Roy Bentley
Star goalscorer who led Chelsea to the League title in 1955 and was capped 12 times for England
ROY BENTLEY, who has died aged 93, captained Chelsea to the league title in 1955, the only time that the club won the championship before the advent of Roman Abramovich. Bentley arrived at Stamford Bridge in 1948 after two seasons with Newcastle United. Although the Toon were then in the Second Division, he had played up front alongside the likes of Jackie Milburn and Len Shackleton. Strong and potent in the air, despite standing only 5ft 10in, Bentley had made his mark but struggled with ill health in the damp Northumbrian air.
A doctor advised him that he risked contracting tuberculosis, so he sought a move south and was signed by Chelsea to replace the great Tommy Lawton. In his first months, he failed to live up to expectations and was barracked by fans, but after moving from the flank to centreforward he found his niche. He would drop deep to link-up play, a tactic adopted from the Hungarians to outwit defenders unused to such fluid positioning. He would be the team’s top scorer for the next seven seasons.
He was made captain in 1951, though the side avoided relegation only by winning their last four matches. Bentley characterised many of the players as drinkers and gamblers, recalling when one ran past him in a match ostensibly to fetch the ball, but in reality to find out the winner of a horse race.
It was an age when footballers’ maximum wages were still restricted to a basic £12 per week, and Bentley supplemented his income by working as a stationery salesman and by advertising Colman’s mustard. He also appeared in the crime drama Cosh Boy (1953), with Joan Collins.
Things changed at Chelsea in 1952 with the appointment of Ted Drake as manager. Bentley observed that the side became more disciplined, and Drake favoured players with families. Bentley, who scored 21 times in their season of glory, believed the incentive of the £2 bonus for a win was crucial in their winning the title.
Having had to play twice in two days during the run-in, Chelsea took it with a 3-0 victory over Sheffield Wednesday in the penultimate match. There was then an anxious wait to learn that Portsmouth had failed to beat Cardiff. Bentley was called to the microphone to impart the news to the 40,000 spectators still inside Stamford Bridge.
When, half a century later in 2005, Chelsea next won the title, the Premier League trophy was carried on to the pitch by Bentley.
One of eight children, Roy Thomas Frank Bentley was born at Shirehampton, Gloucestershire, on May 17 1924. He grew up in Bristol, where his father – a rugby player and bare-knuckle boxer – worked on the docks.
At Portway Boys’ School, Bentley could have gone on to play cricket for Gloucestershire. But by 13 he was already on Bristol Rovers’ books, originally as a centre half. Having moved to Bristol City, he made his debut for them at 15, and scored at Walsall, shortly before war put an end to league football for the duration.
From 1942 Bentley served with the Navy in destroyers on escort duty in the North Atlantic. He managed to fit in matches in Canada, and turned out for Liverpool once when in port under the name “Smith”. Ordered not to play for Bristol City when his ship docked there, he was given away when the News of the World covered the game – and him scoring.
Bentley was capped 12 times for England, making his debut in 1949. The following year, he travelled to Brazil for the World Cup, becoming the first Chelsea player to appear at the tournament when selected against Sweden. The side’s next match was a humiliating defeat by the USA.
He scored nine international goals, including a 12-minute hat-trick against Wales in 1954, though he treasured most the memory of the winner against Scotland in 1950, at Hampden.
Having netted 152 times in 367 games for Chelsea, he was sold to Fulham in 1956. The side won promotion from the Second to the First Division midway through his four-year spell there.
He then dropped down into the third tier with QPR, hanging up his boots after two seasons in 1962 when already 38. He was appointed manager at Reading, where in five seasons he earned a name as a martinet. In 1969 he moved on to Swansea City, guiding them to promotion to the Third Division a year later. Bentley left the Vetch Field in 1972, returning to Reading in 1977 as club secretary.
He attributed his departure from the club in 1984 to the failure of a plan to merge with Oxford United. Bentley subsequently became secretary at Aldershot FC. In retirement, he enjoyed golf, followed horse racing, and was a much-feted guest on match days at Stamford Bridge.
He married, in 1946, Violet Upton, with whom he had two daughters.
Roy Bentley, born May 17 1924, died April 20 2018