A FOOTBALL League is calling for help to track down the base of a 108-year-old trophy.

Lancashire Amateur League officials last saw the Division Two winners' trophy when champions AFC Dobbies were celebrating with it at the league presentation night at the end of last year.

The league, in which many Bolton clubs play, are desperate to have it back as it has huge historic significance and the names of all past winners engraved on it.

It was first presented in 1910 and, while the officials are unclear of its exact origins, they believe it may have been provided by the league president at the time, Daniel Woolfall, who went on to become president of both the Lancashire Football Association and FIFA, the top job in world football.

LAL secretary Peter Duffy said: "The base has the past winners engraved on plates and shields, and as you will appreciate it is not possible to recall all the winners from the past 108 years.

"It is a priceless piece of LAL history and impossible to replace."

The trophy was presented to the AFC Dobbies team at the LAL dinner at Blackburn Rovers' Ewood Park ground.

Mr Duffy added: "It was presented complete with base but apparently taken back to the Dobbies club minus the base.

"It is not something that can be easily lost and must be somewhere. I can get possibly the names for the last 30 or 40 years but before that it is impossible to locate the names of the clubs that won it.

"This will be a massive loss and near impossible to replace."

The team has now left Radcliffe-based AFC Dobbies whose secretary, Harold Collinson, has tried to locate the base throughout the winter.

"Unfortunately neither I nor the chairman were able to attend the dinner as we normally would," he said.

"When I finally found out who had the trophy I went round to his house to pick it up and he gave it to me.

"I asked him where was the base and he said this was all he had.

"It took me months to get the actual trophy back and I'm at a loss as to what to do to find the base.

"There are still a few of the players I haven't spoken to yet and I'm thinking of writing to them because it's important to the league that we get it back."

If anyone has any information which could help to recover the base contact Mr Duffy on 07834 226629.