Thursday 5 May 2022

HISTORY MADE BY HATFIELD ATHLETIC AT THEY WIN THEIR FIRST TROPHY - THE BINGHAM COX CUP

The Bingham Cox Cup has a heritage and history nearly as old as The FA Cup having first been played for in 1892. Only the county's Senior Cup is older in Hertfordshire having first been played for in 1886. 

The competition was the idea of William Henry Bingham-Cox whose desire was for their to be a cup for the junior clubs in the St Albans area. The final was always traditionally played at Clarence Park on Bank Holiday Monday morning aside from the first tow finals which were played at St Alban's Grammar School Ground.  There was a rule which stipulated that all competing clubs must fall within a six mile radius of St Albans Town Hall with the trophy being made by Elkington and Co Ltd of Regent Street in Westminster. The first final was contested by City Rovers and Stanville who played out a 1-1 draw with Stanville winning the replay 3-0 the following Saturday. 

The competition was adopted by the Mid Herts League and was still played for by clubs in the St Albans area but I think the radius rule was dropped some years ago. When the Mid Herts League merged with the North Herts League in 2006 the competition was kept with The Greg Cup retained by the North Herts League. When The North and Mid Herts Football League disbanded in 2013 the competitions were adopted by The Herts Senior County League. 

The 2022 final was played on Monday 2nd May at Colney Heath Football Club between Hatfield Athletic and Bedmond United. Athletic were in 11th place of Division Two with United fifth in Division Three so a close hard fought game was expected. 

It was exactly that in the first half with Athletic taking the lead and being 1-0 up at half time but in the second half it was Hatfield who were much the better side running in three more goals to make the final score 4-0. The win is Hatfield Athletic's first Trophy win since the club were formed just a few seasons ago which is an amazing achievement.

It was a fantastic performance from Hatfield Athletic - I thought Rob Frame at left back had a brilliant game and didn't put a foot wrong throughout the 90 minutes. Their goal scorers were (in order) 18 year old Casey Zwager, Dom Webb, Josh Dickinson and Aman Ghebru. 

For Bedmond United it wasn't to be but they can look back on a decent first season since forming last summer in getting to this final and also have a chance to finish third in the league with four games left to play. 

They included Eamon Rogers in their defence who at the youthful age of 53 has been playing for local clubs in Saturday and Sunday football since the mid 1980s!!  To still be playing the beautiful game at a decent level after all these years is an amazing achievement. Rogers holds a unique record having won the Herts Sunday Senior Cup for three different teams in three different decades. 

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS

JUST THE GOALS

PICTURES 







































RECENT WINNERS OF THE BINGHAM COX CUP
MID HERTS FOOTBALL LEAGUE 
2001/02 - Harpenden Rovers 2-0 Colney Athletic 
2002/03 - Harpenden Rovers 4-0 Elizabeth Allen Old Boys 
2003/04 - Colney Athletic 2-1 Harpenden Rovers Reserves 
2004/05 - Park Street Village 6-2 Redbourn 
2005/06 - Colney Heath 'A' 3-2 Park Street Village 
NORTH & MID-HERTS FOOTBALL LEAGUE 
2006/07 - Clannad Celtic 6-3 Redbourn 
2007/08 - London Road 2-0 St Albans North 
2008/09 - Colney Athletic 1-0 London Colney 'A' 
2009/10 - London Colney 'A' 2-1 Potters Bar Crusaders 
2010/11 - Potters Bar Crusaders 3-0 Inn on The Green 
2011/12 - Potters Bar Crusaders 4-2 Warriors XI AET 
2012/13 - St Ippolyts 2-0 AFC Baldock 
HERTS SENIOR COUNTY LEAGUE 
2013/14 - Evergreen 6-4 Hertford Heath AET 
2014/15 - AFC Hatfield 1-0 Sandridge Rovers Reserves (pictured below)
2015/16 - Hadley 'A' 2-1 AFC Hatfield 
2016/17 - Bovingdon Reserves 4-3 Sarratt Reserves 
2017/18 - Lings Elite 8-3 Knebworth Reserves AET 
2018/19 - Bengeo Trinity 3-1 Histon Reserves 
2019/20 - Cancelled due to pandemic 
2020/21 - Cancelled due to pandemic 
2021/22 - Hatfield Athletic 4-0 Bedmond United 

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