Calverton Colt’s teams had existed prior to 1988 but appeared to have been both formed and disbanded in the early to mid-1970s. The Football club in its recent form started in 1988, the brainchild of 4 Parents. The Club is one of a number of subsidiary groups of the Calverton Miners Welfare charity. The Pitches & Buildings all belong to the Miners Welfare. The football club use the buildings & surrounding sports facilities for which it pays fees designed to cover the running & maintenance costs of the facilities. The relationship between the Welfare & Football club allows us to receive special rates for Pitch & Facilities hire.
The earliest evidence of a Calverton Colliery team dates back to 1946 which was formed by Arthur “Jocky” Matthews. It is believed that this team played a number of friendly games before entering the Nottingham Spartan League Division 2 (now defunct) for the 1947-48 seasons.
They played their first competitive match on 13 August 1947 at home against Whatton United with the result finishing all square at 1-1. The Nottingham Football Post from the time stated that “Reports are to hand of the splendid amenities of Calverton”, something that we still pride ourselves on today.
Calverton Colliery finished their inaugural season in eighth place and despite being mentioned in the “Arrangements for 1948-49” they did not compete again until 1951-
- This time they played in the Nott’s Realm League Division 2 (also defunct), where they finished bottom with just 4 points from 24 games having conceded 141 goals.
The following season (1952-53) was a different story with a team finishing as Division 2 Runners Up, to the marvellously named “Crittall and Luxfer FC” ( a company which was engaged mainly on Government contracts for munitions) , and as League Senior Cup Runners Up.
WHERES BOB ? The team photo above from 1952-53 includes a young ‘Bob Kinton’ who remained groundsman at Calverton up to his untimely death in 2003 , the playing facilities ‘Kinton Fields’ are named in his honour. You might just spot him watching from his favourite vantage point between pitches 1 & 2.
The following season 1954-55 they joined the Nottingham & District League (also defunct) and again finished the season as Division 1 Runners Up
Calverton competed in this league until 1956 when they joined the Nott’s Alliance before taking the bold move in the 1964-65 season of joining the Central Alliance. This was a semi-professional league in which Calverton finished fourth from bottom winning 9 of 30 league games – by no stretch of the imagination being a disaster. However, the following season the club decided to move into the Nott’s Combination where it stayed until 1988.
There were some successful times in the 1970’s where the club made real progress in the Nottinghamshire Senior Cup and were involved in matches against both Arnold Town (away) and Eastwood Town (home) which both drew sizeable crowds.
In 1988 there was pressure amongst the players to shift back into the Nott’s Alliance. A number of senior committee members of the club at that time, namely Eddie Varney, Jeff Kirk and Bob Kinton were also officials of the Nott’s Combination and it was very difficult for them to continue effectively as officials of a club in a ‘rival’ league and all three resigned. It should be mentioned here that in 1980 Calverton Welfare entered a team into the Sunday Section of the Combination and remain to this day being only one of two founder members left.
Shortly afterwards, the club went through a difficult phase culminating in only seven players turning up for one match and eventually folded.
TODAY
Between 2008 & 2016 Calverton has produced some formidable Junior teams, picking up several County Shield honours, League Cups & League championships, doubles & even treble winners. In 2018 the under 12s won the league title and the Inclusive Pan Disability squad won the Want2Play U16s league title and fair play award.
Come forward to 2022 and we have over 20 teams playing every Saturday & Sunday from under 8s, boys & girls through to seniors & Veterans. Our Wildcats & Sunday Football school for 5-11 year olds feeds the club with new junior teams.
Our teams play in the NDFF want2Play, East midlands pan disability League, YEL, NYL, NGL , NSL competitions.
FUTURE
As parts of our future plans the committee have identified a need to grow the club through our 5 to 7s Junior football school and inclusive football , we have introduce a ‘Girls Wildcats section’ to encourage more girls to join the club as juniors and to re- establish a Ladies section & senior team. We have already established 2 new Girls teams. The Pan disability squad has added an Adults team playing the East Midlands Pan Disability League winning the Championship in its first season in 2021/22
The Senior section is looking to add another Team U21s Development squad in 2022/23 with midweek football to ensure we have a clear pathway for our juniors to look forward to.
And the Welfare is seeking community & Football Foundation funding to develop
a full size 3G pitch, Improved floodlights & training area & car park
All this needs volunteers & coaches with enthusiasm & commitment.