Walsall Table Football Club
Sadly, this short-lived club based at the Parkbrook pub by J10/M6 seems to have disbanded.
However, Mike Bradbury (01902-636302) is keen to get in contact with any of its members with a view to playing off the Staffordshire Cup/and/or refloating the old South Staffs TSC. There were some good players who turned up,Alf Jones, Richard Badger & pals, a guy from Cannock who I especially want to contact, and a guy from Dudley, as well as well-known 'stars' like Perry Robinson, Chris Short, Matt Lampitt etc.
I managed to contact the guy that ran it for a year, Pete Sleeth, I think his name was. There was also a smashing chap called Kit from Bristol who used to come.
Problem was, that the club had no structure, not even a committee, no competitions were played, we could have played for the Staffs Cup, or a Walsall Cup, but nothing was ever organised, apart from everyone who turned up at the monthly meetings (1st mistake-cus if a player cant make it, you dont see him for 2 months, and he loses interest, and he loses ground.) simply played each other once or twice in very short 10 minute games. That achieved nothing, and a great opportunity was lost. Overnight, we lost the use of the Parkbrook when it converted from a pub to an Indian restaurant, and players dispersed before they had a chance to swap contact details. At least when the popularity returned in 2016, the South Staffs TSC managed to contact some of the players, such as Pete Sleeth and the ex- Wton Falcons players and Nick Lampitt and rekindled the game as a whole in the county. Abig bonus was when Justin Scott started up Roy Holden's old wolverhampton club which soon attracted 10 players, and once more, tournaments began to be staged across the region. Going into 2017-18 season, there are now around 30 active players in Staffordshire, and old members (and their sons) are returning all the time.
What should have happened was-
1. form a committe to run the club
2. charge a small membership fee to join (say £5) and a weekly subscription of £1 to pay for the room hire
3. hire a venue that allows you to store the boards there
4. have a proper league amongst members
5. form a club team and play against another club occasionally
6.encourage kids to
7. send posters to local senior schools and colleges saying we will come along one night to demonstrate the game and get new members out of it.