Bedfordshire Blue Raiders
former American Football team based in the United Kingdom (2006–2013)
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.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Bedfordshire Blue Raiders” is former American Football team based in the United Kingdom (2006–2013). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Bedfordshire, Blue and Raiders, not as a finished interpretation.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 25, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q20979138. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2008, 2013, 2006 and 2007.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bedfordshire Blue Raiders” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.