2004/05 final playing record:-

P36 W20 D9 L7 F76 A46 Pts69 Pos3rd.

History - The Birth Of Bolsover Town

Bolsover Town FC came into existence of the back of Coalite Sports & Social Club FC.

For many years, Coalite FC was a works team and in its hey day was the envy of many of the other local clubs in the area. The club housed the best facilities by far, with separate changing accommodation, showers and full time groundsman. The club also had Cricket, bowling, Ladies Hockey and even a golf putting green. At this time, the only people entitled to use the facilities were club members or families of the employees of the Coalite plant.

The plant at the tip of its glory had over 2,200 employees, contributing largely to the local economy, during this era, the club ran a lot of works teams and junior teams, all competing in local Chesterfield & District Leagues.

Over the years, the club began to relax the rules and invited others to play for the football team, bringing with it a much more competitive spirit within the 'set up' & gradually the works players drifted away from the teams.

The best years in terms of football came in the late eighties & early nineties when Coalite Sports were almost always at the top of the league and won numerous cup competitions.

Round about 1991/92 onwards though, Coalite went through a bad time in terms of success with the team constantly staving off relegation and several times only keeping their status due to the excellent facilities, of which Chesterfield FC used several times for training and reserve team games.

A decision was made in the 1999/2000 season to take the team to a higher level of football, Grant Alfree became chairman of the Social Club and Kev O'Hara & Russel Fox took control of team affairs and the club finished season 2000/01 on a high, winning the Byron Cup @ Saltergate to become Bolsovers' first team do perform such a feat.

The club left the Chesterfield & District at the end of season 00/01 and Coalite FC joined the Midland Regional Alliance league at the start of 01/02. At this point, Kev O'Hara stepped down from team affairs and Russel Fox persuaded Rob Green to leave Staveley and join him at Coalite. Rob promised the club he would win the league in that season and he duly delivered as Coalite won promotion as League Champions that term and joined the Midland Regional Premier.

Russel by this time had personal problems and stepped down, paving the way for Rob Green to recruit Dave Thompson, again, from Staveley. In the first season, the club finished a creditable fourth in the league. The club had now been approached by a person who shall remain nameless to take the club forward to bigger and better things, promising new ground, heavy investment and all sorts of other promises. At the same time the Coalite works was on its last legs and all sorts of rumours were being banded around about what would happen to the team.

Because of these problems, the team changed its name to its present day Bolsover Town FC. The club also resigned from the MRA and joined the Central Midlands Premier League and also placed a reserve side in the reserves division. The nameless person did a disappearing act leaving the club in the new league with no money and not even a kit to wear !!!

Kev O'Hara funded the club at the start of the season, purchasing a new kit and the clubs' required insurances and league fees etc. The club knew it was going to be a very difficult first season both on and off the field. Two new faces came in on the Committee whom had experience with clubs at this new level, Ken Perrins & John Hearnshaw respectively. The clubs' players also did their bit chipping in for tracksuits, t-shirts etc and kicked off the 04/05 season not knowing just what to expect.

Against all odds, Bolsover Town finished 3rd in the league which was a fantastic achievement. The league advised this was a promotion position but had doubts over the clubs' ability to take their ground to the standards required for the next level and gave the club just 5 weeks to complete all required works !!!

The goal areas re-turfed, metal barriers around the whole pitch, hard standing for spectators, a new referees changing room, tea cabin on the ground....all this was done with just 1 day to spare !!!

The club in order to remain at this new level have also been given notice that it is required to install floodlights by the end of 2005/05. At this present moment in time, the club are awaiting responses from The Derbyshire FA as to which grant to apply for, once way or another, the coming season is going to be, yet again, a very eventful 12 months...so watch this space !!