BALDOCK BASH BOVINGDON

Baldock Town Letchworth played host to visitors Bovingdon in a Hertfordshire Senior County League Premier Division game last night, it was one of the last matches Baldock will be play at the County Ground in the town. They were reformed as Baldock FC in 2003 after the original club folded in 2001 following the loss of their Norton Road ground.

The new club initially played at The Shed, Clothall Road and the Knights Templar Sports Centre in Baldock but for the last three seasons have played at the Hertfordshire FA's headquarters at Baldock Road, Letchworth under the name of 'Baldock Town Letchworth FC'

This three year agreement runs out at the end of the season and as this article from the local press states it will not be renewed (The Comet 10/09/2010). So, they will be off to pastures new. It seems a shame the well appointed ground which is well up to Ryman standard will not be used by a club from next season onwards. The old club's Norton Road ground is still used as the the arena/north herts football facility and has a full size 3G pitch used all year round.

Another article on the current situation regarding Town's ground situation can be read at the excellent twohundredpercent.net

In the game it was Baldock's night as they went goal crazy. Already 5-0 up at half time they could of scored at least another five in the second half against a Bovingdon side that have only won twice since the turn of the year. The visitors had a night to forget at the back but credit to them they never gave up playing and backed by a very vocal and encouraging bench had a few chances to score themselves.

Bovingdon warm up prior to kick off

The referee and his assistants make sure the match starts on time

Baldock Town enter the field of play closely followed by the visitors

Arriving at the ground at 7.15pm for the 7.30pm kick off I saw the home side warming up with only a few Bovingdon players getting set for the game. Their squad was out on the pitch fully preparing at about 7.20 when the referee spoke to them asking them to be ready at the tunnel by 7.25 which was met with the reply of 'that's never gonna happen mate' which indicated that some of their players were running late. More credit goes to the Bovingdon players as they were ready for the kick off time entering the field of play a few minutes behind Baldock.

The result pushes Baldock Town up into third place as in thirteen league games since the 1st January they have only lost three times, their good run of form looks like it's come to late to challenge for the title. Tellingly two of those defeats have come against Hinton and their neighbour's Letchworth Garden City Eagles who are above them in the league table.

Herts Senior County League Current Top Five 
                              P  W  D L GF GA  GD PTS 
Letchworth Garden City Eagles 22 14 5 3 59 30 +29 47 
Hinton                        21 14 2 5 51 23 +28 44 
Baldock Town Letchworth       24 13 4 7 55 29 +26 43 
Wormley Rovers                25 12 6 7 51 41 +10 42 
Metropolitan Police Bushey    22 11 8 3 59 31 +28 41 

The current table toppers and second placed Hinton still have to play each other in the league making for a very exciting end to the title race. Hinton travel to Pixmore Lane on Bank Holiday Monday the 25th April before the Eagles make the trip to the Holtwhites Sports and Social club in Enfield on the 30th April.

The 7-0 victory wasn't Town's biggest victory this season in the league as they went one better and won 8-0 away at bottom of the table Lemsford on the 12th February. It was Bovingdon's biggest league defeat since the 13th September 2008 when London Lions beat them 10-0.

There are quite a few midweek fixtures in the Herts County League over the next few weeks which an be found on the league website here.

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS ARE HERE (INCLUDING ALL OF BALDOCK'S SUPER SEVEN GOALS) -



The cold end also covered the Letchworth derby game between Town and the Eagles on the 1st September 2010. Highlights can be found here.

Baldock's scorers last night were -

Ryan Aldrin
Kane Dougherty (3)
Ross Haskins
J Peters
and an Own Goal.