Under the flight path: Up and away at Bedfont FC

Words: Dominic Bliss

Images: Stuart Tree

It's probably fair to say the crossover on the Venn Diagram of plane spotters and groundhoppers is not insignificant.

So it seems fitting that the area surrounding Heathrow is dotted with non-League football clubs.

I’m reliably informed by my friend and maven of non-League photography, Stuart Tree, that the most striking views of planes coming into land over a football pitch can be found at Bedfont FC.

So off we head to The Orchard on a balmy Tuesday night in August to catch an early-season Combined Counties Division One game against Yateley United.

The first thing we notice upon arriving is that Bedfont share their ground - aptly - with British Airways FC. The second is that a bagpiper has hired the function room in the clubhouse that night for a practice session, making for a pretty surreal soundtrack as we queue to order a pint of Moretti while the evening fixtures scroll along the bottom of the Sky Sports News ticker on the TV screens in the pleasingly Eighties throwback of a bar.

©Stuart Tree/ Terrace Edition. Bedfont FC.

Rather presciently, given the entertainment, Stu has decided to tie his tartan-patterned shirt around his waist as he photographs the game, leading one of the Yateley subs to interrupt his half-hearted warm-up routine to say, “I thought you had a fucking kilt on for a second there!”

You can see why Stu has chosen this ground for a Tuesday night in late summer. Behind one mini-stand, a line of planes queuing to land makes for hypnotic viewing as they swoop down over the clubhouse towards Heathrow.

Behind the mini stand opposite, the sun is setting, leaving a warm orange glow beneath the grey rain clouds. Wherever he points his camera, the backdrop is spectacular.

The far end of the ground still shows some signs of the devastating grass fire that swept through the neighbouring scrublands, scorching the pitch and damaging the fencing surrounding the perimeter.

Fortunately, firefighters were able to get the fire under control before the blaze spread to the stands and the clubhouse, which sits at the end of the pitch, meaning there is no real main stand here.

A quick head count puts the attendance at just under 100, but there is no little charm here. In the absence of a singing section, a lot of the character comes from the group of middle-aged ex-players who clearly come to watch their former club regularly, some of them with their grown-up children.

“You’d have picked up a booking by now,” one of them sniggers to his mate during a pretty insipid opening quarter of an hour.

“Yeah, I’d have smashed into someone by now!” comes the response, through a throaty chuckle.

The two teams came into the game on the back of promising starts to the season. Yateley have seven points from three games, and Bedfont have won their only league fixture to that point, so this is a good test of their respective promotion credentials.

However, the hosts control the game pretty much throughout, camping themselves inside the Yateley half and creating the bulk of the chances. They don’t make the most of that dominance, though, and at times seem to be holding onto a 1-0 lead as the visitors rally late on.

Finally, Bedfont win a late penalty on the break, which they convert to emerge as deserved 2-0 winners. It will be interesting to see if the Yellows maintain that early promise as the season progresses.

As we make our way to the exit, I notice a lone balding man in a polo shirt, his rucksack slung over one shoulder, clutching a programme. I give Stu a knowing look.

“You can always spot a groundhopper!” I say with an affectionate grin, before catching myself in the act of a piece of blatant hypocrisy.

“Then again,” I add, “What else would you call what we’re doing here tonight?”