*Indicates unconfirmed information. Figures in brackets after English team names indicate all appearances made and goals scored in competitive matches for Football League clubs from 1888 onwards. For Scottish League clubs the figures show details of all competitive appearances and goals scored from 1946/47 onwards.
Ted Bensley
Appearances: 23 Goals: 25
Date / Year of birth: 27th August 1914
Position: Striker
Season of first appearance: 1934/35
Season of last appearance: 1946/47
Also played for:
Unselfish centre-forward born in Margate who started his career playing amateur football for local side Bobby's Sports who later became known as Thanet Press - at the time Ted was training to become a printer.
In the summer of 1934 he took part in a well-attended public trial at Hartsdown Park and was one of only two local players picked out to join Margate. The club were about to embark on their first season under the Arsenal 'nursery' arrangement and the vast majority of first team players were to come from the Gunners.
Ted made his debut in a Kent League match against Dartford at Hartsdown Park on 25.8.34 and scored twice in a resounding 10-2 win but only played once more for the first team during 1934/35.
After leaving Margate Ted played for Tonbridge-based amateur outfit Whitefriars Press during the 1935/36 season and started his spell with the club by scoring a hat-trick in a trial match. Whitefriars played in the Maidstone League and in October 1935 a match report for a 3-1 win over Barming United described Ted as being "a real goal-getter" and noted "good centre-forwards are as scarce as Abyssinian aeroplanes, but it looks as though the press has found one". Whitefriars won the league title and also triumphed in the Maidstone Hospital Shield.
Ted returned to Thanet for the 1936/37 campaign and once again played locally for Bobby's Sports.
In July 1937 he played for the British Workers' Sports Association team in the Workers' Olympiad in Antwerp, Belgium and Ted also featured in a match the side played in Paris, France.
He spent the last season before World War II - 1938/39 - with Bobby's again and was captain that season.
During the war Ted was in the RAF and he served under Geoffrey (later 'Sir' Geoffrey) de Haviland who went on to become a famous aviator, aeroplane designer, and founder of the aircraft company which bore his name. Ted also played football for the Air Force as well as making guest appearances with various clubs.
When Margate reformed for the 1946/47 season player-manager Charlie Walker sought Ted out and asked him to return to Hartsdown Park. It turned out to be a good move and Ted marked the first game of his return by scoring both goals in a 2-2 Kent League draw at Ashford on 28.9.46. One of Ted's strikes was a 25 yard effort and he continued to be prolific throughout the remainder of the 1946/47 season. He was the club's leading scorer with 25 goals from only 23 appearances as Margate won the Kent League title and Ted's tally included a hat-trick in a 5-1 win over Snowdown at Hartsdown Park on 16.11.46 as well as four goals in a 5-2 win at Betteshanger on 1.3.47.
Despite his success Ted couldn't get into the team at the start of the 1947/48 season and he left the club early in the campaign. By then he was 33 and he dropped back into amateur football, becoming a star of the Thanet Press team.
Ted won numerous local honours with Thanet Press before retiring from football at the end of the 1950/51 season. In March 1959 he turned out for a Thanet Press veterans side in a charity match at The Royal School for the Deaf in Margate.
Ted lived in Margate for the rest of his life and died on 20.6.11 aged 96. He was probably Margate's oldest former player at that time.
Ted completed a questionnaire for this site which you can see here.
|
SEASON (CLUB) |
FULL (MAX) |
SUB |
GLS |
|
FAC |
KSC |
KLC |
KSS |
|
|
1946/47 (MFC) |
23 (38) |
N/A |
25 |
KENT LEAGUE DIVISION ONE (1ST OF 16) |
PR |
2R |
N/A |
SF |
|
Margate
won Kent League
title. | |||||||||