Introduction
• The Manchester Junior Cup was started in 1887 as the Manchester (Football) Association's competition for local Junior clubs that due to their status did not qualify to play in the Manchester and District Challenge Cup (later called the Manchester Senior Cup), which had launched two seasons earlier in 1885.
• In order to qualify to play in the Junior Cup, the ground of the club had to be within a 12 mile distance from the Manchester Town Hall. The local papers reported in 1892 that Bolton Red Star's ground in Daubhill was "just within the 12 mile limit".
• Sometimes Senior clubs would play their Reserve side in the Manchester Junior Cup, as they did with the local Junior (ie Amateur) leagues. Also some Junior clubs would play their 1st team in the equivalent Lancashire FA competition, the Lancashire Junior Cup, so fielding their Reserves, sometimes on the same day, in the Manchester Junior Cup.
• The early years were dominated by the Ashton-under-Lyne clubs - Hurst Nook Rovers (twice), Hurst Ramblers and Ashton North End were the winners of the first 4 seasons. Also reaching finals were Taunton (another region of Ashton-under-Lyne) and Hurst Reserves (nowadays Ashton United Reserves). The only non-Ashton team in first 4 finals was Middleton who reached the Final in their formation season 1890/91 - a very controversial final where the replay went to an appeal, and the Manchester FA sat and dismissed it, awarding the Cup to Hurst Ramblers.
• By the late 1960s, the term "Junior" to signify teams that were not professional in any way (ie amateur) was becoming less commonly used, so many leagues and cups moved to more modern naming. There had already been the Manchester Challenge Shield launched in 1934 (renamed Manchester Intermediate Challenge Cup in 1955 and renamed again the Manchester Premier Cup in 1979). So the Manchester Junior Cup in 1971 became the Manchester Challenge Trophy.
• The Manchester FA launched another similar competition in 1907 for strictly amateur sides (so did not allow any reserves of Senior sides) and so the Junior Cup and Amateur Cup ran side by side with some clubs entering both, and so confusing the local papers with which was which.
Sources
• The British Newspaper Archive is a goldmine for this sort of thing, but newspapers were prone to mistakes and confusion. Having to cross-reference multiple papers was sometimes necessary to confirm what exactly was going on. The fixture lists usually confirmed the home venue, but especially in the early rounds, there was often very little, except a mention for the local side. In the early years, the Stalybridge Reporter (aka Ashton Reporter) covered some games quite extensively, along with the Bury Times and Middleton Guardian amongst others.
• The archives.football web site is a great resource, and I am also building information about the Manchester Junior Cup into that site too.
• Other sites good for cross-referencing, to ensure everything is as accurate as possible (especially when considering if a club is a 1st team or reserves etc) is the Non League Matters site, and in particular their histories of the Manchester League and the Lancashire Combination, and also the Football Club History Database - which surely must be everyone's most used web site if you are interested in club histories.
Latest Update
August 2004 - Currenly available are seasons 1887/88 to 1897/98. The 1898/99 season is partly done and will be completed and uploaded soon.