Cleator Moor Celtic F.C.

History

Cleator Moor was a latecomer to association football in West Cumbria. The Football Association had set down the game’s first rules in 1863, and the Cumberland F.A. followed in 1884, with its Senior County Cup starting the next season. Cleator Moor United lifted that trophy in 1903–04, fielding a side at Bowthorn that included up to ten players who had left Frizington White Star for money. Football had been played in nearby Frizington since 1886, and there had been teams in Keekle and Cleator before 1909. But everything shifted in the summer of 1909, when the Cleator Moor Celtic Club was formed.

A piece in the Cumberland Paquet on 2 September 1909 noted that a new association club called the “Celts” had secured a field near Cleator Moor Railway Station. Practice was underway, and the committee had assembled a promising group of youngsters. Wath Brow were also returning, and for the first time association football would be played on a ground that had long hosted tough battles with the “Grasshoppers,” likely a reference to Northern Union. Both the Celts and Wath Brow had entered all local competitions on offer.

For the 1909–10 season, Cleator Moor Celtic joined the Egremont Divisional league, alongside Frizington Athletic, Frizington Recreation, Parton, Pica, Keekle, Moss Bay, Arlecdon, Wath Brow, Moresby, Distington, Cleator, Hensingham, Ennerdale, Bigrigg, and Whitehaven. The Celts played their first match on Saturday 4 September 1909 at home against near neighbours Keekle. Despite bad weather, 400 spectators turned out to see Keekle win 2–1. No further details of that game survive, but the Cumberland Paquet carried a full match report for the next fixture, on 11 September 1909, against Frizington Athletic.