The Combination

The Combination
Organising bodyFA
Founded1888 (first incarnation)
1890 (second incarnation)
First season1888-89
Folded5 April 1889 (first incarnation)
1911 (second incarnation)
CountryEngland
Wales
Number of teams20
Domestic cup(s)FA Cup
Last championsWhitchurch F.C. (3rd title)
Most championshipsEverton reserves (6 titles)

The Combination was a league in the early days of English football. It had two formats. The first was only for the 1888–89 season. It was for teams across Northern England and the Midlands. It finished before the season end. The second started with the 1890–91 season. It continued until 1911. The league had teams mostly from North West England and later Wales.

There was also another league called the Football Combination. This was a competition for reserve teams from the South of England. There was also a small league called the Lancashire Combination around the same time.

First format

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Sharpe's Card c 1890 depicting Jack Powell as captain of Newton Heath[1]

The first Combination started in 1888. The is the same year the Football League started. Clubs who couldn't play in the Football League started the Combination. The Crewe Alexandra secretary J. G. Hall helped start the league. The clubs who wanted to play in the league were Small Heath Alliance, Walsall Town Swifts, Derby Midland, Notts Rangers, Burslem Port Vale, Leek, Crewe Alexandra, Newton Heath, Witton, and Blackburn Olympic. There were three other clubs, Mitchell St George's, Halliwell, and Derby Junction, who wrote to say they agreed with all decisions. Northwich Victoria also wrote to ask to be a part of the league. A. M. Sloane, the chairman of Bootle, chaired the meeting. The clubs agreed that there would be no more than 20 team in the league. They also agreed that each team would play at least 8 matches home and away.[2] Harry Mitchell of St George's became president of the Combination.

The Football League was successful very quickly, but the Combination did not have very good organisation. There was poor planning and the teams did not play some games. From October 1888, the media were talking about how it was difficult to follow the competition.[3] By January 1889, the media were saying that "it is becoming the exception rather than the rule to keep a Combination fixture" (more games were not played than played).[4] The Combination therefore did not finish its first season. It finished in April 1889 and there was no winner.[5]

There was a board meeting on 5 April 1889. The meeting was finished in 25 minutes. Everyone agreed to cancel the Combination. The meeting was so quick that the person from Darwen was there too late, as he had missed his train. However, a dozen of the people from the clubs had another meeting afterwards. This helped to start the Football Alliance.[6]

The teams who had people at the meeting were Bootle, Blackburn Olympic, Burslem Port Vale, Crewe Alexandra, Grimsby Town, Lincoln City, Newton Heath, Small Heath and South Shore. Bootle, Crewe, Grimsby, Newton Heath and Small Heath then started the Football Alliance the year after.

Second format

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The second format of the Combination started in 1890. The first twelve members were:[7]

Five of the teams later played in the Football League. For Macclesfield, this was only in 1997–98. Glossop North End, who joined in 1894, were also joined the Football League, much earlier, in 1898.

Later, more Welsh teams played in the Combination. The reserve teams of the Football League clubs such as Everton and Crewe Alexandra also played in the Combination. When the league ended in 1911, none of the original teams still played in the Combination except Wrexham, who used their reserve team in that league. After it ended, there was the Cheshire County League instead, and later the North West Counties Football League.

Champions

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The champions of the league were as follows:[7]

Season Champions Runners-up Third
1890–91 Gorton Villa Macclesfield Chester
1891–92 Everton Reserves Northwich Victoria Macclesfield
1892–93 Everton Reserves Stoke Swifts Chester
1893–94 Everton Reserves Stoke Swifts Leek
1894–95 Ashton North End Glossop North End Chester
1895–96 Everton Reserves Macclesfield Glossop North End
1896–97 Everton Reserves Rock Ferry Chester
1897–98 Everton Reserves Crewe Alexandra Chirk
1898–99 Everton Reserves Liverpool Reserves Tranmere Rovers
1899–1900 Chirk AAA Wrexham Druids
1900–01 Wrexham Rhyl Bangor
1901–02 Wrexham Burslem Port Vale Reserves Oswestry United
1902–03 Wrexham Nantwich Birkenhead
1903–04 Birkenhead Chester Nantwich
1904–05 Wrexham Chester Broughton United
1905–06 Whitchurch Chester Glossop Reserves
1906–07 Whitchurch Chester Wigan Town
1907–08 Tranmere Rovers Chester Oswestry United
1908–09 Chester Saltney Tranmere Rovers
1909–10 Crewe Alexandra Reserves Saltney Chester
1910–11 Whitchurch Bangor Oswestry United

References

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  1. ↑ "Sharpe's Card c 1890 depicting Jack Powell as captain of Newton Heath". Flickr. Archived from the original on 2023-05-03. Retrieved 2023-05-03.
  2. ↑ "Another Football League". Birmingham Daily Post: 7. 28 April 1888.
  3. ↑ "Notes on Sports". Derby Mercury: 8. 3 October 1888.
  4. ↑ "Football notes". Birmingham Mail: 2. 21 January 1889.
  5. ↑ Whittle, Paul (4 April 2020). "The Football Alliance: Teams Who Didn't Make the League". THE 1888 LETTER: Football Then And Now. Archived from the original on 30 November 2021. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
  6. ↑ "Football Notes". Birmingham Mail: 4. 8 April 1889.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "England - The Combination". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 2022-10-15. Retrieved 2023-05-03.