The History of our Angling Club.

The first recorded notes of our Angling Club were of a Balance Sheet for the "Caledonian Corks Fishing Club No.1" dated 1948. This is engraved on the original club fishing trophy now named the 4th. Bye Cup, which is still contested to this day! The Club then had 26 members paying 1 guinea membership (£1 - 1 shilling in old money). The Income at this time was a total of £38 - 0 shillings - 6 pennies.

The first recorded meeting minutes were taken at the Annual General Meeting dated 6 March 1969. At this meeting which was attended by 12 members, Ron Henderson was voted in as the Secretary. The Club then was known as the "Loyal Caledonian Corks Fishing Section", being one of the Social Club sports sections situated in Golden Hillock Road, Small Heath.

In 1991 the Social Club hit financial hard times and was closed, it was then that the Fishing Section changed its name to CORKS A.C. and continued as a private concern. The nearby Bordesley Labour Club in Whitmore Road welcomed the renamed Corks A.C. to have its meetings at their premises, which enabled the Club to obtain new members from within the Bordesley Labour Club as the Social Club did not have a formed Fishing Section.

In the following year 1992, Corks A.C. had two formed teams which entered the Small Heath & District Midland Team Angling Championships on the River Trent at Bass Island, Broadholme and Sharretts Farm in Burton Upon Trent. They were placed impressively in 4th. and 7th. positions from the 17 competing teams, which included some established teams such as Clissetts, Maitland Hall, Dams & Lock, Alum Rock Raiders and Willmots.

Corks 'A' were-: Mick Lougran (Captain), Roy Cook (Delegate), Steve Bartlett (Delegate), Dave Hurlbutt, Les Wright and Terry Bromwich.

Corks 'B' were-: Ken Jones (Captain), Barry Abbots, Graham Spooner, Gordon Spooner, Ray Henderson and Ron Tuffin.

The 'top ten' team placings were-: 1. Maitland Hall = 90 points, 2. Nest A.C. = 83, 3. Clissetts = 82, 4. Corks 'A' = 80, 4. Woodbine A.C. = 80, 6. Alum Rock Raiders = 79, 7. Corks 'B' = 76, 8. Mid City Blue 'A' = 75, 9. Dams & Lock = 74 and Croft 'A' = 71. 

Some individual success from the team members were-: Ray Henderson from Team Corks 'B' coming 3rd. overall and Roy Cook from Corks 'A' coming 3rd. in his section. Also in 1992 the Corks fished a River Wye Club Challenge Match  against the Newport A.S. at Symonds Yat. Again with some success with Gordon Spooner acheiving Section Winner. These acheivements were welcomed as a sign that the Club were drawing some good anglers from the local fishing fraternity, and this has continued within the membership to the present day!

In the September of 2007 the Corks again took up the challenge of team competition and contested in the annually run Burton Mutual Angling Association Trent & Mersey canal team challenge. The team responded well coming in joint 3rd. position with nominated team captain Pete Grant finishing in 2nd. place individually. This again gave evidence of the continuing angling calibre of our membership! The Corks line up for this competition was-: Pete Grant (capt.), Melvin Dyke, Chris Dyke, Andy Walker, Dave Follis, Nigel Grayland & Graham Spooner.

The longest serving Secretary of the Club is Barry Abbots who was voted into this position in December 1980 and is still serving in this position to the present day.   

The top weight from any contests is now in excess of over the Ton (100LB). The first of which was caught on 30 July 2006 by Mark Stead at Barbourne A.C. Pool in Cotheridge, Worcestershire (104LB+). This acheivement was recorded in the Birmingham Evening Mail - Hook, Line & Sinker article dated Wednesday 9 August 2006. It was the third consecutive year that the Club had been featured in Garath Purnell's weekly article.

All of the Corks contest results are featured in the Angling Times as a 'Bait - Tech'  Clubman member and also in the Midland Angler publications.