Cronberry Eglinton Football Club was a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team based in the now tiny hamlet of

Cronberry Cronberry is a small hamlet situated north-east of Cumnock and one mile north-east of Lugar, in East Ayrshire, Scotland. History Cronberry has a Women's Rural Institute which meets in the old school. Diane and Holly Fallon were murdered at Cr ...

East Ayrshire East Ayrshire ( sco, Aest Ayrshire; gd, Siorrachd Àir an Ear) is one of thirty-two council areas of Scotland. It shares borders with Dumfries and Galloway, East Renfrewshire, North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and South Lanarkshire. The headquart ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. The club was originally formed as a junior side in 1885 but between the years of 1891 and 1895 Eglinton were registered as a senior club with the Scottish FA and permitted to enter the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,South of Scotland Football League The South of Scotland Football League (SoSFL) is a senior football league based in south-west Scotland. The league sits at level 6 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the Lowland Football League. Founded in 1946, it i ...

. They were also founder members of the Ayrshire Junior Football Association in 1889. Eglinton had been preceded by an earlier club, Cronberry FC which was formed in 1880 but folded just two years later. In the early years Cronberry played in navy & white striped shirts with navy shorts but after 1895, and to mark a return to junior status, changed to black & white. The football club took its unusual suffix from the Eglinton Iron Company who developed the villages of Lugar and

in the 1840s to provide housing for workers at the nearby colliery and ironworks. During the 1920s many of the pits in the East Ayrshire coalfield closed down and the men moved away in search of work. In 1928 the Eglinton Iron Company, by then owned by William Baird & Co, closed leaving the local economy decimated. Cronberry Eglinton FC survived until the South Ayrshire Junior Football League collapsed in 1932.

Honours

*South Ayrshire Junior Football League Champions, 1927–28

Famous Players

Glenbuck-born

Bill Shankly William Shankly (2 September 1913 – 29 September 1981) was a Scottish football player and manager, who is best known for his time as manager of Liverpool. Shankly brought success to Liverpool, gaining promotion to the First Division and winnin ...

began his footballing career as a right-half for Cronberry Eglinton FC in 1931–32 season following of the demise of his home town side, the legendary

Glenbuck Cherrypickers Glenbuck Cherrypickers Football Club was a football team in the village of Glenbuck in East Ayrshire, a district of Scotland. The Glenbuck Cherrypickers were notable for the high number of professional footballers that they produced, despite on ...

in 1930.

References

{{Defunct Scottish football clubs Defunct football clubs in Scotland Association football clubs established in 1885 Association football clubs disestablished in 1932 1885 establishments in Scotland 1932 disestablishments in Scotland South of Scotland Football League teams Football in East Ayrshire