Bishop Auckland F.C.

Football club infobox
clubname = Bishop Auckland


fullname = Bishop Auckland Football Club
nickname = The Bishops, The Two Blues
founded = 1886 (as Auckland Town)
ground = Darlington Road
West Auckland
capacity = 4500
chairman = flagicon|England Terry Jackson
manager = flagicon|England Brian Honour
league = Northern League Division One
season = 2007-08
position = Northern League Division One, 20th
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leftarm1=00aeff|body1=000099|rightarm1=00aeff|shorts1=000099|socks1=000099
pattern_la2=|pattern_b2=_red_stripes|pattern_ra2=
leftarm2=fe0000|body2=000000|rightarm2=fe0000|shorts2=000000|socks2=000000|

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 (3 in succession in 1955/56/57), and losing finalists on a further 8. They currently play in the Northern League Division One. Their nickname is 'The Bishops' or 'The Two Blues'. They share a rivalry with Spennymoor Town and West Auckland Town.

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 current plans were submitted to Wear Valley District Council in early September 2008 and are currently awaiting approval.

While waiting for the ground at Tindale Crescent to be constructed, the club have had to share with other local football teams. Bishop Auckland have agreed to play their football at Darlington Road, West Auckland, home of West Auckland Town for the '08/'09 season. The club have also had stints at Dean Street, home of Shildon A.F.C., between 2002/2004 and 2006/2008 and at Brewery Field, Spennymoor, home of Spennymoor Town, between the spells at Shildon.

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.

History

Football in Bishop Auckland can be traced back to 1882 when theological 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 City who then went on to lose to Newcastle United in the Semi-Final.Bishop Auckland were a truly remarkable football team in this era, 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 the crowd reach [http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2007/06/05/nl_hendon_feature.shtml 100,000] - the last occasion an amateur match attracted such a crowd.The Bishops team of this era contained many quality players that eventually found their way into the professional game. Seamus O'Connell, a forward, went on to play for Chelsea in the '54/'55 season, other players - Derek Lewin, Bob Hardisty and Warren Bradley - went on to play for Manchester United following the Munich air 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.

In 1960, Bishops were league runners-up to near-neighbours West Auckland, but the league title was again won in '67, along with the league cup and the Durham County Challenge Cup being added to the one won in '62.

The 70s were a lean decade for the club in terms of silverware, the league cup being the only competition the club won in the '75/'76 season.

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 this season.

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 continuing 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.

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 performance: 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, 1996-97 and 1999-00.

Notable players

*Warren Bradley
*Bob Hardisty
*Derek Lewin
*Michael Nelson
*Seamus O'Connell
*Bob Paisley
*Harry Sharratt
*Jeff Smith

tatistics

External links

* [http://www.bishopafc.com Supporters' Website]
* [http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/coweyhome/fnewground1.htm Information on New Ground Progress]

References

*
* [http://www.northernleague.org/league/view_club_details.php?type=42&submit=Go%21 Bishop Auckland] at the official Northern League website