footballer Kid Fenton was the first star who played for Lens. He stayed for eight seasons and became a strong favourite with the club's supporters. This was also the year the first supporters group was formed, and also saw the first occasion that Lens captured the Championnat d'Artois. In 1929, Lens won the North championship and won promotion for the first time to the Division d'Honneur of the Ligue du Nord with the clubs Olympique Lillois, RC Roubaix, Excelsior Athlétic Club de Roubaix and AC Amiens. In the Artois League, the club steadily gained prestige, and in 1932 the club inaugurated the Stade Félix Bollaert. The first victories In 1937, Lens gained access to the first division after finishing first in the second division, led by such players as Stefan Dembicki and Spechtl. Lens even managed to reach the last 16 of the Coupe de France, although the team was eventually eliminated by the Red Star, 3–2. In 1943, Lens won the first division of the Northern Zone thanks to Dembicki, who scored 43 goals in 30 games. A year earlier, in a Coupe de France match, he had scored 17 goals, which still remains to this day the world record for goals scored by one player in a single competitive match. Immediately following World War II, Lens finished in sixth place in the 1945–46 season, but they were relegated the following year. In 1948, the club played its first Coupe de France final, which they lost 3–2 against Lille. A year later, Lens was promoted to the first division, and Maryan Wisnieski was recruited, in 1953. Problems with the board, however, made him quit the club; he joined Italian club UC Sampdoria Genoa, though without much success. In 1962, the city of Lens' mines were shut down and the future of the club was at stake, given that most of the players were miners by profession. Between 1956 and 1968, survival was hard. Nevertheless, in 1964, Lens finished third, with Ahmed Oudjani the top scorer with 30 goals. Another famous player, Georges Lech, joined Lens, although the club was relegated in 1968. The following year, the mine's administrators rescinded their ownership of Lens, which signalled the end of professional football at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis. Lens was now once again an amateur club, one year after its relegation, and the long-term future looked very bleak. The good years and the