Senior Management Members Roll of Honour

PRESIDENT                                    

1962 - 1977    Ken Birtwhistle             

1977 -             Jeff Winrow    

CHAIRMAN

1962 - 1963   T Himsworth

1963 - 1966   Charles Simmonds

1966 - 1974   Geoffrey Still

1974 - 1975   John Parsons

1975 - 1978   Geoffrey Still

1978 - 1988   Terry Barfoot

1988 - 1989   Leslie Woods

1989 - 1991   Roger Davidge

1991 - 2007   Roger Field

2007 -            Hugh Elliott

SECRETARY

1962 - 1963   Fred Harvey

1963 - 1964   Roger Davidge

1964 - 1965   Geoffrey Still

1965 - 1974   John Parsons

1974 - 1975   Geoffrey Still

1975 - 1979   Rodney Redmond

1979 -            Russ Maddox

TREASURER

1962 - 1977   Roger Davidge

1977 - 1981   Rodney Redmond

1981 - 1982   Vince Doyle

1982 -            Mick Burgoyne               

Forty-five years of Sunday Football in Bedford, and still counting

The Michael R. Peters Bedford & District Sunday Football League will be entering its forty-fifth year this coming season, its Sapphire Anniversary.  It is accepted, in terms of Saturday football, that this is not a very long time. However, Saturday has been traditionally regarded as the footballing day of the week for over a hundred years, whereas in 1962 Sundays were always regarded as family church-going days, suitable for cricket in the summer, but not other organised sports at ‘grass roots’ level.  Even the professional game was not common on a Sunday in the early 1960’s.

Just to remind the readers, there was no Sunday football on the television then, and it was unheard of on local parks or any other venue in a league format.  Organised youth football was not played outside the school curriculum except on a Saturday, or in the professional game.  In general, football and other pursuits were not accepted as a widespread suitable activity on a Sunday. The majority of businesses were closed and workers generally had the day off. 

To introduce organised Sunday football in this ‘climate’ was contentious and groundbreaking, potentially bringing about changes to a way of life.  However, lovers of the game in Bedford saw a demand for Sunday football in the Bedford area.  Young men in particular, with the advent of rock and roll and more freedom in their lives, together with a change of attitude, were shaking off the ‘shackles’ of the traditional Sunday routine and looking for a different outlet for their interests. Football was very attractive to them. 

The late Roger Davidge saw this need for a sporting outlet and seized upon the idea of forming the first Sunday League in the county, and one of the first in the country.  However, he was faced with a difficult task to get this idea off the ground.  There were a number of difficulties to overcome in organising a football league, none more important than the still prickly subject of the accepted way of life on a Sunday, and other aspects such as approaching local parish and borough councils for the use of their pitches, with the added problem of getting their workers to work on a Sunday to open and prepare their grounds.  Whether this was an overtime consideration was rather a groundbreaking idea.

However, despite the difficulties, Roger, with his committee, waded through the problems and was successful in forming the league in 1962. Fred Harvey became the first General Secretary of the League and Charlie Simmonds, currently a League Vice President, served on the first committee. Former Bedford Town Mayor and Councillor Ken Birtwhisle also served on that first committee, and was instrumental in getting the Council to agree the use of Public Park pitches in the Bedford area on a Sunday.

Sponsorship has played a major part of the League for over 30 years with the names, Michael R. Peters, B E Craddock, and Harrison & Rowley becoming synonymous with local Sunday football. In fact Jeff Winrow from Harrison & Rowley Limited has served the League as President for that period, and still holds the position to date.

Nicholas Warton was instrumental in helping get the league underway when he gathered together a team formed from employees of the Bedfordshire Times, whose only day off for most of them was Sunday.  There were barely eleven players at the Times, but he recruited some from outside to form the Strollers, a name Nick took from the Bedford Record newspaper that ran a column named ‘The Stroller’.  The Strollers won the first League Championship in the 1962 / 3 season.  By all accounts the registration rules were rather casual in the early days, as the teams could more or less drag people off the street to play and make up the numbers on a Sunday morning.

Other teams including the Midlanders, Potton Casuals, Groomsmen, Bedford Nomads, Azzuri, Prestcold Penguins and Queensmen and many others bolstered the League.  Queensmen, from Ampthill, are still in the Sunday League, being our longest serving club, currently with Malcolm Lane at the helm. Newtown Rangers our second longest team are in the Premier Division.  Many other clubs have come and gone and it would take a lot of space to mention them all, but the most successful teams to grace the League since those early days are Bedford West Indians, Bedford Young Indians, the various Gamlingay clubs, Casino, Potton Casuals and Fox and Duck Sports. 

Love them or hate them, but a well organised League had to have referees.  The early names include the late Fred Seaton, with the evergreen Barry Watson and Roger Watson regularly doing their stuff in the middle.  A little bird has blown the whistle on Barry Watson who allegedly felt sorry for United Counties (Buses) who were being hammered 18 – 0 by RAF Henlow.  Barry scored for United Counties (Buses) but the revival was short-lived when Henlow scored eight more to make the final score 26 - 1. Barry probably got a vote of thanks from United Counties (Buses) for his charitable act.  Today he would probably have his whistle taken away by the F.A.!! 

Park venues such as Jubilee Park and Addison Howard Park were used in the 60s, and still are, but Newnham Avenue is now used for rugby and athletics.

Remember any of these players? :  Allan Buchanan, Doug Jack, Colin Morris, Dave Brandon, Mick Durrant, Tex Williams, Tom McGall, Dave Lovell, Steve Miles, Roger Stockwell, Terry Lack, Barry Cater, Roger Whitbread, Johnny Geeves, Arthur Millard, Dennis Smith, Alan Payne, and Colin Morris?

It is claimed that at one Sunday match in one of the League’s early seasons a crowd of an estimated 400 people watched the Strollers play a match at Addison Howard Park in Kempston.  That size of crowd is unheard of in the League now, so one can deduce that Sunday football was a very popular spectator sport forty odd years ago.  Nowadays, would-be spectators take their leisure at Sainsbury’s Homebase or in front of the television.

Since the pioneering days of the sixties, the League has gone from strength to strength.  Roger Davidge kept in touch with the League long after he retired, and he was often seen wobbling along Goldington Road on his bike, or pushing the tired machine around the parks enjoying the matches.  Another Roger, Roger Field, was rescued from his post matelot days by being co-opted onto the Sunday League in the 1973 / 4 season, over-seeing the under 21 representative side.  Mick Burgoyne joined the committee in the1977 / 78 season, becoming Treasurer in September 1981, a position he still holds.  Roger kept up the continuity of the League and committee by becoming its Chairman in the 1991 / 92 season.  Meanwhile, ‘Russ’ Maddox had been captured by the League as Fixture Secretary in the 1978 / 79 season to become the very hard-working Secretary of the League the following season making up a valuable partnership with Roger.  At the end of the 2006 / 07 season, Roger Field stepped down as Chairman of the League after a sterling stint where his strength of leadership, fairness and firm discipline has benefited the League and its members.  Roger has remained on the Committee as Registration Secretary with Hugh Elliott taking the Chair as from the summer of 2007.

Another innovation along with all the modern equipment which is now used by the League, including a state of the art website, is that the competition undertakes all its own printing, including handbook production, work taken on by a stalwart member of the League Alf Bone, who acts as the Leagues Administration Support Officer.

The 2007 / 08 football action will start on September 2nd. The League has been built up over the last 45 years to now boast six Divisions and seventy clubs from all over the northern half of the county from Westoning in the south to Sharnbrook in the north, and from Cranfield in the west to Everton and Sandy in the east.  The League’s clubs have players and officials from all walks of life and from many different backgrounds, encouraging integration and sportsmanship.

With League Rules made under affiliation with the Bedfordshire Football Association, players are no longer allowed to play after being ‘dragged off the street to make up the numbers.’  This remains a happy memory for the pioneers of the League. 

From little but significant beginnings, great strides have been made in Sunday football at local level, not only in this county but nationally.     

(With apologies to all the people not mentioned here who contributed to the formation and continuation of the League, be they players, referees, club officials or just interested spectators.  There is insufficient space here to do full justice to a complete history of the League so far.)

Clive Milton

Vice Chairman

League Committee of  1978

B.E. Craddock Building & Property Maintenance Premier Division League Champions
Britannia Harrison & Rowley Movers, Shippers, Storers First Division
Dearden Trophies Second Division
M & DH Insurance Services Limited Third Division
Modplan Preservation Fourth Division
Bedford Mobile Communications Fifth Division
B.M.C Leisure Sportswear Fifth Division
SimBra Professional Cleaning Fifth Division
Bedford Mobile Communications Sixth Division

Tobler Meltis Cup Winners
Bedford & District Sunday League Cup Winners
Harrison & Rowley Shield Winners
Harrison & Rowley Cup
Britannia Harrison & Rowley Cup
Brian Craddock Silver Jubilee Cup Winners
Brian Craddock Cup Winners
Brian Craddock Jubilee Cup Winners
Bedford Sports Cup Winners
Bedford & District Sunday League Junior Cup
Herald Cup
Ian Sheppard Cup
D & V Millward Cup
Sportsmanship Cup Winners
T. & A. Barfoot Trophy Winners
D & V Millward Sporting Award Winners
League Sporting Awards Winners

Referees Award

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