CHESHIRE COUNTY LEAGUE

The Cheshire County League was formed on 23^rd April, 1919 at a meeting at the Moseleys Hotel, Manchester.  It was fitting that the competition should have been born in a city more associated with Lancashire than the County of Chester, as, before the Great War, many of Cheshire’s leading football clubs had plied their trade in leagues based in the more northerly county, such as the Lancashire League, the Lancashire Combination and the Manchester League.  Two of these competitions had folded before World War I, as had another league in which Cheshire sides had played – The Combination.

Thirteen clubs committed to the new league, though, in October 1919, the expulsion from the Football League of Leeds City had the knock-on effect of Central League side Port Vale replacing the West Yorkshire club in the 2^nd Division, Tranmere Rovers’ first team moving from the Lancashire Combination to take Vale’s place, and the Prenton Park’s reserve side leaving the Cheshire League to take over the first team’s fixtures.  A ‘principal’ competition was played, followed by a subsidiary competition where the clubs competed in two sections of six.  The outcomes are shown below.

Cheshire County League Principal Competition 1919-1920 Final Table

 

1	Runcorn	22	17	2	3	57	19	36
2	Mossley	22	11	3	8	43	43	25
3	Witton Albion	22	10	4	8	41	38	24
4	Crewe Alexandra Reserves	22	10	3	9	45	45	23
5	Crichton’s Athletic	22	9	4	9	48	38	22
6	Chester	22	9	4	9	55	55	22
7	Winsford United	22	10	1	11	45	34	21
8	Altrincham	22	7	6	9	38	47	20
9	Macclesfield	22	8	4	10	36	54	20
10	Monk’s Hall	22	8	2	12	47	56	18
11	Nantwich	22	8	2	12	39	54	18
12	Northwich Victoria	22	5	5	12	33	44	15
		264	112	40	112	527	527	264

Cheshire County League Subsidiary Section A 1919-1920 Final Table

 

1	Mossley	10	6	2	2	24	14	14
2	Altrincham	10	3	5	2	15	13	11
3	Northwich Victoria	10	3	5	2	14	13	11
4	Witton Albion	10	3	2	5	15	15	8
5	Winsford United	10	2	4	4	15	16	8
6	Macclesfield	10	2	4	4	11	23	8
		60	19	22	19	94	94	60

Cheshire County League Subsidiary Section B 1919-1920 Final Table

 

1	Crewe Alexandra Reserves	10	7	1	2	33	13	15
2	Runcorn	10	5	4	1	20	15	14
3	Monk’s Hall	10	5	1	4	26	19	11
4	Crichton’s Athletic	10	5	0	5	15	21	10
5	Chester	10	2	1	7	23	37	5
6	Nantwich Town	10	2	1	7	14	26	5
		60	26	8	26	131	131	60

The top sides in the two sections played off, home and away, to decide the winners of the competition.  Crewe Alexandra Reserves defeated Mossley 5-2 on aggregate.

The competition was expanded by the election of six clubs – Ashton National, Congleton Town, Connah’s Quay & Shotton, Sandbach Ramblers, Stalybridge Celtic Reserves and Tranmere Rovers Reserves.

Cheshire County League 1920-1921 Final Table

 

1	Winsford United	34	19	6	9	67	48	44
2	Congleton Town	34	17	8	9	68	56	42
3	Runcorn	34	17	7	10	64	42	41
4	Monk’s Hall	34	16	9	9	58	40	41
5	Crewe Alexandra Reserves	34	15	9	10	80	51	39
6	Macclesfield	34	16	7	11	67	50	39
7	Crichton’s Athletic	34	16	6	12	72	62	38
8	Mossley	34	14	8	12	49	48	36
9	Altrincham	34	14	8	12	59	70	36
10	Chester	34	15	5	14	72	74	35
11	Nantwich Town	34	14	6	14	82	72	34
12	Ashton National	34	14	5	15	69	64	33
13	Northwich Victoria	34	12	5	17	53	60	29
14	Tranmere Rovers Reserves	34	13	3	18	52	69	29
15	Stalybridge Celtic Reserves	34	11	5	18	61	74	27
16	Sandbach Ramblers	34	8	9	17	42	68	25
17	Witton Albion	34	10	3	21	48	77	23
18	Connah’s Quay & Shotton	34	6	9	19	44	82	21
		612	247	118	247	1107	1107	612

The competition was expanded again with the election of two more clubs – Ellesmere Port Cement and Whitchurch.  Crichton’s Athletic became Saltney Athletic.