Tayport F.C.
For over a century the game of football has been a major influence in most communities in Scotland; Tayport is no exception.
From Victorian times, through to the Second World War, the town had at least one football club. We know that Tayport had a Junior club pre-First World War, winning the East of Fife Cup in 1905, for example. The Great War in 1914 effectively signalled the demise of junior level football in the town for seventy five years.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, there were various amateur clubs, but success was fleeting and there are few records. After the Second World War the town's football club was called Tayport Violet. In 1947 a new club emerged when Tayport Amateurs was formed by locals who had been playing friendlies as a senior boy scouts team; this was the birth of the club we know today.
The Amateurs team joined the Midlands Amateurs’ Alliance League, which was essentially for clubs’ reserve XIs, whilst Violet played in the Midlands’ top division. In 1950, the Midlands Amateur Football Association reorganised and both teams found themselves in division two. They finished the season in 1st and 2nd spots respectively. After promotion, 1952-53 saw Violet and the Amateurs finish 2nd and 3rd in the first division; however, Violet was disbanded after this season.
At the invitation of Tayport Town Council, in 1975, the Amateurs moved to the Canniepairt. Clubrooms were constructed which, over the years (like the ground) were improved in order to provide the accommodation which both the club and wider community now enjoy.
In 1980, the club which, since 1953 had run an Alliance, or Reserve XI, started a third team – the Fife XI - which was to enjoy eleven successful seasons in the East Fife Amateur Association and for one season, in the Kingdom Caledonian League.
In 1990, the club's junior team was launched and the name of the club became ‘Tayport Football Club’, a name which could embrace both amateur and junior grades. The 2000-2001 season was the club's last in the Amateurs Leagues.
Tayport FC have enjoyed great success since 1990 including being OVD Scottish Junior Cup Winners in 1995/96, 2002/03 and 2004/05 (website www.tayportfc.org)
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