Bedfordshire Blue Raiders

The Bedfordshire Blue Raiders were an American Football team competing in Division 2 East of the BAFA National Leagues (BAFANL). They entered the British American Football League in 2008 as one of five expansion teams, and play their home games at the Bedford International Athletics Stadium.

The Bedfordshire Blue Raiders merged with local rivals Milton Keynes Pathfinders in 2013 and formed Ouse Valley Eagles

History
The Blue Raiders were formed in August 2006 by Dave "Hanky Panky" Pankhurst and Steve Guy to replace the former teams from local towns such as Luton, Dunstable and Milton Keynes who all found success during the 1980s and 1990s. After quickly recruiting coaches (starting with Chris Wallis, former head coach of local rivals Peterborough Saxons and Cambridgeshire Cats who Guy knew from their time together at the University of Cambridge Pythons BCAFL team in the mid-1990s) and a full playing squad.

The team were accepted as associate members of the BAFL in August 2007.

2007
As part of the BAFL's requirements for associate members, the Blue Raiders arranged the two friendly matches which would enable them to gain full membership and enter the league the following season. The first of these was a home game played on 9 September 2007 against the Maidstone Pumas. Despite the visiting team scoring a first period touchdown, the Raiders were able to come back to win 18–8. Their away friendly match was played four weeks later against the Leicester Falcons, who themselves were associate members aiming to join the league. The Raiders lost 0–32. Two weeks later they played their third friendly match away to another associate team, the Milton Keynes City Pathfinders. Despite an early setback when their player-coach Anthony Coverdale dislocated his knee during the kickoff, they recorded a convincing 35–0 win.

The following month, it was confirmed that the Blue Raiders application to become full members had been accepted by the BAFL, and so they were entered into the league for the 2008 season where they were placed into the Eastern Conference of Division Two alongside the Peterborough Saxons, Cambridgeshire Cats, Watford Cheetahs and fellow expansion team the Milton Keynes City Pathfinders.

Player awards
The 2007 end-of-season awards took place at Bedford Athletic Stadium:

Blue Raider of the Year – Steve Guy

Players Player of the Year – Lee Hayward

Offensive Player of the Year – Lee Hayward

Defensive Player of the Year – Kevin Elsdon & Paul Settle

Special Teams of the Year – Dean Faulder & Chad Chisolm

Rookie of the Year – Paul Settle

Head Coach's Blue Raider of the Year – Anthony Coverdale

Head Coach's Player of the Year – Mark Davis, Tony Law & Martin Songhurst joint winners

Player awards
The 2008 end-of-season awards took place at The Flower Pot in Bedford:

Blue Raider of the Year – Andy Barnard

Player of the Year – Mike Wilson

Offensive Player of the Year – Mike Wilson

Defensive Player of the Year – John Murphy

Special Teams Player of the Year – Michael Cox

Rookie of the Year – John Murphy

Coaches Player of the Year – John Murphy

Head Coach's Player of the Year – Iain Connor & Tony Law

Head Coach's Blue Raider of the Year – Andy Barnard & Steve Guy

2009
In Blue Raiders most successful season they reach their first (and only) Playoff only to be stopped by Colchester Gladiators for the 3rd time this season.

The team were ranked 4th in the conference at the end of the regular season and therefore qualified for a playoff position.

Being ranked 4th meant that they were to meet the number one ranked qualifying team the Colchester Gladiators.

Raiders lost 16 / 41 to the Gladiators.

Coach Wallis Steps Down

The Bedfordshire Blue Raiders announce that head coach, Chris Wallis steps down.

Blue Raiders Announce New GM

General Manager and Founder Member, Steve Guy announced step down, although he will remain a part of the Blue Raiders organisation in the future.

Former QB Tony Law takes over the reins at the team and unveils to the team the re-brand and the future of the team on his watch.

Blue Raiders sign new head coach

The Bedfordshire Blue Raiders announce the appointment of Craig Ramsay as the next head coach of the team.

2010
This season saw the public unveiling of the new Blue Raiders logo aka "Kiefer" after its initial unveiling to the team at the 2009 Awards evening.

Team awards
Blue Raiders win the John Slavin Award 2010 for Best Marked Field for both "Best in Division Two" and "Best in the League".

BAFRA awards the John Slavin Trophy in even numbered years to the team with the best marked field. This includes correct field dimensions, correct line and other markings, correct size goal posts, correct positioning of pylons and the condition of the field surface. The title is awarded to the team that has comes out best in an audit carried out by BAFRA members at each game. A perfect facility scores 0. In 2008, when the Trophy was last awarded on this basis, it was won by Oxford Saints. This year saw Bedfordshire Blue Raiders take the title in a close run contest with fellow Division 2 team Berkshire Renegades.

2012
The 2012 season started off well for the Raiders as with an influx of new rookies and several veteran players joining the team.

This coupled with the appointments of former London Blitz Offensive Line Coach and current Great Britain Lions Offensive Line Coach Anthony Fitzpatrick as the new Offensive Co-ordinator and former Blue Raiders Center and offensive line Coach Martin Songhurst as Special Teams Co-Ordinator.

Renewed positive influences were starting to show within the team.

Conor Hewitt (DL) becomes the first-ever Bedfordshire Blue Raiders player to be selected for the Great Britain Lions U19 American Football team.

Player awards
The 2012 end-of-season awards took place at Bengal Brasserie in Bedford:

Blue Raider of the Year – Tony Law

Team MVP – Gareth Pullen

Rookie of the Year – Byron Chowles

Coach’s Player of the Year – John Murphy

Offensive MVP – Enrique Alonso

Defensive MVP – Conor Hewitt

Special Teams Player of the Year – Byron Chowles

Team awards
Blue Raiders win the John Slavin Award 2012 for Best Marked Field in Division Two for the second time running.

2013
With great expectation the 2013 season came with the addition of a new Home strip that incorporated the colour scheme from the logo re-brand of 2010.

This season saw the club have the first winning start to the season in its history.

Riding high on a 4-0 start to the season after defeating Essex Spartans, Watford Cheetahs and Maidstone Pumas twice no one could have predicted how the rest of the season would play out.

Once again though, it was an away trip to Colchester that started the downfall of the Raiders season. Poor turnouts in the practices leading up to the game, were starting to take its toll, but as usual the squad arrived on Gameday confident of pulling out a win. Sadly that wasn’t to be the case, and Colchester cantered to a 48-16 victory on their way to lifting the National Division title.

Whilst sporting a record of 4-1, externally everything was rosy for the Blue Raiders. Internally however, practice numbers were falling into the low teens occasionally, as injuries and a lack of player commitment by various members of the squad started to take its toll. 3 back to back losses, including a 21-7 loss to rivals Milton Keynes Pathfinders had left the Raiders with a 4-4 record heading into the last two games of the season. By this point the Raiders had lost a lot of players, and the squad size was approximately half of that which started the season, none of which could have been expected. With no healthy QB’s on the roster for the scheduled game against the Kent Exiles, the decision was made to forfeit the fixture and hand Kent a 1-0 win. This took the Blue Raiders to an upside down record of 4-5, with no hopes of making the playoffs and struggling to see out the season. Practices were now down to around 5-15 people average, and the future was not as bright as all had hoped.

The final game of the season was an away fixture at the Essex Spartans, the team the Blue Raiders beat in the opening game of the season. In order to be able to play this fixture several members of the Blue Raiders coaching staff had to re-register as players and start this game. Thankfully the experience of the players brought them through a tough game, and they finished the season a respectable 5-5. Little did anyone know that this would be the final game the Blue Raiders ever played.

At the end of the game, club general manager Tony Law announced he was stepping down as chairman, and that an EGM would be scheduled to sort out a new GM moving forward. At this point, coaches Anthony Fitzpatrick, Anthony Coverdale, Martin Songhurst and head coach Craig Ramsay also announced they would be stepping down, with Fitzpatrick and Coverdale heading to coach at Premier Division team, the London Blitz, Songhurst stepping down to concentrate on other interests and Ramsay stepping down to spend time with his family, after nearly 25 years of coaching.

Player awards
The 2013 end-of-season awards took place at Indian Summer in Bedford:

Team MVP – John Murphy

Offensive Player of the Year – Darragh Mooney

Defensive Player of the Year – Michael Cox

Special Teams Player of the Year – Danny Lipner

Rookie of the Year – Jack Judge

Blue Raiders Britball Records
Longest run 94 – Lee Hayward, (Bedfordshire Blue Raiders) vs Maidstone Pumas, 9 September 2007

Most sacks in a season 13.0 – Paul Settle – 2008

Oldest player to rush for a 1,000 yards in a season Michael J Wilson (born 1963) in 2008. (This record was never submitted to the Britball)