LEAGUE EXPANSION
Mr J C Tate of Manchester wrote asking if the title of the League could be used by a group of Manchester clubs. This idea was not well received, but the concept of amalgamation replaced it, to be rapidly put into effect. The AGM of 15th May 1903 voted to form a Manchester Section, to complement the Liverpool Section, provided the jurisdiction of the Executive was accepted. The local press was little short of jubilant; a tremendous stride forward for Lancashire amateur football was trumpeted.
There was relatively little expansion of membership right up to the First World War. In the Liverpool Section, clubs came and went with amazing frequency: there were 34 members in 11 seasons, never more than 16 (1907 -1908) at one time. Only six clubs lasted more than five years; only twelve ever ran a first and second team together.
From the start, things in Manchester were more controlled: once the second division was formed in 1904-1905, it was the rule rather than the exception for the clubs to run two teams. As a consequence, there were only 23 Manchester members in 11 seasons, 9 of them lasting more than 5 years.
On 22nd August 1905 one of the League's most far-reaching appointments was made: Mr JB Kershaw became Record Secretary of the Manchester Section. He was to serve the Lancashire Amateur League for almost 50 years.
From the minutes of the 30th April 1909 we learn that the game Blackburn Etrurians v. Wigan GSOB was not played; it was awarded to Etrurians, ‘their opponents writing to say that they had resigned their position in the League’. Etrurians resigned also, at the end of the season, and a founder member had gone, to be followed by another, Liverpool Leek. The Liverpool Section was in deep trouble. Complaints and fines abounded. The AGM of 1910 talked of expansion — the reality was to be very different. At the end of the meeting, ominously, ‘the representatives of the Liverpool Section were to determine whether that section should continue’.
It did not. The records are coy on the subject; we may never know the real reason. Clearly it had become an unstable alliance. The Manchester Section carried on, and seems to have expunged all memory of its Merseyside alliance from its collective consciousness. Subsequent handbooks, for example, pretend that there was never such a thing as the Liverpool Section, and the future Chairman (1910-1953) JB Kershaw maintained his League Chairmanship dated from 1907, when he became Manchester Section Chairman. This History attempts to set the record straight: we of the LAL owe our origins to the far-sighted men of Liverpool, and their subsequent troubles do not detract from the achievement they set in motion.
Mr J C Tate of Manchester wrote asking if the title of the League could be used by a group of Manchester clubs. This idea was not well received, but the concept of amalgamation replaced it, to be rapidly put into effect. The AGM of 15th May 1903 voted to form a Manchester Section, to complement the Liverpool Section, provided the jurisdiction of the Executive was accepted. The local press was little short of jubilant; a tremendous stride forward for Lancashire amateur football was trumpeted.
There was relatively little expansion of membership right up to the First World War. In the Liverpool Section, clubs came and went with amazing frequency: there were 34 members in 11 seasons, never more than 16 (1907 -1908) at one time. Only six clubs lasted more than five years; only twelve ever ran a first and second team together.
From the start, things in Manchester were more controlled: once the second division was formed in 1904-1905, it was the rule rather than the exception for the clubs to run two teams. As a consequence, there were only 23 Manchester members in 11 seasons, 9 of them lasting more than 5 years.
On 22nd August 1905 one of the League's most far-reaching appointments was made: Mr JB Kershaw became Record Secretary of the Manchester Section. He was to serve the Lancashire Amateur League for almost 50 years.
From the minutes of the 30th April 1909 we learn that the game Blackburn Etrurians v. Wigan GSOB was not played; it was awarded to Etrurians, ‘their opponents writing to say that they had resigned their position in the League’. Etrurians resigned also, at the end of the season, and a founder member had gone, to be followed by another, Liverpool Leek. The Liverpool Section was in deep trouble. Complaints and fines abounded. The AGM of 1910 talked of expansion — the reality was to be very different. At the end of the meeting, ominously, ‘the representatives of the Liverpool Section were to determine whether that section should continue’.
It did not. The records are coy on the subject; we may never know the real reason. Clearly it had become an unstable alliance. The Manchester Section carried on, and seems to have expunged all memory of its Merseyside alliance from its collective consciousness. Subsequent handbooks, for example, pretend that there was never such a thing as the Liverpool Section, and the future Chairman (1910-1953) JB Kershaw maintained his League Chairmanship dated from 1907, when he became Manchester Section Chairman. This History attempts to set the record straight: we of the LAL owe our origins to the far-sighted men of Liverpool, and their subsequent troubles do not detract from the achievement they set in motion.