Mid-Annandale
Formed 1896 as Vale of Dryfe. Wound up 1906.
Re-formed as Mid-Annandale 1910. Wound up 1936.
Founder members of Scottish Division Three 1923. Joined the Scottish Alliance when Division Three was abandoned in 1926.
Kit History
Vale of Dryfe
1896-1906
1896 a
circa 1900 c
Mid-Annandale
1910
1910 a
1922-1927 b d
Background
Mid-Annandale started out as Vale of Dryfe FC and
played in Lockerbie, a small market town only 20 miles from the English
border (and some 70 miles south of Glasgow). They competed for one season
in the Southern Counties League (1897-98) before resigning and in 1906 this club was wound up. The former committee formed a new club, Mid-Annandale Juniors which became a senior club in 1910. Mid-Annandale FC re-joined the Southern Counties League but the six members gave priority to playing cup and friendly matches and the league was abandoned with less than half the fixtures played. The competition was revived in 1914 but was again abandoned, this time because of the outbreak of war.
In 1921 the Southern Counties League was reinstated and Mid-Annandale were champions in both 1922 and 1923. As one of the leading non-league sides in the south of the country, "The Mids" were invited to join the new Scottish Third Division in 1923. Dominated by clubs from the rump Western League, the Lockerbie side faced considerably increased travel expenses against teams that were unfamiliar to local supporters who stayed away. This dilemma proved to be the undoing of the competition, which ended in chaos in 1926 with fixtures incomplete.
Mid-Annandale then joined the Scottish Alliance, which was briefly reformed into two regional sections to accomodate the influx of former Division Three sides. The club quit their Kintail Park ground and used school playing fields for the rest of their career. The Scottish Alliance became a single division of reserve sides in 1927 and Mid-Annandale joined the Provincial League (1927-28) and later the reformed Southern Counties League (1928-29, 1931-36). In 1936 the club closed down.
In 2003 a new incarnation of Mid-Annandale joined the South of Scotland Football League. The modern club plays at King Edward Park in Lockerbie in the gold and black colours of their predecessor.
Sources
- (a) The Scottish Football League Past Members - Part 4 (Norman Nichol 1994)
- (b) Alick Milne
- (c) Mac Creedon
- (d) Duncan Darragh
Photograph courtesy of Mac Creedon.