AAA, NCAA and NCU dispute 1884
The Northern Counties Athletic Association was formed in 1879 after a disgraceful affair at Chester threaten to bring athletics in the North of England into serious disrepute. Nearly all athletics clubs in the North joined the Association.
The NCAA was effectively the AAA in the north of England, although there was some tension between the working class dominated North and the perceived pubic school/university dominated AAA in the South.
The arrangement between the NCU and AAA had been relatively harmonious, the AAA had allowed the NCU to run bicycle races without much interference. However in 1884, the AAA began to take an interest in Northern bicycle races as events were being held in which there both amateur and professional races.
The Heywood Phoenix Athletic Club was unhappy with NCAA and the Phoenix club secretary, Mr A Fitton was instrumental in forming the United Amateur Athletic Association at a meeting in Manchester on February 16th 1884. The main objective of the Association was for clubs to run their sports meetings under new rules that could include both amateur and professional races. The attendance at the meeting was low.
It was obvious that riders at any meeting which was run under the new United Amateur Athletic Association rules would be banned. The Heywood Phoenix AC duly advertised and ran their March 20th 1884 meeting under UAAA rules, which resulted in the AAA banning about 10 riders who competed there. Some other clubs ran events under UAAA rules, all in the north of England, but the UAAA seemed to fade out at the beginning of 1885. The AAA issued a statement that athletes who had been banned for competing under UAAA rules could be reinstated, if they applied by letter and did not repeat the offence. Resentment must have been running high because the NCAA refused to reinstate some Heywood athletes.
Throughout 1885, the AAA and NCU were in dispute and there was a real possibility that the NCAA would split from the Southern dominated AAA. The dispute centred more on control of events, as bicycle racing was viewed by some as being a branch of athletics. The situation was finally resolved at the start of 1886 with the AAA controlling athletics and the NCU controlling bicycle racing.