Steve,

It was interesting to read your posting as the 1880-81 Great Lever v.
Everton tie was one I had a problem with when producing the 'The
Lancashire Cup - A Complete Record 1879-80 to 2006-07' book (copies
available from Tony Brown).

From the book, my version of events is:-

Newcomers Everton were one of the clubs to be involved in a dispute.
In the First Round they were defeated 1-0 at Great Lever. However
Everton subsequently made an appeal that `the referee had been a
member of the Great Lever club'. The Lancashire FA agreed with
Everton and declared that the result be declared void, although it
was decided that the re-match should again be played at Great Lever.
For this second game the Everton team received a particularly stormy
reception, and although they were soundly defeated 7-1 by the Bolton
side, both they and the neutral referee were pleased to get away from
the area as soon as possible.

I was aware of the claim that three games were played, but could find
no evidence of this. I have a copy of the minutes page from the
Lancashire FA records and this infers that only two games were
played. Also as Great Lever played their 2nd Round match on December
18th, there would have been little time for a third match to have
been arranged and played.

I would be interested to know if you can prove anything different.

Gordon Small