Football at the dockyard – 1892-1923

Football at the dockyard goes back to the very early days of the Maltese game.

In fact, we can trace the first football activity at the yard back to at least 1892 when, on October 27, the students of the Dockyard School met their counterparts from St Margherita School, of Cospicua.

Thanks to their British connections at the yard, the apprentices were among the first Maltese to play this ‘new’ game at the time.

During season 1892-93, Dockyard School played three matches.

Two of these were against the Margherita Garrison School whom they beat 2-1 and against the Floriana Garrison School with whom they drew 0-0. The other game was played on November 5, 1892 against a side from HMS Alexandria.

The students obtained a creditable 1-1 draw against bigger and stronger opponents.

For a time, no more was heard of the Dockyard School football team until in 1903 they appeared again, this time under the name of Dockyard Albion Apprentices.

It is on record that the apprentices played against the Lyceum football team on October 31, 1903, losing a very hard-fought en-counter 4-3.

Another team was founded at the dockyard in 1907.

Dockyard Athletics played their first match on December 7, 1907 against HMS Formidable, winning the game 2-0.

That season, the team took part in the Junior League. Using the Paola ground as their home base, the Athletics finished the competition in mid-table.

The Dockyard Boilermakers was another team that cropped from the dockyard during this particular period. Very little is known of this team except that, some time in February 1908, they beat HMS Boxer 1-0 in a friendly encounter.

The first team from the dockyard to take part in senior competitive football was the Dockyard Police side. They participated in the 1920-21 Civilian Football League.

Dockyard Police were the ‘dark horses’ of the competition, having been formed only just before the start of the season. Because of this they were not taken very seriously by the other teams.

On the whole, however, although finishing at the foot of the table and losing heavily 8-0 to Floriana, they were not outplayed in the other matches. Their best moment came against Sliema Rangers whom they beat 3-1.

The best known dockyard team, however, was the Dockyard Clerical Staff Amateur FC.

The Clerics, as they were known, were established in 1922, in time to take part in the newly-formed Amateur League.

The Clerics were among the original 11 members who formed the Malta Amateur Football Association on November 27, 1922.

In the first sitting of the association, all delegates of the teams were involved in a heated discussion. In this meeting it was proposed that only six teams would take part in the league.

The motion was passed with the result that five out of the 11 teams were left out.

To soften the disappointment of those left out, a second league was set up.

League number one was played at the Empire Sports Ground on Sunday mornings. It was composed of Lyceum, University, Banks Sports Association, Dockyard Clerical Staff and Malta Eastern Club.

Later, these teams left the Amateur League to form the Malta Sports Association, an elitist organisation that catered for players of a certain social standard.

Unfortunately, the first edition of the Amateur League was not given adequate publicity and was poorly reported in the newspapers. Consequently, many results are missing and even the eventual winners are doubtful.

From what little information can be gathered, it seems that this league was very keenly-contested because many First Division players found time to turn out for their amateur club.

In later years, the league was to gain in popularity as more amateur teams joined the association.