Pirelli football team, managed by Andrew Boyce and his assistant Alan Hodgson, are Westmorland League Division One champions.

The team finished their season three points ahead of Keswick, the team that had dominated the league, having been champions for the previous three seasons.

Pirelli finished their season on a high note with a convincing 5-2 victory in their final league game at home to Kendal County to crown an excellent season, in which they also reached the semi-finals of the Cumberland Cup when they drew 1-1 with Workington Reds at Borough Park.

The game then went to penalties and the home team came out on top winning 5-3 to reach the final at Brunton Park where the west Cumbrians beat Penrith 2-1 after extra-time.

The Pirelli Tyre Factory opened in 1969 and there have been football teams playing in local leagues almost from the start, one of which involved Brian Grainger who worked at the factory and played for a number of seasons on the right wing.

Brian had two sons, Chris and Ian, also talented footballers who played for many years in various leagues for local teams, including Pirelli Youth teams.

Pirelli were also founder members of the Carlisle Youth League which formed in the early 1980s, with leagues of Under-12, Under-14 and Under-16s, the then factory manager Peter Redfern - who had sons Andrew and David playing - gave great support to Junior football as did team manager Mike Batey who was also a stalwart on the league committee.

There have been a number of dedicated and successful youth team managers, including John Corrieri, Ross McDonald, Brian Dunn, Stuart Stephens and Peter Simpson – brother of Ex-Carlisle United manager Paul – but none have quite matched the successes of Andrew Boyce, a factory worker who began managing an Under-12 team 20 years ago.

Andrew took his team through the Under-14s, Under-16s and Under-18s leagues and then started again at Under-8s with a new batch of players, winning many league titles and a number of cup Finals along the way.

When his Under-18 boys became too old to play Youth football Andrew, known to many as Boycie, decided to take them into the Westmorland Saturday League where they were admitted into the fourth Division which they won at the first attempt.

That was three seasons ago and their success story has just got better and better with Pirelli finishing the 2016/17 season as champions of the Westmorland League Division One.