Corinthian-Casuals undone

Irony.

It’s the one word that springs to mind when I think of today’s fixture, given the history of our two clubs.

One, founded on its Corinthian Spirit dating back to 1882, then understood as the highest standard of sportsmanship and famously summed up in their attitude to penalties. As far as they were concerned, a gentleman would never commit a deliberate foul on an opponent. So, if a penalty was awarded against the Corinthians, their goalkeeper would stand aside, lean languidly on the goalpost and watch the ball being kicked into his own net. If the Corinthians themselves won a penalty, their captain took a short run-up and gave the ball a jolly good whack, chipping it over the crossbar (enthusiasts will know this same spirit inspired Real Madrid to adopt the Corinthian’s white strip)!

The other, founded on Hanworth Air Park in 1976 with unrivalled standards of bonhomie, but which extended only to those tight-knit members of the Hanworth Villa dressing room and few else, subsequently nicknamed The Villains.

I rest my case!

In the context of bonhomie, I am genuinely sorry to see Corinthian Casuals getting relegated this year, having tasted their club spirit as a teenager when our 1^st team at school would play their vets each year – basically, a bunch of old boys who you couldn’t get the ball off and were always five yards ahead! I can only imagine their plight this year has come down to one thing, money, or lack of it, such is the competitive nature of life in Step 4 and look forward to seeing them re-group quickly.

For Hanworth Villa, following a superb show of team spirit and everything good about our club in Saturday’s 2-1 win over promotion-chasing Leatherhead, this evening’s match represents our last home fixture of what feels like a long season, thanks in no small part to the rain.

The table doesn’t lie as they say, and the stats will probably evidence that better results against those team’s battling relegation would have seen us in the play-offs once more, but that is not to undermine the excellent progress that our club has made on and off the field this season, which should give us all great reason to be optimistic looking to 2024/25 and beyond.

On that note, I would like to extend a huge thank you to our sponsors, management team, players, staff, volunteers, and youth participants for your contribution towards Hanworth Villa’s development this year.

We are, slowly but surely, laying concrete foundations to support our planned climb up the non-league pyramid in the years to come and, whilst there are too many people to acknowledge in this note, I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible and doing so at our planned club afternoon on Saturday 4^th May!

For the record, the afternoon will see the full Villa family coming together, starting with our youth ranks’ annual presentation at midday, our sponsor’s tournament at 2pm, followed by a 1^st team presentation late-afternoon and a Bill Glassup BBQ in-between – do please spread the word, the more the merrier!

Back to this evening’s fixture and I would like to extend a very warm welcome to our visitors. Knowing where we have come from at Hanworth Villa, I still think it is amazing that we can play clubs with such history and heritage and wish Corinthian Casuals every piece of good fortune in their quest to bounce back next season, just not tonight! But perhaps that’s not very Corinthian!?

Up the Villa!