Corinthian-Casuals F.C.

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Corinthian-Casuals Football Club is a football club based in Tolworth in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, England. Affiliated to the London Football Association, they are currently members of the Template:English football updater and play at King George's Field.

History

The club was established in 1939 as a merger of amateur clubs Corinthian (founded in 1882) and Casuals (1883). The new club played a single match before football was suspended due to World War II.<ref name=PP/> After the war the club took Casuals' place in the Isthmian League.<ref name=FCHD>Template:Fchd</ref> In 1953–54 they won the Surrey Senior Cup, beating Epsom 2–0 in the final.<ref name=H>Club History Corinthian-Casuals F.C.</ref> Two seasons later they reached the final of the FA Amateur Cup; after a 1–1 draw against Bishop Auckland at Wembley Stadium, the club lost the replay at Ayresome Park 4–1.<ref name=FCHD/> They reached the semi-finals of the competition the following season, losing 4–2 to Wycombe Wanderers.<ref name=FCHD/> In 1965–66 the club reached the first round of the FA Cup for the first time, losing 5–1 at home to Third Division Watford.<ref name=FCHD/>

The late 1960s and early 1970s saw Corinthian-Casuals struggling in the league, finishing bottom in 1968–69 and then for four consecutive seasons between 1970–71 and 1973–74, after which the club were relegated to Division Two, which had been created in 1973.<ref name=FCHD/> The division was renamed Division One in 1977, and the club were relegated again (to the renamed Division Two) at the end of the 1977–78 season. In 1983–84 they reached the first round of the FA Cup for the second time, drawing 0–0 with Fourth Division Bristol City and losing the replay 4–0.<ref name=FCHD/> At the end of the season the club were excluded from the Isthmian League after new groundsharing rules were introduced,<ref name=H/> resulting in a drop into the Premier Division of the Spartan League.<ref name=FCHD/> Their first season in the league saw them relegated to the Senior Division, but they went on to win the division at the first attempt, the club's first ever league title, to earn an immediate return to the Premier Division.<ref name=FCHD/>

In 1988–89 Corinthian-Casuals toured Brazil, which included a match against Corinthians, in which Sócrates played for both teams. In 1994–95 they won the Spartan League Cup.<ref name=H/> In 1996 the club switched to the Combined Counties League. After finishing as runners-up in their first season in the new league, they returned to the Isthmian League as members of Division Three in 1997.<ref name=FCHD/> After another tour to Brazil in 2001,<ref>Two Corinthians sharing one spirit BBC Sport, 30 May 2001</ref> league reorganisation in 2002 saw them placed in Division One South. Further reorganisation saw them become members of Division One in 2004 and then Division One South again in 2006.<ref name=FCHD/> In 2010–11 they won the Surrey Senior Cup for a second time, beating Leatherhead 2–0 in the final.<ref>Surrey Senior Cup final: Leatherhead 0 Corinthian Casuals 2 Your Local Guardian, 12 May 2011</ref> The club returned to Brazil in 2015 to play Corinthians again, with the Brazilian club winning 3–0.<ref>Soccer-Corinthians beat amateur British side Casuals 3-0 Reuters, 25 January 2015</ref> In 2016–17 they finished fourth in Division One South, qualifying for the promotion play-offs. After beating Greenwich Borough 4–3 in the semi-finals, they lost on penalties to Dorking Wanderers in the final after a 0–0 draw.

The 2017–18 season saw Corinthian-Casuals finish fifth in the division, again reaching the play-offs. They defeated Greenwich Borough 3–0 in the semi-finals, before losing the final 4–2 on penalties to Walton Casuals after the game ended 0–0. Despite the defeat, the club were promoted to the Premier Division after results in other divisions meant that they were the play-off finalists at step 4 with the highest points per game ratio from the season. They were relegated to the South Central Division at the end of the 2022–23 season after finishing second-from-bottom of the Premier Division.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The following season saw them finish bottom of the South Central Division, resulting in a second successive relegation,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> this time to the Premier Division South of the Combined Counties League.

Ground

After their formation the club played their first match in the grounds of Lambeth Palace,<ref name=PP>Corinthian-Casuals Template:Webarchive Pyramid Passion</ref> but after World War II they played at Kingstonian's Richmond Road ground, which had previously been used by Casuals.<ref name=G>Football grounds Corinthian-Casuals F.C.</ref> However, they left in 1946 and played at numerous other grounds; the Polytechnic Ground in Chiswick (1946–1950), the Oval (1950–1963; the club played at the Vauxhall End of the ground),<ref name=PP/> Dulwich Hamlet's Champion Hill (1963–1968), Tooting & Mitcham United's Sandy Lane (1968–1983), Molesey's Walton Road (1983–1984 and again from 1986 to 1988) and Wimbledon Park Athletics Stadium (1984–1986).<ref name=G/><ref name=PP/>

In 1988 the club merged with Tolworth and took over their King George's Field, marking the first time the club had owned their own ground.<ref name=H/> The ground originally had a running track around the pitch, which was later removed.<ref name=PP/> Covered standing was installed behind both goals and a stand built along one side of the pitch which includes a small section of seating, with the seats coming from Plough Lane, Champion Hill and Havant & Waterlooville's Westleigh Park.<ref name=PP/> The ground currently has a capacity of 2,000, of which 250 is seated.<ref name=CC/>

Honours

• Spartan League
  • Senior Division champions 1985–86
  • League Cup winners 1994–95
• Surrey Senior Cup
  • Winners 1953–54, 2010–11
• Victory Cup
  • Winners 1966–67<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• Egri Erbstein Tournament
  • Winners 2019

Records

• Highest league position: 5th in the Isthmian League, 1953–54, 1959–60<ref name=FCHD/>
• Best FA Cup performance: First round, 1965–66, 1983–84<ref name=FCHD/>
• Best FA Amateur Cup performance: Finalists, 1955–56<ref name=FCHD/>
• Best FA Trophy performance: Second round, 2002–03<ref name=FCHD/>
• Best FA Vase performance: Fifth round, 1983–84<ref name=FCHD/>
• Most appearances: Simon Shergold, 526<ref name=NLCD2>Mike Williams & Tony Williams (2012) Non-League Club Directory 2013, p602 Template:ISBN</ref>
• Most goals: Cliff West, 215<ref name=NLCD2/>

See also

• Template:C
• Template:C

External links

• Template:Official website