The Stockport Cup

It is not widely known that the Stockport Cup was a personal donation by a Stockport Lacrosse Club member intended for a new competition that would be open to clubs in the County of Cheshire. The circumstances surrounding the Cup's inception were, it would seem, be the result of a power struggle between the North of England and the Cheshire Lacrosse Associations and no doubt in its day a very controversial matter.

It is apparent from Stockport's (SLC) minutes of meetings for season 1907-8 that during the early months of the season, the Cheshire Clubs were in protest with the North of England Lacrosse Association (NELA) regarding a new bye-law which placed the Cheshire Lacrosse Association (CLA) in a subordinate role.

The Stockport committee approved (with three abstentions) to a joint protest with the other Cheshire clubs, which took the form of each club writing a standard letter to the NELA, stating

'Will you kindly let me know if you are prepared to accept this clubs subscription to the NELA this year? I have to point out that we are members of the CLA which body is not subordinate to the NELA. If you are prepared to continue us as members under the old footing, I shall be pleased to pay you the subscription, but in that case it must be clearly understood that the question of our membership in the CLA and the independence of that body must not be disputed later on'

Strong words indeed. By December, a joint meeting between the Cheshire and Lancashire Associations had taken place, no doubt to rally the growing opposition to the attempted NELA take over. The outcome of the meeting was....

'a unanimous resolution to inform the NELA that their new bye-law was unnecessary and undesirable, and request that they consider the advisability of rescinding it forthwith.'

Given this state of affairs between the County and North Associations, the feeling by many in the Stockport Club was one of increasing support to Cheshire. With a potential breakaway from the NELA in mind, a member, who wished to remain anonymous, intimated, through Mr W.A. Cragg, a prominent member of the conittee, that he wished to present Stockport with a Cup 'to be handed over to the CLA for competition amongst Cheshire Clubs under rules and conditions to be decided by our Club'

A subcommittee was appointed (as is the tradition) to draw up the rules and conditions. Some of the original clauses were....

'The Cup is to be insured by the winning Club for the sum of £20 pounds," and, 'the fee shall be a small one, say two shillings and six pence" (l2 new pence) clauses which now are not so appropriate as they once were.

The Cup, described as 'a Silver trophy on plinth', was referred to in the local press as being

'one of the most handsome trophies put up for competition, with gratitude expressed to the generous donor"

The precise outcome of the dispute is not known, but no breakaway by Cheshire or their Clubs ever occured. The NELA obliviously conceded to the wishes of the County Associations, and any future thoughts of being a single power were thwarted by the introduction of a new rule stating that the aims of the NELA would include 'the cooperation of the County Associations in the North of England". ... .A new competition did however become a reality in 1907, with the Stockport Cup as its trophy, and has been a successful competition for 3rd and 4th divisions teams from its inception through the 89 intervening seasons up to the present day, and it is hoped it will continue to be so. The events of 1907 are not considered as having any direct influence in the demise of the NELA 83 years later in 1990, in which the Cheshire County Association survived unscathed to fight another day.

As to who was the donor of the Stockport Cup, no record of his name is in the SLC minutes. However it may be considered significant that the 1907-8 president was, uncharacteristically, absent from the meeting when the Cup was proposed, also the same man was the first President of the reorganised Cheshire Association which occurred just two years later. Conjecture possibly, but certainly a Mr C. Cheetham who incidentally was a founder member of the Club in 1875-6, and was in 1907 still at the forefront of the Club's activities would certainly have known the answer.