Biggleswade - Fairfield Sports Ground
Fairfield Street : SG18 0AA
The Fairfield Sports Ground was the venue for the Biggleswade Annual Meet and Fete and a five laps to the mile grass track was laid out. The fete took place from 1882 until the 1920's and bicycle racing featured prominently. The NCU (Northampton) Championship was often held at the fete.

One of the first reports of bicycle racing at Biggleswade appears in The Wheel World racing register for 1883 and shows the Biggleswade Sports held on 6th August and Dan Albone, the local champion rider and cycle manufacturer won the 1 mile handicap race.

In the 1887 meet, Dan Albone was again a winner in the 1 mile tricycle handicap race. The event a year later was organised by Biggleswade & District Cycling Club and attracted 6,000 people. The fete became more popular and in 1893 there was an attendance of 10,000 with acrobats, an aerial wire act, Spanish dancing and bands.

The weather for the 1900 event was very wet and the track turned into a quagmire. The event lost money as it had for the past two years and the attendance was down to 1,700. There was a lapse of 5 years before the fete and sports resumed in 1906, when attendance was 3,500. Bicycle racing featured and the NCU (Northampton) Championship was held again. Other events included "tent pegging and lemon cutting."

The fete continued and in 1915 it was held on Kitchener's Meadow, Hitchen Street but had reverted back to Fairfield Sports Ground by 1921. There do not seem to be any reports of bicycle racing at Biggleswade after this time until recent times when the Biggleswade Sports formed part of the BCF Grass Track League.

Fairfield Sports Ground is the home of Biggleswade United Football Club and Biggleswade Town Cricket Club.


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