Biggleswade United: Best of the Cup

Words: Tom Reed

Images: Tom Reed

Putting your “best foot forward” is an English phrase. It means taking to a task in earnest, setting one’s “stall out early” in football parlance.

Guillem Balague put his best foot forward at Biggleswade United FC on Saturday as the Bedfordshire team took on Newport Pagnell Town in the FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round.

Balague is a well respected author and football journalist but at Biggleswade, he’s just Guillem and he can’t help but be thrown into the maelstrom of preparing a match at a club that is run, by and large, by volunteers.

No-one sits still for long at the Verdant stadium, not even Chairmen from Spain, with volunteers pitching in where and wherever is necessary.

Derek and Philip have been roped into being match-day announcers even though they have never manned the mic at a game before.

©Tom Reed/ Terrace Edition. Derek and Phillip.

We have a media team of eight” says Derek with a smile and “seven of them have gone away on a stag do”.

“Guillem is very persuasive” he chuckles.

In the car park, David is marshalling an influx of motors that test the capacity of the grass verges, while Bob operates the old-school turnstiles.

In the bar, Tracey James is carefully penning the team sheet, making sure every name is spelled correctly and negotiating quips that Ronaldo will be added to the team sheet when she’s not looking.

James is a quiet hero of Biggleswade, having had an extraordinary life which has seen her play football for United with Leah Caleb, one of the pioneering “lost lionesses” that went to the 1971 women’s World Cup in Mexico.

©Tom Reed/ Terrace Edition. Tracey James.

She is, by the by, also the Biggleswade United groundsperson, maintaining an unbelievably sound surface for someone that has essentially learned on the job.

The club have invested a significant figure on improving the pitch however, which hints at the attention to detail at the outfit who want to play out from the back in more ways than one.

Meanwhile, in the tea bar, stands another unassuming legend of United in Heather Rennie, who helps Tracey with the pitch as well as cooking up a mean burger.

The pair were recently awarded for longstanding commitment to grassroots football by the Bedfordshire FA that stretches over 40 years.

There’s a yellow no-go zone in front of Heather’s food hatch and you can’t quite work out whether it’s there for security reasons or so Heather can watch the match. You get the feeling she’d be out kicking every ball if should could.

United’s nickname is “the Commoners” which is apt due to the communal sharing of hard graft at the club which skips along with a happy hum.

Derek and Phillip are flying before kick-off in the makeshift commentary box, belting out “Common People” by Pulp over the PA and reading out the team-sheet with aplomb.

It’s clear that Biggleswade United are far from overawed by the occasion of a local tie against Newport Pagnell from 25 miles directly East.

A world class non-league Dachsund had barely sat down in its perfect sized seat before Scott Metcalf had put United in front with a tasty right foot finish on the diagonal.

There was an extra resonance on the “Super” as Derek and Phillip announced the Metcalf goal and the novice announcers were in raptures barely two minutes later when Bedfordshire Baggio badgered the defender before chipping the Newport Pagnell keeper.

United were rewarded with patient build up play and technical work on the counter, romping to a 5-1 win that could see Kane Dougherty’s eleven play another locally flavoured tie with Leighton Town.

Meanwhile. Tracey was out into the gorgeous flat pitch, checking for weeds on her beloved green carpet and quietly toasting a win of high emotion.

David waved the last car away with a smile and Guillem didn’t have time to talk about his upcoming book on Unai Emery.

To him the earliest of FA Cup qualifying rounds should “not be called the Extra-Preliminary round…”it should be called Round One” given that so called non-league clubs are in it to win it from the start and contribute so much.

That’s the ethos at the club where everyone is equal, trying to make life better through football and where you might find a Dachshund curled up in your seat.