A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SCARBOROUGH & DISTRICT FOOTBALL LEAGUE
by Steve Adamson
The town's first attempt to form a local league came in 1892 when a number of teams banded together to create the Scarborough League, but unfortunately it folded after just two seasons. The present Scarborough & District League was formed in 1898 when the founder members were Peasholme, Magpies, Cleveland, Scarborough YMCA, Scarborough Reserves, Alliance and Royal Artillery. The latter two teams dropped out during the course of the season and some fixtures were left unplayed, and Peasholme gained the championship by winning all seven of their league matches. Scarborough Reserves took the wooden spoon.
The first-ever Scarborough & District League matches were played on Saturday, 22 October 1898 - the same date that Scarborough FC played their first ever match at the newly-opened Athletic Ground on Seamer Road. The two League fixtures to share that historic date saw Boro Reserves lose 7-0 to Cleveland on a field further along Seamer Road, and Peasholme defeat Alliance, also 7-0, at a field off Burniston Road.
The League grew in popularity and a second division was added in 1900. After the First World War even more local clubs began to spring up, and the League expanded to three divisions in 1922. By now there were several teams from Whitby and Malton playing in the League, and Scarborough Penguins - who later merged with Scarborough FC - had a brief but hugely successful period as members.
Also members for a number of years were Pickering Town, who now play in the Northern Counties East League. In season 1936-37 the League had 34 teams in membership, and after the Second World War it grew even further, expanding to 44 teams by 1948-49. Members that season included Seamer United, Civil Service, St James, Swifts Olympic, Wayfarers and Scarborough Corporation.
Scarborough FC were members of the League over many years, entering at various times their reserve team, and in later years an 'A' team and also a 'B' team. For a time in the early post-war years the League operated with a first division and regional second divisions, north and south. The 1950's saw a decline in membership, but numbers began to increase again in the 1960's and by the early 1970's when Boro were established as the leading non-league club in the country under Colin Appleton, leading sides in the League included the likes of Old Scarborians, South Cliff, Eastfield, Canton, Fishburn Park and Whitby Albion Rangers.
More teams joined the League at the start of the 1980's, and by 1986-87 a record number of 54 teams in four divisions were in membership, although this has decreased gradually over the last few years, and as we enter the 2014-2015 season the League now comprises 35 teams in three divisions.
The League operates four separate cup competitions. The main one is the League Cup, which was launched in 1927 is open to all teams, and there is also the League Trophy for teams below the first division, as well as the Frank White Trophy, which is restricted to third division teams only. In addition, the Kitty Cook Memorial Trophy is contested at the start of each season by the previous season's League champions and League Cup winners.
Former prominent member clubs no longer in existence include Oriel, Cloughton, Tennyson United, Whitby Arcadians, Italia, Junior Imps, Plaxtons, Belle Vue Rangers, Fylingdales, Ganton Rangers, Staxton, Brompton, Scarborough Celtic and Forge Valley.