Gordon

 

Many thanks for this - makes interesting reading.

 

From the local newspaper archives in Liverpool Central Library, I believe that the first game ended 1:1 at Great Lever, with Everton's goalkeeper at the time, George Bargery, being given a hero's write up for his performance between the posts, although the local press didn't provide any match report - which considering the importance of the competition at the time did seem a bit unusual.  In fact it didn't get a write up until the following Saturday when the paper's reporters were discussing the forthcoming fixtures.

 

The return game, played at Stanley Park so I am led to believe, was given in the Everton Complete Record book as ending 1-8, although I have noted that a result of 1-7 has also been reported (may be due to the lack of goal nets at the time).  However, as the number of areas giving the score as 1-7 rather than 1-8, I am leaning towards this as the final score.  Again, the local Liverpool press seemed more interested in reporting Welsh Cup games rather than a Lancashire Cup tie, so I haven't been able to find anything more on this - they didn't even report the score!!!!

 

My original query came from a passage in Tony Onslow's 'The Men from the Hill Country' which charts Everton's early progress from a village team into one of the top teams in the country in the 1880's and 1890's.  He states that the first match finished 1-1, with the replay at Stanley Park being taken charge of by a member of the Great Lever committee (the 1-7/1-8 match) after which Everton appealed and a third match was ordered.  However, by the lack of information from the local press and from your notes it would seem more likely that a third match didn't take place.

 

From what I've read, it may be that the first game did indeed finish 0-1 to Great Lever with Everton claiming a goal which wasn't given (the first match took place on 6 November) after which Everton appealed, and a ruling given on 13 November ordered the replay, which took place on 27 November.  This would appear to fit in with your research (and I know from personal experience how much research goes into these books), and would appear the make sense (i.e. a Great Lever committee member would be more likely to take charge of a match in Bolton rather than at Stanley Park).

 

However, I do have one question - was the "replay" actually played in Bolton or was it Stanley Park?

 

Cheers

 

Steve

 

On 17/07/2008, grdnsmll <grdnsmll@...> wrote:

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