More defections by South Staffs players
When COVID happened, all but one (Dave "The Dave" Collett) of the TSP Birmingham club joined-and in some cases-rejoined the South Staffs players to play in the Staffordshire County League, which by 2022 became probably the strongest level that it had been since the days of Roy Holden, Carl Bradbury, Anthony Beddows, Mark Robinson and Nick Lampitt days of the late 1990s. Coiln Fletcher, Mick Hammonds and Mike Bradbury became the top 3 players, but with Steve Davis, Tony Moogan, Rob Paterson and others, every match was a battle, and 2-0 was a thrashing. For three years we maintained this powerful assembly, until one by one (Fletcher and Henley, our Notts players joined the new Chesterfield TFC), Moogan, Davis and Paterson returned to the Birmingham TSP, Aldridge's Keith Thomas returned to being a driving instructor and Rugby man Graham Harwood set up a new club in East Midlands, and Hammonds, Si Davies preferred the Quarry Bank friendly circuit. Two Sutton Coldfield men stopped coming when we pulled out of the Brownhills Community Centre (£25 for 2 hours, really?) A year after winning the tough Wolverhampton Premier League (18 games unbeaten), Mike Bradbury re-grouped the core six, and home-and-away matches were resorted to involving Tony Machin (Burton), Steve Davis (Hednesford), Sean Bradbury (Rugeley), Malcolm Niles (Walsall), Mike Murphy (Brownhills) and himself (Short Heath). In 2025, Steve Davis opted to return to the high standard TSP Birmingham League, and Tony Machin's high level job kept making him cancel travelling to away meetings. At Christmas 2024, Mike had secured a new venue aat the Walsall JumpNation venue by M6/J10 but only Peter Sleeth and two nephews of Maca Niles joined, and they both dropped out a year later. The once 16 player South Staffs TFC fell back to an all-time low of five members. Three very long serving members had sadly passed away (Carl Bradbury, Anthony Morrall and Guy N Smith), leaving just Bradbury, Niles and Mike Murphy as life-members with 10+ years service. Mike then found yet another venue, the Robin Hood pub in Willenhall, and started a league with 8 newbies. This venue attracted many interested 'triers' and several had a go in the Staffordshire Cup in 2025. By mid 2026, five of the Robin Hood players were thought good enough to join the South Staffs club, and thus the story continues towards 2017. Mike believes that the important thing is to keep the main three trophies going, regardless of the standard of competitors. After all, the star players of the 2020s would probably trounce the heroes from the 1970s, just as Accrington Stanley (who are they?) would probably thrash 5-times FA Cup winners The Wanderers from the 1870s.