Biggleswade Town

Biggleswade Town FC is a non league football club from the town of the same name in Bedfordshire that was formed in 1874 as Biggleswade FC before changing their title to Biggleswade & District FC playing friendly games.

In 1902 the club became members of the Biggleswade & District League becoming champions in their debut season. Biggleswade played at Fairford Road; sharing the facility with Biggleswade Cricket Club.

In 1920 ‘The Waders’ became members of the Northamptonshire League; which changed titles to the United Counties League in 1934. Following World War Two the club changed its name to Biggleswade Town FC and joined the Spartan League.

Town returned to the United Counties League for the 1951-52 season before joining the Eastern Counties League in 1955-56 campaign. Biggleswade went back to the United Counties League for a third spell from the summer of 1963.

A further change of competition came in 1980-81 as the club became members of the South Midlands League as a team in the Premier Division before being relegated to Division One in 1982-83. Town restored their Premier League status in 1986-87.

In 1997-98 Biggleswade became founder members of the Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division North. The following season the team were placed in the Senior Division following league re-organisation; winning promotion to the Premier Division at the first attempt.

In the summer of 2006 the club left their Fairford Road home to share with Bedford FC while their new ground on Langford Road was under construction, with the board of directors appointed Chris Nunn as team manager in November of that year.

Nunn led the team away from relegation at the end of the season before taking them to a third place finish in 2007-08. The new ground was named The Carlsberg Stadium in a sponsorship deal for the start of the 2008-09 campaign.

Town went on to lift the Spartan South Midlands League title in their first season in their first ever owned ground and were promoted to the Southern League Division One Midlands; which was renamed Division One Central for the 2010-11 season.

A fourth place finish saw the Waders reach the play-offs, where they went down to Daventry Town in the semi-final. The following season saw the team fell away in the latter stages and just miss out on a play-off spot.

In 2012-13 the club appeared in the first round of the FA Cup for the first time before going out 4-1 to Stourbridge at Amblecote as well as reaching the play-offs once again. Wins against Godalming Town and Rugby Town saw Town promoted to the Premier Division.

Nunn’s team faced a couple of tough seasons in their new elevated status as they finished in nineteenth and fourteenth place before the 2016-17 season saw the team end up in seventh position; just missing out on a play-off berth.

Former Waders midfielder Lee Allinson took over from Nunn in May 2018 as the club was moved to the Premier Division Central after league reorganisation. The side finished seventh and went on a good FA Trophy run, knocking out Wealdstone on route before falling to eventual winners AFC Fylde.

One of the other beaten sides during the run were Hendon, who recognised Allinson's talents as he left Biggleswade to join them in November 2019, with Nunn taking back the reins. Town were fifteenth and then sixteenth when the 2019-20 and 2020-21 campaigns were both ended early owing to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Biggleswade Town FC will play in the Southern League Premier Division Central in the 2021-22 season.

My visit

Biggleswade Town 3 Slough Town 0 (Wednesday 8^th March 2017) Southern League Premier Division (att: 190)

While Wednesday nights were the main evening for midweek football in my youth, Tuesday’s had now taken over. Therefore it was often difficult to find a match to excite; especially one at a previously unvisited venue.

My fellow cricketing and non-league watching pal Tony Foster wasn’t sure, but then called me at lunchtime to see if I was up for a trip to Bedfordshire. I didn’t need a second invitation, so we met at 6pm at Stanmore station ready for my mate to take on driving duties.

The often awkward M1 behaved itself with us arriving just before 7pm. Biggleswade had looked a pretty little town, and definitely a throwback to how many English towns once looked in scenery and demographics.

We purchased our programmes and then went to sit in the roomy clubhouse where a collection was taking place for Mark Scott, the Slough goalkeeper who’d suffered a terrible spine injury a week or two before.

Admission to the Carlsberg Stadium was £10. Programmes cost a further £2. The venue was fairly typical of a new build, with a low main seated stand down the clubhouse side, a covered area for standing fans opposite and an additional small cover behind one goal.

The pitch was immaculate, and definitely flatter than the pot holed car park, which was in a shocking state for something relatively new. An artificial small sides floodlit pitch completed the facility.

We had seen Slough play twice already in the season. They had looked a very decent side in a home win against Leamington and then one on the road at Dunstable Town. Their defence looked dominant, although results had dipped of late. The hosts were in a mid table position before play.

Both teams had shouts for penalties turned away in the early exchanges before the Waders took the lead on thirteen minutes. Rhys Hoenes was fortuitous as his shot took a big deflection to leave Paul Strudley stranded in the visitors net after the keeper had made a fine double save.

Robbie Parker and then Hoenes had efforts go close for the hosts. The Rebels looked at their most dangerous from set pieces. Home keeper Ian Brown saved well from Slough’s James Dobson before Hoenes didn’t quite get enough height on a lobbed attempt on goal.

We grabbed a warm drink at the interval before retaking out position in the standing area on the far side for the second period. The visitors came out a determined bunch in their attempts to grab vital points for their promotion push.

On the hour mark Dobson saw a curling effort crash back off the crossbar. Just a couple of minutes later Brown made a fine point blank stop from a Callum Bunting header before Dobson smashed the rebound against the bar.

The away fans were exasperated along with the managerial bench as their side’s dominance was going to waste. They were made to pay for missed chances on eighty one minutes as Hoenes took advantage of a slip by a Rebels defender to race away and score.

A shocking error at the back between two Slough defenders allowed Hoenes in to complete his hat trick in the dying embers to the delight of the locals. Credit to Bggleswade. They had ridden their luck and taken their chances. I’d have been most dischuffed as a Slough fan.

We got back into the car to hear the remarkable news that Barcelona were somehow turning round a 4-0 away leg to Paris St Germain to go through in the Champions League. We couldn’t believe what we were hearing as the Catalans won the game 6-1.

It summed up all I loved about football. Both games at the Camp Nou and Carlsberg Stadium mattered just as much to the fans and participants; probably more so at Biggleswade. It was the same sport but a million miles apart.

Tony dropped me at Stanmore before I headed to my local to listen to the phone ins and take stock over the evenings action with a pint.