After leaving their old ground in Redcar Road last season the club has since moved to the Walkern playing fields on the other side of Stevenage. The new venue is located some three miles to the north east of the town and is set in deepest Hertfordshire countryside. The village is easily reached from the A505 Cambridge to Royston Road by following a picturesque route through Buntingford. It’s a perfect journey with the most delightful thatched cottages, cosy rural pubs and scenic duck ponds providing a beautiful idyllic backdrop along the way.

Back to the football. The ground is found on a sharp bend at the end of the main High Street (next to the village signpost) on the B1038. A large gravel car park leads to the playing fields which are set behind the main club pavilion housing the changing rooms, bar area and toilets. Surprisingly when we got out of the car the place looked more like a builder’s yard than a sporting arena. In fact one official apologised for the state of the place and told us that the water and electricity had only been turned on the day before. As we walked around to the field another chap was still busy marking out the pitch and it was already 2.50pm! It was all a bit of a last minute rush but better late than never as they say!! You will find two pitches on what is a really pronounced sloping field separated by a cricket square. The main one on the right is about 100 yards from the club pavilion. In the distance a very large wind machine contrives to draw your attention away from the action below.

Amazingly this was our fourth game in the competition this season and the second time we had watched Bedwell Rangers. So would the chance to play on home soil give the Rangers a bit of an advantage? In a word, NO! Visitors Allenburys looked far too strong for their hosts and dominated proceedings from start to finish. The boys from Ware adapted better to the wet, slippery conditions and scored their opening goal after only two minutes. By half-time they led 4-1.

The visions of ‘Pixmore’ (sounds like a film doesn't it?) quickly came to mind. Would Rangers continue to leak (pardon the pun) several more in the second half just like they had done at new boys Letchworth Garden City Eagles only a couple of weeks ago? Sadly they did and to make things worse suffered a miserable 2-8 defeat (inferior to the mauling at Pixmore). Hmmm. There is obviously some work to be done if Bedwell are going to avoid a repetition of last season and take the undistinguished title of the 'whipping boys' (oops, not another film!?). It certainly doesn’t look too good at this stage as the club find themselves with a rather worrying goal deficit of -17 and only three games gone.

However there may be some light at the end of the tunnel. The highlight of the game for us came with only ten minutes remaining on the clock. Young rangy front runner Lloyd Taylor wearing the no.8 shirt was standing inside the centre circle when he received the ball. With a quick swivel of his hips he turned, beat his marker and on the half-volley hit the white leather sphere with some pace towards the goal. The Sports keeper was simply a spectator as the ball whistled past him and into the top right hand corner of his goal net. An absolute stunner that left everyone speechless – could it be a goal of the season? It’ll certainly take some beating I can tell you. 

The game played on a well grassed but notably sloping (side to side) pitch was roped off around it’s perimeter. Although the rain was heavy at times the playing area is bordered along one side by a concrete path and some strategically placed trees, the branches of which provided some much needed cover (albeit for a small crowd of fourteen who managed to brave the elements). A superb 12 paged programme (printed in full colour throughout on glossy white card) was issued for the game and priced at £2 covered the cost of admission as well. All the expected items are contained inside including a welcome, previous match report and up to date stats. Great stuff! With much work needed on the club buildings it wasn’t surprising that there were no refreshments. 

If you have not been there yet, a visit to Walkern comes highly recommended. Hard-working team manager Andy Dolby is a breath of fresh air and made Fran and I feel most welcome (after returning our message left on his mobile earlier in the day). He is not left in any doubt that his club realy is struggling at the moment. His admits that the young players are still on a learning curve but cannot be faulted for their never say die attitude. As we left Andy suggested that we come back again in the future when perhaps we might see his side win a game. For everyone at Bedwell let’s hope that they can turn things around sooner rather than later.