Ayrshire Football Combination

1893-1897

See also Main index Club directory Ayrshire Cup Ayrshire League Scottish Alliance

The Ayrshire League was formed by ten clubs in 1891. When it had increased to sixteen by 1893 some clubs didn’t like the idea of a 30-game schedule playing in front of poor crowds. This prompted a breakaway and the Ayrshire Football Combination was formed along with Kilmarnock of the Scottish Alliance. In 1894, the rivalry between the two leagues grew to the point whereby the Combination forgot about gate money, and invited any club to join. This saw three clubs leave the Ayrshire League for the Combination, while one, Kilbirnie, went the other way. Beith and Irvine joined when the Ayrshire League disbanded in 1895. Kilmarnock had already left for the Scottish Football League in 1895, and when Ayr joined them in 1897, the loss of the county’s two strongest clubs sounded the death knell of the Ayrshire Combination.

Champions

1893-94 Annbank

1894-95 Ayr

1895-96 Ayr

1896-97 Ayr

Membership Annbank Ayr Ayr Parkhouse Beith Galston Hurlford Irvine Kilbirnie Kilmarnock Kilmarnock Athletic Kilwinning Monkcastle Saltcoats Victoria Stevenston Thistle

Seasons 1893-95 1893-97 1893-97 1895-97 1896-97 1893-97 1895-97 1893-94 1893-95 1894-96 1894-97 1894-95 1893-97

Came from Ayrshire League Ayrshire League Ayrshire League Ayrshire League Ayrshire League Ayrshire League Scottish Alliance Ayrshire League Ayrshire League Ayrshire League Ayrshire League

Left for Scottish League Ayrshire League Scottish League

Final tables

	1893-94	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1 2 3 4 5 6 7	Annbank Ayr Hurlford Ayr Parkhouse Kilmarnock Kilbirnie Stevenston Thistle	12 12 12 12 12 12 12	8 8 9 9 5 3 2	0 0 3 2 1 0 2	4 4 3 4 6 9 8	34 28 40 32 34 17 25	20 22 18 34 24 46 42	16 16 15 14 11 6 6

Play off for Championship - Annbank 4 Ayr 3 

	1894-95	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9	Ayr Kilmarnock Athletic Kilmarnock Stevenston Thistle Annbank Ayr Parkhouse Hurlford Saltcoats Victoria Kilwinning Monkcastle	16	12	0	4	39	23	24 21 21 20 18 16 14 4 1

Hurlford - 2 points deducted

Kilmarnock - 3 points deducted

	1895-96	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8	Ayr Kilwinning Monkcastle Ayr Parkhouse Stevenston Thistle Beith Kilmarnock Athletic Irvine Hurlford	12 14 14 14 14 14 13 13	8 7 7 7 4 6 5 2	2 2 1 1 6 1 2 1	2 5 6 6 4 7 6 10	35 46 29 41 37 40 27 26	15 34 34 35 28 41 47 47	18 16 15 15 14 13 12 5

	1896-97	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1 2 3 4 5 6 7	Ayr Hurlford Kilwinning Monkcastle Stevenston Thistle Galston Beith Irvine	11 11 12 12 12 12 12	7 7 5 6 5 5 3	1 2 4 0 1 2 0	3 2 3 6 6 5 9	27 34 30 28 32 17 15	22 18 19 26 29 21 39	17 16 14 12 11 10 6

Ayr were awarded 2 points, and the championship, when Hurlford failed to play them when ordered.

Sources : Forbes Brown, Tom Cockburn, Stewart Davidson