The Lights

Bideford  3  Westbury United  4

Southern League – Division One South

Admission / Programme - £6 / £2

Bideford have the best floodlights I’ve ever seen!

By that, I don’t mean that they are the shiniest and brightest illuminative devices in existence, for all I know they might not work that well, but in terms of their sheer aesthetic beauty, wowzers, they are incredible.

I can remember watching games in the Football League in the eighties when the bulk of clubs had a structure at each corner that were colossal beasts of intertwined steelwork that resembled an electricity pylon. Nowadays, with clubs moving grounds and upgrading, those types of pylons are few and far between, typically now they are either single poles, or simply integrated into the stand roof.

Back in the mid-eighties we had a family holiday to Ilfracombe, and for some reason, we drove through Bideford on a wet day, en-route to some other coastal destination, where myself and my sister would have to don our cagoules and be dragged from the car to look at something or other. I always used to ask if I could sit in the car and listen to Radio One, but my folks would never let me do that!

Anyway, we drove past the ground of Bideford AFC, and being a young non-league enthusiast at that time, I immediately clocked it and looked in awe at the pylons, thinking to myself that based on those floodlights alone, it would be a great ground to visit.

It’s been a long wait though, that was probably around 1986, it’s now 2023, so thirty seven years in the waiting, but all good things as they say…..

The current family holiday had entered day two, we’d stayed overnight in Exeter, and the following morning it was a cross country journey via Torrington to the North Devon coast. We arrived pretty early and inadvertently ended up parking right outside the ground, which by definition is incredibly close to the centre of the town. A quick run around the town centre, the Pannier Market, and a coffee later, it was time to head back to the Sports Ground and get set for the big game against my old mates from Wiltshire, Westbury United.

The Sports Ground in Bideford, even taking the floodlights out of the equation, is a wonderful thing, an old school beauty, football ground pornography in fact, I loved it. You walk in through the turnstiles in the corner and immediately to your right behind the South goal is the clubhouse and the offices set in a two story building. Moving round to the Eastern side of the ground you then have a long area of cover running along the main road side which is seated in the middle and terraced at either end. Behind the North goal is hard open standing while down the West side is a narrow but tall seated stand, with the dressing rooms and tea bar alongside. The ground itself is set within a huge footprint, and when you look at a Google Map view of it you can see that each corner in terms of the pitch surround is curved rather than angled, giving it something of an oval feel.

Then of course the floodlights, four of them, all solid four sided structures in silver / grey, with a large rectangular frame at the top that housed the actual bulbs. To be honest, I couldn’t stop looking at them, and if wasn’t so scared of heights, I’d probably have asked permission to climb them, not that it would ever be granted of course!

But what about the actual football club then, well this is quite a tale if I’m honest, and the story of a club whereby geography has not really done them any favours.

They joined the Western League as founder members in 1949, where they remained until 1972 when they moved to the Southern League, having won the Western League in the two previous seasons. The Southern League experience saw two good years followed by a poor one, which ultimately saw them drop back down again, although that was more financial than it was football wise, the travelling in the Southern League being pretty taxing.

The Western League was to be home again until 2010, where it was won a further seven times, including five times in nine seasons in the noughties, which ultimately lead to a promotion back to the Southern League again. The South & West Division was to be home for two seasons, with the club winning it in the second season and gaining promotion to the Premier Division. The top flight experience lasted four seasons before relegation back to the regionalised Step 4 leagues.

This season, the relegation play off should be avoided with games in hand, however it’s certainly not guaranteed, but that said, the travelling in the Southern League this time isn’t anything like it was back in the early seventies, mainly because of the numbers of West Country clubs that have taken promotion over the recent years.

The FA Cup has been good to the club, with First Round appearances in 1964 (Colchester United), 1973 (Bristol Rovers), 1977 (Portsmouth) and 1981 (Barking), while the FA Vase semi-final was reached in 2004 and ended in defeat to Winchester City, while the quarter finals were reached in both 2007 and 2009.

So what about the game then? Well it was a bit of a cracker, Harvey Flippance (great name!) gave the visitors the lead in the eighth minute, only for the hosts to come roaring back by equalising through Javan Wright in the 22^nd minute and then taking the lead ten minutes later through Aaron Taylor. A third goal for Bideford on the stroke of half time thanks to Joseph Charles did make you think the game was done and dusted but Westbury had other ideas.

Ryan Bole scored in the 53^rd minute, Gary Higdon equalised five minutes later and it was the same player who get Westbury’s fourth, and the winner with ten minutes to go. To be honest, it did look like an unlikely comeback, but once Westbury had got a goal back you felt like they had all the momentum.

So that was it, and being April we had no need to see the floodlights come into play, but you never know, we’re not planning on giving up on Devon holiday’s anytime soon, so maybe one midweek in the future?

A great game at a cracking club though, and I do hope they can get the points they need to avoid having to go into a play off, Bideford are too big a club to be dropping back into the Western League.

Those floodlights are too good to go down……….!

**Postscript - It's the Play Off's after a tough final week of the season, the opponents likely to be Saltash United at home, I really wish Bideford well, the Southern League would be a poorer place without them.....