Bentley Colliery F.C. was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club based in

Bentley Bentley Motors Limited is a British designer, manufacturer and marketer of luxury cars and SUVs. Headquartered in Crewe, England, the company was founded as Bentley Motors Limited by W. O. Bentley (1888–1971) in 1919 in Cricklewood, North ...

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

. Until December 2015 they played in the

Central Midlands League The Central Midlands Football League is an English football league covering the northeast-central part of England. Formed in 1971 as the South Derbyshire League, changing name initially to the Derbyshire League before changing to its current nam ...

North Division, at level 11 of the

English football league system The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in England, with five teams from Wales, one from Guernsey, one from Jersey and one from the Isl ...

History

The club, which was first founded in 1912 in association with

Bentley Colliery Bentley Colliery was a coal mine in Bentley, near Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England, that operated between 1906 and 1993. In common with many other mines, it suffered disasters and accidents. The worst Bentley disaster was in 1931 when 45 mi ...

, spent the first few decades of its existence in relative obscurity, except for a three-year spell in the Yorkshire League during the early 1920s.Bentley Colliery
Football Club History Database They rejoined the Yorkshire League after the Second World War, winning promotion to the top flight of the competition in 1952. They were relegated back to the Second Division in 1956, but won promotion back again at the first attempt. They left the league altogether after a disastrous campaign in 1961 and eventually folded. They regularly entered the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

during the 1950s, reaching the 3rd Qualifying Round in 1955 and 1956. The club was reformed in 1976 as a Sunday league side, with Bentley Victoria Welfare being the prominent senior team in the village during the 1970s and 1980s. Colliery re-entered senior football and competed in the

Doncaster & District Senior League The Doncaster Saturday Football League is a football competition for clubs in the Doncaster area of England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its nort ...

during the 1990s, eventually winning the title in 2001 and earning promotion to the

in the process. They won promotion from the Premier Division to the Supreme Division in 2007 but were forcibly relegated the following season due to their lack of floodlights, despite finishing in mid-table. They were placed in the North Division when the CMFL restructured in 2011, regaining their Step 7 status. In December 2015, Bentley tendered their resignation from the Central Midlands League.

Notable former players

Players that have played in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

either before or after playing for Bentley Colliery – * Harry Bromage * Fred Shreeve

Ground

The club used to play at the Miners Welfare Ground, on The Avenue, Bentley,

postcode A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, included in a postal a ...

DN5 0PN.

Gallery

File:Bentley Colliery fc The welfare ground, the avenue road main stand.jpg, Avenue Road main stand with the traditional yorkshire welfare design roof as seen at various former welfare grounds. File:Bentley colliery fc welfare ground railway side.jpg, Railway side banking currently overgrown and disused as it does not have the required hard standing. File:Bentley colliery fc welfare ground elm crescent end.jpg, Elm Crescent end banking currently overgrown and disused as it does not have the required hard standing. File:Bentley colliery fc school end banking.jpg, School end banking leading to pay gate and exit.

Honours

League

* Yorkshire League Division Two **Promoted: 1951–52, 1956–57 *

Premier Division **Promoted: 2006–07 *

Sheffield Association League The Sheffield Association League was an English association football league based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. History The league was founded in 1897 to fill the void left by the disbandment of the Sheffield & District Football League, which ...

**Champions: 1919–20 *

**Champions: 2000–01

Cup

Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior Cup The Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior Cup is a county cup competition involving teams within the Sheffield and Hallamshire County Football Association. Originally named the Sheffield Challenge Cup, it is the 5th oldest surviving cup competition i ...

**Winners: 1957–58, 1958–59

Records

*Best

performance: 3rd Qualifying Round, 1955–56, 1956–57

References

{{reflist Defunct football clubs in England Defunct football clubs in South Yorkshire Association football clubs established in 1912 1912 establishments in England 2016 disestablishments in England Association football clubs disestablished in 2016 Sport in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster Sheffield Association League Yorkshire Football League Doncaster & District Senior League Central Midlands Football League Mining association football teams in England