being vice-captain one year and captain the next had a marvellous perk - it meant a trip to Wembley with Eric Jordan, our dedicated choirmaster, to see an FA Cup Final. Eric was one of those genuinely selfless men who was always smiling whether All Saints won or lost. He used to consider the League's annual award for "The Most Sporting Team" by far the best trophy a choristers' side could win. Every year we had a slap up dinner at the Gas Showroom restaurant. We felt very important, especially the year we reached a cup final played at the Butts Stadium and won it 6-3 (I think that was the score). I've still got a faded cutting from the Pink Un which shows me being presented with the shield by a reverend gentleman. I played for All Saints from around 1956 when I was eleven until 1960/61 when I was no longer eligible to play because of my age. Names I can remember from our team are Andrew Wingate, the vicar's son; Clive Rayner; brothers Dave and Tony Anderson who lived on the London Road; and Tony Wiltshire who attended All Saints C of E school at the same time as me. I should be able to recall all the team but memory fades. My apologies to those players I've forgotten. By the way, I also rode my cow-horned handle-barred bike for the Folly Lane Flyers in the Coventry Cycle Speedway League. Memories of this, anyone?

I was in the same form at KHVIII as Brendan Price - he lived in Humber Road, I think He played alongside Patrick Mower in the TV series "Target" Courtesy: Getty Images

My father, William Henry Whitehead jnr, born 1907 (with twin sister Ivy) at Carmelite Rd is the 'goalie' in this Ryton Star Team of 1928. My parents married at Stoke St Michael's in May 1931.