From April to August, more than 400 footballers take to the sports fields of Christchurch every Sunday afternoon.

For a wide range of reasons, they can’t, or don’t want to play in Mainland Football’s regular Saturday competitions, but luckily still have a place to call home.

The Canterbury Sunday Soccer League was dreamed up by David Bolam-Smith, in 1974, while he was working in production at The Star.

He was inspired by what he had seen overseas.

“I was playing (socially) for The Star every other Sunday, but there was no competition, so I thought: ‘Well, I should start up a Sunday soccer league like the one in England.’ ”

He called a meeting in the back bar of the New Albion pub, inviting the teams they had been playing friendlies against.

There was enough interest to form an eight-team league, with the top four teams qualifying for the Bolam Cup, a knockout competition named after its creator.

Today, 35 teams play across the league’s five divisions, as well as in the separate cup competitions.

“I never in my wildest dreams imagined it was going to last 40 years,” said Bolam-Smith.

“I knew it would be popular, but I didn’t imagine the growth and the interest.”

The league has always had a real working-class feel to it, which was pivotal in creating a special atmosphere.

“In the early days, when it was 10 teams and two divisions only, we used to play at Nunweek Park, and we’d go down to the Harewood Hall afterwards. All the teams would go down there, and their kids and all that, and you can imagine all the different tracksuits and the different shirts and things.”

“It was an amazing spirit and so colourful. It really symbolised what the Sunday league was all about.”

He pointed to the advent of Saturday trading in the 1980s, which left many people unable to play club sport on its usual day, as one of the reasons why the league took off.

While his direct involvement ended quite some time ago, he believes it is still in good hands.

“It’s being well run and the boys who are organising are doing a really good job. I’m very grateful for them because they are the ones that are continuing it on into the years ahead.”

Those include current president Nic Aitken, who first became involved as a player 20 years ago, and has seen plenty of teams come and go in his time.

He said the most successful those that have been around a while, and have people committed to putting in the time and effort required to keep things ticking along.

“They seem to recruit the new players and keep teams together.”

“Newer clubs that don’t have someone like that tend to either disappear or disintegrate.”

One club that has been around for a while is Lyttelton, founded at the end of the 1970s by port worker Ricky Forster and a few of his mates.

When ships from Britain and Russia came into the port, their crews would always be looking for a game of football, so Forster and his mates would round up a team and take them on down at the local park.

Eventually, their interest led to them joining the league.

Forster stopped playing a couple of years ago, but still takes to the field as a referee.

“It’s good. You know what a ref ’s job is like – nobody likes a ref. You get a few confrontations, but no, I enjoy it,” says Forster.

Lyttelton’s 2014 season ended last Sunday when they lost to Avonhead 2–6 in one of the Bolam Cup semi-finals.

In the other, Southern Districts pipped Coastal Spirit 3–2, to book their place in the grand finale for the first time ever.

Southern Districts coach Rob van Zanten has been with the team since its inception.

They started as an offshoot of the cricket club of the same name, giving their players the chance to stay active together during the winter.

“The nice thing for me is a lot of guys that would have not been playing soccer if we hadn’t started the club are,” he said.

He said the team were really excited to be in the final, and were planning on making a real week of it.

They’re going out for dinner as a team on Friday night, and will be turning up on Sunday afternoon in their number ones.

As for their prospects in the game itself, van Zanten is realistic.

“We know we’re up against a really good side and it’s an honour to play against them really,” he said.

Whoever wins will be the latest to claim the prize Bolam-Smith provided four decades ago.

He’s currently in Japan, and will miss the game for just the second time ever.

Looking back on the league as it enters middle-age, he’s proud of how far his creation has come.

“It proved that there was a place in Christchurch football for a Sunday league, and that wasn’t always the case.

“Sometimes Saturday football saw it as a bit of a threat, but I always said to them that it was just extending football in Canterbury.”

He recalled an encounter that proved his point.

“I was on the bus going to town, and two young guys were excitedly talking about a game of football – they were playing in the Bolam Cup final.

“That was a real buzz, all these years later, to hear someone as excited as I was so many years before.”