Another nail in Bedford’s relegation coffin was a 0-1 home defeat by Wimbledon on 8 April 1967-Ron Heckman’s first league game after his return as manager. Ron Fogg, who was on as substitute for George Cleary, is here thwarted by Wimbledon’s keeper Frank Smith. In the left background is John Fahy, who had rejoined from Cambridge United a few weeks earlier, but could not rediscover his form of three years earlier.
After a brief caretaker stint by Vernon Avis, Ron Heckman, who had left as a player in 1965, returned as manager, initially only part-time because he was employed as a coach by the London Education Authority, but by now there was little that could be done. Only one of the next seven league matches was won, and that was the only one in which the team managed more than one goal. On the last Saturday of April a 1-4 defeat at Corby, in another match that had the reporters scouring their thesauruses for abuse, doomed Bedford to the first-but not the last- relegation in their history. Another defeat at Burton a few days later meant that they had gone a whole season without an away win. For the last few matches Heckman relied entirely on players who had been regulars under Hayward or his predecessors; Fahy and Denton managed just one goal each in the league. After drawing 3-3 at Nuneaton early in February, the team scored more than one goal in a match only twice more, both in matches after they were virtually or actually relegated. Second from bottom, six points short of safety, and with only 54 goals scored against 72, summed up the worst season since before the first Rooke era.
There was an inevitable price to pay at the turnstiles; although home gates held up reasonably well while the team were still in the FA Cup, the season’s league average crowd dropped by nearly a thousand to 2,681 and the loss on the season was over £7,000, with debts of nearly £25,000. In April Cyril Folkes, chairman from 1953 to 1956, and a few others briefly tried to lead a shareholders’ revolt but nothing came of it. Familiar faces who moved on in the summer included Collins, Sturrock, Lovell and Vernon Avis, who had resigned as first team trainer when Heckman became manager. Fogg was the only player signed by Burgess who started the following season in the regular first eleven[9].
The earliest years of Bedford Town FC, up to 1939, were a story of reasonable success at local level(see First Years, 1884-1939). The first years in the Southern League, from 1945 to 1950, were years of unmitigated struggle (see Into the Southern League (1945-50)). The years from 1950 to 1967 had some disappointments but the good times outweighed the bad, and the best times gave great pleasure to thousands. From 1967, (see Later History, 1967-82) however, there were to be no more challenges for the title at the highest level of the Southern League and no more giant-killings in the FA Cup: it was to be a trend of slow decline, enlivened only by a few “yo-yo” promotions and relegations from and back to the lower divisions, and punctuated by ever-worsening financial problems. We had seen the Best Years.
To continue the story go to 1967/8 to 1969/70-Up, down and back up again
For full results and teams go to Results and teams, 1950-67
SOUTHERN LEAGUE TABLES 1966-1967
Premier Division
1. Romford 42 22 8 12 80 60 52
2. Nuneaton Borough 42 21 9 12 82 54 51
3. Weymouth 42 18 14 10 64 40 50
4. Wimbledon 42 19 11 12 88 60 49
5. Barnet 42 18 13 11 86 66 49
6. Guildford City 42 19 10 13 65 51 48
7. Wellington Town 42 20 7 15 70 67 47
8. Cambridge United 42 16 13 13 75 67 45
9. Chelmsford City 42 15 15 12 66 59 45
10. King’s Lynn 42 15 14 13 78 72 44
11. Hereford United 42 16 12 14 79 61 44
12. Cambridge City 42 15 13 14 66 70 43
13. Cheltenham Town 42 16 11 15 60 71 43
14. Yeovil Town 42 14 14 14 66 72 42
15. Burton Albion 42 17 5 20 63 71 39
16. Corby Town 42 15 9 18 60 75 39
17. Poole Town 42 14 11 17 52 65 39
18. Hillingdon Borough 42 11 13 18 49 70 35
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19. Bath City 42 11 12 19 51 74 34
20. Worcester City 42 11 8 23 59 79 30
21. Bedford Town 42 8 13 21 54 72 29
22. Folkestone Town 42 6 15 21 44 81 27
First Division
1. Dover 46 29 12 5 92 35 70
2. Margate 46 31 7 8 127 54 69
3. Stevenage Town 46 29 8 9 90 32 66
4. Hastings United 46 25 16 5 89 45 66
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5. Kettering Town 46 27 9 10 105 62 63
6. Crawley Town 46 26 8 12 81 48 60
7. Ramsgate Athletic 46 23 8 15 79 62 54
8. Dartford 46 19 15 12 92 67 53
9. Tonbridge 46 21 10 15 91 69 52
10. Trowbridge Town 46 20 12 14 73 60 52
11. Ashford Town 46 18 8 20 74 68 44
12. Merthyr Tydfil 46 17 9 20 81 71 43
13. Gloucester City 46 18 6 22 69 83 42
14. Canterbury City 46 17 8 21 57 75 42
15. Wisbech Town 46 16 9 21 87 93 41
16. Bexley United 46 13 15 18 53 69 41
17. Banbury United 46 13 14 19 88 100 40
18. Rugby Town 46 15 7 24 57 77 37
19. Dunstable Town 46 14 6 26 55 87 34
20. Barry Town 46 11 11 24 62 89 33
21. Gravesend & Northfleet 46 11 9 26 63 106 31
22. Hinckley Athletic 46 10 8 28 44 100 28
23. Tunbridge Wells Rangers 46 4 15 27 31 96 23
24. Sittingbourne 46 5 10 31 44 136 20
Hinckley Athletic (to Birmingham League), Tunbridge Wells Rangers (liquidated) and Sittingbourne (to Kent Premier League) resigned at the end of the season
Brentwood Town (from Metropolitan League) were elected for 1967/8
EASTERN PROFESSIONAL FLOODLIT COMPETITION TABLE 1966/7
P W D L F A PTS
Chelmsford City 18 10 3 5 31 18 23
Romford 18 8 6 4 36 27 22
Bedford Town 18 7 7 4 33 26 21
Brentwood Town 18 8 5 5 28 29 21
King's Lynn 18 7 5 6 31 30 19
Cambridge City 18 8 2 8 33 29 18
Barnet 18 5 7 6 38 28 17
Cambridge United 18 6 2 10 25 36 14
Stevenage Town 18 5 3 10 26 35 13
Wisbech Town 18 3 6 9 20 43 12
[1] See front page article in the Bedfordshire Times, 19 August 1966. This reproduces some of the correspondence.
[2] Personal reminiscence. “You big headed b***er” seemed to be the main theme of the abuse. Admittedly the loudest noise came mainly from a group of perhaps 12-20 men.
[3] According to a statement published in the match programme for the Southern League Cup tie against Dunstable on 1 September 1966, which also claimed that the guarantees would shortly be increased to £32,000.
[4] Once legal proceedings were started the local press stopped commenting on the story, making it hard to establish what was happening. By March 1967 the “original” Supporters’ Club had taken an office in Ford End Road, and continued to run its competitions, banking the proceeds until the dispute was finally resolved a year later. It was not until March 1970, however, that the Supporters’ Club finally merged their weekly pools competition with that of the board.
[5] Bedfordshire Times, 15 September 1967.
[6] Brother of the more famous Ron, who missed this match but played in the replay.
[7] Although he stayed until sold to Gillingham in November 1967.
[8] Bedfordshire Times, 31 March 1967
[9] Fahy and Denton were still on the books but were transfer-listed and sold after playing only a handful of games in 1967/8.