Back Row left to right
Derek Greene, Roger Sutton, Dave Burgess, John Crampton
Front Row left to right
Frank Hughes, Bob Johnson, John Limbourne, Keith Phipps
On Tuesday 11th November, BWFC Over 75 team travelled to Bishops Cleeve in Gloucestershire to compete in the inaugural WFA Over 75 National Cup Finals Day.
They were accompanied by very vocal support (namely Malcolm Thorp) 😄. Thanks Malc!! It was a very windy and sometimes rainy day that made for difficult conditions for players and supporter alike.
In the run up to Finals Day, the competition was in danger of being cancelled because of a lack of players from a number of sides meeting the age criterion, that of being Over 75 on the day of the Finals, so it was decided by the WFA that clubs would be allowed to borrow players from other teams. This resulted in some teams fielding something along the lines of regional representative teams.
To our credit we did not go down that route and fielded a side completely made up of players registered with this club.
The format of the day was 2 Leagues of four teams with each team playing 3 x 20-minute league matches, with the two top teams playing a semi-final and then potentially progressing to the final (total minutes for the two finalists was one hundred minutes of football)
BWFC 2 Plymouth 2
Our first match was against a team that we had never met before, and it proved to be a difficult opening match. Plymouth took the lead early on in the game after some slack marking let in their best player to score a well taken goal.
Birmingham didn’t panic and had begun to settle down when John Limbourne scored the equaliser. He squeezed a forward pass into Dave Burgess who distracted the Plymouth goalkeeper by letting the ball run low into the corner of the net.
After Plymouth had taken the lead once again it was left to Derek Greene to level the scores with a well taken goal to earn Birmingham a valuable point.
BWFC 1 Abbeymead 0
An even match against one of the ” representative sides “. Birmingham showed that they were not out of place against some particularly talented players and probably had the edge over their opponents throughout. A cross field ball was on its way to John Limbourne not far from Abbeymeads goal, when in an instant, Bob ” Bites Your Legs ” Johnson appeared from nowhere, took the ball in his stride and slammed the ball past the Abbeymead keeper to win the match for Birmingham. What a goal!! It was the highlight of a great afternoon for the team’s Octogenrian defender. Well done Bob 👍👏
BWFC 0 Old Corinthians 0
A tough game against a very physical team. Birmingham matched them physically but could not make the breakthrough their general play deserved, so the match ended in a disappointing draw. However, this meant Birmingham finished second behind Corinthians representative side in the league and went on to meet Barnet who topped the other league.
Semi Final: BWFC 0 Barnet 0
Again, this was a very hard-fought match against a very well organised club side. The two keepers were kept very busy throughout the game. Good efforts from Birmingham’s Derek Greene, Roger Sutton and John Limbourne came close to opening the scoring. At the other end there were a few heart stopping moments for Birmingham but good goalkeeping by Keith and excellent defending from the pairing of Frank Hughes and John Crampton at the back and Dave Burgess in midfield ensured the game ended 0 – 0. This meant that the match would be decided on penalties to decide who went through to meet Exeter Strollers in the Final.
Birmingham came out on top 2 – 1 by virtue of Barnet having two of their penalties saved by the ever-dependable Keith (The Cat) Phipps. Derek Greene and Roger Sutton converted Birmingham’s penalties in their usual calm assured manner to cement the Whites place in the final.
Final: BWFC 2 Exeter Strollers 0
The Final was possibly the best performance of the day by the team in White. However, although Birmingham had the majority of the play the Exeter goalkeeper, who had previously represented England Over 70’s, made some good saves from the Birmingham forwards to prevent his side going behind.
Exeter did have some chances of their own, but again Keith and the lads kept them out.
After almost one hundred minutes of football, Birmingham’s superior fitness levels and team spirit resulted in two excellent goals from Derek Greene and Roger Sutton to claim victory and the title of WFA Over 75 National Cup Winners 2025.
Many thanks go out to Tom, Roy and their Over 70’s Whites team who supported us in our preparation for this competition by playing practice friendlies against us and also Simon and Brendan for refereeing these sessions.
