Career
Birks played for Stoke Saint Peters and Stoke City, before joining Portuguese Vale in November 1929. He featured 11 times in the 1933-1934 and 1934-1935 campaigns, scoring four goals in the last five games of the 1934-1935 season. He scored three goals in 15 league games in the 1935-1936 season, finding himself on the score-sheet against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane, but was released in May 1936.
He joined Torquay United of the Third Division South, but was kept out of the side due to the form of Fred Beedall and George Daniels in the 1936-1937 camapign.
Birks made his "Gulls" debut at Plainmoor on 16 January 1937, scoring in the 4–1 defeat to Southend United. However, this was to be his only appearance for Torquay and he left to join Halifax Town for the following season.
He played just three Third Division North games for Halifax before leaving both The Shay and the Football League. During the war he guested for Leicester City.
