Brian Adamson has been elected as the new Chairman of Corinthian-Casuals Football Club following a meeting of voting members in the clubhouse at King George’s Arena last night.

Adamson has served the club in a variety of roles over the past two decades. He first came to Casuals as reserve-team coach before becoming first-team manager between 2008 and 2011, in which time he led us to Surrey Senior Cup glory. In the years since he has worked as groundsman and been appointed Vice-Chairman. He has been an executive committee member for many years and is a Vice-President of the club.

Upon his election, Adamson paid tribute to his predecessor Brian Vandervilt and spoke of his desire to work closely with the executive committee, club members and supporters toward a stable future, highlighting the newly refurbished clubhouse as an example of the club’s potential to become a community hub.

Speaking after his election, he told us more about his hopes for the club.

“I remember being sat in the clubhouse all those years ago, when I was asked to be first-team manager, and I said it would be a great honour,” he said. “It was the same when Brian Vandervilt asked if I would consider being Vice-Chairman and I feel the same way now to be named Chairman. I find it a huge honour to be involved in this great club, in any role.

“We’re only custodians of Corinthian-Casuals and in our time passing through it, we want to make sure we get this football club on a sound foundation so that when it comes time to hand it over to someone else one day, it is in a position to be here for years to come.”

Meanwhile, Colin Stubbs – who had previously been Match Secretary – was elected as our new Club Secretary. David Moss, who chaired the meeting, will continue in his role as Treasurer.
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The meeting followed the announcement that Brian Vandervilt and Hanna Newton had stepped down from their roles as Chairman and Club Secretary last week.
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Peter Bateman, Bobby Armitt and Bernie Merron all reunited over a phone call to talk about old memories from their playing days at Corinthian-Casuals.

​It has been forty years since these old friends last saw each other altogether. All three players had a wonderful three-year spell (six years for Bobby Armitt) playing for the Casuals from 1981 until 1984.

Armitt, a native of Southeast London, was the original Corinthian of the squad having played there from the age of 16, three seasons prior to Billy Smith joining as manager. The contrast from being a club that was constantly floating around the bottom of the Isthmian League to a club competing for promotion every season was considerable.

Bobby remembers what it was like before Billy Smith became the manager: “It was a difficult period especially as I first got there, 16-year-old making it into the first team, that kind of tells you a few things. There are a few people there who weren’t good enough without being too disrespectful to them. There was no money to be made at the club so the players that were more interested in making money left the club.

“When I first met Billy, it was John Cracknell who phoned me up and he said, ‘We have got a new manager, and he wants to have a word with you’. John picked me up from Colliers Wood station and drove me down to training and Billy said, ‘I have a few things in mind, players I want to bring in and you and Dave Laurie are the only two guys I want to keep.’ He could see I had quite a lot of energy then, and he liked what he saw. We started pre-season from there and then it was the first game of the season, and we just had a kind of thing about us that was alright you would think we had played together for years.”

Bateman, who is the same age as Armitt joined the club when he was 19: “I got involved because of Paul Rulton who worked with Billy over in the flower market, who played with or under him at Hampton and Richmond. When Billy took the job at Casuals I went along with Paul and that was my introduction.”

Merron was already at the peak of his career by the time he signed up to play for the Casuals: “I knew Billy from when he used to play for Cray Wanderers, local team to where I used to live, I was 12 years old at the time when he joined the Wands, he was a forward and scored a lot of goals, so he was my hero. In later years when I was playing in the Isthmian league a few times and came up against him when he played for Tooting and Mitcham and got to know him. I did remember meeting him and reminded him that I used to see him play when I was 12 years old, and he told me to shut my mouth and keep quiet.”

Bernie was working around Vauxhall in 1981 when Billy Smith, then a cab driver saw him and pulled over for a chat: “I was playing for Bromley at the time and wasn’t particularly enjoying it, Billy asked me ‘I am managing the Casuals right now why don’t you join us down there?’ So, I went down for a training session, and it was a good bunch of lads, so I signed up and played the following weekend and got a hat-trick in my first game.”

Bernie’s goal tally for the Casuals is among the best post-war goalscoring records at the club, it  includes six hat-tricks and one season with 41 goals. The squad of lads brought together by the legendary manager Billy Smith rose the Chocolate and Pinks from their perpetual position at the foot of the Isthmian League. His backroom staff helped make the team better and feel like they belonged to something, Ron King was the assistant, who helped Andy Gray a lot, alongside Carlo Nastri who was the coach, as well as George Gates, the Physio.

Peter recalls that at the very beginning, it was “a bit of a shambles” with Bobby adding “Billy started with less than scratch. He didn’t know the system, and we didn’t even have a training ground up until a couple of days before we started the training.”

That squad from the first season with only three or four additions, including Andy Gray, Alan Pardew and Tony Finnigan stayed the same all the way through to the end of the 83-84 campaign.

Bernie recalls the team “moulding together quickly, we seemed to work well together as a team, and I think that was one of the best things about Billy he always seemed to pick the players to do the right jobs in the team. It wasn’t just about the team there was an atmosphere around the team at the time.”

Family members, friends and even the locals would come down to watch the lads, with the likes of Lenny Hamlin who was the kit man and Ronnie Rulton, Paul’s dad, also helping at every game.

As was the tradition, everyone had their jobs, Bobby, these days a paramedic, worked down at the flower market with four or five others, Bernie was a surveyor at Thames Water, and at the time Peter was an electrician before going on to be a cab driver.

They would finish 5th , 8th and 6th respectively in three seasons from 1981 all the way to 1984, they would go on to score 95 goals in the 1982-83 season and go all the way to the first round of the FA Cup and the fifth round of the FA Vase in 1983-84.

The 83-84 season is the most famous of the three, but it started off in pre-season with a friendly against Scottish amateur club Queens Park at the famous national stadium Hampden Park.

Peter remembers the train being late: “It was a rush, we had to rush to get off the coach to get into the ground instead of getting there leisurely.”

Bobby recollects the travel requirements being done the old-fashioned way “The train journey up there everyone was in the same carriage, it was kind of like a typical old style football train if you like. There was probably about 50 of us altogether.”

The team took the train back from Glasgow that same evening getting back to London in the early morning hours.

“It was a good all-round trip, again it wasn’t just the match it was the social aspect of it. Everyone came, even my mum and dad, my dad’s Scottish he comes from Glasgow, and he was proud to see his son play at Hampden Park.” A great moment for Bobby and his family.

Though the game finished 0-0 the three Old Corinthians still have great memories of that day out to Scotland, Bernie would get married to his wife two days later making this year his Ruby anniversary.
The FA Cup run started in the 1st qualifying round against Camberley Town which the Casuals won 2-0, followed by wins against Southall, 3-0, and Bognor Regis Town, 3-1.

Then came the big one against Merthyr Tydfil from South Wales in the 4th qualifying round.

Bernie spoke first “I vaguely recall it being a tough game because they had a few ex-pros playing for them at the time and they were in a higher league than us and they had quite a good reputation, I think. We gave them a runaround. They had quite a vocal crowd come to the game, and they weren’t very polite. But we certainly deserved to win.”

Peter then confirmed that the crowd had been quite boisterous, to say the least “It was a bit chaotic off the pitch.” Then Bobby remembered the actual game itself “We were under a bit of pressure for quite a lot of the game. We defended quite well that day, Colin Coldspring had a good game.”

The winner was scored by Alan Pardew and the team were into the first round of the FA Cup for the first time since 1965-66 when Casuals played Watford.

This time, the Amateurs drew Bristol City and the media attention went through the roof however the game itself wasn’t as eventful.

Peter summarised the day: “Pretty even game from what I can recall, I don’t remember them having too many chances and I don’t remember us having too many chances either. Slightly different from the replay, they gave us a good hiding then.”

The build-up to the game stuck in the minds of three Corinthian alumni, for Peter especially this was a completely different game: “It was the build-up; I don’t know about Bernie but I had never been on a cup run before. The fact that it was the Casuals and everything from that side of it, the media side of it, it just blew up.”

Bernie was prominent amongst the media attention as top scorer “I went up to London to do a BBC radio programme. They had some guys come down to my office as well to interview me. The day itself it’s just another game really, one you hope to win in the end. I remember Bristol City was quite a strong team, I don’t recall getting a lot of opportunities because they were quite well-drilled. It would be the word to describe them. Obviously, they were much stronger than us in the replay, but it’s a shame we couldn’t go much further.”

Corinthian-Casuals were in the Isthmian League Division Two at the time, five leagues below the Robins who were in the old Football League Division 4 at the time. The replay finished 4-0 to Bristol City.

“It elevated the club as well, it sorts of brought it back to people’s attention really, it was giving some kudos to the Corinthian-Casuals legends.” Bernie’s words describe the sentiment at the time as the club rose back into the memories of English football fans.

“It sorts of rejuvenated the club and I think if it hadn’t been for Billy Smith and the side that he got together and the cup run along with the three years, I am not sure the Casuals would be in any sort of position like it is now.” Peter hastily added, “Because it got interest back in from people who had gone away from it.”

The team had bonded over the years and this FA Cup tie was the culmination of all the effort put in by every person involved with the club at the time.

As Bobby put it: “It was the social side of it that made the actual team as well.”

Peter jumped in to add: “It was a team that was about more than just the players on the pitch. There was a great crowd of people, I wouldn’t say we were great mates, but we were all friends.”

All of this came about because of Billy Smith, the charismatic manager who built the great Casuals team of the early 1980’s.

Peter loved his experience at the Casuals and “It was all down to Billy because players came for Billy. Bernie is a great example, Bernie played a standard at Bromley much higher than us.”

It was that camaraderie that Billy Smith managed to build behind the scenes at Corinthian-Casuals. Bernie finished “When you play for the Casuals it’s not about the money it’s about the love of the game, that’s the greatest thing about the Club. I mean I have played for a few clubs over the years and it’s Corinthian-Casuals that’s always, in my memory, the best place that I have played football.”

At the end of 1984 the team completely disassembled, Corinthian-Casuals were forced relegated and Billy Smith left taking everyone with him to Dulwich Hamlet.
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Bernie, Bobby, and Peter laugh and smile reminiscing about old times whilst looking forward to reuniting with their pals, one of the greatest teams the club in the modern era has ever assembled.

Access to the ground is currently restricted due to major building/road works in the Tolworth Area.

Hook Rise South between Tolworth Roundabout and King George’s Field is CLOSED.

To access to the ground in Queen Mary Close, please use the following route:

Exit Tolworth Roundabout onto A240 Kingston Road towards Ewell.

At the set of traffic lights just past Tolworth Station (with the LIDL head office on your right) turn right onto JUBILEE WAY.

Stay on Jubilee Way leading into Cox Lane for about 1/2 mile until you see a Tesco Local on your right. Take that right hand turn into Oakcroft Road.

Follow Oakcroft Road to the end and turn right into Hook Rise South, Queen Mary Close is the fourth turning on the right.

See you there!

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