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Who will win the premiership

Presentation Dinner

The League over the past 20 years has held a Presentation Dinner at the end of each Season, to present awards to Clubs/Players and Officials of the Member Clubs of the League who have won an award during the Season. League Winners/Runners Up, Cup Winners/Runners Up. Player of the Year. Leading Goalscorers.Team Of the Season, Fairplay winners Ect
The Event has taken place in the Durham Town Hall, Three Tunns Hotel Durham and Currently at the prestigious settings of the Ramside Hall Hotel in Durham.
This Years event is on Sunday 6th June at the Ramside Hall Hotel Guest Speaker is RONNIE WHELAN
he made his League of Ireland début with Home Farm at the age of 16 and shortly afterwards joined Liverpool. He won virtually all of soccer’s major awards with the club over a 14-year period, including six League Championships (1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1988 and 1990), two FA Cup medals (1986 and 1989, the latter as captain) a European Cup medal (1984), three League Cup medals (1982, 1983 and 1984) and five Charity Shields. along with Top Commedian Seth Shildon
Below are some of the Guest Speakers that Clubs have had the pleasure of Listening to.

Jim Baxter

Jim Baxter seen here with the League Secretary Graham Lilley.Jim Baxter was born in the Fife mining village of Hill O'Beath on 29 September 1939. Having begun work down the mines while playing junior football with local side, Crossgates Primrose, Baxter continued his day job after signing part-time for Raith Rovers in 1957. He soon signed on full-time at Starks Park and picked up international recognition for the first time when he was selected for Scotland under-21s against Wales in 1958. A move to Rangers materialised in June 1960 for a fee of £17,500 and he made his competitive debut for the club against Partick Thistle in the League Cup on 13 August that year. In the five years he played in his first spell at Ibrox, he won three championship medals (1961, 1963 and 1964), three Scottish Cup medals (1962, 1963 and 1964) and four League Cup winners' medals (1960, 1961, 1963 and 1964).

'Slim Jim', as he was known, won the first of 34 full international caps in the months following his move to Rangers.
His debut came in a 5-2 victory over Northern Ireland on 9 November in the British International Championship. Some of Baxter's finest moments came in a Scotland jersey and, fittingly, he is best remembered for performances against the Auld Enemy at Wembley. In 1963, Baxter inspired 10-man Scotland to a 2-1 victory over the English, scoring both goals himself after Eric Caldow had broken his leg. But it is the 1967 match when Scotland became 'world champions' for a day that sticks out in the memories of any Scots who have seen the pictures. Scotland won 3-2 that day against the World Cup winners and Baxter ran the show, mocking the English team with all manner of trickery. It was typical of the man, who many considered arrogant, but who could not have been the same player if his cheek had been curtailed. In April 1965, Baxter made his final appearance for Rangers in that period before moving to Sunderland for £72,000. He spent 18 months at Roker Park but never quite recaptured the form he had shown at Ibrox. A move to Nottingham Forest in December of 1967 was less successful yet and 18 months later he found himself back at Ibrox. Baxter ran his own pub for some time, but his love of the good life eventually saw that collapse. His drinking habits finally led to two life-saving live transplants in the mid-90s, after which he pledged to stop drinking. He was diagnosed as having cancer of the pancreas at the beginning of February and died on Saturday 14 April at home in Glasgow.

Frank Worthington

Frank Worthington
Frank Worthington.
Born: November 23, 1948
Leeds League & Cup apps: 35
Leeds goals: 15
Other Clubs: Huddersfield, Leicester, Bolton, Birmingham, Sunderland, Southampton, Brighton, Tranmere, Preston, Stockport
International: England, 8 caps

Alan Ball MBE

World Cup Winner Alan Ball MBE1945: Born Farnworth, Lancashire, May 12. 1962: Joined Blackpool, for whom he made 116 league appearances and scored 41 goals. 1965: Made England debut in a 1-1 draw against Yugoslavia in Belgrade. 1966: A World Cup winner with England in July. A month later, he was sold to Everton for a record £110,000 for whom he played 208 games and scored 66 goals.1968: FA Cup runner-up. 1970: Won League championship medal. 1971: Transferred to Arsenal for £220,000, another record, for whom he plyed 177 games and scored 45 goals.1972: FA Cup runner-up. 1973: Became only second England player in history to be sent off, against Poland in Chorzow. 1975: Won the last of 72 England caps, skippering the national side in a 5-1 win over Scotland at Wembley. 1976: Sold to Southampton - 132 games, 9 goals. 1978: Begins spell in the United States as player-boss of Philadelphia Fury. 1979: League Cup runner-up with Southampton. 1980: Rejoins Blackpool - 30 games, 5 goals - after a spell in Canada as player-manager of Vancouver Whitecaps. 1981: Quits as Blackpool player-manager and returns for a second spell with Southampton - 63 games, 2 goals. 1983: Joins Bristol Rovers - 17 games, 2 goals - after playing in Hong Kong with Eastern. Retires in May after 975 first-team games in 21 years. 1984: Named manager of Portsmouth. 1987: Guides Pompey into the first division. 1989: Has a spell as coach at Colchester after parting company with Portsmouth. Later succeeds Mick Mills at Stoke City. 1991: Quits the Potters for an exciting new career as a publican (a few miles from where I grew up in Maidenhead. I went there a few times, admired the football pictures, but never saw him ! - Bob). Five months later, he returns to football as manager of third division Exeter. 1992: Joins Graham Taylor's England coaching staff. 1994: Leaves Exeter to become manager at Southampton alongside Lawrie McMenemy. 1995: Signs two-year extension to existing contract in May after taking Saints to tenth in Premiership. On July 1, agrees three-year contract as manager of Manchester City. 1996: City are relegated to Division One on final day of season, a 2-2 home draw with Liverpool not enough to keep them up. After City lose two of their first three matches of 1996-97, Ball quits Maine Road and says he wants a complete break from football. 1998: Takes over from Terry Fenwick for a second spell as Portsmouth manager, and they escape relegation on the last day of the season.

John Mc Govern

Photo

Bob Stokoe

Sunderland Ledgend Bob Stokoe

Jimmy Smith

Former Newcastle Manager

Wilf McGuiness

League Secretary Greets Former Manchester United Manager Wilf McGuiness

Tommy Docherty

Tommy Docherty former Manchester United/Chelsea Manager

Norman Hunter

Former Leeds United Great Norman Hunter

RONNIE WHELAN

The son of a Republic of Ireland international, also Ronnie, he made his League of Ireland début with Home Farm at the age of 16 and shortly afterwards joined Liverpool. He won virtually all of soccer’s major awards with the club over a 14-year period, including six League Championships (1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1988 and 1990), two FA Cup medals (1986 and 1989, the latter as captain) a European Cup medal (1984), three League Cup medals (1982, 1983 and 1984) and five Charity Shields.
In his long career at Liverpool he played 492 games for the club, scoring 73 goals. He was capped at Schoolboy, Youth and Under-21 level before his senior international début for the Republic of Ireland against Czechoslovakia at Lansdowne Road in April 1981. He played an important part in the build-up to the Republic’s first participation in the world Cup finals in Italy in 1990. He was also major figure in the 1988 European Championship at Stuttgart, West Germany, scoring a memorable goal against the USSR. He won a total of 53 caps for Ireland, scoring three goals.
When Whelan left Liverpool in 1994 he joined Southend United as a player, becoming their manager the following year. His brief and unhappy spell as Southend manager ended in 1997 with the club being relegated to the Second Division of the Football League and Whelan taking the club to court over unpaid monies (and winning).
In 1998 he joined Greek side Panionios, taking them to the quarter finals of the European Cup Winners Cup. In 1999 he took over as manager of Olympiakos Nicosia in Cyprus.

Graham Kelly

Graham Kelly, the former Chief Executive of the English Football Association, former Blackpool bank clerk, Kelly was the Chief Executive of the FA from 1988 until his sudden departure after allegedly promising a £3.2 million loan to the Welsh F.A. in 1998, in return for helping another executive become vice-president of FIFA. He was subsequently cleared by FIFA of any incorrect or improper actions.He is possibly best known to football fans for his lack of charisma whilst hosting the televised draws for the FA Cup. Since leaving his post, Mr. Kelly has written a book called Sweet FA, been involved with negotiating to bring a £100 million-a-year motor racing venture called Premier One Grand Prix to fruition with Colin Sullivan, writing a weekly column for The Independent newspaper, and broadcasting on the radio station Talk Sport. In Sweet FA, he reveals that Chelsea's chairman Ken Bates "Has a sensitive side" and "Cried when a much loved pet died", and that Alan Shearer threatened to walk out on England's World Cup squad if the FA considered holding an inquiry into the incident where Shearer appeared to kick Leicester's Neil Lennon in the head.

ALAN DURBAN

ALAN DURBAN is yet another Derby transfer "snip" - but he doesn´t come under the Clough banner. The Port Talbot-born schemer came from Cardiff City for a mere £12,000 seven years ago and, although always rated as a skilful individualist at inside forward, he lacked the surroundings to prosper as Derby diced with relegation to Division III. Even when Clough came, Durban had his "downs", dropping into the reserves at the end of 1968 and thinking about a transfer. Then he was switched to the midfield general´s role - and hasn´t looked back. He returned to the First Division in which he had appeared briefly for Cardiff as an 18-year-old and the Welsh honours began to pile up. He finished Derby´s Second Division Championship with a hat-trick against Bristol City and a few weeks later captained his country in the Home Championship.

The Ledgends

Bernie Slaven ex Middlesboro
John Berrsford ex Newcastle United
Gary Bennett ex Sunderland
Mick Horswill ex Sunderland

Ron Chopper Harris

Ron Harris ex Chelsea

Gary Skyner

Liverpool Heroe

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