Bishop Auckland FC is one of the most
famous and well known amateur football clubs. Well, those of us who
lived through the 1950s and 60s and who are a bit OCD on footy
history would say so.
Founded in 1882 by theological students
from Oxford and Cambridge when they were studying at Auckland Castle
(the seat of the Bishop of Durham), the club adopted light and dark
blue colours and formed a team called Bishop Auckland Church
Institute. The club later evolved into Bishop Auckland Town in 1886.
The Bishops dominated amateur football,
post war, with the great Bob Hardisty as their captain. I visited the
ground recently and found a very neat modern stadium called Heritage
Park, nestled on the edge of town.
So they have Northern League status
(the NL founded in 1889, is the second oldest league in the World)
and do very nicely in Step 5-6 of the pyramid, having once been top
dogs with 7 NLeague championships and 3 runners up between 1947-56.
They appeared in the Amateur Cup Final 18 times with 10 wins, which
is remarkable. They even loaned players to Manchester United after
the Munich Air disaster in 1958, some of whom, including Hardisty and
Warren Bradley, gained both amateur and professional international
caps at that time. Bradley who is the only English player to do this
in one season,
This week the club has been blessed
with an even greater reward, when life long supporter, Colin Rowell,
left £300,000 in his estate to the club. Colin was a life long fan
who watched the club from an early age and saw all the great
victories. He died recently at 79 years of age and the former
furniture factory worker, who had no close relatives, left the sum to
be spent on the improvement of their new stadium. Club
chairman, Richard Tremewan, was licking his lips, thinking of the
wonderful things he and his board can do to the new ground,
especially in Colin's memory.
Firstly they have scattered his ashes
on the pitch, so that he can “join in” the new season.
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