Bishop Auckland F.C.
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| Bishop Auckland | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Full name | Bishop Auckland Football Club | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nickname(s) | The Bishops, The Two Blues | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Founded | 1886 (as Auckland Town) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ground | Dean Street Shildon (Capacity 4500) |
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| Chairman |  Terry Jackson |
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| Manager | Brian Honour |
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| League | Northern League Division One | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2006-07 | Northern League Division One, 16th | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Bishop Auckland Football Club are an English football team based in Bishop Auckland, County Durham. They are one of the most successful amateur sides, having won the old FA Amateur Cup on 10 occasions. They currently play in the Northern League Division One. Their nickname is 'The Bishops' or 'The Two Blues'. They are rivals with Spennymoor Town and the famous West Auckland Town F.C. and are not to be confused.
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[edit] Stadium
Between the years of 1886 and 2001 Bishop Auckland played their home matches at one of the United Kingdom's oldest football grounds, Kingsway, Bishop Auckland. Kingsway was unique because it was shared with the town's cricket club, one of the four sides was a cricket pitch. The club moved out of Kingsway with plans to move into a 10,000 capacity stadium to be built at Tindale Crescent near Bishop Auckland, although this has been scaled down since the original plans. The football club are awaiting the go-ahead from Durham County Council to build and have also been given a grant by the Football Stadia Improvement Fund to assist the construction of the ground.
While waiting for the ground at Tindale Crescent to be constructed, the club have had to share with other local football teams. Bishop Auckland current play their football at Dean Street, Shildon, home of Shildon AFC. This is their second stint here, having played there between 2002 and 2004; they have also played at Brewery Field, Spennymoor, home of Spennymoor Town, between the spells at Dean Street.
The new ground will benefit from a set of floodlights donated by Manchester United, who are replacing the lighting at Old Trafford, in recognition of Bishop Auckland's loan of three players in 1958 following the Munich air disaster which killed eight Manchester United players.
[edit] History
Football in Bishop Auckland can be traced back to 1882 when thoelogical students from Cambridge and Oxford Universities studying at Auckland Castle, home to the Bishop of Durham in Bishop Auckland, formed a team known as Bishop Auckland Church Institute. The founding students chose Cambridge and Oxford Blue as the club's colours to reflect the origins of the new team. A later dispute caused a breakaway team called Auckland Town in 1886 and it was from this upheaval that Bishop Auckland Football Club was eventually born. Eight days after its formation, the club chose royal blue with white facings and subsequently changed to the more familiar light (Cambridge) and dark (Oxford) blue colours of the original Church Institute, representing the colours of Oxbridge, and the origins of football in Bishop Auckland.
In 1889 Auckland Town were one of the 10 founding members of the World's second-oldest football league - the Northern League. The inaugral season was largely uneventful with the team finishing 8th with the league's first winners being St. Augustine's (Darlington). Between the years of 1891 and 1893 the team never participated in league football but it was during this time that the club won its first silverware - the Durham County Challenge Cup - in 1892.
The team name was changed in 1893 to Bishop Auckland and it was under this name that the football club rejoined the Northern League. The following two seasons under the new name were again uneventful as the club finished third bottom on both occasions.
During the 1895/96 season Bishop Auckland won their first silverware on a national scale - the Amateur Cup - defeating Royal Artillery Portsmouth 8-0 in the final. Over the following few seasons the team steadily improved their league position and in 1898/99 won the Northern League championship for the first time. It was also during 1899 that Bishop Auckland picked up their second Durham County Challenge Cup.
It was clear that Bishop Auckland was an appealing prospect for the region's talented footballers as the Northern League was won a further five times (and shared with Sunderland 'A' in 1905/06) and the Amateur Cup final was reached a further six times (beating Lowestoft Town 5-1 in 1900 and Northern Nomads 1-0 in 1914) before football was suspended due to WWI.
After the war, Bishop Auckland picked up where they left off finishing as league runners-up to South Bank in 1919/20, winning the following season and runners-up again the following two seasons. During this time the Amateur Cup was added twice more with wins over Swindon Victoria (4-2, 1921) and South Bank (5-2 (aet), 1922).
The next honour was won nearly a decade later when the league championship was added in 1931 along the Durham County Challenge Cup. In 1935 the Amateur Cup final was reached again with Wimbledon being defeated 2-1 in a replay after the original tie finished goalless after extra time. The league championship was again won in 1938/39 after being runners-up the previous two seasons, along with the Durham County Challenge Cup. In the final season before play was suspended due to WWII, Bishop Auckland finished as runners-up in the Northern League but did reach the Amateur Cup final where they defeated Wellington 3-0 after extra time.
Following WWII, Bishop Auckland reached the Amateur Cup final for the eleventh time but went down 3-2 against Barnet. The following season, '46/'47, another Northern League title was added with Crook Colliery Welfare runners-up. The team were runners-up the following two seasons ('48/'49), to Ferryhill Athletic and Evenwood Town respectively.
The 50's were to be Bishop Auckland's best with the Northern League title won in the first three seasons with Billingham Synthonia being the runners-up on each occasion. Bishop and Willington both reached the final of the Amateur Cup in 1950, Willington producing a shock to triumph 4-0 over their more glamourous neighbours and take the Cup back to County Durham. The following season the Amateur Cup final was reached again. The opponents were Pegasus and again Bishops had to settle for a runners-up medal as Pegasus were the victors after a 2-1 win. In '53 Bishop were runners-up to Crook Town in the league but added the title another three times over the next three seasons ('54, '55 and '56), with Crook Town being runners-up on each occasion. In '54 the Amateur Cup final was again reached, this time Crook Town were the opponents and it was the Black and Ambers that triumphed after a narrow 1-0 win.
The next three seasons were unprecedented in Amateur Cup history. Not only did Bishops reach the final on each occasion, but also finished the victors on each occasion. The opponents being; '55 Hendon (2-0), '56 Corinthian-Casuals (1-1 (aet), 4-1) and '57 Wycombe Wanderers (3-1). The latter being Bishops last appearance in the Amateur Cup final. That wasn't the last of the silverware in the 50s, however. The Durham County Challenge Cup was again added in 1956.
Bishop Auckland FC’s best footballing performance was arguably played in the 1954 - 1955 season in which they won the Northern League Division One, the Northern League Cup, the FA Amateur Cup and reached the 4th round in the FA Cup losing only to York who then went on to lose to Newcastle in the Final, this being an exceptionally strong year for northern football teams (as Sunderland FC also reached the semi-final. It is hard to determine the level Bishop Auckland played at, in terms of today’s standards as there was a divide between the professional and amateur football sides. However the achievements clearly speak for themselves and it may be said that Bishop Auckland (at least in this season) were playing at the same level as a championship team in today’s terms easily beating the likes of Ipswich town (league 2, now known as: championship) in the FA cup. Photos of this season can be seen in the town centre pub, wetherspoon's (The Stanley Jefferson). Bishop Auckland FC were a truly remarkable football team, they have played at Wembley on numerous occasions and had a huge amount of fans supporting them. The 1954-1955 FA Amateur Cup final saw crowds reach 100,000 (probably being close to one of the highest club attendances ever recorded on English soil, matched only by the international fixtures also played at wembley) with the majority supporting Bishop Auckland football team. Seamus O'Connell went on to play for Chelsea in this very season (1954-1955) which earned him the title of being the only player to win the amateur FA cup with Bishop Auckland and the division 1 (now premier) league with Chelsea in the same season. He then went on to play for Crook Town even though he proved he could play at professional level, mainly due to the fact that he wanted to work and play football simply as a sport. Other players (Derek Lewin, Bob Hardisty and Warren Bradley) went on to play for Manchester united (following the Munich disaster) and earned international caps at both amateur and professional level most notably Warren Bradley who is the only English player to have done this in the same season. Bishop Auckland FC players were very talented players and if it were not for their jobs they would most probably would have decided to play in the professional leagues. Seamus O'Connell, Warren Bradley and Bob Paisley (in the also well performing 1938-39 season) are fine examples of Bishop Auckland players that played just as well for the professional team as they did for the amateur team. The sheer number of times they played in finals at Wembley meant that they were one of the best known teams in England, known very well by people such as John Motson.
In 1960, Bishops were league runners-up to near-neighbours West Auckland, but the league title was again added in '67 with the Durham County Challenge Cup being added to the one won in '62.
Bishops had to wait until the 80s until their next piece of silverware - a league and county cup double being added in '85 and '86. After finishing 6th in 1988 it was decided by the club's hierarchy that a higher level of league football was necessary for the club to grow. Bishops left the Northern League for the second time and joined the Northern Premier League. Again, the Durham County Challenge Cup was won.
In their debut season in the Northern Premier League the team made their mark in the First Division and finished as runners-up - winning promotion to the Premier Division in the process. The team more than held their own over the following seasons with the club's highest position in the pyramid being achieved in 1997 - 2nd in the Premier League of the Northern Premier League. The county cup was again won this season.
In 2002, the club suffered it's first relegation in its history despite not finishing in a relegation place. Bishops were relegated by the Northern Premier League on a ground technicality.
Bishops battled back and again found themselves in the Premier Division following the 2004 restructuring of the non-league pyramid. However, with the ground situation dragging on and a percentage of the playing budget being took up by rent towards Spennymoor United and Shildon, it proved difficult in attracting the quality of player necessary to maintain a place in the Northern Premier League. The following season Bishops suffered their second successive relegation and returned to the Northern League for the 06/07 season.
[edit] Honours
- FA Amateur Cup
- Winners: 1896, 1900, 1914, 1921, 1922, 1935, 1939, 1955, 1956, 1957
- Runners-up: 1902, 1906, 1911, 1915, 1946, 1950, 1951, 1954
- Northern Premier League Premier Division
- Runners-up: 1996-97
- Northern Premier League First Division
- Runners-up: 1988-89
- Northern League Division One
- Winners: 1898-99, 1900-01, 1901-02, 1908-09, 1909-10, 1911-12, 1920-21, 1930-31, 1938-39, 1946-47, 1949-50, 1950-51, 1951-52, 1953-54, 1954-55, 1955-56, 1966-67, 1984-85, 1985-86
- Runners-up: 1903-04, 1914-15, 1919-20*, 1921-22, 1922-23, 1936-37, 1937-38, 1939-40, 1947-48, 1948-49, 1952-53, 1960-61, 1972-73, 1978-79, 1986-87
- Northern League Cup
- Winners: 1949-50, 1950-51, 1952-53, 1953-54, 1954-55, 1959-60, 1966-67, 1975-76
- Durham County Challenge Cup
- Winners: 1891-92, 1898-99, 1930-31, 1938-39, 1951-52, 1955-56, 1961-62, 1966-67, 1984-85, 1985-86, 1987-88, 1996-97, 1998-99, 2000-01, 2001-02
- Runners-up: 1889-90, 1890-91, 1892-93, 1893-94, 1900-01, 1925-26, 1950-51, 1954-55, 1956-57, 1960-61, 1986-87, 1992-93, 1993-94, 2003-04
- 1905-06 - Declared Northern League 'amateur champions', and drew the 'Championship match' 1-1 against Sunderland 'A' the professional champions, and league leaders.
- 1908-09 - Finished level on points (with superior goal average) with South Bank. Play-off held at St. Augustine's (Darlington), Bishop Auckland 4 South Bank 2. Declared Champions (4th time).
- 1919-20 - Northern League runner-up, after finishing joint top of table with Crook Town and South Bank, three-way play-off decided on goals scored.
- 1946-47 - Finished level on points with Crook Colliery Welfare, declared champions (for 10th time) after beating Crook 5-1 in play-off at Willington.
- Best league position: 2nd in Northern Premier League Premier Division (then level 6), 1996-97.
- Best FA Cup performance: 4th round, 1954-55.
- Best FA Amateur Cup winners: Champions 10 times in 1895-96, 1899-00, 1900-01, 1913-14, 1920-21, 1921-22, 1934-35, 1938-39, 1954-55, 1955-56 and 1956-57.
- Best FA Trophy performance: Quarter-final replay, 1978-79 and 1999-00.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Bishop Auckland at the Football Club History Database
- Bishop Auckland at the official Northern League website
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