Black Country playing fields
1,000 Midland Combination games, just ahead of Bournville Athletic and Moor Green reserves, all three sides having joined the Combination in 1948.
Smethwick Highfield returned to the top flight after finishing as runnersup in 1980, a season in which they also won the President’s Cup (competed for by teams in Division 2). This proved to be their only Combination trophy success, though they were League runners-up three times, Challenge Cup beaten finalists five times (once as a second division club) and Presidents Cup beaten finalists on another occasion. The club’s most notable success during its time in the Combination was to win the Birmingham Junior Cup at the Moorlands, home of Moor Green, defeating Kenilworth Rangers 1-0 in the Final on May 12, 1956.
Moved
Promotion back to Division 1 saw a change in outlook as the club left its home of almost 50 years, and moved to Oldbury Sports Centre, around three miles away. This had the advantage of floodlights and a licensed bar, but meant the club was playing in an athletics stadium, so spectators were a long way from the action. It also meant that the club had moved away from its roots in Smethwick and lost some of its identity, which was exacerbated by a change of name in 1985 to Ashtree Highfield (effectively a merger with Ashtree Rovers, another local club). The club also abandoned its traditional colours of white shirts and black shorts, and instead adopted a totally new outfit of green and white
striped shirts and green shorts.
1983 saw Smethwick Highfield in the Premier Division, which came about after the divisions were renumbered following the Midland Combination’s acceptance as a feeder to the Southern League. The club achieved two more statistical milestones in the 1980s, becoming only the second club (after Paget Rangers) to play 1,000 games in the Midland Combination’s top flight (1984-85), and only the fourth (after Paget, Evesham United and Walsall Wood) to reach 1,000 points (198586).
Promotion
It was under the name Ashtree Highfield that the club won promotion to the Southern League in 1988, despite only finishing 3rd in the Combination. Another name change to Sandwell Borough followed in 1989, which possibly only accentuated the problem of lack of identity, as ‘Sandwell’ was the name of the Metropolitan Borough Council, rather than the name of a particular town.
After two years in the Southern League, Sandwell Borough returned to the Midland Combination, where it remained until 1994, before becoming a founder member of the Midland Football Alliance (MFA). At that time the club had completed 44 seasons as members of the Midland Combination, more than any other club, though that record was subsequently beaten by Walsall Wood.
Crowd figures were rarely published at this level but it seems that success on the field was not matched by support off it at Oldbury Sports Centre. An FA Vase game v Highgate United in 1989 attracted just 10 spectators, and an FA Cup tie v Malvern three years later just 18. When the club folded in 2001 it held the record for the lowest attendance at a MFA game, with just 17 for a match v Stratford Town in 1997. Big attendances were rare and invariably the result of large travelling support, such as the figure of 596 for an FA Cup tie against nearby Halesowen Town in 1989.
In the days before youth
schemes, academies and overseas players, the local amateur scene was a rich source of talent for the professional ranks. It’s therefore probably no surprise that Smethwick Highfield was considered a nursery club for West Bromwich Albion, just a couple of miles away, and in the 1930s no less than three Smethwick Highfield players ended up joining the professional ranks at WBA.
Famous
The most famous of these was Edward Albert ‘Teddy’ Sandford, who played for Smethwick Highfield in 1929-30. At the end of the season he signed for West Bromwich Albion, and 12 months later he was a key member of the side that achieved the unique double of FA Cup and promotion in the same season. In November 1932, just 2½ years after playing for Highfield in the BYOB, he made what proved to be
his only England appearance. In all, Sandford made 316 appearances and scored 75 goals for Albion in League and FA Cup. However, his time at Highfield pre-dated the move to Londonderry.
Two other players who definitely appeared at Londonderry Playing Fields for Highfield, before making the switch to the Hawthorns, were Jack Screen (1933) and Harry Ashley (1934).
In the post-war era, the name that stands out is Andrew Micklewright. As an amateur, Andy featured for WBA ‘A’ in the Birmingham Combination for a trial period during the second half of the 1950-51 season. The following season saw him instead turning out for Smethwick Highfield in the Worcestershire Combination and on December 15, 1951 he appeared in Highfield’s FA Amateur Cup game at Eastbourne. Shortly after this he joined Bristol Rovers, going on to play for Bristol
City, Swindon Town and Exeter City over a period of eight years or so, making 199 FL appearances and scoring 58 goals. He later turned out for Nuneaton Borough, Hinckley Athletic, Brierley Hill Alliance and Redditch United. In the early 1970s Micklewright returned to Smethwick Highfield as player-manager and thus had two spells playing at Londonderry Playing Fields, separated by around 20 years!
Does anyone out there have memories of the Playing Fields on Londonderry Road/lane? In particular, I would like to find the answers to the following questions:
When did Londonderry Road become Londonderry
Lane?
When were the running track and wrought iron fence removed from around the cricket field?
How long did the cricket pavilion survive? Was it the same structure that was being used as changing facilities in the 1970s?
What happened to the tennis courts and bowling greens?
The stand was erected in around 1958, but does anyone know when the post and rail were installed?
What happened to the football ground after Smethwick Highfield moved out?
When was the stand demolished and the post and rail removed?