Bentley Victoria Welfare 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 id ...

football 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, Nort ...

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 i ...

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. I ...

History

The club, formed as Bentley Victoria, was created after the dissolution of the previous senior team in the village,

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 ...

. They initially 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 nor ...

before moving into the Yorkshire League in 1973. They won promotion from Division Three in their debut campaign before changing name to Bentley Victoria Welfare. They were relegated back to Division Three in 1976 but won promotion back at the first time of asking by winning the Third Division title, and in 1978 they won their second successive promotion to reach the Yorkshire League's top flight. They were relegated back to Division Two in their first season but again bounced back to reach Division One again in 1980. They spent two further years in Division One before the Yorkshire League merged with the

Midland League The Midland Football League is an English football league that was founded in 2014 by the merger of the former Midland Alliance and Midland Combination. The league has four divisions that sit at levels 9–12 of the football pyramid. History ...

to form the

Northern Counties East League The Northern Counties East Football League is a semi-professional English football league. It has two divisions – Premier Division and Division One – which stand at the ninth and tenth levels of the football pyramid respectively. History ...

. The club was placed in the Premier Division of the new competition's inaugural campaign, and they stayed in the division for five years. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s the club had competed in the

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, usually referred to as the FA Vase, is an annual football competition for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English National League System (or equivalently, tier 9 or 10 of the overall English footb ...

, reaching the 4th round in 1979. At the end of the 1986–87 season the club left the NCEL and disbanded, paving the way for the reformed

to later re-take their place as the senior team in the village.

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 Victoria Welfare – *

Paul Showler Paul Showler (born 10 October 1966) is an English retired footballer. He began as a trainee at Sheffield Wednesday but after failing to get a professional contract he juggled a job as a police officer with non-league football. He returned to l ...

* Paul Edmunds * Jimmy Mann *

Rod Belfitt Roderick Michael Belfitt (born 30 October 1945) is a former professional footballer who played for a number of English football teams. His family lived in South Africa and India before settling in Doncaster, where he later played football for am ...

* Mick Bates

Honours

League

* Yorkshire League Division Two **Promoted: 1977–78, 1979–80 * Yorkshire League Division Three **Promoted: 1973–74, 1976–77 (champions)

Cup

None

Records

*Best

performance: 4th Round, 1978–79

References

{{reflist Defunct football clubs in South Yorkshire Defunct football clubs in England Doncaster & District Senior League Yorkshire Football League Northern Counties East Football League Association football clubs disestablished in 1987