Riseley Sports - Gold Street

Riseley Sports FC

Gold Street

Riseley

Bedford 

Bedfordshire

MK44 1EG

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Ground Number: 1422
Wednesday 23rd April 2025

Riseley Sports 2-0 AFC Oakley
Beds County Premier

RISELEY SPORTS FC - A BRIEF HISTORY

The club was established in 1890 and was originally known as Riseley Rovers FC. They dropped the Rovers suffix two years later, and as there were no local leagues, they only played friendlies up until 1898. That year, they joined the Bedford District League Division 2 and were known as Riseley Excelsior between 1899 and 1903 before reverting to their former name. Riseley ceased to have a competitive football team from December 1912 until March 1921 due to the First World War. After the War, Riseley had a very successful team with most of the players coming from the village, although the champion winning team of 1920/21 included Abanarida, an overseas player from Siam visiting the village to attend language school held by the Reverend Dodds of Riseley church. In 1927, the club's name became `Riseley Stars`, running three teams in different age groups with the 1st XI competing in the Bedford District League Division 4 up until the Second World War in 1939. The name Sports was adopted when the football and cricket clubs amalgamated in 1962.

In more recent times, they were in the Bedfordshire County League Division 5 in 1987, but little over a decade, they had worked their way up to the Premier Division. They remained there up until 2010 when they resigned from the division and dropped down to Division 3. They hardly pulled up any trees at the lower level, but 5th place in 2013 was good enough for promotion to Division 2. Despite finishing second-bottom in their only season here, they were moved up to Division 1. In 2016, they were relegated but would win the Division 2 title in 2017. The following season, they finished as runners-up behind Totternhoe Reserves in Division 1 to earn promotion to the Premier Division. They remain here to this day, despite finishing second-bottom last season. The season, they had their best finish since returning of 8th.

Bedfordshire County League cup honours include the Iganic Bowl Challenge Bowl in 1995, the Executive Cup in 1989, the Presidents Cup in 1987, the Aubrey Tinget Memorial Cup in 1992 and the Jubilee Cup in 1988 & 1989. The club can count Matt Jackson amongst its former youth players. The defender made 513 appearances in the Football League, mainly for Everton & Wigan Athletic. He is currently the club president of Grasshopper Zurich in Switzerland and has family connections with the club. The village of Riseley is located in North Bedfordshire and has a population of just under 1,300. The nearest big town is Rushden in neighbouring Northamptonshire. Riseley has a long tradition of brick and tile making, dating back to at least 1558, due in part to its clay-rich soil. During World War 2, Riseley was used by the USAAF as a base to store and fill bombs, which were then forwarded to local American air bases.

MY VISIT

For the fourth Wednesday in a row, it was a game in the Bedfordshire County League for Colin & me. I was going along nicely with visiting the grounds in this league and had enjoyed my visits to the various clubs. The venues tended to be more basic, but the league was good at updating its fixtures on the FA Full Time website. I'd have preferred to go to the three sides in the Hertfordshire Premier, but Chesunt Development, Elneny and Owens all had no midweek games. In the week before the game, I was struggling to find a way of cramming everything I wanted to do into the limited time off work that I got. Not lucky enough to get away with working part-time like Colin or have an overly generous holiday allowance like Daniel, I was banking on getting an unpaid day off for the North West Counties Hop. I'd not banked on the hop being mainly in February when I'd been forced to choose my holiday dates a few weeks ago, but that was how it had fallen.

 

From our game at Long Crendon, I drove towards home and had planned to drop Colin at my local bus stop. But the hourly bus was due to get to the stop three minutes before us, so I made a diversion to drop him in Amersham. On the way home, I passed the bus coming the other way and got in just before 9. I managed to get that blog before bed, but had done nothing towards tonight's blog. The day of the game came, and I awoke at 3.55 to hear the sound of torrential rain outside. I checked for tonight, and thankfully, it wasn't coming down all day in Riseley. It was a pleasant and easy day at work, with it only being a six-hour shift. Afterwards, I got a baguette and some pastrami to take with me tonight. It was a slower journey than usual to home due to extra roadworks, but I had plenty of time before I was due to leave. Riseley Sports had made an online programme available for the game, and it was a superb effort at any level, let alone a step 7 club with a small but dedicated fanbase. 

I spent the afternoon at home, doing some research for this blog, which took a while. I was glad when the Football Traveller arrived as I'd still not decided upon my Saturday game. For once, there were a lot of games on Friday night, but with most of them requiring an overnight stop,m I'd probably not bother as Colin was unavailable due to completing the 92 at Stoke City. I noted that this was probably the furthest away venue in the league but they all had to be done. For that reason, I was going to fill up with fuel before I went, as the local garage was the cheapest place unless I went hugely off route. I left at 3.45 and had a slight wait at the petrol station due to a faulty pump. From there, it was a slow drive to Colin's, the schools being back not helping. It was also slow in parts for a lot of the trip. Colin was asleep within a couple of minutes, so I got some peace. We arrived 20 minutes before kickoff, parking in a nearby road. We met up with Hertfordshire Hopper who told us they'd had to work on the pitch to ensure game on. After getting some pictures and settling down for my pastrami baguette. 

Riseley Sports were in 10th place in the league, having won eight, drawn two and lost thirteen of their games so far. They'd been in mixed form, but in their last game, they had win 3-0 at Shefford Town & Campton Reserves. AFC Oakley were top of the table and could confirm the title tonight. They had won seventeen, drawn three and lost three so far. They were unbeaten in nine league games and last time out had beaten Queens Park Crescents 2-0. When the two sides met in November, AFC Oakley won 2-0 on their own patch. The visitors had travelled around 7.5 miles to get to the game. It was a fast start. Riseley, playing in their yellow away kit hit the bar with their first attack and James Cooke headed home the rebound with 30 seconds on the clock. After less than two minutes, it was 2-0, a lob from outside the area by Crook. On 35 minutes, an Oakley forward slid in on the keeper with a ridiculous late challenge. It'd have been a red in professional football but the referee settled on a yellow card. AFC Oakley weren't creating many clear-cut chances, blasting over the bar from close range. There was also a header wide as they started to improve. Riseley had some defending to do in injury time too and were well organised. The visitors improved after the break, forcing a couple of good saves out of the Riseley keeper. Up the other end, the hosts came close with a header. Plenty of strong challenges went in as the intensity heated up. Riseley had a header ruled out for offside on 63 minutes. Meanwhile, the Oakley #5 was sin-binned for gobbing off at the ref. On 74 minutes, Riseley's player Crook got a straight red for a high challenge, and it was probably the right decision. There were a number of comings together, and the ref did excellently to keep a lid on things with the agitated players, and there were a lot of bookings to keep them in check. It had been an excellent advert for Bedfordshire football and the league.

 

THE GROUND

GOLD STREET or RISELEY VILLAGE HALL is a decent venue for the level. The pitch is more basic but there is a small area of cover behind one goal. It is roped off and has chairs in place of dugouts. The bar has a decent selection of interesting drinks, including Appleshed cider. There are hot drinks available from a separate hatch. There is a small car park, plus street parking. It's good to see a couple of club signs letting you know who plays there. There is a pub outside the ground but I didn't see any takeaways.