The Border Cup was an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

cup competition for clubs in the Scottish Borders. The competition was founded in 1890 and was last competed for in the 1955–56 season.

Format

The competition was a

knock-out tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

contested by the member clubs of the Border Counties Football Association.

Initial entrants

* Kelso Athletic * Hawick Rangers * Peebles Rovers * Selkirk * Vale of Gala

History

The Border Counties Association was founded in 1890, with

Alexander Laing Brown Alexander Laing Brown (1851 – 1 October 1930) was a British Liberal Party politician. He was elected at the 1886 general election as the member of parliament (MP) for Hawick District of Burghs, defeating the sitting Liberal Unionist MP Sir Ge ...

MP as President. The first competition was held in 1890–91, and was won by Selkirk, who beat Hawick Rangers 4–3 in a thrilling game in which Rangers claimed (in vain) to have scored a late equalizer. The competition was unfinished in 1928–29 and 1948–49. The latter abandonment was due to the Association not being able to arrange a second replay of the semi-final between Gala Fairydean and Peebles Rovers. The winner of the other semi-final,

Berwick Rangers Berwick Rangers Football Club is a football team based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, England, just south of the border with Scotland. Founded in 1881, they currently play in the , the fifth tier of Scottish football, despite hailing fr ...

, was so put out by this that it withdrew from the Association. Berwick did at least have the biggest win in the final, 7–0 against

Coldstream Coldstream ( gd, An Sruthan Fuar , sco, Caustrim) is a town and civil parish in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. A former burgh, Coldstream is the home of the Coldstream Guards, a regiment in the British Army. Description Coldstream l ...

in 1927–28. It was something of a revenge as Coldstream's first triumph in the competition, in 1922–23, had come after Rangers had beaten it in the semi-final, but Coldstream was re-instated after Rangers refused to travel to the final in

Peebles Peebles ( gd, Na Pùballan) is a town in the Scottish Borders, Scotland. It was historically a royal burgh and the county town of Peeblesshire. According to the 2011 census, the population was 8,376 and the estimated population in June 2018 wa ...

without a £25 gate guarantee. The final competition, in 1955–56, was won by Eyemouth United, reserve centre-forward Burns scoring twice in each half to secure an easy 4–0 win over Gala Fairydean at

Wins by club

The only side to reach the final more than once without ever winning was Kelso, which was runner-up three times; the first time, in 1897–98, it squandered a 3–0 lead against Peebles Rovers to lose 4-3, and also missed a penalty.

External links

Results

References

Football cup competitions in Scotland {{Scotland-footy-competition-stub