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Crown Sports began life in the Kidderminster & District Sunday League in 1977.After playing with and against each other for several years locally, a small group began to turn out regularly for friendly games involving some of the towns firms and pubs.Most of these affairs tended to end up in a pub or club somewhere(behind locked doors in those days)and firm and lasting friendships were founded.At the tail end of 1976 it was suggested that instead of playing for various sides in the area,why not get together and all play for the same Sunday morning team.
Jack and Rene' Staight (both sadly now passed away)gave us help, money,support and more importantly a pub to run from.The Crown Inn at Hoobrook served M&B beers in those days and Jack's Springfield bitter and cheese and onion cobs were the stuff of legends.
There followed several years of mixed success with a few cups and trophies along the way, including probably the best under 21 side in the County in the early 80s which swept all before it .
The 1990s saw the Team gradually decline, with many of the original members no longer playing and the "social element" sadly lacking. It was around this time (1991 I think)that we discovered the Umbro Vets national competition and duly entered our team of overweight,balding and certainly unfit veterans. After 8 years of travelling all over the country to compete against other sides (making many friends and one or two enemies on the way) we became one of the founder teams of the Midlands Veterans Friendly Assocation and have seen this slowly grow to a healthy group of 12 clubs who in the main all share the same principles regarding the way the game is played.
We were able to field a side at the end of 2001/2 season in which not only was every player over 40, but most importantly EVERY player had turned out for a Crown FC team in the past 3 decades. The over 50s side was formed 4 years ago and whilst we struggled initially with players (over 45s being the problem)this section has grown and grown and we will probably end up forming an over 60s side. We first organised a trip abroad way back in 1979 when we travelled to Belgium and France. This was repeated over the next couple of seasons until the pressures of family life meant our trips being confined to a dash down the M1 to London or the exotic joys of a journey to the sugar beet factory in Telford. This year we travelled to Madrid and managed to include 5 of the original side from our Belgium journey in the 70s. More on this trip on other pages on the site.
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