Lancashire Amateur League
1893-1895
[Introduction] [Sources] [Club Details] [Notes]
Introduction
• The league was proposed by Eccles FC in March 1893 and was intended as a district amateur league for Manchester
• At a meeting at the Crown Hotel on Booth Street, close to Fountain Street in Manchester, a number of clubs were present to hear the proposals - Manchester Wanderers (didn’t join), Eccles (proposed the idea and joined), Owens College of Fallowfield (joined the league), Warrington Cricket and Football Club (didn’t join), Blackburn Etrurians (joined the league), Preston Association (joined the league), Braeside of Stretford (didn’t join), Brooklands (joined the league), and Fallowfield (didn’t join). Below is the summary of ther meeting, as reported on 9 March 1893 in the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser:
• Manchester Wanderers made it quite clear in the meeting notes, that while they agreed with an annual meeting of club secretaries to arrange fixtures, they were opposed to the formation of the new league - though they did end up joining a different league instead - the Manchester Alliance, which had formed the previous season
• Fallowfield also decided instead to join another league – the Manchester League, which had re-formed for 1893-94 after closing down at the end of its only previous season (1890-91)
• The rules for the new league, including its as yet un-announced name, were to be sent round to other amateur clubs to get their opinions and to see if they would join up. Two other clubs subsequently joined - Manchester Social and Old Hulmeians
• Brooklands publicly announced at their AGM on 21 June 1893 that they were joining the new league, now named as the Lancashire Amateur League
• The name of the league as "Lancashire Amateur League" was possibly influenced by the Lancashire FA's new Amateur Cup competition, the Lancashire Amateur Cup, that was also founded in 1893. Playing in the first season of the Amateur Cup as well Lancashire Amateur League were Eccles, Owens College and Blackburn Etrurians
• The league got underway on Sat 7 October 1893, and with 7 clubs in this first season, so there would be 12 league games played each throughout the season. Remaining dates would be filled with friendlies and county cup ties. The first game played was at Penwortham, as reported by the Preston Herald:
• Champions of 1893-94 were Blackburn Etrurians, as confirmed by a newspaper report in a game the following season:
• The 1894-95 champipn is not yet confirmed but was either Blackburn Etrurians or Old Hulmeians, based on the known results so far
• After the first season, both Preston Association and Manchester Social left the league, with Chorlton-cum-Hardy joining. This meant that membership had dropped from 7 to 6 for the 1894-95 season
• After 2 seasons, this early version of the Lancashire Amateur League disbanded. Possibly coincidentally, the proposers Eccles had gone from challenging for the title in season 1 to struggling in the bottom 2 in season 2. Whether this downturn in Eccles's fortunes influenced the closure of the league is not clear
• Four years after the league closed, in June 1899, the Lancashire Amateur League was relaunched in Liverpool with Blackburn Etrurians and Owens College present at its launch. Other clubs from this 1893-95 league also later played in the relaunched LAL - Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Brooklands, Manchester Social and Old Hulmeians. Eccles did not join the new LAL despite being the team behind the original league
Sources
• The British Newspaper Archive is the only modern source for this league, as there are no known records elsewhere. The Manchester Courier, and the Blackburn local paper carried results regularly, sometimes with reports, but actual tables are very rare, and only produced by the Athletic News, along with the results they printed, many of which were inaccurate. So I have ignored these tables and I have put together all the results I have tracked down, sense-checked where possible - and are logged on the archives.football web site (free account needed) - Season 1 results are HERE and Season 2 results are HERE. More season info is on the individual season pages accessed from the Main Menu of this web site
Club Details
• This is the basic history of every team related to the early Lancashire Amateur League.
• All info is believed accurate but if you can correct any errors then please let me know.
• It is possible that teams that I have noted as playing in local friendlies were instead playing in an obscure league with limited to no coverage, though they were definitely involved in friendlies at some point throughout the season
• Similarly for new clubs, sometimes it can only be assumed they were newly formed as there were no references seen previously, but they could maybe have been playing in unreported friendlies or in an obscure league with limited to no coverage
• For formation and folded dates, I have used either direct reported evidence or best guess using logic from the available results and reports in some cases.
| Team Name |
Formed |
Joined LAL From |
Seasons in LAL |
Left LAL To Join |
Folded |
| Blackburn Etrurians * |
1887 |
Local friendlies |
1893-1895 |
Local friendlies |
1909 |
| Brooklands * |
1890 |
Local friendlies |
1893-1895 |
Local friendlies |
1914 |
| Chorlton-cum-Hardy * |
1891 |
Local friendlies |
1894-1895 |
Local friendlies |
1955 |
| Eccles * |
1885 |
Local friendlies |
1893-1895 |
Local friendlies |
1896 |
| Manchester Social * |
1892 |
Local friendlies |
1893-1894 |
Local friendlies |
1906 |
| Old Hulmeians * |
1889 |
Local friendlies |
1893-1895 |
Local friendlies |
1950 |
| Owens College * |
1890 |
College and local friendlies |
1893-1895 |
College friendlies |
1903 |
| Preston Association * |
1889 |
Local friendlies |
1893-1894 |
Local friendlies |
1902 |
Notes
* Blackburn Etrurians went on to play friendlies and county cup ties after the league folded, and then joined the new Lancashire Amateur League in 1899. Indeed in that 4 year period they won the Lancashire Amateur Cup twice 1895-96 and 1898-99, as well as again the following season and finally in 1904-05. They played until the end of the 1908-09 season when performances started to suffer from a lack of players, after earlier having been regarded as one of the area's strongest amateur clubs. The following season 1909-10, another team "Blackburn Etrurian Old Boys" played friendlies, and while clearly related to some degree, they could be a renaming, or another of the Etrurian school teams. That Old Boys team folded in 1910
* Brooklands later went on to play in the later Lancashire Amateur League from 1911 and then folded in 1914. They were set re-form after World War 1 and re-join the relaunched Lancashire Amateur League in 1919. This though didn't happen and the club didn't resume playing
* Chorlon-cum-Hardy later went on to play in the later Lancashire Amateur League from 1903 right through until 1955 when they folded. They were winners of the Lancashire Amateur Cup in 1906-07
* Eccles were the proposers of the league. After the league folded, they played friendlies, as did most teams, but folded in 1896. A new Eccles was created in 1897 by the merger of two other local teams, Eccles Rovers and Patricroft, and they then joined the Manchester League for 2 seasons and then later the new Manchester Amateur League in 1903
* Manchester Social definitely folded just before the start of the 1906-07 season, whilst in the Manchester Amateur League "due to insufficient support", but they reformed a number of times over the coming years. In 1914 they were in the South Manchester and District League and appeared in other leagues at various other times. In 1894 they left the Lanacshire Amateur League after just the one season, and continued playing friendlies initially, later joining the Longsight and District League in 1901, then the Manchester Sunday School League, before joining the Manchester Amateur League in 1904
* Old Hulmeians were based at Alexandra Park, close to William Hulme's Grammar School. At the time the school was called The Hulme Grammar School, until changing to William Hulme's in 1939. Before this, in 1932, the Old Hulmeians football club changed their name to Manchester South End, while in the later Lancashire Amateur League, which they had joined in 1903. This Manchester South End is not related to the previous club of that name that was founded in 1885 and played until 1906 and folding while in the Manchester Amateur League. Even though the school was only opened in 1887, and a seperate Hulme Grammar School football team was in operation, the Old Hulmeians side was playing games in 1889
* Owens College before 1890 seemed to play just rugby union with Lacrosse being added later. The football team was first mentioned in 1890 and was playing regular friendlies - including many midweek against other colleges. After leaving the LAL in 1895 they continued to play college friendlies before joining the new Lancashire Amateur League in 1899, where they remained for just one season before returning to just college games and friendlies
* Preston Association attempted in September 1899 to change their name to Preston FC, but an objection by Preston North End saw it eventually rejected by the Lancashire FA. They continued on with friendlies but the football club was eventually folded in summer 1902. Many of the players converted back to rugby union to play for Preston Grasshoppers new A team
[MAIN PAGE] [Lancashire Amateur League 1893-1894]
These pages are independent from any of the leagues and are here to ensure that the historic information remains available. If you can can correct any info or fill any of the gaps, please drop an e-mail to me at nonleague (at) intothestorm.co.uk