Team colours:

(H) Burgundy/Yellow Shirts Burgundy Shorts & Yellow Socks

Goalkeeper: Green

(A) Royal Blue & White Shirts with Royal Blue Shorts and Royal Blue Socks

Club History

Today, Cardiff Corinthians may not hit the national headlines very often: they lead a stable and unspectacular existence in the Highadmit Projects South Wales Alliance League Premier Division. But don't let appearances fool you: this unique club's history contains both glory and despair; and their continuous near 120 years of life as true 'Corinthians' in spirit as well as in name, is an extraordinary achievement. A book could be written about the Corries (maybe it will one day) but in a few pages we will try and do justice to the story of Cardiff's oldest surviving soccer club.

The story began in July 1898, when members of the Alpha Cricket Club met at the Criterion Coffee Tavern in Cowbridge Road East, Canton and decided to form a football team to keep in touch during the winter months. They adopted the name Cardiff Corinthians, no doubt inspired by the great English amateur club, and chose colours of Cardinal and Gold. For the first six years they played friendlies only, from their first base in Sophia Gardens, before joining the Rhymney Valley League. But it was in cup competitions that the Corries first made their mark, entering the Welsh Amateur Cup from the early years of the 20th century and the English F.A. Amateur Cup from 1911; plus the Welsh Cup from 1906 and the English F.A. Cup which they entered 38 times between 1911 and 1950.

Perhaps their most famous exploit came in 1910 when they embarked on a tour to Spain and played against both Barcelona and Espanyol to earn the distinction of the first British club to play against the Spanish giants.

Leo Newton became the first Corinthian to earn a senior cap in 1912 but success on a national scale for the club itself first came in 1914 when the Corries won the Welsh Amateur Cup, beating Holywell 1-0 in the final played at Newtown - and bringing the Cup south for the first time in its 24 year history. After the Great War the Corries wasted no time, with driving forces Billy Gibson (Founder and President), Dick Booth (chairman) and William Snell (Secretary) establishing a new home at Pengam Farm, Tremorfa and fielding players such as amateur internationals Eddie Jenkins and Frank Thomas, Herbie Evans (who went on to become a Cardiff City legend and won senior caps) and Edgar Thomas, who was capped at senior level in 1925 whilst still with the club.

In 1921 they took the bold step for a strictly amateur club of joining the professional Western League where they rubbed shoulders with Yeovil, Weymouth, Trowbridge and Welton Rovers as well as Welsh compatriots Lovell's Athletic of Newport. In their first season, 1921-22 they remained unbeaten until 17th December and led the table until March. Two seasons later they were again challenging for the title until a poor Easter campaign edged them out of the top two.

Travelling expenses in the Western League were high (and the amateur players had to pay their own costs!) and the Corries committee, led now by Harry Pool, opted in 1924 to join the Welsh League to ease the burden on the players. Nevertheless there were still some formidable journeys in friendlies (an away win at mighty Dulwich Hamlet in 1928 stands out) and in the cups, such as the drawn game at Wells City in the 1927-28 FA Cup and of course the long Welsh Amateur Cup trips, with the Corries returning in triumph from Mid Wales-based finals in both 1929 and 1930 and then again in 1934.

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s the Corinthians reigned as the pre-eminent amateur club in Wales, whilst competing alongside the professionals in the Welsh League, generally achieving mid-table positions, though by the end of the inter-war period their record in the top division of the League was deteriorating. The playing staff was marshalled at this time by Jack Nicholls, a former Newport, Cardiff and Wales inside-forward, with senior players Harry Goulding and international Fred Dewey who became the third senior cap from the club's ranks when representing Wales in the 1-1 draw with cotland at Ibrox and a 0-4 defeat against England at Wrexham.

Setbacks came just before the Second World War, with an enforced move from the Pengam Farm ground in 1937 and controversy over a 'nursery' link with Cyril Spiers's Cardiff City. The outbreak of the war interrupted the Welsh League but the Corries continued to play, using several grounds before settling after the war at Cae Syr Dafydd in Canton, home of Canton Conservatives Cricket Club and a ground they saw as a permanent home, thanks to a loan from former player and club patron Fred Dewey.

Life in the top flight of the Welsh League proved as tough after the war as it had become in the late thirties, and Corries finished in the bottom three in 1946, '47 and '48 when they were finally relegated. Most of the fifties were spent in Division 2 East, with some success, but after promotion in 1957 Division One again proved too tough. After winning the Division 2 East championship in 1959-60, losing only 3 games, the club enjoyed a few seasons back in Division 1 but it didn't last and in 1963-64 they finished bottom with just 12 points and 107 goals against.

The supply of famous players had continued with Tommy Forse, Neil O'Halloran, Ritchie Morgan, Nick Deacy and Wales keeper Graham Vearncombe some of the very well-known names that stand out from a long list of former Corinthians.

There was no shortage of turmoil in the sixties and seventies: in the league the Corries bounced back into the top (Premier) division in 1971, were relegated again in 1975, but won the Division One title in 1978 and hit their Welsh League 'high' in 1978/79 when they finished runners-up in the Premier Division behind Pontllanfraith, a feat they would repeat in 1982 behind Ton Pentre, with more glory in 1985 when the club recaptured the Amateur Cup (now the Welsh Intermediate Cup). But these highs and lows on the field seem nothing compared with the club's frantic quest for a permanent home after they lost Cae Syr Dafydd in the late sixties, unable to repay the original loan and increasingly playing second fiddle to City's reserves at the venue. It could have been the end, as the famous Corinthians were back at square one on an unenclosed pitch at Llandaff Fields, but the Welsh League made an exception and allowed them to continue in these inauspicious surroundings. But fortunately the ground-share negotiated with Radyr Cricket Club in 1974 brought the stability which enabled the club to achieve those Welsh League and Intermediate Cup honours between 1978 and 1985.

Since Corries' promotion in 1978, they actually weren't relegated or promoted again for 17 years, though they were back in the middle division of the Welsh League in 1983, lacking National Division facilities, and finally returned to the top division (now Division One) in 1995 when they finished 3rd behind Penrhiwceiber Rangers and Risca United. They stayed at Level 2 of the Welsh pyramid for a decade, until 2004, and returned to it in 2008. After four more years at this level, a decline set in, with the Corries now having suffered three relagations.

The past few seasons have not been kind to the Corries. After being in the Welsh League First Division as recently as 2007-08 last season saw them relegated from the Welsh League. With an exodus of players in the summer this season the club is looking to consolidate its status in the Premier Division of the South Wales Alliance League.