The Hackney and Leyton Sunday Football League is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

competition based in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It was founded in 1946 and operates under the jurisdiction of the

London Football Association The London Football Association (LFA) is the regional Football Association for inner areas of London. The London FA was established in 1882 and is affiliated to The Football Association. The London FA administers all levels of men's, women's and ...

, the only English regional association founded by the FA.
The Hackney and Leyton Sunday League is considered a historic league as it has produced many players of the English football, such as

captains

Bobby Moore Robert Frederick Chelsea Moore (12 April 1941 – 24 February 1993) was an English professional footballer. He captained West Ham United for more than ten years, and was the captain of the England national team that won the 1966 FIFA ...

and

David Beckham Sir David Robert Joseph Beckham ( ; born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer, the president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF and co-owner of Salford City. Primarily a right winger and known for his range of passing, cross ...

Jimmy Greaves James Peter Greaves (20 February 1940 – 19 September 2021) was an English professional footballer who played as a forward. Regarded as one of the greatest strikers of all time and one of England's best ever players, he is England's fifth- ...

Ian Wright Ian Edward Wright (born 3 November 1963) is an English media personality and former professional footballer. Wright enjoyed success with London clubs Crystal Palace and Arsenal as a forward, spending six years with the former and seven year ...

Sol Campbell Sulzeer Jeremiah "Sol" Campbell (born 18 September 1974) is an English professional football manager and former player. Widely regarded as one of the best centre-backs of his generation, he spent 20 years playing in the Premier League and had a ...

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Vinnie Jones Vincent Peter Jones (born 5 January 1965) is an English actor, presenter, and former professional footballer. Jones played professionally as a defensive midfielder from 1984 to 1999, notably for Wimbledon, Leeds United, Sheffield United, C ...

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and others. Most of the games are played at the

Hackney Marshes Hackney Marshes is an area of open space in London's Lower Lea Valley, lying on the western bank of the River Lea. It takes its name from its position on the eastern boundary of Hackney, the principal part of the London Borough of Hackney, an ...

football complex, the biggest in the world. In 2010

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

’s star

Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi (; born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional Association football, footballer who plays as a forward (association football), forward for and Captain (association football), captains both Major League Soccer ...

arrived at the Marshes to come on as a substitute in a league match as a publicity stunt for

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized in all lowercase since 1949) is a German athletic apparel and footwear corporation headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany. It is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe, and the second largest in the ...

, however, it was quickly cancelled as he was mobbed by fans. The league has currently five divisions, the Premier Division, Division One, Division Two, Division Three and Division Four. It had a long association with Leyton FC with its headquarters located at the Leyton Stadium (previously known as the Hare and Hounds) until the headquarters moved to the Hackney Volunteers Club in Clapton.The league's longest-running club was Midfield, founded in 1967 and managed by Stan Gittings for over 40 years.

History

Early years

Up until the 1970s, a lot of semi-professional players used to play in the league which was used to getting good crowds of 500 people for the big games, attendances were higher than for Leyton Town. According to Johnnie Walker, the league's former chairman who first played on the Marshes in 1952, aged just 17, people also used to bet on the games as there were

bookmaker A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays out bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds In probability theory, odds provide a measure of the probability of a particular outco ...

s by the side of the pitch.

Recent years

Hackney and Leyton match at Marshes 2021

Principals

Taylor-Innes was one of the league's founders in 1946 and was chairmen for many years alongside Dave Taylor who was later honoured by having the league's domestic cup in his name (the cup started in 1952 and renamed to Dave Taylor Cup in 1972, and since 1999 it's been known as the Albert Daniels Senior Cup). Other chairmen were Peter Clarke, Ronnie Burce, and Alec Pretlove until 2003 and is considered the league's most popular chairman. Frank Hendy was one of the longest-serving Referee Secretaries; such was Albert Whitehead, while Ted Gore holds the position currently.

Dickie Davies Richard John Davies (30 April 1928 – 19 February 2023) was a British television sports presenter who anchored '' World of Sport'' from 1968 until 1985. Early life Davies attended Oldershaw Grammar School in Wallasey after passing his el ...

was the Registration Secretary for years, with his wife Nell at the post now. His memory has been honored with the establishment of the Dickie Davies Cup in 1980, the league's most prestigious domestic cup

League champions

Premier division

Founded in 1956, until then the top tier was the Division One. *Remarks: The 2019-20 Season was abandoned due to the pandemic situation.
Division One as top tier in bold (1952-1956).

Division One

Founded in 1951 as the top division and was replaced by the Premier League in 1956. It returned in 1958 as second tier.

Division Two

Founded in 1953 as the second tier, returned in 1957. It is now considered the third tier.

Division Three

Founded in 1949.

Division Four

Founded in 1948. Winners 2014/15 Wojak Sunday

Division Five

Lasted for only 3 seasons. * 1975–76 – British Oak * 1976–77 – Alexander * 1977–78 – White Horse B

Cup winners

Dickie Davies Cup

* 1981–82 – Joiners * 1982–83 – Joiners * 1983–84 – Joiners * 1984–85 – M.G Sports * 1985–86 – Monteith * 1986–87 – Chats * 1987–88 – Norfolk Arms * 1988–89 – M.G Sports * 1989–90 – Poplar Park * 1990–91 – Dock Settlement * 1991–92 – Country Flyer * 1992–93 – Ordell * 1993–94 – Bow Athletic * 1994–95 – Titan * 1995–96 – Ordell Arms * 1996–97 – Ordell * 1997–98 – Ordell * 1998–99 – Queensbridge * 1999–00 – AC Eleanor * 2000–01 – Hoxton Athletic * 2001–02 – London Aprilia * 2002–03 – Eureka * 2003–04 – Eureka * 2004–05 – Bancroft United * 2005–06 – Hoxton Athletic * 2006–07 – Albion Manor * 2007–08 – Clapton Rangers * 2008–09 – Lapton * 2009–10 – Lapton *

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

– Lapton * 2011–12 – Lapton *

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

– Black Meteors * 2013–14 – Black Meteors * 2014–15 – Clapton Rangers * 2015–16 – * 2016–17 – * 2017–18 – * 2018–19 – Mile End Baiteze Squad * 2019–20 – * *

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

– * 2021–22 – Niva *

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

– Baddoo FC *Remarks: The 2019-20 Season was abandoned due to the pandemic situation.

Albert Daniels Cup

Jack Morgan Cup

Jack Walpole Cup

Notable players

The following players either started their careers from the league or featured in later stages. *

Bedford Jezzard Bedford Alfred George Jezzard (19 October 1927 – 21 May 2005) was an English footballer. Jezzard's teenage years coincided with the Second World War, and he began football as an amateur with Croxley Boys and later Watford, for whom he made th ...

John Terry John George Terry (born 7 December 1980) is an English professional Coach (association football), football coach and former Association football, player who played as a centre-back. He was previously captain of Chelsea F.C., Chelsea, the En ...

Ntinos Pontikas Ntinos Pontikas (; born 27 February 1982) is a Greek former footballer who played as a striker. He holds the record for the youngest player ever to score a hat-trick. Career Pontikas started off with street football before having a brief spe ...

Notable clubs

* Senrab *Lapton

References

Sources

ARCHIVES: DIVISIONAL WINNERSARCHIVES: CUP WINNERSARCHIVES: REFEREE OF THE YEAR

External links

{{Football in London 1946 establishments in England Football competitions in London Football leagues in England Sports leagues established in 1946 Football in London