The Biggleswade files.

So.....what does anybody know about them.

Do they have a secret weapon?

Their name is funny. That's about it from me.

They must be gutted. First time they get this far and they are drawn away to us!! At least when it was our first time we had a good draw. Yes, we lost but it was still a memorable occasion for us all.

Jane.N wrote:They must be gutted. First time they get this far and they are drawn away to us!! At least when it was our first time we had a good draw. Yes, we lost but it was still a memorable occasion for us all.

And playing at home to Walsall we made more of a profit than I think we will do against Biggleswade.

With a name like that, their secret weapon wouldn't be a bloke in an aeroplane would it

Not necessarily, the attendance that day i believe was 2004. We had seats in Church End which added to capacity but of course added to costs.
Without the seats our capacity will be around 1600? If we got around 1500 were likely to make as much if not more. Cant remember price of Walsall tickets but dint think they were above £15?

brockmoor wrote:Not necessarily, the attendance that day i believe was 2004. We had seats in Church End which added to capacity but of course added to costs.
Without the seats our capacity will be around 1600? If we got around 1500 were likely to make as much if not more. Cant remember price of Walsall tickets but dint think they were above £15?  

"din't" LOL.

Devil's Advocate wrote:

brockmoor wrote:Not necessarily, the attendance that day i believe was 2004. We had seats in Church End which added to capacity but of course added to costs.
Without the seats our capacity will be around 1600? If we got around 1500 were likely to make as much if not more. Cant remember price of Walsall tickets but dint think they were above £15?  

"din't" LOL.

Oh yes, the joys of messaging on phone. I also don't have the excuse of a broken screen on my phone for the last 12 months do i Devil.  

brockmoor wrote:

Devil's Advocate wrote:

brockmoor wrote:Not necessarily, the attendance that day i believe was 2004. We had seats in Church End which added to capacity but of course added to costs.
Without the seats our capacity will be around 1600? If we got around 1500 were likely to make as much if not more. Cant remember price of Walsall tickets but dint think they were above £15?  

"din't" LOL.

Oh yes, the joys of messaging on phone. I also don't have the excuse of a broken screen on my phone for the last 12 months do i Devil.  

His.....sorry "he's" bitten!!

Walsall crowd was 2014 I think!

I assume there won't be any pre-sale tickets or anything for the Biggleswade game?

Devil's Advocate wrote:So.....what does anybody know about them.

Do they have a secret weapon?

Don't know a great deal, but I wouldn't be too mislead by the fact that they've only won two games in the League. They beat Chelmsford in the Cup and have won four games, like us, to get this far. Poor teams, or even average teams, don't do that.

I think they have Ian Brown, the old Bedford keeper, in goal these days. Possibly the best keeper in this League, always plays well against us, and one of a select band to have saved a Geddes penalty!

It's a winnable game - in terms of rankings, obviously one of the "easiest" ties we could have got. But then it's one of the "easiest" ties they could have got too. The fact that it's the first time they have ever got this far, only to have got a really disappointing draw (and not even at home) will almost certainly give them extra motivation to go another step. We cannot take this lightly, even though we will probably be slight favourites.

Sadly, it seems likely I will miss this one as I am going to be away for the weekend. At least I'm not missing out on a new ground!

[quote="stour_boy"]Walsall crowd was 2014 I think!

I assume there won't be any pre-sale tickets or anything for the Biggleswade game?


You might have assumed wrong Stourboy! As I mentioned on the 1st round draw thread,issuing tickets will solve the issue over priority allocation for a possible 2nd round match. It will also prevent any potential problems on the day if we are approching capacity. Don't forget we have to give Biggleswade 15% of the capacity so based on 1500 that would be 225 tickets. That only leaves 1275 for us. I would Certainly expect us to easily sell that amount. We had 1000 for the Gosport play-off,the 1st round of the cup will surely grab the Stourbridge public's attention much more than the play-off.

Whilst I expect there'll be more there than for a league game, I can't imagine we'll be putting up the "house full" signs.

Dave the Glassboy wrote:Whilst I expect there'll be more there than for a league game, I can't imagine we'll be putting up the "house full" signs.

I think you might be surprised Dave. If we can't sell 1200 tickets ourselves for a 1st Round FA Cup tie then it's a pity. I can't account for the opposition's allocation but we should be selling out.

I hope you're right but I just can't see it personally.

FA Cup or not, I don't see a game against a team from our own league capturing the imagination of the casuals.

But time will tell I suppose and it's one of those occasions when I hope I'm proved wrong!

I would say the Gosport game is a benchmark, as somebody else said. We had 1,000 for that, with maybe 50-60 from Gosport.

Against Curzon, "only" a 3 QR match, we had 633, say the 33 were from Curzon.

I think we should get 1,200 "Stour supporters" for this one (I put it in speechmarks to include everybody from these parts, including curious neutrals and the like who will get their tickets through us rather than through Biggleswade).

I'll be surprised if we get more than 1000.

Dave the Glassboy wrote:I hope you're right but I just can't see it personally.

FA Cup or not, I don't see a game against a team from our own league capturing the imagination of the casuals.

But time will tell I suppose and it's one of those occasions when I hope I'm proved wrong!

This is the FA CUP "FOR REAL" Dave......like really,really,REAL.....not qualifying but the REAL kahuna,the "doggies doo-dah's,the big f--- off mothership ffs,if we can't sell out of our normal ground capacity then we might as well pull the shutters down for good.

I've followed Stour since 1974,i've watched terrible Stour team's and some very good one's and back in the 70's and 80's there were many seasons where we really should have made the first round proper but we failed in third or fourth round qualifying,i never thought i'd live to see us do it and now we've done it three times in five years.

This is a phenomenal achievement,these are halcyon day's for our club and Gary Hackett will go down in history as Stour's greatest ever manager,even eclipsing the great Allan Grundy.

Gary and this era of player's etc will still be talked about 50-60 years from now,we may never see these type of day's again.

If 1200-1500 out of a population of around 60,000 locally cannot be @rsed then i think that's a really p--- poor effort by the town.

I'm glad to say that i think you'll be proved wrong.

I agree with everything you say DA, except the last line. I reckon most people will think "Biggleswade? Nah, I'll wait till the next round."

I think the thing here is that it's the third time in five years, after 133 years of, erm... nothing.

Some people (not the regular fans) have almost grown accustomed to us playing "A Big Team" and, as Phil says, the name of Biggleswade Town won't register. I still think, after getting 600+ against Curzon, we should comfortably get 1,200 against Biggleswade, plus however many they bring. But we wouldn't get anywhere near the 2,500 we had against Plymouth even if capacity allowed. And Biggleswade may well bring more than Plymouth did.

PhilC wrote:I agree with everything you say DA, except the last line. I reckon most people will think "Biggleswade? Nah, I'll wait till the next round."

How was dinner? Hope Mrs TRM didn't over-indulge.

PhilC wrote:I agree with everything you say DA, except the last line. I reckon most people will think "Biggleswade? Nah, I'll wait till the next round."

I don't normally bet Phil but i'll wager you a drink in the bar or a tenner that we'll get at least 1400-1600 depending on where capacity is set?

This is BGW first ever first round proper tie,they had almost 700 on Saturday for their cup victory but i notice that their league gates are quite poor normally.

I can see them bringing 300+ for this game though and i think we'll sell 1000-1200 tickets.

Happy to have a little wager if you're up for it?

Can anyone confirm if this will be 'pay on the gate' or not.

If we could get 993 in for Gosport without tickets and 1200-1400 for Chester (can't recall the exact attendance off the top of my head) then we can probably do the same for Biggleswade.

Meetings today to decide on the arrangements. Hope I'm not speaking out of turn but I gather it is "likely" to be all ticket.

No doubt this will be after consultation with "the relevant bodies." I hope the extra effort of having to get a ticket beforehand doesn't put people off bothering. The incentive of priority for tickets if we get through ought to be enough to persuade any waverers to get off their arses!

Devil's Advocate wrote:

Dave the Glassboy wrote:I hope you're right but I just can't see it personally.

FA Cup or not, I don't see a game against a team from our own league capturing the imagination of the casuals.

But time will tell I suppose and it's one of those occasions when I hope I'm proved wrong!

This is the FA CUP "FOR REAL" Dave......like really,really,REAL.....not qualifying but the REAL kahuna,the "doggies doo-dah's,the big f--- off mothership ffs,if we can't sell out of our normal ground capacity then we might as well pull the shutters down for good.

I think you may be overestimating the importance of the FA Cup.

IMO this game is a very hard sell. I broadly agree with Phil in that it's likely to be "FA Cup...great...who are they playing?...Oh! Never heard of them. Shan't bother thanks."

So whilst a capacity crowd is (obviously) not impossible, I believe that if we hit four figures for this game it will be a massive achievement.

Dave the Glassboy wrote:

Devil's Advocate wrote:

Dave the Glassboy wrote:I hope you're right but I just can't see it personally.

FA Cup or not, I don't see a game against a team from our own league capturing the imagination of the casuals.

But time will tell I suppose and it's one of those occasions when I hope I'm proved wrong!

This is the FA CUP "FOR REAL" Dave......like really,really,REAL.....not qualifying but the REAL kahuna,the "doggies doo-dah's,the big f--- off mothership ffs,if we can't sell out of our normal ground capacity then we might as well pull the shutters down for good.
/quote]

I think you may be overestimating the importance of the FA Cup.

IMO this game is a very hard sell. I broadly agree with Phil in that it's likely to be "FA Cup...great...who are they playing?...Oh! Never heard of them. Shan't bother thanks."

So whilst a capacity crowd is (obviously) not impossible, I believe that if we hit four figures for this game it will be a massive achievement.

I agree. I remember the Great Vouchers Scandal of 2011, when people got to the turnstiles, saw the vouchers had gone and went home muttering that they weren't "paying nine quid to watch that shite."