Wearside Football League

Wearside Football League

Organising body	Durham County Football Association North Riding County Football Association
Founded	1892
Country	England
Divisions	2
Number of teams	37
Level on pyramid	Levels 11 and 12
Feeder to	Northern League
Promotion to	Northern League Division Two
Relegation to	Crook and District League
League cup(s)	Monkwearmouth Charity Cup Shipowners' Charity Cup League Challenge Cup
Current champions	Redcar Athletic (2017-18)
Website	official
Current: 2018-19

The Wearside Football League is a non-league football competition based in northern England. It consists of a single division which sits at step 7 (or level 11) of the National League System and is a feeder to the Northern League Division Two.

The league has had a second division in the past but currently only operates with one. For the 2018-19 season, 16 clubs are due to compete in the league. In December 2017 it was decided that the Wearside League and Durham Alliance Combination League would merge. The Durham Alliance Combination League would then become a feeder league for the Wearside League and would be known as the Durham and Wearside Development Division. It was thought that by doing this it would allow a natural route for promotion into the FA National League system.^[1]

Predominantly the league covers a much larger area than just Wearside; as of 2018-19 it includes clubs as far south as Yorkshire. The league also operates three cup competitions: the Monkwearmouth Charity Cup and the Shipowners' Charity Cup, both of which have been contested since the 1890s, and the League Challenge Cup, which came into being in the 1930s.

Member clubs for 2021–22 season[]

First Division

• Annfield Plain
• Chester Le Street United
• Coxhoe Athletic
• Darlington Railway Athletic
• Darlington Town
• Durham Corinthians
• Farrington Detached
• FC Hartlepool
• Gateshead Leam Rangers
• Norton And Stockton Ancients Youth
• Richmond Town
• Shildon AFC Reserves
• Shotton Colliery
• Silksworth Colliery Welfare
• Washington United
• West Auckland Tunns
• Windscale FC
• Wolviston FC

Second Division AFC Durham | Doxford Park | Durham | Durham Corinthians Reserves | Durham United | Hetton | Hurworth Albion | Hylton Colliery Welfare | Polton | Ryhope Colliery Welfare Reserves | South Moor | Wheatley Hill WMC | Wynyard Village

History[]

The Wearside League came into being in 1892 at the instigation of Charles Kirtley, secretary of Sunderland Swifts. In June 1892, a letter written by Kirtley was published in the Sunderland Daily Post and The Herald in which he stated that he had been asked by several club secretaries about the possibility of forming an organisation to play home-and-home matches, so as to find out which was the best amateur team.^[2] A similar letter was published in the Sunderland Daily Echo. At a meeting soon afterwards at the Central Coffee Tavern, eleven clubs agreed to form a league, which commenced playing later that year.

During the early years of the league most teams were extremely hard-up, and the league's archive records that one early club had no pitch but instead played on the sands by Sunderland Docks, and another had to play with an old rugby ball as they could not afford an association football ball. By the 20th century, however, the league was better off and was even able to organise matches to benefit local charities during World War I. After the Great War, the league was dominated for many years by colliery welfare teams – in the 1930s every league title was won by a pit team and the mining clubs continued to dominate right through to the 1970s, although an increasing number began to experience financial difficulties from the 1950s onwards due to shrinking workforces at the mines.

In 1964 the North Eastern League was disbanded and a number of its former teams joined the Wearside League. Around this time the team of the 24th Signal Regiment spent one season in the league but then had to withdraw as most of their players were posted overseas. In 1978 Blue Star became the first Wearside League club to reach the final of the FA Vase, and went on to win the trophy, the start of a run of success which would ultimately see them progress much higher up the non-league ranks. Three years later Whickham repeated the feat and also soon moved up to higher leagues. More recently, clubs such as Darlington Railway Athletic, North Shields, Newton Aycliffe, Ryhope Colliery Welfare and Willington have successfully moved up to the Northern League.

Past champions[]

This is a list of champions since World War II.

References[]

External links[]

• Official League site