Alliance gets off to damp opening

Apr 15 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

BROMBOROUGH Paints Merseyside and Southport Alliance clubs will have 26 league games this season which will again mean Bank Holiday fixtures.

The programme got off to a damp start last Saturday with just one game started.

There are 14 clubs in the top division. Southport Trinity and Rainhill have come down from the Liverpool Competition with Skelmersdale and Rainford going up. Haydock come from the Southport and District League and Tranmere Vics from the Mersey-side Competition.

Charnock Richard have joined the Palace Shield League and the departed Merseyside Commonwealth have merged with Huyton.

The Alliance has been drawn away to the Derbyshire and Cheshire League in the first round of the Cedric Rhodes Cup and if successful on July 6 will entertain the Bristol and District League in round two.

The usual club cup competitions run by the Merseyside Competition, whose league programme starts Saturday, will be part of the season.

FIRST round draws are: Lever Cup (Tuesday, May 20): Old Xaverians v Sutton, Aigburth v Mossley Hill, St Mary’s College OB v Birkenhead St Mary’s, Cheshire Lines v Hale Park, Whitefield v Parkfield Liscard, Maritime v Bromborough, Prescot & Odyssey v Tranmere Vics. Byes: Manweb, Alder, Port Sunlight, Goodlass, Singlehurst, Moorfield, Caldy, Rainhill, Shaftesbury.

David Kaufman Memorial Trophy (Sunday, May 11): Port Sunlight v Aigburth, Shaftesbury v Tranmere Vics, Birkenhead St Mary’s v Mossley Hill, Singlehurst v Manweb, Hale Park v Caldy, Maritime v Alder, Goodlass v Cheshire Lines. Byes: Whitefield, Old Xaverians, Parkfield Liscard, Sutton, St Mary’s College OB; Prescot & Odyssey, Moorfield, Rainhill, Bromborough.