Being Biggleswade United: Guillem Balagué and the amor for non-League in Bedfordshire.

Words: Tom Reed

Images: Tom Reed

Shot on film and digital where stated

How many towns of 16,000 people have three notable teams?

How many clubs play out a 5-5 draw in their lifetimes, as one of those Biggleswade teams did on Saturday

Why is a famous Spanish football journalist feeling the amor for Biggleswade United FC?

Not to be confused with Biggleswade Town FC and Biggleswade FC, but we’ll come to that later.

There’s much to ponder in the Bedfordshire market town with the quaint name.

©Tom Reed/ Terrace Edition. Biggleswade United vs FC Romania. On film.

Guillem Balagué is familiar from his Revista de la Liga punditry and latterly as an award winning author.

He’s also been quietly going about the everyday tasks of a decade of being involved with non-League Biggleswade United FC, this October.

We talk, with the Barcelona native over in his home city, writing a book on Aston Villa manager Unai Emery.

Although the book will have plenty on Villa’s European Cup exploits, you can tell that Balagué is longing to hear the Biggleswade balls bouncing off the corrugated fences at the Verdant Stadium.

A fan of RCD Espanyol known as the Parakeets, he’d fly a million miles to rest his head in England after an afternoon in Bedfordshire.

©Tom Reed/ Terrace Edition. Biggleswade United vs FC Romania. Digital.

It makes sense for a thorough journalist like Balagué, who had the UEFA B qualification to his name, to want to furnish his football knowledge with hands-on experience of how a club ticks.

He has built from the back at Biggleswade United after a phone call from then United Chairman Chris Lewis, who was looking to hand over the project. The conversation was basically “you talk football, so prove it”.

So he did, starting as Director of Football and then taking over as Biggleswade United Chairman in January 2019.

Balague met Lewis with a vision board, saying how how he wanted to focus on coaching quality and community provision for youth sides and women’s elevens, alongside the men’s first team.

Balagué’s main tasks as Chairman are to keep the engine oiled at the Spartan South Midlands Premier club, choosing the right leaders, empowering the club board and being totally engaged even when, from time to time, he’s not in the country.

It’s an interesting juxtaposition to be covering major football events round the world as a journalist while also juggling the everyday nuts and bolts that keep a Non-League outfit running smoothly.

After working on the World Cup in Qatar he flew back to watch United in FA Vase action, which is just about as big a difference as you can imagine, including the air temperature.

If Balagué was to think that he was in for a Roy of the Rovers ascent up the non-League ladder then he’d have to think again as the realities of English football kicked in.

In 2021-22 with the Covid: 19 pandemic still being felt, United were moved into the United Counties League South under FA restructuring which saw the squad decimated due to geographical reasons.

United has a nightmare season, lost a match 10-1 and only stayed up in the last 20 minutes of the final game of the season.

Maybe it was around this time that Balagué came to the realisation that it had moved “from a football project to a life project”.

Players returned, United eventually returned to their natural surroundings in the Spartan League and Balagué retained the overall philosophy, that while standards are very high, “success isn’t a result.”

Hence why, when then Biggleswade manager and compatriot Cristian Colas lost his first eleven matches, United held faith in his systems that would prove to turn things around.

Despite the decade long Balagué input, Biggleswade United seems a club that savours each season and the longstanding traditions at the club formed in 1959.

Trees turn from green to orange and send shadows across the well kept pitch there, which is grass when many are going 4G.

When you turn up to the ground in a leafy corner of Biggleswade you’ll see club volunteer David pottering around and he’ll stop and talk to you and is proud of all the tasks he does, one of those non-League heroes that makes the game what it is.

The turnstiles are repurposed from Charlton Athletic for the Biggleswade addicts to click through. The players go through their drills which you’d see in the Football League.

Tracey James, the club secretary and former speechwriter for Mo Mowlam in another life, will be keeping an eye on things, in situ for a staggering 40 years at United.

James played football back in the day for Biggleswade United with Leah Caleb, who was one of the pioneering “Lost Lionesses” who played at the 1971 Women’s World Cup in Mexico.

As such, re-opening the women’s team at United was a priority for Balagué and now the roster is healthily heaving with the men’s, women’s and youth division of this forward thinking club.

On Saturday, Biggleswade United played out an enthralling 5-5 draw with FC Romania, drawing level late-on, via a hat-trick from Liam Smyth.

Club commentator Nick Witcombe was in overdrive trying to keep up with proceedings on the P.A.

He does a Biggleswade United podcast with Ryan Madden called Biggy Talks.

“People thought it was a podcast about the rapper Biggie Smalls to start with” says Nick.

©Tom Reed/ Terrace Edition. Biggleswade United vs FC Romania. Nick Whitcomb. On film.

Hopefully, Biggleswade doesn’t become notorious for its three clubs using the name, although the fans point out that United are the only team to actually play in Biggleswade

Biggleswade Town are still going strong while young upstarts Biggleswade FC (who play in Bedford) have made it to the FA Cup fourth round qualifying.

Balagué has nudged the two other clubs to try and work together but there’s no real movement on that yet.

But United seems a happy collective, who happen to have a chairman who’d enjoy putting his lips to a pint at Biggleswade United as much as he would to a microphone in a TV studio.