Official History 1945-2013

Foreword

This record has been produced with the aim of providing details of the clubs, trophy winners and officials of the League, from 1945-2000 inclusive. In 1992, Steve Wilcox, then secretary of the W.D.C.L, produced historical records of all trophy winners of the league. He later supplemented these with a list of winners of the Summer League, and updated the records of the Lightning Tournament. His sterling work consequently forms the core of this booklet, but with the runners-up of the Cup competitions also added. Several years ago too, Graham Humphreys produced a list of the clubs, which had been members of the W.D.C.L. That information, now augmented with membership dates and name changes, provides an invaluable insight into the history of the League, and is therefore also included here. In order to make it an even more complete record though, listings of the officials of the League have been added. However, since the Vice-Presidents / Deputy Presidents / Deputy Chairmen all served as Presidents either before or after their terms of office (see note to the table), a list of them would merely duplicate the President / Chairman list, and they are therefore not listed. Although the bulk of the information here derives directly from the minutes of the League, thanks are also owed to those people who have helped to check out unclear details, especially about individual clubs. In particular, Barry Lewis was very helpful in updating records of the Summer League, and Graham Humphreys assisted by checking out information from past records. This is not a history of the League, but extracts from the minute books have been included. These generally serve either to provide additional interest, or to explain origins of particular features. Since these extracts are exact copies, original spelling mistakes and inaccuracies remain uncorrected! These extracts appear in italics and are followed by the [date] of the entries in the books. The responsibility for additional notes to tables is mine alone. In a few cases, information is incomplete. If anyone can help to fill in these missing gaps, please contact me. Mike Groombridge
Secretary, W.D.C.L.
30th March 2001

Second Edition

As well as 5-year update, this includes corrections from the first edition.
Mike Groombridge
2nd Sept 2005

Third Edition

This further update shows the dates of trophy winners amended, so that they appear the same as on the trophies.
Mike Groombridge
30th May 2011