CHAMP FINAL TICKET INFORMATION

Under a week to go before Newcastle arrive for the Championship decider at Goldington Road and tickets are selling at record speed. Supporters are urged to purchase their tickets before the night to avoid long queues getting into the ground.

Fans with pre purchased tickets are reminded that access to Goldington road on the night of the final can also be gained via the Bushmead road gate and the North Gate. For the North gate enter the “Bedford Health Village” where you see the Blue signs on Kimbolton Road and head to the end.

All Adult tickets purchased pre 5pm Thursday receive £2 discount

ONLINE is the easiest way to secure your ticket with all orders now being left on the main Goldington Road gate for collection.

The Club offices are open for you to purchase your ticket weekdays 10am-4pm until Thursday 23rd May at 2pm, where Sales will then continue from the Ticket office window on Goldington Road right through to Kick Off.

NEWCASTLE 2nd LEG TRAVEL

The Followers will be taking a coach (or coaches) to the 2nd Leg of the Play Off Final at Newcastle on Wednesday 29th May. This will be an overnight trip leaving Goldington Road at 12.30pm on the Wednesday and returning from Newcastle after breakfast on Thursday 30th May. The costs are:

Coach, Bed & Breakfast - with 2 people sharing £60 per person. (Junior £45)
Coach, Bed & Breakfast - single occupancy £75
Coach only £30. (Junior £15)

If you are interested in travelling please contact Margaret on 01234 354708 as soon as possible so that rooms can be booked. Margaret will also be in the Scrum Bar on Thursday of this week (16th) from 7.30 pm to take bookings and collect payments. Payment is required on booking.

SEASON TICKET PRICES ANNOUNCED

Season Ticket details & Match ticket prices announced.

For more details and to download an application form Click Here...

Application forms for next season have now been posted out.  If you did not receive one Click Here..  to download all the information.

Prices have been frozen for the year and you can watch another great season of rugby here at Goldington Road from as little as £14 per match! If you take advantage of the clubs early booking offer.

BLUES TOUCH LEAGUE

The Bedford Blues Touch league starts Wednesday evening, May 1st and runs for eleven weeks, at Biddenham Upper School. The league caters for a wide variety of participants and the game is minimal contact and easy to pick up. 

So if you would like more information go to the Bedford Touch League Facebook, twitter@bedfordtouch

or https://sites.google.com/site/bedfordtouch

Contat league organiser John Kearsley (07504648975) for further details and registration form

UPCOMING EVENTS

BEDFORD RUGBY FOLLOWERS BALL - MAY 18th 18:30
4 COURSE MEAL, GUEST SPEAKER & DANCING UNTIL LATE

click logo below for more details & application forms ...

FRIENDS OF THE BLUES

Friends of the Blues- Making a difference
Sponsored by Cooper Beard Residential Sales

The Friends of the Blues are very pleased to be able to announce a five year sponsorship agreement with Cooper Beard Residential Sales. This will add considerably to the funds raised annually. We are very grateful to Russell Beard for his support of the aims of the scheme, in helping provide funds to Bedford Blues.

Russell said. “It is wonderful to be able to assist the fund and thereby show tangible support to the club. The Blues fly the flag for Bedford throughout the country, and mean so much to the town. They have a reputation as a great club and one that produces top quality players and rugby. Cooper Beard is proud to be associated with the fund and, in turn, with the Club itself”.

The Friends of the Blues fund is now fairly familiar to most club supporters and has an income that makes a substantial difference to the club. You can join its growing number of members by completing a standing order form on the link below, and donating from £7 per month.

So far this season there have been 38 winners in our home league match draws. Whilst members repeatedly affirm that they join to benefit the club, many are now enjoying the benefits from our prize draws.

Pat McKeown has won two flights with Monarch Airlines, Steve Nixon has a hotel break in Scotland to look forward to, and Ann Beal enjoyed a break for two in Jersey to coincide with the Blues match there. So far we have 17 members through to the £1,000 draw, having enjoyed the agonies of choosing a player to score a try, to get them there. Various restaurant meals have been enjoyed, shopping vouchers spent, sumptuous joints of beef eaten, international matches watched, beauty treatments received and many other prizes won.

We still have more of the same, and that splendid two night hotel break in Newcastle, for the Falcons match, to be drawn soon. Next year we aim to provide more of the same prizes, and more besides.

Membership also provides the chance to meet and socialise with Mike Rayer and the players, on draw night in the Marquee on April 25th. Supper will be provided and more excellent prizes will be won in that night’s raffle.

If you haven’t joined so far –please give it some thought and help Bedford Blues to continue to flourish. 

If you wish to join us and take part please fill in the standing order form. Membership starts at £7 but you can donate as much as you like. The more you give the greater the chance you have in our prize draws.

Click here to download PDF of Standing Order form ...

Your generous support is much appreciated. All forms should be posted to:

Friends of the Blues

Argent House

5 Goldington Road

Bedford

MK40 3JY

Thank you so much & COYB.

Howard Travis

Click here for full details of the scheme

  360 Tours of All Club Facilities, Click Here...

 NEXT MATCH CHAMPionship FINAL

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!!  CLICK HERE TO ORDER ...

Online Sales, Ground entry & Eagle Stand available until 2pm Thursday, all orders now for collection only.

ARRIVE EARLY AS GOLDINGTON ROAD WILL BE BUSY

Fans with pre purchased tickets are reminded that access to Goldington road on the night of the final can also be gained via the Bushmead road gate and the North Gate. For the North gate enter the “Bedford Health Village” where you see the Blue signs on Kimbolton Road and head to the end.

BLUES NAME TEAM FOR FINAL

Bedford Blues have announced their 22 man squad to take on Newcastle falcons in the RFU Championship final which kicks off at 7.45pm on Thursday night at Goldington Road.

Thursday night will be the fourth encounter between the two teams this season with the visitors holding a 3-0 record having won twice already at Goldington Road – once in the league 20-29 and once in the British & Irish Cup 15-18 – and once at Kingston Park where a freak try helped the Falcons to a 17-15 win.

Looking ahead to the first leg of the final, Blues forwards coach Martin Hynes said: “We’ve had a fine season and the lads are all looking forward to two more games against Newcastle. We’ve already had three extremely close encounters and I don’t think that there will be much in it again over these two legs.

“Newcastle have been on top of the league for the majority of the season and they are the benchmark that every other team has been striving to replicate. A few teams, including us, have come close, a couple have succeeded, but these two games will be very different because of what is on offer.

“The Falcons play a very controlled game where they force the opposition to make mistakes and then they strike. We know that we have to be on the top of our game if we want to take anything from this first leg.

“We do have the added benefit of being at home and I am delighted that our fans have one more opportunity to make a big difference on a game. The fans have been absolutely brilliant all season and we want to make sure that we give them a performance to be proud of.”

Director of Rugby Mike Rayer has the benefit of picking from an almost fully fit squad with the only absentee being winger Josh Bassett who is ruled out with an infection. James Stephenson comes in to replace Bassett but apart from that the team remains the same to the one that started the semi-final second leg at Nottingham.

Starting Line-up:

15. Ben Ransom

14. James Stephenson

13. Brendan Burke

12. Mark Atkinson         

11. James Short            

10. Myles Dorrian                        

9. Luke Baldwin                           

1.   Ricky Reeves                         

2.   Neil Cochrane          

3.   Phil Boulton

4.   Mike Howard

5.   Paul Tupai

6.   Gregor Gillanders

7.   Darren Fox (c)                       

8.   Nick Fenton-Wells   

Replacements: 16. Scott Spurling, 17. Dan Seal, 18. Ben Gulliver, 19. Don Barrell, 20. Darryl Veenendaal, 21. Jake Sharp 22. Ollie Dodge

FIVE MORE SIGN ON FOR 13/14

Following the excitement of reaching the RFU Championship final, Bedford Blues are pleased to announce that five more players have signed new contracts at Goldington Road.

After the announcement the four forwards – Ben Cooper, Dan Seal, Tom Armes and Paul Tupai – had inked new deals last week, Director of Rugby Mike Rayer has moved quickly to re-sign five backs.

Scrum half Darryl Veenendaal, fly half Jake Sharp, centres Mark Atkinson and Brendan Burke have all signed on for the 2013/14 season as has impressive young full back Aaron Morris who has signed his first deal with the club.

Speaking about the signings, Rayer said: “It has been quite a week so I am thrilled that five such exciting players have committed themselves to the Blues for another year.

“Brendan continues to be an important cog in the Bedford Blues machine and it is important to have someone with his experience in the squad. Mark Atkinson has been in spectacular form this term and he gives us so many options in the back line.

“Jake has put in a huge amount of work this season and played a lot of rugby. He’s still a young man but has been a fine player for us since joining from Saracens two years ago. Darryl continues to learn and develop all the time and the hope is that Aaron will kick on in very much the same way.”

Bedford Blues now have nine players re-signed for next season along with James Pritchard, Phil Boulton, Ollie Dodge, Ben Gulliver and Darren Fox who are in the middle of two year contracts while Neville Edwards (Rosslyn Park), Charlie Clare (Leicester), Corey Hircock (Munster) and Michael Le Bourgeois (Jersey) will all join in the summer.

Bedford Blues can also confirm that hooker Chris Locke and winger Mark Kohler will be leaving the club this summer. Locke, 23, who has been with the Goldington Road outfit for five years having come through the Blues Academy, has agreed a move to National League One side Coventry. Kohler, also 23, who joined the club in 2011 from Luton Rugby and has represented Canada Under 20s, has not been offered a new contract.

Rayer added: “Chris and Mark have been nothing but professional, but they have found game time extremely difficult to come by this season and it is imperative that they play more than they have. We wish them all the best for the future and thank them for their dedicated service during their time at Goldington Road.”

ACADEMY UPDATE

Wanted - New Players                                        ... see here

New Team Manager, John Kearsley                       ... see here

Blues beat North Wales 39pts - 7                         ... see here

Academy International Call Ups                            ... see here

	Click for Ticket No. Prize Draw