West Derby Hockey Club is one of the oldest surviving clubs in the North of England and is the second oldest in South West Lancashire. It was founded in 1887 by a group of gentlemen who wished to pursue a sport in winter months.

The members were mostly drawn from the West Derby, Sandfield Park and Oakhill Park areas. The first ground was West Derby Cricket Club in Mill lane alongside the railway station and behind St.James Church.

The club colours in those days were a pink and white striped shirt, at the start, when knickerbocker style trousers were worn there were no official club stockings but fashion was soon to change with navy shorts and pink and white hooped socks being adopted along with a matching pink and white blazer. During the first year all the games were played amongst the clubs members.

The only other team in the area at this time was Sefton, which was founded in 1885 (at this time it was known as Blantyre). Across the Mersey two clubs were just forming Birkenhead Park and New Brighton and these three Clubs were to be the initial opponents of West Derby. during the trial years oh hockey being played on Merseyside the players wore protective pads on the outside of their clothes and used old ash and vine sticks.

The second season of West Derby Hockey Club saw the members build on an already successful first year, with two games being played against Birkenhead Park, both being won by West Derby. The year 1889 was to be important for both the Club and the game of Hockey in general. The Hockey association had been founded in 1886 to act as the governing body of a sport that was increasing in importance. This new found popularity continued with the formation of the Lancashire County Hockey Association and the appearance of West Derby's first fixture card. The 1889 season saw B.H.Cookson as president of the Club with W.R Glazebrook being the Captain. Fifteen matches were played with only one defeat by Western from Manchester. 1890 saw West Derby elected to the Lancashire County Association in what has proved to be a long and close association between the two parties.

The Club continued to build and its success was noted in the 'Hockey' magazine in 1894 when a picture of the team was printer under the heading 1893/94 Champions of Liverpool and District. The following season after several years lapse West Derby played Western the strongest team in Manchester and surprised many people with a resounding 6-0 win. Following this and other successes West Derby embarked on their first tour outside the North West with a visit to London in 1895 to play sides from Kensington park, Molesey and Teddington.

The high standard of play was maintained for many years through to 1907 West Derby was considered the strongest side in the North. in 1900 when the North beat the South for the first time West derby had three players in the victorious side, Harrison,Cleaver and Heyes. It was to be nine years before the North beat the South again and on this occasion Dr L.S Ashcroft from West Derby played at centre half. In an outstanding county game Lancashire V Cheshire on Boxing Day 1901 the Lancashire team was referred to as 'West Derby with a few friends' the 6 West Derby players being, H.F.Busch, L.S.Cleaver, S.B.Heyes, J.A.Wolff, J.H.Rogers and W.R.Harrison. The latter the youngest of four brothers was renowned for his goal scoring ability and averaged 30 goals per season for fourteen years.

The Club then went through a lean period both on and off the pitch with the Hockey section being threatened with eviction from Mill Lane. In 1905 there was a take-over offer for the hockey pitches by both Marlborough F.C and Bankfield F.C. This would not be the only time in the Clubs history that a problem would arise over the sharing of a pitch, this problem was resolved by the Club paying double rent for it's pitches. The Club soon overcame this setback and had a particularly successful 1906/07 season when the Club set a record of a total of eight players being selected for the Lancashire side. This was the last truly great season the Club enjoyed up to the outbreak of the First World War, though the club continued to supply players to Lancashire with G.Rodgers, W.E Graham, J.Husband, E.F. O'Connor, and C.W. Robinson appearing prior to the outbreak of hostilities.

The Great War badly affected hockey on Merseyside as it did most other sports in England and West Derby were faced with several problems when they came to resume their fixtures in 1919. The Club had only kept 12 members and had lost the use of the cricket ground. During the war, due to building needs in the area, the cricket ground at Mill Lane disappeared with St.James Close and Sandforth Close being built on the site and the rest of the land becoming allotments. The Club then played for a short time at Huyton cricket Club. The next move in this unsettled period was to Stephensons field in Bankfield Road, off Mill Bank, West Derby the club remained there until the mid twenties and then moved to Deysbrook Lane where the area of land included space for three hockey pitches and several tennis courts. the Club settled at this site for many years despite part of the land being turned into Lisleholme Road and Crescent.
Following an appeal from the Hon.Secretary J.A.Smith the members formed the Deysbrook sports club Ltd in 1935. The Sports Club then purchased a sufficient amount of the remaining ground to ensure playing room for one hockey pitch and four tennis courts, a small car park was laid out and a pavilion built. West Derby had overcome the difficulties faced in the post World War one years and by the mid thirties was building up a strong side to challenge for the supremacy of the North.

The Jubilee season of 1937/38 saw an ex first team captain as president in H.F.Lilley and under his guidance the Club continued to make progress at their new ground. The first fifty years of the Club had been very successful with L.S. Cleaver and W.B.Bowring having played for England while S.B.Hughes received an invitation to play but was unable to accept the offer. P.V.Binney had played for Wales, W.E. Graham and E.F. O'Connor played for Ireland. At County level 32 West Derby Players had represented Lancashire with a total of over 150 caps. The Club membership had now increased to such an extent that there were now four teams. In order to accommodate these teams the club rented the Clubmore Cricket Club for the seasons 1936/40. Fortuitously the Club left this ground in 1940 when the Second World War led to a decline in membership and almost immediately following their departure the pavilion was damaged as a direct result of enemy action when an ammunition train was hit on a nearby railway line.

The start of the Second World War like the Great War led to a steady decline in membership of clubs in the Merseyside area. Sefton like West Derby was also suffering a loss in membership and in 1940 an agreement was reached whereby for the period of the war, the two oldest clubs in the South West Lancashire league were to merge and use West Derby's Ground. This temporary link was evidence of the friendship that existed between the them. This was further exemplified that each club appointed as vice presidents members of the other club. One such colourful character was Percy Jacobson who was made a vice president of West Derby in 1940. The Club managed a reasonable full fixture list during the early war years but members were still scarce. in 1942 there were only 15 playing members at West Derby after 16 had left to join the forces. The following season the Club again managed a full fixture list despite having 33 members enlisted. The Secretary of the Club L.S. Hulme had the unfortunate task of announcing the deaths of three members, J.A. Mcardle, F.D. Blower and C.R. Camidge. During the 1944 season the Club managed to play over 25 games in what was their fullest season of the war years winning over half of them. Sadly the club lost another member during this time with the death of R.A.F. Sergeant J.A. Miller.

After the war with returning and new members the two clubs resumed independence by mutual consent. the close contact between the clubs was to be continued with R.G. Twentyman of Sefton designing the memorial tablet to those of West Derby who had been killed during the war. It was due to the valiant efforts of A.C.B. Cartwright and later H.C.Coville that the fixture list began to look something like the pre war list. during the early post-war years there were enough players for two teams though the lack of games was caused by bad weather as opposed to player shortage. By the 1948/49 season the club was virtually back to it's pre-war strength with fixtures again being required for four teams.

Contributed by Dave Forshaw