Eccleshill CC

The oldest football team in Eccleshill is not, as one might suspect, the well established United, but Bradford Sunday Alliance team Eccleshill Community Centre. Although the centre was closed in 1990, the club’s survival was entirely due to the efforts of Colin White. After watching the club as a schoolboy in their first season in 1948, he achieved an ambition by playing for them. His enthusiasm knew no bounds and he was even turning out at the age of 57 whenever the club were suffering extreme shortages . At the beginning of the seventies the club moved from the Red Triangle League to the County Amateur League. At the same time they became members of he Bradford Sunday Amateur League. The 1973-1974 season was the club’s greatest year when the Sunday team won the League Cup while the Saturday team beat Dudley Hill Athletic on successive nights to win the Bradford & District Cup and the League Cup. A mass exodus of players in 1979 saw the end of the Saturday team and ever since then Eccleshill CC have just been a Sunday team. One of the few founder teams left in the Alliance, Eccleshill have spent 16 seasons in division 2A. Three times they have come close to promotion but they have also finished bottom several times and have always avoided relegation because of teams dropping out. In the last few seasons Eccleshill have struggled but after winning only a game a season in their three previous campaigns, Eccleshill managed four victories last season. White has finally handed the secretarial reins to Andrew Owczarek this season.