Club information | |||
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Full name | Coventry Bears Rugby League Football Club | ||
Nickname(s) | Bears | ||
Colours | |||
Founded | 1998 | ||
Current details | |||
Ground(s) |
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CEO | Debbie Watson | ||
Chairman | Ireland Alan Robinson | ||
Coach | Tom Tsang | ||
Manager | Conor Kelly | ||
Captain | James Geurtjans | ||
Competition | League 1 | ||
2016 League 1 | 11th | ||
Uniforms | |||
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Coventry Bears R.L.F.C. are a semi-professional rugby league club based in Coventry, England, formed in 1998. Their major honours include winning the National League 3 title in 2004 (now called Rugby League Conference National Division) and the Rugby League Conference in 2002. They play at the Butts Park Arena, and run two open-age sides as well as a women's team and a selection of youth teams.
Coventry Bears were formed in 1998 by a group of university students led by Alan Robinson. They made an approach to Keith Fairbrother, the Coventry rugby union club’s Chairman and one time rugby league player, with a plan to form a team to play from Coundon Road Stadium.
The club were admitted into the Rugby League Conference for the 2000 season and were unbeaten by any club within their division. They then won their quarter-final against Manchester Knights before being narrowly defeated by only one point in the semi-finals at Super League club Warrington Wolves’ Wilderspool Stadium. Further success followed in 2001 with the Bears reaching the Grand Final at Webb Ellis Road, Rugby, only to lose out by a very narrow margin in a match against Teesside Steelers. The following season Coventry won the Rugby League Conference Grand Final in September 2002 when they beat Hemel Stags at Cheltenham. Following on from this success the club applied for, and won, elevation to the newly formed National League Three.
The Bears reached the National League Three Grand Final in 2004, winning comfortably. The following season Coventry Bears RLFC experienced difficulties and chose to resign from the National League to take time to rebuild and regroup. 2006 saw the return of the Bears as a Rugby League Conference Midlands Premier side, and the club finished the season in second place. They went on to beat Leicester Phoenix in the qualifying semi-final to set up a Midlands Grand Final with Nottingham Outlaws, which ended in defeat.