Corinthian Sports Club

Corinthian FC was founded in 1972 by Mr RJ Billings (snr) to provide football in a safe environment, whilst teaching the players the principles that he believed to be important in sport. The motto was simply “pro omnium beneficio”- for the benefit of all, but on the pitch the principles were simple; “Hard, but fair”. Losing wasn’t considered before the game, but if the result went against us then the players were taught to take it graciously.

For the first ten years of the club’s existence we were pleased to welcome such teams as Tottenham, Charlton and Norwich amongst other league teams as well as county and district representative sides as our opposition. On top of these games there were many regular visitors to Gay Dawn Farm from local clubs making up a fixture list of over 60 games per season.

During the 1980s with the arrival of an experienced football manager, Mr Tony Sitford, we progressed from youth football into men’s football playing in the old Southern League. This level of football by a totally amateur club made us unique, but caused problems in the long run in attracting new players. Into the 1990’s we dropped back down to the Kent League and enjoyed many a season in this set up.

Early into the new century we reviewed the whole structure of our football club and decided that we had lost our roots in youth football and this was having a detrimental effect on our senior side. So, we decided to withdraw temporarily from senior football, whilst we rebuilt the lower levels of the club. In 2008 we had managed to create a club running 5 sides, from 13 years old through to 18 years old and it became obvious that we needed to consider the next step in our restructuring. For two seasons we had a liaison with Welling United, integrating a senior side within Welling United and developed a reserve side initially playing in Kent Division 2 (season 2008/09) and then moving on (2009/10) into the Suburban League South Division. This partnership has now come to an end.

When the opportunity came for us to re-enter senior football as Corinthian Football Club, we did not hesitate to take it. Probably 2 years too soon, but the challenge was one we were keen to take. We introduced a second senior side playing in the Suburban League to help us progress our u18’s into men’s football.

The 2010 / 11 season saw Corinthian FC running two senior sides one in the Kent Football League Premier Division and one in the Suburban League South Division plus three youth sides – u14, u15 and u18 in the Kent Youth League. For the 2011/12 season as well as all the above, Corinthian FC had an u18 side in the Ryman Youth League. We feel that that this fills the gap from Kent Youth League to senior football, enabling us to offer a true progression for all our players. The 2012/13, 14/15, 15/16, 17/18 ,18/19 and 19/20 seasons saw the addition of u13 and u15 team playing in the Kent Youth League.

 After untimely ends to the 2019/20 & 2020/21 seasons, when the boys were flying high, we were delighted to have retained the main squad, and with the addition of some of  the prievios season u18’s, Corinthian Football Club were delighted to have been promoted into the Isthmian League Division 1 South East for the 2021.22 season, and finishing 8th in our first season. After two seasons in the Isthmian East Division, for the 2023/24 season Corinthian Football Club will be back competing in the Premier Division of the Southern Counties East Division where we look forward to renewing old friendships.