✔877 Bridgend Park

St Boswells 4-2 Highfields United

Border Amateur League C Division

Saturday 20th May 2023

St Boswells is a large village on the south side of the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders, on the A68 road, 4 miles south of Melrose. (population: 1,440)

St Boswells was formerly known as Lessuden before Boisil, a 7th century monk famous for his healing power, moved to the area and administered the townsfolk. The village also provides an ideal base for ramblers, as the Borders Abbey Way passes by the village. The St Cuthbert’s Way, a long distance linking Melrose Abbey to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne on the east coast also passes through the village.

St Boswells joined the C Division of the Border Amateurs League in 2003, winning the title in 2016-17, but were relegated from B Division after just one season. The club are based at Jenny Moores Road next to the town’s Rugby ground, so after writing this blog on St Boswells this match was switched to Bridgend Park in Ancrum, 6 miles south from their home. 

The reason for the fixture alteration was a weird one - the goalposts need replacing and the council have already taken them away. 

Bridgend Park

Acrum, 

Jedburgh 

TD8 6UG

The ground sits next to the north side of the A68. The entrance to the ground is along a lane which leads to the end of the bridge and the pitch. 

The ground has a wooden structure sitting on half way which is used as "The Dug Oot" with the changing room block and club facilities at the entrance.

St Boswells 4(Bell 45 Macrae 61 OG 73 Tait 85)

Highfields United 2(Stitt 6 Jones 55)

Border Amateurs League C Division matchday 21

1355 ko

3rd v 2nd

Att.23hc 

St Boswells went into the final league fixture of the season quaranteed a 3rd place finish and a play-off match against B Division side Coldstream. They went behind early on with a nice side foot finish from Cam Stitt, before grabbing an equaliser just before the interval with a good goal from Jack Bell, cutting inside and firing home. 

Highfields regained the lead ten minutes after the restart with a controlled volley by Niall Jones, but the saints hit back again with a first time effort from Kai Macrae . The hosts went on to claim the win when a left wing cross was knocked in off a defender, then Graham Tait kept his composure to make it 4-2.

#Heedhopper

63 miles door-to-door via A68. 

A nice leisurely drive up to the borders in the company of the Wallace ladies (no Lee this week as he continues his pursuit in becoming the north-east's greatest athlete)

We stopped off for a haggis based lunch in Jedburgh before the short drive to Ancrum. Overall a really enjoyable trip on a glorious sun shiny day. 

Footnote: I'll update this post when I visit St Boswells at their proper home.

...and finally to end the season...

The Return of....

The Football Bog Blog

(n0.26)

I haven’t posted one of these in a long while but couldn’t resist reviving the feature after spotting this urinal tucked away amongst the overgrowth in Bridgend Park