the waders

1955 - 2005

Prospects of first team success came in 1989/90 when the team reached the Hinchingbrooke Cup Final and finished the league in 5th place, as well as winning the Diamond Jubilee Cup. 1990/91 saw the addition of a few more experienced players which enabled the side to mount a serious challenge for the Premier Division title, eventually finishing 3rd and lifting the Premier Division Cup.

The club also won the North Beds Charity Cup for the first time in 20 years. With the seeds of success already sown, 1992/3 provided the club with an amazing run of cup success. They made an appearance in the Beds Premier Cup final, losing narrowly over two legs to Luton Town, but won four other trophies, namely the SML Challenge Trophy, the Hinchingbrooke Cup, the Hunts Premier Cup and the Jesse Piggott Trophy.

1993/94 saw the club finish 3rd in the league and keep a hold on the Hunts Premier Cup, albeit shared. Cup success continued in 1994/95 when the club won the Hunts Premier Cup for the third successive year and also regained the North Beds Charity Cup. This was followed the next season by the club winning the South Midlands Floodlit Cup for the first time. The club’s fortunes then took a downward turn and the 1996/97 was the worst season for the club in a long time. The first team finished bottom of the South Midlands Premier Division and only the lack of sufficient numbers of teams in the Premier Division and the fact that the facilities at Fairfield met the SML criteria for Premier Division clubs meant that relegation was avoided.

The following season saw the merger of the South Midlands and Spartan Leagues and although the Waders won the Hunts Premier Cup they narrowly failed to retain their Premier Division status. However, they immediately bounced back into the top division by gaining promotion at the end of the 1998/9 season after only one year in the Senior Division.

Plans were progressing for the clubs long intended move to a home of its own, and a suitable site was duly identified. The years of groundsharing on an open space with the cricket club were coming to an end, but the move out of Fairfield Road wasn't to happen for another 5 years.

1874 - 1954 The First 80 Years

Biggleswade Town were originally formed as Biggleswade F.C. in 1874 and began by playing friendlies. They became one of the founder members of the Biggleswade and District League in 1902/03 and won the championship at the first attempt. The successful season was climaxed by winning the Bedfordshire Senior Cup - the first of eight victories so far in the competition.

The ‘Waders’, as the club are known, first entered the FA Cup in 1904 and were duly eliminated 7-1 by a formidable Watford side, then members of the Southern League. In 1907/08 they reached the 4th qualifying round of the competition, a feat repeated in 1929/30 and 1936/37.

Biggleswade FC remained in the Biggleswade and District League until 1914/15, with the exception of two seasons and supplemented their fixtures by competing in the Bedford and District League at the same time. By the outbreak of the First World War, Biggleswade had won the championship of their own District League three times and the Bedford League once. The club spent one more season in the BDL after competitive football resumed in 1919. The following season, 1920/21, they took the big step of joining the strong Northants League - which is now the United Counties League. The highest position the club attained was 3rd place in 1935, although in 1929 they finished top of the Northants Alliance, which was a subsidiary competition of the League.

After the Second World War, the ‘Waders’ spent five seasons in the Spartan League, before rejoining the United Counties League in 1951. In 1955 they joined the Eastern Counties League until 1963. The club’s only successes in this period came in the Beds Senior Cup and the North Beds Charity Cup.

The ‘Waders’ reverted to the UCL in 1964, where they remained until 1980 - a season which must rank as just about the worst in the club’s history. They left the League and joined the South Midlands League in the following season. After a few seasons in Division 1, promotion to the Premier Division was finally achieved in 1986/87 .

Despite struggling in the first two seasons back in the top flight - relegation was only narrowly avoided in both seasons - the horizon began to look brighter all through the club with the provision of floodlights at Fairfield in 1989. The past strength of the club can be gauged by the fact that the Reserves competed in the South Midlands League for many seasons, winning the League in 1924 (when the League was known as the Beds County League) and gaining promotion to the old Premier Division as Champions of Division 1 in 1953.

2006 - 2008

The Board appointed Chris Nunn as manager in November 2006 after a very poor start to the season saw the team well adrift and heading for certain relegation. Chris previously with Newmarket Town had the experience that was needed to try and salvage the season for The Waders. In February 2007 the team had made up a lot of points but were still bottom of the Premier table when The Board headhunted AFC Hornchurch Managing Director Jon Smith. Jon set about designing and planning the new stadium for the club and work started before the season ended. The team avoided relegation on the last league day of the season and a new era seemed to sweep in an expectation of better times ahead. The winning of the NBC Cup in the very last match of the campaign reinforced that optimism.

The 2007/08 season saw the squad develop further with new signings and for the first time in 15 years the club found itself top of the division at one point. The new ground progressed and was named The Carlsberg Stadium after a sponsor search. A final position of 3rd was a result of hard work and changes gradually moving the club forward.

As the 2008/09 season beckoned, The Carlsberg Stadium was ready for occupation and the seasons in the 'wilderness of ground sharing' were over. For the first time in the clubs 134 year history, it finally had a home of its very own.

2008 – 2009

Moving into the new ground certainly created a great feeling at the Club and new faces began to appear on the playing side as well as behind the scenes. Chris Nunn’s decision to play all the pre-season friendlies at home gave the players the chance to acclimatise to their new surroundings and allowed the Committee to iron out the teething problems of running a new facility. As the final whistle blew on the last friendly there was a definite feeling of readiness for the forthcoming season.

However, the first league match of the new campaign saw the Waders travel to much fancied Harefield United and leave on the wrong end of a 3-1 scoreline. Results picked up over the coming months and by the start of 2009 the Waders sat in third place nine points behind Harefield United with a game in hand, many believed at this stage that long time leaders Harefield were as good as champions.

Away from the league the Waders had progressed through the early stages of the FA Vase and were building a good momentum in the competition. Having seen off Wivenhoe Town in early December the Waders narrowly beat Croydon to set up a Valentine’s Day home tie with Market Drayton Town.

However, shortly after the win over Croydon the bad weather set in forcing a number of fixtures to be postponed which further added to the backlog of games caused by success in the Vase. The Market Drayton Town tie provided the toughest test for the Waders so far, with a lack of match practise it was a big test for the team but they managed to find the determination to win and ran out 4-2 winners setting up a quarter final tie at Whitley Bay a fortnight later. Away games in the Vase do not come much tougher than a trip to the Bay and bookies favourites Whitley Bay took a comfortable 4-0 half time lead that as good as sealed the victory. The Waders fought back bravely in the second half and clinched a couple of goals but ended up losing 5-2 to Whitley Bay who would eventually lift the FA Vase in May.

Out of the FA Vase, given an outside chance of winning the league the Waders now faced the prospect of three games a week to catch up on the FA Vase and weather related league postponements. Three days after the FA Vase exit the Waders entertained bottom of the league side Holmer Green in what should have been a comfortable home win but maybe a Cup hangover or the bad weather conditions conspired to cause an upset that no one had expected that night as Holmer Green picked up the most unexpected three points of their season. Well, you can’t know what the good times feel like unless you have had some bad times and following this shock to the system the Waders went into a run of form which gradually closed the gap on long time leaders Harefield United and indeed beat the Hares 3-0 at the Carlsberg Stadium in the process.

Easter Monday proved to be the turning point when the Waders beat local rivals Biggleswade United to take top spot in the league, by two goals goal difference, for the first time in the season. With two Saturdays left the Molten Spartan South Midlands league was about to see the closest end to the season that it had ever seen. The penultimate games saw the Waders and the Hares win 1-0 and maintain the status quo so it was all heading for a final day showdown with the Waders at home to third placed Chalfont St Peter and Harefield United away to fourth placed Broxbourne Borough.

The final Saturday of the season saw a league attendance record of 365 spectators at the Carlsberg Stadium which included a delegation from the Molten Spartan South Midlands league who had brought the league trophy to Biggleswade but had planned for a dash to Broxbourne should results go against the Waders. By half time the Waders were 2-0 up and Harefield were 1-0 up so the Waders had moved to a plus 3 goal difference. Fifteen minutes into the second half and both games were at 2-1 and the tension and mobile phone bills were growing. The Waders took a 3-1 lead on 70 minutes only to be pulled back to 3-2 seven minutes later which set up the most tense 15 minutes imaginable, then news came through that Harefield United had scored a last minute penalty and their match was now finished at 3-1, The Waders game continued for another five minutes which seemed like an eternity but as the beautiful sound of the final whistle rang around the Stadium it signalled that the Waders had won the league by one goal on goal difference.

So the Waders 135th year sees the Club move to the highest level in its history as the Waders become proud members of the Southern Football League.

Promotion was thus secured to The ZAMARETTO League and another new high for the club playing at Step 4 of the National League System. The Reserves entered the capital League for season 2009/10 and Jon Smith exited the club.