Saturday 14th October 2017 ko 14.00

Bedfordshire County League Premier Division

AFC KEMPSTON TOWN & BEDFORD COLLEGE 2 (Smith 23 Ronayne 36)

CALDECOTE 2 (Boyd 9 Aris 34)

Att 109

Entry FREE

Programme £2

From one ground I couldn’t find on a map it was time to head to another. It meant travelling from the south side of Bedford to the north, and hop organiser Craig Dabbs supplied directions. They were needed, as not only was this to be the first game at Kingsfield, a lot of the roads to Great Spur, Biddenham were new too. Whilst it was lovely to be present as the opening of the new ground, I also know how much stress this place put Craig under.

On one hand the first game at any new ground ought to be a crowd-puller, it wasn’t meant to be quite this way. The original idea was this game was to be one of the first at the new ground, but then the opening got put back, and again and again. It’s never helpful when people who ought to know better start feeding rumours, and begin to undermine the organiser and his plans.

As organiser it boils down to whether you decide to move the hop to somewhere else or stick to your guns and stay with why you decided on the venue in the first place. As ever Craig called it perfectly and 109 people witnessed a slice of local footballing history.

You can see the aim here, build a ground that can be adapted and added to as the club progresses up the leagues. At the moment it’s a well-appointed clubhouse and a roped-off pitch with a grass bank behind one goal. But you can see the potential which is -why one or two decided to head elsewhere in case the ground does grow a stand and floodlights in the future. Each to their own of course, but they missed a well-hosted game and a good game too- well the first half anyway!

I do wonder whether as the club progresses that will involve a change of name? AFC Kempston Town & Bedford College doesn’t exactly roll off of the tongue, and with this move the club are now based in Biddenham, not Kempston.

But this was the perfect place to relax. It was lovely to sit on that bank and watch the game without the stresses of organising. Then there was Chris Berezai delivering cakes, and watching Craig doing the head count as it sank in that all that hard work and stress had paid off both for him and his host clubs.

He’s not the type to shout the odds, so I’ll do it for him. This was excellent, and both club, league, and organiser should take great credit for this. As for the unhelpful person- I bet he couldn’t be bothered to show his face. It’s always the same.