Results and teams, 1945-50

Below are links to the Excel pages giving results and lineups for 1945/46 to 1949/50. Clicking on the relevant link takes you to the page for that season which will open in Ms Excel, but you might need to use the link to Google Sheets at the top of each page for best results. The pages will also make more sense if you scroll down to read the notes below the links first.

NOTES ON THE "RESULTS AND TEAMS" PAGES

Key to line-ups

For each match the opponents are shown in upright type, eg YEOVIL TOWN, for home matches and italics, eg YEOVIL TOWN, for away matches.

The competition (see below) and attendance, where known, are shown to the left of the opposition name. Attendances have been taken from press reports where recorded, but especially in the earlier years many of the figures appear to be estimates. Where the press report described the crowd as “more than” or “just under” a ball-park figure, I have shown this with a + or – sign, eg “6,000+” will be a crowd reported as “over 6,000”. Recently (March 2013) Martin Goatley has kindly supplied some more precise attendance figures from old club handbooks which have replaced some of the previous estimates.

The teams are then set out in shirt number order, 1 to 11, with Bedford in bold and the opposition in unbold.

Under the line-ups, in italics, are set out, in the following order, Bedford scorers; opposition scorers. Referee [where known]. Scorers are given in the order in which the goals were scored if this is known. In the earlier years especially, the referee's name is often unknown: they were seldom named in press reports in this period even where the match involved controversial decisions. Some of these gaps have been filled from programmes. In a few cases initials and/or home towns of referees are unknown.

The line-ups are as complete as I can make them, but especially in 1945/6, some are incomplete despite research in both the Bedford local press and the "opposition" papers. In the right hand margin appear some notes about what is known in these cases. A few matches seem never to have been reported anywhere (eg v Millwall Reserves at home in 1946/7 and away to Chingford in 1948/9). Sometimes I have been unable to find a report of the team that actually played and have instead given the team that was scheduled to play according to the papers the previous day or (very occasionally) the programme: these are annotated "Sched [both]", "Sched [BTFC]" or "Sched [opp]", to indicate that both teams, or just Bedford, or just the opponents, are shown as scheduled, or "Prog" where the programme is the source. This method occasionally breaks down when the press report indicates that someone not in the scheduled team scored ! In those cases I have added a note in the right hand margin.

I'd be delighted to hear from anyone who can complete the gaps in these line-ups or correct any errors (email me at davidoldeagle@gmail.com).

In a few cases where players of the same name played for both sides and scored, a distinguishing letter has been added in brackets after the names to avoid confusion.

Where press accounts disagree on a team line-up or goalscorer, I have taken the “home” version as definitive, i.e. the Bedford press if it involved a Bedford player and the “away” press for opposing players, but the discrepancy is noted in the right hand margin.

Competitions

These pages cover every competitive first team fixture in the season in question-which means every fixture except friendlies (although these are also briefly listed at the end of the fixtures). The competitions are abbreviated as follows:

Southern League (SL)-this was the competition in which the club played throughout this period.

Southern League Cup (SLC)- this was played on a "mini-league" basis from 1945/6 to 1947/8 inclusive (as explained on the results pages) and then as a normal knock-out competition.

The FA Cup-the rounds are abbreviated “FAC(1P)” or "FAC(1Q)", etc, for the preliminary and qualifying rounds, and FAC(1) etc for the competition proper. Replays are denoted by “R”, second replays by “2R”, etc.