St Helens & District Football Combination
| Sport | Association football |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1917 |
| No. of teams | 15 |
| Country | England |
The St Helens & District Football Combination is an English football league based in St Helens, Merseyside.
The league was formed on 4 August 1917 when Ernest Worrall distributed notices to several of his friends & colleagues calling a meeting in the old LMS Club now known as The British Rail Club, Penlake Lane, Sutton. A league was formed but was initially known as The St Helens & District Junior Football League. The officers were Harry Thompson (Chairman), John Marsh (President) & Ernest Worrall (Gen Secretary).
The League Championship Cup dates back to the year 1917 but in 1919, Mr John Martin, a town centre hairdresser, presented the “Martin Cup” to the league. This Cup competition became immediately very popular especially in the 1930-1940 period when crowd numbers reached 3000-4000.
In 1921, a restructure of the divisions resulted in the division 1 clubs being formed into the St Helens “Senior” league and a further amalgamation saw Div1 and Div2 clubs having sections A & B thus forming the combination of sections. At the end of the 1921/22 season following a special meeting it was decided to run the league similar to that of the neighbouring Lancashire Alliance thus the St Helens and & District Junior League now became The St Helens & District Football Combination to commence in "March 1923”. Running parallel with the Combination in the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s and early 1940s was the Sunday School League in which the majority of the church clubs took part.
When that league finished clubs like Holy Cross and Holy Trinity eventually joined the combination.
In 1926 the Hospitals Charity Cup was introduced and is now the Combinations main cup competition and played for in open tournament for all combination clubs. In 1926 the Rainford Potteries Company donated to the Rainford Potteries Cup which at present is at temporary retirement. The DH Griffiths & Tom Worrall cup (1933) is the present Divisional Cups played for to coincide into an end of season final.
In the 1930s the most popular cup venue was Peasley Cross Rec, but since the loss of the ground due to industrial building several well-known venues were used; e.g. British Rail, (Penlake Sutton), Beecham’s (Sutton Road), Greenall Whitley (Alder Hey Road) and at each ground, the attendance was outstanding. Finally at the eventual loss of these grounds the Hospital Cup Final which had become the Combination’s F.A. Cup was held at St Helens Town Hoghton Road, but sadly, as progress is inevitable the “Town Ground” is no longer available, but up to the present moment Prescot Cables have come to the rescue and the Hospital Cup Final at Valerie Park Prescot has now become a very popular venue.
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