April 1893

With the proposed amateur league barely set up, and not due to play a league game until October, the proposers Eccles had already taken control of things from a representative side point of view. Eccles and Blackburn Etrurians created a side formed with the best of their players and sent a team to Worksop Town in April 1893. This became the first ever game played in connection with the new Lancashire Amateur League.

What the connection with Worksop Town was at that time is not clear, though Eccles had sent some of their players to play for Worksop Town earlier in the 1892-93 season for some reason. Worksop Town were not officially amateur, but didn't have paid pro players on the books, only voting to sign professional players a year later.

This first ever game was played on 8 April 1893 - exactly one month after Eccles proposed the league to the meeting of clubs in Manchester. This is how the local Worksop newspaper described the match, to take place the following day:

On the Avenue ground, Worksop, to-morrow there will be a match between the Worksop League team, and a splendid team of Manchester Amateurs. The latter have been chosen from the two leading clubs in the Lancashire Amateur League.

Interesting that Eccles and Blackburn Etrurians were describing themselves as the best two teams in the league, when the season was still 6 months away and teams were still being recruited for the league. However the clubs did end up being the best two clubs in the league, with Blackburn finishing as champions and Eccles runners-up.

The following week, a report on the game appeared in the Worksop newspaper. The team was actually nearly all Eccles with 2 exceptions, though the keeper is of unknown club (presumed Eccles), as was originally due to be Blackburn's G Carter, but had to pull out for some reason. The Whittaker brothers mentioned were Eccles players and it mentions that they had played games for Worksop Town, so this confirms the link between the clubs:

Saturday being a vacant date on the Worksop fixture card, a match was arranged with the Manchester Amateurs, which included the best players from the two leading clubs in the Lancashire Amateur League. The visitors to the Worksop enclusure included in their team the brothers Whittaker, who have assisted Worksop in their holiday games this season... The visitors team turned out as selected, with one exception, Harvey keeping goal vice Carter. There was a good attendance, which was in no little degree attributable to the fact that the "Donovans" have shown greatly improved form in their last two matches. The spin of the coin gave the homesters the choice of ends, and he decided to play towards the Avenue goal...

The "Manchester" team - Goal: Harvey, Backs: R E Whittaker (Eccles), H L Garsang (Eccles), Half-Backs: R J Bowker (Eccles), H Tattersall (Eccles), T J Gould (Eccles), Forwards: J S Whittaker (Eccles), T Miller (Blackburn), E W Whittaker (Eccles), R Green (Blackburn), A Moore (Eccles)

The full report as printed in the Retford, Worksop and Gainsborough Herald is below:

 

So this was the historic first ever game under the Lancashire Amateur League banner, even if the report called them Manchester Amateurs. The result was 4-4, and interestingly the report notes that it is hoped to develop into an annual fixture, and for one further season, it did.


April 1894

In the year that passed since the first game, the league proper got underway on 7 October 1893 and Blackburn Etrurians became Champions, with Eccles runners-up. So now the two teams were justified in naming themselves as the top 2 teams in the Lancashire Amateur League. So straight after the league games were completed, there was another match set-up against Worksop Town.

This game was basically a testimonial game for one of the Worksop midfielders E Illsley. In those days, the local County FA would have to approve testimonial games as they were effectively extra payments given to a player, so this was presumably pre-approved, and attracted a crowd of 800 on Monday 2 April (though another report gives it as 600).

It was a very similar squad sent by Eccles and Blackburn Etrurians this time round to the one the previous season, though with one more Blackburn player, and the keeper G Carter of Blackburn also made it this time. Reports state that two expected players Gould and T Mercer didn't play and were replaced by a Blackburn player A Leigh and Eccles player T E Shaw. Also the team this year was referred to as Lancashire Amateurs.

There was a report in the Sheffield and Rotherham Indepedent newspaper the day after the match as follows:

Last evening a match was played on the Worksop Town Ground, between a team of Lancashire amateurs, selected from the Eccles and Blackburn clubs, and the Worksop Town League team. The match had been specially arranged for the benefit of E Illsley, who for two-thirds of the season has played a most consistent game at half-back for Worksop, but who a few weeks ago had the misfortune to have his knee cap knocked off, necessitating his retirement for the season from the football arena. About 600 spectators were present. Result: - Lancashire Amateurs ... 2 goals.... Worksop Town...1 goal.

The Retford and Worksop Herald and North Notts Advertiser newspaper carried a more detailed report on Sat 7 April as follows:

 

 

The report states that the visiting team had been "round the Dukeries" before the match. It is not clear if this just means the Dukeries area of Worksop or some specific venue. The report also says "Hands were allowed to the Amateurs against [half-back] Hatton" - did this mean they got away with a handball, or have another meaning? It also says that "the referee allowed the visitors' claim for offside, to the great disappointment of the spectators" hinting that it may not have been!

The report's closing comments are interestng and full of praise for the Lancashire team... "exceedingly clever"... "entire absence of anything approaching rough play"... "such a team of clever exponents of the game".

 

A brief report of this game also appeared on Page 3 of the Blackburn Standard newspaper of Sat 7 April 1894.  It states:

 

"A match was played at Worksop, on Monday between Worksop and a team ot Lancashire amateurs, for the benefit of E, Illsley. the half-back of the local club. It created a greater amount of interest than any match this season, the visitors playing a very fine game, and winning by 2 goals to 1. Four Blackburn men were included in the Amateurs' team, viz., G. Carter (goal), A. Briggs (half back), R. Merris and A. Leigh (forwards)"

That then would appear to be the end of it. But there is a bit more to this story than meets the eye. Around this time, Worksop Town were debating if they should go professional, and at a meeting they decided that yes they would sign players on professional terms. They were not intending to make a profit they said, just to be able to pay the players. So to do this, they set up a fund called the "Worksop Professionals Fund - Season 1894-95". So they arranged a set of fundraising events just 12 days after the Testimonial game just played. However what was actually arranged was quite bizarre and poses questions about what links Eccles (and Blackburn to a lesser extent) and Worksop Town really had. This is an advert as it appeared in the Retford and Worksop Herald and North Notts Advertiser newspaper, advertising the fundrasing event, that included the match, a Brass Band, Refreshments (I presume that is what "]]Frements" means), and a Grand Smoking Concert.

 

So, this is a Hallamshire Cup Final between Worksop Town and Sheffield FC being played on the day and the Worksop Team will not play, but instead will be the Lancashire Amateur League XI representing them? How bizarre. The advert tries to clear up any confusion by claiming that the whole Lancashire Amateur League XI are members of Worksop Town so that's OK?

Unsurprisingly, there is no further mention of this game in any of the papers that I have tracked down. But there is a reason for that, because an identical game at Worksop between Worksop Town and Sheffield FC was played on that day - but it was a regular league game in the confusingly named Sheffield & Hallamshire Challenge Cup League - which was not a cup as such as it had a full season league programme - and Sheffield were bottom of the league with Worksop top half. Nothing could call the game a Cup Final. But reading the match notice carefully, it seems to have shortened the competition name to Hallamshire Cup and "Final Tie" must actually mean the last league game of the season, because that is what it actually was.

So, did the Eccles and Blackburn Etrurians players play in that game then? Well no, not according to the teamsheet that the same local newspaper reported from the match - it was the normal Worksop Town side. The report made no mention of anything out of the ordinary. So we can only assume the local county FA got wind of it and ruled the players ineligible.

The match report in full from the Retford, Worksop and Gainsborough Herald is as follows:

 

The teamsheet has no obvious Eccles or Blackburn involvement, and there is no mention of anything about an event on the day or anything. So we can assume that the fake Worksop game never took place after all, and was replaced by an actual Worksop game. This then means that the Eccles/Blackburn XI didn't play their 3rd game representing the league, and so the earlier game on 2 April 1894, the 2nd representative game for the league, was indeed the last one before the league folded 12 months later.