The attached picture is the Birmingham Press football team of around 1955. We played the Birmingham Printers each Good Friday Morning at the Kynoch Ground, Witton. The timing was because, in those days, there were no papers on Good Friday, a holy day. This meant that those who worked on a morning paper (i.e the old Birmingham Gazette or the Birmingham Post) had Maundy Thursday off, thereby making that evening ideal for the Poor Man's Press Ball, a snipe at the actual Press Ball, which was a posh affair on New Years Eve that only the hierarchy could afford.
Consequently we arrived at the Kynoch ground, by at least two bus rides, for our big annual 'cup final' having been drinking and dancing into the wee small hours and, here also having gone home by all night bus. (None of us could afford a car).
I don't think the Press (mostly drawn from the Gazette and Despatch staff) ever won, which was not surprising since our preparation had not been ideal) but it was a great occasion for us to play at a 'proper' sports ground, with dressing rooms, showers, marked-out pitch, corner flags, goal nets and a referee dressed like a referee and with a whistle to blow. Not only that but there was a crowd of supporters of both teams because it was a Bank Holiday so the atmosphere was great if sometimes ribald!.
Like many of my ilk I played local football for years from the end of the war into the 1960s (City Council JOC League, Festival League, Coronation League) so I'm wondering if anyone reading this recognise themselves from 50/60 years ago? Or have their own tales to tell, not forgetting when the Birmingham Works AFA was the biggest league in the world (yes, that's right, it was!) and firms had terrific sports grounds, most of which are now housing or commercial estates. sad, eh?
Consequently we arrived at the Kynoch ground, by at least two bus rides, for our big annual 'cup final' having been drinking and dancing into the wee small hours and, here also having gone home by all night bus. (None of us could afford a car).
I don't think the Press (mostly drawn from the Gazette and Despatch staff) ever won, which was not surprising since our preparation had not been ideal) but it was a great occasion for us to play at a 'proper' sports ground, with dressing rooms, showers, marked-out pitch, corner flags, goal nets and a referee dressed like a referee and with a whistle to blow. Not only that but there was a crowd of supporters of both teams because it was a Bank Holiday so the atmosphere was great if sometimes ribald!.
Like many of my ilk I played local football for years from the end of the war into the 1960s (City Council JOC League, Festival League, Coronation League) so I'm wondering if anyone reading this recognise themselves from 50/60 years ago? Or have their own tales to tell, not forgetting when the Birmingham Works AFA was the biggest league in the world (yes, that's right, it was!) and firms had terrific sports grounds, most of which are now housing or commercial estates. sad, eh?
