An email and a short write-up by Eddie Spiteri, who has just turned 88, prompted me to write this week's article.
Spiteri played as a goalkeeper for Sliema Amateurs. This club was one of the best amateur outfits of the period between the two world wars.
Sliema Amateurs, or at least the first club to bear that name, were formed in 1919. It was on February 2, 1919 that the club beat the Army Service Corps 2-1 in the Civilian Football League which in those days was equivalent to today's Premier League.
Between 1919 and the early 1920s there is no mention of Sliema Amateurs in the record books but in 1924 they were either revamped or a team bearing the same name was formed.
This team continued to play in amateur circles up to the start of the Second World War in 1940. We know that their colours in 1924-25 were Green and White but by the 1936-37 season they had changed to blue and white striped shirts.
In their history, Sliema Amateurs did not win many honours.
Their best season, however, was 1925-26 when they won the Amateur Cup. Once again, Sliema Amateurs went into hibernation but as Spiteri says the team was reformed in 1933 at Salesians Oratory.
Recalls
Spiteri gives a very good first-hand account of those glorious days of Maltese football.
Hereunder are Spiteri's memoirs of his days as an Amateurs player.
During the 1930s, before the outbreak of the Second World war, football in Malta was played in a number of grounds scattered around the island.
Competitive matches, however, were played in two main grounds, one at Gżira in the Empire Stadium and the other at Ħamrun's Mile-End Ground.
First Division matches were invariably staged at the Empire Stadium, while all the other divisions made use of the Empire Stadium in the morning and the Mile-End in both mornings and afternoons.
It was the time when at Christmas, formidable continental clubs from Austria and Hungary, the homes of such players as Sarosi, Binder, Platzer, Bican, Toldi and Stojaspal, used to visit the island to meet local clubs and selections for the Three British Services.
In those days, promotion to the First Division was very keenly-contested by clubs such as the Little Saint George's and Ħamrun Spartans, and attracted very large crowds. During the season 1936/37, Sliema Amateurs offered both clubs very stiff opposition.
The Sliema defence was made up of Doublet, Cilia and Borg, supporting their goalkeeper, Eddie Spiteri, barely 14 years of age.
Goalkeepers in those days were not so much protected by the football rules as they are today.
During the same period, football rules permitted players to register with a different club in a lower division. The photo accompanying this article was taken at the Empire Stadium in 1938 when Spiteri played for Sliema Chicago's in the U-18 league.
The Sliema Amateurs football Club was a product of the Salesian Oratory of Don Bosco.
In 1933, Charles Izzo, the captain of the Salesians Boys Brigade, came up with the idea of forming a football team made up of the boys attending St Patrick's school and of those who frequented the oratory at the time.
When the war reached our shores the club was disbanded.