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The Bristol and District Golf League was started in 1955 by John Reece of the Western Daily Press and John Ireland. Initially it was called the Western Daily Press Golf League - in fact the first references to it in the local press refer to it as the Western Daily Press and Bristol Mirror Golf League, although the references to the Bristol Mirror in the league‘s name soon disappeared. (The Western Daily Press and Bristol Mirror was the full name of the newspaper in 1955)
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There were eight founder clubs: five from Bristol - namely Filton, Henbury, Knowle, Long Ashton and Shirehampton Park plus Saltford, Lansdown and Weston-Super-Mare. The clubs were divided into two divisions - Filton, Henbury, Long Ashton and Weston-Super-Mare competed in Division One and Knowle, Lansdown, Saltford and Shirehampton Park in Division Two.
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The format of the matches were 4 foursomes matches with two points available for each of the four games, meaning eight points were available in total for each match. In 1955, Filton won Division One and Knowle Division Two.
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For the second year, 1956, two other clubs - Clevedon and Worlebury joined the league. Henbury became Division One champions for the first time beating Knowle in a play-off. Both teams finished with 34 points from their eight matches. A two-legged play-off took place. A 4-4 draw at Knowle was followed by a 5-3 victory for Henbury in the return fixture. In their initial season, Worlebury impressively won Division Two, gaining 39 points from their eight matches.
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Such was the early success of the league that it expanded to five divisions and twenty four teams as early as 1957. Only one new club joined in that year - Mendip, and one team - Weston-Super-Mare dropped out completely - but all the other clubs entered more teams. Filton, Henbury, Saltford and Shirehampton all entered three teams and Knowle entered four! As reported in the Western Daily Press, 1957 really belonged to Knowle. Their first team won Division One - again they tied with Henbury, both teams having 32 points from six games but Knowle gained revenge for the previous year‘s play-off defeat by beating Henbury 6-2 in a match played at a neutral venue, Long Ashton. In addition to their first team‘s triumph, Knowle‘s third team won Division Four and their fourth team won Division Five. Long Ashton gained promotion back to Division One by a clear thirteen points having been relegated from Division One the previous year and Henbury seconds won Division Three.
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In 1958, the league structure of five divisions remained the same and Long Ashton won the championship for the first time being clear winners by six points. Shirehampton won promotion to Division One for the first time by winning Division Two.
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The decision was taken to streamline the league to four divisions for the 1959 season and Knowle‘s fourth team dropped out even though they had won Division Four the previous year. The points structure was changed to the one we know today i.e. two points available for the match and Long Ashton retained their championship with ten points from their eight matches. Worlebury won Division Two impressively with thirteen points to return to Division One having been relegated in 1958
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The league continued to have four divisions in 1960 and 1961 and Filton were first division champions in both those years. Then in 1962 the decision was taken to cut back the league to just two divisions. This coincided with the beginning of a period of Long Ashton domination. They won Division One for the next six years (1962-1967). If you include their victories in 1958 and 1959 they won the title eight times in ten years. Their feat of winning six consecutive titles has only been surpassed once, by Knowle, with their nine successive wins from 1977-1985.
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In more recent times, notable performances have come from Tracy Park who won four consecutive titles in the nineties, from 1994 to 1997 and from Bristol and Clifton who triumphed five times in a row from 1998 to 2002. In the last few years, retaining a Division One title has proved very difficult.
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In 1964, Division Two was decided by a medal play-off at Shirehampton, where Worlebury II beat Clevedon.
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Bristol and Clifton joined the league for the first time in 1965. In that year, something very unusual took place. Three teams tied on sixteen points in Division One (Filton, Knowle and Long Ashton) and three teams tied in Division Two on twelve points (Clevedon, Long Ashton II and Shirehampton II). Lots were drawn to see who would play in the play-off semi-finals and which clubs would get a bye to the play-off final. Long Ashton won the Division One title by beating Knowle at Bristol and Clifton and then beating Filton at Knowle on Final‘s Day. Clevedon won Division Two after beating both Long Ashton II and Shirehampton II at Knowle. Both matches finished 3-2.
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This complicated end to the season resulted in the introduction of "goal difference" as a way of resolving ties between teams with the same number of points.
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The league expanded from two divisions to three again in 1967, from three to four in 1971 and from four to five in 1973.
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The Western Daily Press ceased to be involved with the league in 1980 at which time the league was renamed as the Bristol and District Golf League.
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