1965/6-good times roll again

During the summer, Basil Hayward went back to Yeovil to sign Peter Hall, a player he had brought there from Bournemouth, possibly because of common Potteries connections since Hall had started, like Hayward, at Port Vale. He immediately made a big impression with a goal in a pre-season friendly against QPR which was won 5-1, sparking optimistic predictions. Hayward was also able to acquire Billy Brown from Chelmsford, a centre-forward he had tried to buy the previous season. Two new and proven strikers matched exactly what many supporters had been urging for ages. The other signing of note was Alan Collier, a former Luton goalkeeper, also from Chelmsford, initially to understudy Bellotti, although the young Londoner was attracting attention from League clubs and the experienced Collier might well need to step up.

The club also entered a new floodlit league, the Eastern Professional Floodlit Competition, featuring most of the local Southern League clubs, and although this proved more popular with supporters than the short-lived Midland Floodlit League of 1961/2, it never threatened the supremacy of the main league action. Gates in this competition started reasonably but dwindled as colder evenings came along, and by the end of the season these fixtures had started to look like distractions from the main business of the club.

The professional staff at the start of the 1965/6 season.

Back row: Basil Hayward (manager), Alan Wright, Danny Paton, Peter Hall, David Sturrock, Bill Brown, David Lovell, Peter Morgan, Norman Cooley, Vernon Avis, Alan Collier, David Skinn, Derek Bellotti, Ray Bailey, Mike Benning, Steve Miles, George Cleary, Joe Campbell (trainer), Charles Gallie (director).

Front row: Bill Manning (director), Dr Jim Boyde (medical officer), Charlie Rowland, Mick Collins, Harry Collins (vice-chairman), George Senior (chairman), Trevor Marriott, Gerry Kavanagh*, Gordon Bruce and Jim House (directors).

*Never made a first team appearance.

The large trophies are the Hunts Premier Cup and the Beds Professional Cup.

David Skinn was, along with Norman Cooley, a mainstay of the club from the early 60s to the late 70s, starting as an inside forward and ending as a defender. Here he shakes hands with the Mayor, Councillor Ronald Whittingham, before the start of the opening home match of the 1965/6 season on 23 August against Hereford, flanked by new signings Bill Brown (left) and Peter Hall, and watched by the recently elected chairman, George Senior-who was to remain a central and sometimes controversial figure for most of the club’s existence.

Bill Brown beats defender Tony Hobson to the ball to score the second goal in the 2-2 draw with Weymouth at The Eyrie on 28 August 1965, with Mike Benning and Peter Hall in the background. Brown was a talented and tall striker whose languid opportunism annoyed and impressed in equal measure-he had only just started to win more admirers than critics when he joined Basil Hayward at Gillingham in February 1966 after only a few months at Bedford. The team ended the season in a creditable fourth place but Weymouth, managed by Frank O’Farrell, won the title for the second year in a row.

Peter Hall scoring the last of his hat-trick of goals at the Eyrie in the 6-0 defeat of Margate, 11 September 1965.

Brown and Hall were both in the side for the opening match, a draw at Poole, and figured in an excellent 2-1 win the following Monday at home to Hereford (with Wallace in goal), a game of quality and excitement in which Hall opened the scoring and Sturrock hit a late winner before a much-improved crowd of 3,800. The team was undefeated for almost a month, until Hereford avenged their earlier defeat 1-0 at Edgar Street on 15 September. In that time they had taken a point at home from the champions, Weymouth, and thrashed Margate 6-0 in one of the best attacking displays seen at The Eyrie for a long time, featuring a Hall hat-trick, which took them to the top of the table. Three fractious matches had failed to produce a winner in the league cup against King’s Lynn, and Paton had been sent off in the second for retaliating after repeated heavy tackles. But the Hereford defeat was followed by an excellent 3-1 win at Plough Lane over Wimbledon, newly promoted and in only their second season after turning professional, and the Eagles were still deservedly up with the leaders.

Danny Paton is foiled by Corby goalkeeper Alan Alexander-who played for Bedford himself in the early 70s-in the 2-1 victory on 4 September 1965. Paton had played for Basil Hayward at Yeovil while on loan from Hearts during his National Service in the west country, and rejoined his old manager at the Eyrie in January 1965. A skilful scheming midfield player who could also score goals, he was often the victim of the kind of tackle that has been outlawed from modern football but in those days sometimes meant that when he retaliated, the referee only saw the second “offence” and not the first, resulting in several suspensions.

Norman Cooley hammers a shot past the Cheltenham defenders at The Eyrie on 11 October 1965. This one didn’t go in but seven other attempts on goal did, in Bedford’s best league performance of the season. Peter Hall, on the ground (left), hit three of the goals and this win was all the more bizarre coming as it did three days after the worst league effort of the year, a 1-6 thumping at Wellington. “Just one of those things”, was Basil Hayward’s press comment, rather typical of his taciturn demeanour.

A relative slump followed, including an exit from the league cup in the second replay at King’s Lynn and a first home league defeat at the same hands, culminating in a miserable 1-6 defeat at Wellington. After this match, however, Hayward made two decisive changes which were to have a big effect on the rest of the season. He pulled Skinn back to left-back, where he was to spend most of the rest of his long career, and put Cooley wide on the left up front. Skinn’s move meant the effective end of Avis’s long first team career. The manager was immediately rewarded by a sparkling 7-1 win at home to Cheltenham, although the Wellington thrashing had sent the attendance down to 2,100, the lowest so far.

The Bedford Record sub-editors created this montage to show Ray Bailey’s superb 25-yard equalizer in the FA Cup fourth qualifying round match against Cambridge United at the Abbey Stadium on 16 October 1965; in the upper view he hits the ball and below, goalkeeper Rodney Slack and two defenders, with Bill Brown sandwiched between them, watch it hurtle into the top of the net. Bailey also scored the winner eight minutes from the end after Peter Morgan had created an opening on the right wing, to secure a win which had looked very unlikely when the Eagles were overrun in the first half and were lucky to cross over only a goal down. Crossing Cambridge by car took an hour due to jams caused by the many Bedford followers in the 5,580 crowd, and most of them had to cram into three sides of the ground since, as the picture shows, United were building a new stand on the other side.

This brought round the FA Cup and for the second year running Bedford were paired with Cambridge United, this time at Newmarket Road. Car ownership was growing fast and so many supporters drove from Bedford to the match that while the journey to Cambridge took about 50 minutes, crossing the city to the eastern fringes took over an hour and many missed the kick-off as well as United’s early goal against a shaky remodelled defence. As the game progressed, however, the 5,800 crowd saw Bedford grow in confidence and they deserved to go through via two second half goals from the rapidly improving Bailey. The first was a superb shot from the edge of the area and the second created by a powerful run from deep in his own half by Morgan, also now one of the brightest prospects.

This goal typified the way Hayward was now getting the team to play, with old conventions about defenders hoofing the ball upfield giving way to a more creative approach as wing-backs and overlapping runs became more widely accepted. As supporters were now able to see top-class football every week on TV in the recently launched Match of the Day, they began to appreciate the greater sophistication to be found even at this humbler level of the game. Up front, the scheming of Paton was now giving more scope for the main goalscorers, the tall and rather languid Brown, who could be infuriating as he faded out of a game for periods but was very strong in the air, and Hall, a real battler who never stopped running and put away many of the chances that had previously gone begging. This took the pressure of scoring off Sturrock, who wore several different numbers over the season but settled into a midfield terrier role, winning the ball and using his pace to open up defences. Benning’s strong running in a conventional right-wing role was complemented by Cooley’s deeper play on the left.

Mike Benning (left) helps Peter Hall out from the Exeter net where Hall has just directed a header to put Bedford a goal up in their 2-1 FA Cup first round victory at St James’s Park on 13 November 1965. Exeter’s Bryce Fulton is the man on the ground and Norman Cooley is haring away in the left distance to start the celebrations.

Danny Paton appears to have been felled inside the penalty area by Exeter centre half Keith Harvey in the first round tie on 13 November 1965, but the referee’s position suggests he was probably unsighted even if a penalty was justified. Bryce Fulton and George Ley are the other defenders.

The first round proper of the FA Cup took Bedford to Exeter, but first good wins against Nuneaton and Romford maintained the league challenge. The Romford match saw the debut of Collier, who came in when Bellotti unluckily broke an ankle in training, and that proved to be the end of his regular tenure because Collier’s experience and consistency, though lacking some of Bellotti’s acrobatics, meant that he kept the job when Bellotti recovered. For the Exeter match, several hundred supporters who could not join the thousand or so who travelled west were able, for two shillings (£0.10), to sit in the stand at The Eyrie and hear a live commentary given by the regular hospital radio commentators[1]. They heard Hall give the Eagles an early lead from a header and although Exeter equalised early in the second half, another Bailey piledriver soon afterwards clinched the tie against Third Division opposition in front of nearly 7,000. This highly praised effort was followed by a home win against Rugby that featured a Brown hat-trick. However, two days later an important home point was dropped in a 2-2 draw with Worcester that left the team with ten men when Collins was injured, and a very wet evening sent the crowd below 2,000 for the first, and as it turned out the only, time in the season in the league.

Brighton keeper Brian Powney is beaten by a flying header from Bill Brown (out of shot) soon after half time in the second round tie against Brighton at the old Goldstone Ground on 4 December 1965. Peter Hall looks on, right. This goal soon after the interval looked like taking Bedford through until Wally Gould’s injury time equalizer. The match was played in pouring rain and many umbrellas can be seen on the sparsely filled open terraces, although nearly 17,000 saw it, mainly squashed in under cover.

This put Collins, now club captain, out of the side for the second round at Brighton the following Saturday. Wright and Bailey effectively played as double central defenders with Sturrock taking over Bailey’s midfield role. In pelting rain against a team who had put ten goals past Wisbech in the previous round and nine past Southend in the league a week earlier, this reshaped defence performed heroics under continuous pressure. A header by Brown from Hall’s cross soon after half-time gave Bedford the lead against the run of play and Hall had a second attempt disallowed for offside; they came within seconds of another win but Gould equalised from a corner in stoppage time. Nearly 12,000 poured into The Eyrie on the Monday night (replays were always held in the immediately following week then), and saw Bedford unluckily behind at half-time when a free-kick was deflected past Collier by the unwitting Sturrock. In the second half the encouragement from the terraces was deafening and gradually Bedford took control. Hall equalised in a goalmouth scramble in the 72nd minute and with eight minutes to go, Brown played Paton in to slot home the winner. There were invasions of the pitch from the River End by over-excited supporters after both goals and after the second the referee seriously threatened to abandon the match. Many supporters looked back on this match as, in its way and with its recovery from adversity, the best of all the old club’s Cup feats. The reward, though, was not a glamorous money-spinner in the third round but another visit from familiar opponents in Hereford.

A supporter who saw the replay and recently visited this site recalled meeting a Brighton fan many years later who said:

When Brighton met Bedford in the original round they had scored just 25 goals in three matches at the Goldstone Ground. Records of two stand still today. I saw all three matches and in total I saw 31 goals ( Mansfield scored 4 when losing 6-4) I bet there are not many people alive who can say they saw 31 goals in 3 consecutive home games!

But at the Bedford match, when they came out, they were big fellers, over 6 ft, and lean. I remember a gentleman near me saying in a Sussex voice “not much meat on them”!

Well, there was enough to pull off another notable win for Hayward's team. (Thanks to Kester Eddy, 2025.,quoting Brighton fan Mike Birch).

Peter Hall (far right) appeared to have settled matters with a second goal against Brighton but as his shot rolls into the net past Powney and full-back Magill, the linesman is indicating offside. Soon after this came Brighton’s equaliser.

Brighton had scored ten in the previous round against Wisbech, and nine against Southend in their last home League match, so Bedford were not expected to cause them much trouble. If their centre-forward Charlie Livesey (right) had taken this early chance, another goal glut might have followed, but he shot wide, perhaps distracted by goalkeeper Alan Collier (diving, left) and Ray Bailey (centre), with Alan Wright and David Skinn in the background.

There aren’t many extant action photographs from Bedford’s exciting 2-1 win, after coming from behind, in the replay at the Eyrie against Brighton on 6 December 1965, watched by 11,241. This one shows Bill Brown (left) and Norman Cooley challenging the white-shirted defenders in the first half. The Eagles went a goal down to an unlucky deflection from a shot by Turner round about the time this picture was taken, but enormous second half pressure saw Hall equalize in the 72nd minute from a melee after a Benning corner, and then Danny Paton was put through by Brown to jink past Powney for the winner eight minutes from the end. The match was, however, close to being abandoned after prolonged pitch invasions from youngsters at the River End after both Bedford goals.

Photograph by kind permission of the Daily Mail

The quality of action photographs under lights in the mid 60s was indifferent and becomes even worse when reproduced from microfilm, but here we can (just about) see Peter Hall about to celebrate his scrambled equalizer, watched by right back Jimmy Magill and sprawling keeper Powney.

Before that, the league campaign suffered a setback with successive 0-3 defeats at home to Chelmsford and away to Cambridge City, but two excellent Christmas performances took four points from Cambridge United; the home match on Boxing morning was won by a late effort from Hall, sliding the ball in from an acute angle, before nearly 5,000, and the following night Paton put on a dazzling individual effort on an icy pitch to create probably the best league performance of the season in a 4-2 win. New Year’s Day brought another tense encounter against Wellington, won by a single Brown goal, to maintain the leadership challenge, and put Bedford into third place, five points behind leaders Weymouth with a game in hand. But on New Year’s Eve the optimistic mood had been punctured when Hayward announced that he was leaving to take over the vacant manager’s seat at Gillingham. At the time there was the usual talk about betrayal and selfishness, but even those who acknowledged the manager’s right to ambitions were disappointed at the timing of the decision. He agreed to delay his departure until after the Hereford match, and meanwhile Ron Burgess, the former Spurs and Wales captain who was then on Fulham’s coaching staff, was appointed to take over.

The unusual light angles tell us that this is a morning scene, from the 11.30 am kick off on a frosty 27 December 1965 against Cambridge United, when 4,686 saw an excellent derby which ended in a 2-1 win for the Eagles thanks to a late winner by Peter Hall. Here Bill Brown heads for goal with goalkeeper Rodney Slack, tracksuited on the hard ground, about to save. A 4-2 win in the return fixture the following evening put Bedford into second place.

In the third round on 22 January 1966, Bedford met their Southern League rivals Hereford on a snow-covered surface at the Eyrie-the match was in doubt until a few hours before the start and would almost certainly have been postponed today. They were give an early boost when Peter Hall headed home a cross from Bill Brown, watched by Hereford full-back Selwyn Vale and David Sturrock (right).

The changes off the field, and the temporary absence of the injured Hall, may have been partly to blame for a run of three matches yielding only one point, including defeats at lowly Tonbridge and Guildford; unexpected results like these were in the end to cost the club its chance of the championship. But a 2-1 home win against Cambridge City on a snowy day restored spirits ahead of the Hereford match. Another heavy fall of snow during the week put the match in danger until an hour before the start and it would almost certainly not have been played today, but at the time there was a theory that a covering of snow kept the pitch nice and soft underneath, and nobody had yet started to worry about spectators falling over on the icy terraces. In the conditions, long ball tactics were inevitable and Hall had possibly his best game for the club, opening the scoring with a precisely placed header after Brown had wandered away from his marker on to the right wing, and then haring 30 yards after Brown had created another opening for a brilliant individual second mid-way through the second half. A late scare brought a Hereford goal but the Eagles held out before a crowd officially reported at 14,232 but probably bigger. Now Burgess took over as the draw brought Everton to The Eyrie for the fourth round, and the directors cunningly decided to sell tickets inside the ground at the following week’s league match against Poole, lifting the attendance to over 7,500 to see a 3-1 win. But another important away defeat, at Worcester, followed before Everton’s visit.

Peter Hall as supporters of the mid- 60s will remember him, all whole hearted effort and cheerful endeavour. Here he has outpaced Hereford’s captain and centre-half Ray Daniel, the former Welsh international (background), but the ball won in the end. In the second half he scored a magnificent solo second goal to send his team into the fourth round. Hall had a miserable time the following season with injuries and his absences had a lot to do with the team’s dismal run ending with relegation, so that one excellent season in 1965/6 was all he really had with the club.

Ray Bailey brings the ball under control as the Eagles attack in the first half of the Hereford cup tie on 22 January 1966. He was one of those sold to Gillingham at the end of the season as he rejoined Basil Hayward.

Alan Wright scurries across the snowy surface, watched by Alan Collier (left), Mick Collins and Peter Morgan (background) to counter Hereford striker Albert Derrick in the third round FA Cup encounter in January 1966. Jammed in at the River End are some of the sell-out crowd, officially recorded as 14,232 but probably much bigger.

One of the familiar features of the 50s and 60s was this montage on the back page of the "Pink 'Un", the Saturday evening edition of the Northants Evening Telegraph. It told supporters at a glance how their team had fared by the expression adopted by their symbolic figure as he hears the telephoned score. From left to right here we see the Cobbler (Northampton), a somewhat battered looking Scottish steelman (Corby), Mr Posh with his topper and monocle (Peterborough), the Friar (Kettering), the Eagle of Bedford, the Fenman (Wisbech), the Tulip (Spalding), the Doughboy in his chef's hat (Wellingborough), the Hatter (Luton), the Tiger (Holbeach) and the fierce looking Russian cossack (Rushden), On this day-29 January 1966-the Eagles had beaten Poole 3-1 at home. Northampton, in their one and only season in the old First Division, had lost 0-2 at home to Everton, who would knock the Eagles out of the FA Cup a fortnight later.

Before a record crowd of 18,407, Bedford’s cup run ended against Everton at the Eyrie on 12 February 1966. Alex Young, one of their most expensive stars, shoots, but Alan Collier has it covered, helped by David Skinn (left) and Peter Morgan, with Mick Collins bringing up the rear and Danny Paton in the distance.

There was never much chance of an upset against Everton before 18,407 people (an extra 500 were crammed in on benches in front of the stand) against what was then one of the wealthiest clubs in the country, and two goals by Temple inside ten minutes in the first half effectively ended the tie long before Pickering, who was otherwise well subdued by the excellent Collins, got a late third. Bedford put up a decent display and won plenty of admirers. Nor was it a disgrace to go out to a team that went on to reach Wembley without conceding a goal and beat Sheffield Wednesday 3-2 in an exciting final. After the match Brown became the first of several players to follow Hayward to Gillingham, for a fee of about £2,000.

Fred Pickering heads Everton’s third goal past Alan Collier in the final minutes of the fourth round tie at the Eyrie, on 12 February 1966, watched by Mick Collins and Peter Morgan, with his colleague Alex Scott in between. Pickering was at the time a contender for the centre-forward spot in the England side for the forthcoming World Cup, but he was effectively controlled by Collins for most of the match.

Fred Pickering beats Alan Collier, but also the post, with this header in the first half against Everton, watched by Peter Morgan.

David Skinn attempts to stop Everton’s right winger Alex Scott. In the background are some of the many extra spectators who were crammed in along the walkway at the bottom of the main stand.

After the FA Cup exit Bedford redoubled their assault on the league title and started with a 1-0 win against Guildford on 19 February 1966. Peter Hall scored the only goal but he is out of luck here as he watches visiting left-back Nicholas clear the ball off the line in this unusual view from behind the net. Attendances held up well and over 3,200 saw this match.

With Burgess now in full control there was still a decent chance of the championship even though Weymouth were again favourites. A run of four successive league wins, ending with a excellent 2-0 home defeat of Wimbledon before just over 4,000, which took the Eagles into second place by the middle of March, made this a serious possibility. But a vital match was lost at home to Romford on 2 April before another 4,000 crowd, which sent the team down to seventh place. A further unexpected reverse followed at Cheltenham where both points were dropped, and there were draws in matches that should have been won at Corby and Rugby. An Easter double against Folkestone put them back to fourth place with 45 points from 37 matches, three points behind Chelmsford, the then leaders, but Weymouth were only two points behind with five games in hand-having suffered several home postponements earlier in the season- and when they beat Bedford 1-0 on their own ground a week later the team’s last realistic chance of the title had gone. After wins in their last two matches against Dartford and Tonbridge, Bedford were left with no more than a faint mathematical chance of overhauling Weymouth, but a slightly better one of beating Chelmsford and Hereford into second place. However, as had happened in 1952/3 and 1957/8, the other results did not go their way and they finished fourth, five points behind Weymouth and two behind runners-up Chelmsford (the only team to complete a double over Bedford), but only the minutest of fractions behind Hereford who had scored 81 goals to Bedford’s 80. Bedford had taken 34 points out of a possible 42 at home, but only 18 away, and that was where the title chance had gone.

(Above) Photograph by kind permission of the Thanet Times

On 26 February 1966 Bedford maintained their league challenge with a 3-1 win against Margate at Hartsdown Park. Here Alan Collier cuts out a cross under challenge from Margate’s Arthur Blackley, watched by David Skinn with Mick Collins in the background. The home programme notes said: “We welcome the players and officials from Bedford and hope that perhaps this may be the last time we see them here…they are eager to obtain Football League status, and due to their recent exploits in the FA Cup, they have already been promised many votes in their efforts to achieve this next summer….”

(Below) photograph by kind permission of Jeff Trice

Mick Collins (centre) thwarts a Margate attack led by Arthur Blackley (striped shirt) in the same match. Watching are Ray Bailey (left) and Peter Morgan (2)

The prolonged pursuit of the League title lasted until the last week of action. One of Bedford’s main rivals were Wimbledon, who were beaten 2-0 at The Eyrie on 12 March 1966 before a 4,108 crowd. Ray Bailey (left) joins the attack against Wimbledon captain Roy Law (5) with David Sturrock waiting for any opportunities. After this Bedford were top of the table briefly, but Weymouth, who had a backlog of fixtures in hand after several postponements, were to overhaul them in the final month.

One of the points dropped in the run-in that may have cost Bedford the title was in this 1-1 draw against lowly Corby at Occupation Road on 15 March 1966. Here David Skinn (right) and Mick Collins combine to thwart former Eagles winger Alex Stenhouse (7).

Another costly lapse against lowly opposition came at Whaddon Road, Cheltenham, on 22 March 1966 with a 0-2 defeat. Here Peter Hall seems to have beaten keeper Ron Nicholls but a defender had the last word. One of Cheltenham’s goals came from Alex Carson, who had been given a trial for Bedford in the pre-season friendlies but then released.

Bedford still had a chance of the title when they beat Folkestone 1-0 at Cheriton Park on Easter Monday, 11 April 1966, completing a double after a 5-0 victory against the Kent side at home on Good Friday. The only goal came when David Sturrock scored from a penalty awarded for a foul by right-back Russell (2) on David Lovell, seen here about to hit the deck. Lovell was a former Luton Town junior who was given his chance by Reg Smith and featured notably in the 1963/4 cup run, but he never found the same favour with Basil Hayward and didn’t often get a chance in the senior side under his managership. Bedford’s last chance went, however, a week later with a single goal defeat at Weymouth by the eventual champions, though they might have been runners-up had Hereford not won their last match. The final placing of fourth, however, was the best finish for six seasons and, with the FA Cup successes, prompted hopes that 1966/7 would see even better things…..

Autographs by kind permission of Clive Paish

Some autographs from a successful season-roughly clockwise from top left, they are Mick Collins, Peter Morgan, Alan Collier, Billy Brown, David Skinn, Alan Wright, Ray Bailey, Vernon Avis, (and in the centre) Derek Bellotti, Danny Paton, and David Sturrock.

Burgess had made several unsuccessful attempts to replace Brown, at one point being on the verge of re-signing John Fahy from Oxford before Fahy chose Cambridge United instead. Cooley missed a month through injury and the manager tinkered slightly with the team in the final stages, giving league outings to Lovell and Miles, who had both faded from Hayward’s thoughts in the autumn, and briefly introduced the young Clapham striker George Cleary, who had been a prolific scorer for the reserves for the last two seasons, but in the final few matches he went back to the eleven that had been the first choice when Hayward left, apart from the departed Brown. Soon after the season had ended, Bailey was, as had been rumoured for some time, also sold to Gillingham.

Not surprisingly, all the other regulars were retained with the exception of Miles, whose persistent injuries had curtailed his early promise, and Avis, who was to become first team trainer for the following season. Spirits remained high at the year’s end, with the best league finish since the Kelly era and the feeling that there was more to come from what was by no means an elderly squad (the average age of the team that had begun the FA Cup run at Cambridge in October was only just over 23, an interesting comparison with the first Rooke era and Tim Kelly's earlier years when it was around the 30 mark). It was unfortunate, however, that the club decided to scrap the youth team because players were having problems getting away from work in time for away matches; at the end of the season Burgess gave part-time contracts to Trevor Marriott, Peter Harris, Les Newman and Peter Massey, all of whom had come through this team. Three more, Bobby Folds, David Quirke and David Peach, joined Basil Hayward at Gillingham. Folds was to return to The Eyrie much later in his career, Quirke later clocked up over 200 league appearances for Gillingham, while Peach went on to play some 500 league matches and won a FA Cup winner’s medal with Southampton in 1976.

For the first time since 1959/60 the average league attendance had topped 3,000 -3,460, an increase of over 70% on the previous season, and this at a time of nationally declining crowds. The cup run had turned the previous season’s £8,000 loss into a profit of about £2,500[2], and chairman Senior now announced plans for £15,000 worth of ground improvements, involving the conversion of the dressing rooms behind the Ford End Road end into a bar and social club, and building new players’ facilities under the main stand.

For much of the 1965/6 season there had been talk of at least one Fourth Division club going into liquidation-Halifax were the favourites-and thus a vacancy arising for a non-league club. A vocal campaign was mounted by the chairman all through the latter part of the season and early summer to urge Bedford’s case on the back of the excellent season they had just enjoyed. But in the event no League club went to the wall, and at the League AGM in June Bedford received only three votes. Cambridge United and Wigan Athletic (then in the Cheshire League) received five each and Hereford four. Bedford had actually received four votes the previous year without doing any campaigning at all. The least successful of the League clubs, Rochdale, were re-elected with 36 votes. “Alas, poor kids, they never had a chance”, wrote Sam Leitch in the Sunday Mirror. But as things turned out, this was to be the least of the club’s troubles in the year ahead.

To continue the story go to 1966/7 -off field rows, on field disasters

For full results and teams go to Results and teams, 1950-67

SOUTHERN LEAGUE TABLES 1965-1966

Premier Division

1. Weymouth 42 22 13 7 70 35 57

2. Chelmsford City 42 21 12 9 74 50 54

3. Hereford United 42 21 10 11 81 49 52

4. Bedford Town 42 23 6 13 80 57 52

5. Wimbledon 42 20 10 12 80 47 50

6. Cambridge City 42 19 11 12 67 52 49

7. Romford 42 21 7 14 87 72 49

8. Worcester City 42 20 8 14 69 54 48

9. Yeovil Town 42 17 11 14 91 70 45

10. Cambridge United 42 18 9 15 72 64 45

11. King’s Lynn 42 18 7 17 75 72 43

12. Corby Town 42 16 9 17 66 73 41

13. Wellington Town 42 13 13 16 65 70 39

14. Nuneaton Borough 42 15 8 19 60 74 38

15. Folkestone Town 42 14 9 19 53 75 37

16. Guildford City 42 14 8 20 70 84 36

17. Poole Town 42 14 7 21 61 75 35

18. Cheltenham Town 42 13 9 20 69 99 35

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19. Dartford 42 13 7 22 62 69 33

20. Rugby Town 42 11 10 21 67 95 32

21. Tonbridge 42 11 6 25 63 101 28

22. Margate 42 8 10 24 66 111 26

First Division

1. Barnet 46 30 9 7 114 49 69

2. Hillingdon Borough 46 27 10 9 101 46 64

3. Burton Albion 46 28 8 10 121 60 64

4. Bath City 46 25 13 8 88 50 63

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5. Hastings United 46 25 10 11 104 59 60

6. Wisbech Town 46 25 9 12 98 54 59

7. Canterbury City 46 25 8 13 89 66 58

8. Stevenage Town 46 23 9 14 86 49 55

9. Kettering Town 46 22 9 15 77 74 53

10. Merthyr Tydfil 46 22 6 18 95 68 50

11. Dunstable Town 46 15 14 17 76 72 44

12. Crawley Town 46 17 10 19 72 71 44

13. Bexley United 46 20 4 22 65 71 44

14. Trowbridge Town 46 16 11 19 79 81 43

15. Dover 46 17 8 21 59 62 42

16. Barry Town 46 16 10 20 72 94 42

17. Gravesend & Northfle 46 16 9 21 84 86 41

18. Gloucester City 46 14 12 20 75 98 40

19. Sittingbourne 46 11 12 23 77 121 34

20. Ramsgate Athletic 46 9 15 22 35 76 33

21. Hinckley Athletic 46 10 12 24 59 93 32

22. Tunbridge Wells Rangers 46 12 8 26 47 88 32

23. Ashford Town 46 9 10 27 44 92 28

24. Deal Town 46 3 4 39 29 166 10

Deal Town resigned at the end of the season, joining the Kent League, and were replaced by Banbury United from the Birmingham League

EASTERN PROFESSIONAL FLOODLIT COMPETITION TABLE 1965/6

P W D L F A PTS

Cambridge City 14 7 5 2 38 25 19

Chelmsford City 14 9 1 4 29 20 19

Cambridge United 14 6 6 2 23 18 18

Wimbledon 14 5 4 5 23 23 14

Bedford Town 14 5 3 6 27 25 13

Romford 14 5 3 6 27 27 13

King's Lynn 14 4 3 7 28 30 11

Kettering Town 14 2 1 11 9 36 5

(Cambridge City were champions after beating Chelmsford in a two legged play-off 4-3 on aggregate)

[1] There were a few teething troubles. The commentary was broadcast down the telephone line and early in the match the voice of the operator interrupted to ask if the caller wanted to pay for further time. “I think you’ll find, love”, said one of the commentators in very un-PC fashion “that we’ve booked the line until five o’clock”......

[2] Bedfordshire Times, 2 August 1966. No more precise numbers were quoted