Written by Max
Ground #83
Saturday 5th September 2026
FA Cup First Qualifying Round
Bourne Town (Step 4) 1-1 Boldmere St Michaels (Step 4)
Attendance: 385
Entry: £10
Bourne Town were formed in 1883, and after starting life in the local Peterborough and District League won promotion to the United Counties League after the Second World War. Around this time a competition was run to find a nickname for the club, with the winner receiving a prize of £5! The name ‘The Wakes’ won due to Anglo-Saxon nobleman Hereward The Wake reportedly coming from the town of Bourne.
The club have spent the majority of their existence in the UCL, winning the premier league title on 4 occasions, including 3 in 4 years between 1968 and 1972, but the club were unable to gain promotion due to a public footpath that ran along one side of the pitch.
Into more recent times and in 2022 The Wakes found themselves in the step 6 UCL division 1 before a huge upturn in fortunes saw the club win back to back promotions, with a club record run to the quarter finals of the FA Vase for good measure. After over a quarter of a million pounds was invested into the ground, including a new fence installed in front of that pesky public footpath, and finally the club were allowed promotion up to step 4 for the first time in their history!
After a tough first season saw the club finish in the last relegation spot, they were saved by other clubs dropping out of the league and have another chance to show what they’re made of at step 4 this season.
Today saw The Wakes face fellow step 4 opposition Boldmere St Michael’s in the FA Cup. The hosts started the brighter, and almost took the lead early on but an impressive bicycle kick whistled just wide.
Half an hour in and the game had settled down, but a simple through ball cut the Bourne defence in half far too easily and the striker prodded home to give the visitors the lead out of nowhere.
Bourne tried to lob the keeper directly from the kick off but ‘The Mike’s’ stopper managed to back peddle and tip the ball over just in time to spare his blushes.
After this Boldmere started to play some great football and looked good value for their 1 goal lead as we went into the half time break.
The second half began and Bourne came flying out of the traps. They should have equalised but a cut back from the byline was headed over when it looked easier to score!
Bourne were much the better team creating the most chances by far but Boldmere were defending their lead resolutely. Just as time was beginning to tick away and you thought it just wasn’t going to be their day, The Wakes came forward once more and in the 87th minute got the equaliser their second half performance had deserved.
It could have been even better for the hosts who almost won the tie with a great chance from a last minute corner, but it wasn’t to be, so a replay in Birmingham will decide who goes through to the next round.
Now to see how we rated our day at the, for sponsorship purposes ‘JJ Mac Stadium’:
Location: 9/10
Bourne is a market town in rural Lincolnshire and home to around 17,000 residents.
Abbey Lawn is a multi sport complex located bang in the centre of the town next door to Bourne Abbey, hence the name! Whether it’s football, cricket, bowls or even outdoor swimming, this is the place for you!
Sadly Bourne does not have a train station, although there is plenty of parking on the streets around the ground, which is just a couple of minutes from the high street. We made the most of this by heading to ‘Smiths of Bourne’ which is a brilliant pub with an unexpectedly huge beer garden out the back. The food in here looked great and we would come to regret not ordering something as you’ll find out later!
Kit: 8/10
Bourne’s kit is predominantly purple with a small amount of light blue on the sides of the shirt. The shirt itself has a really nice subtle Tetris like pattern to it with the white numbers easily visible on the back.
The only negative we have is the sponsor being pretty boring with just the company name in bold font.
Facilities: 6/10
The bar at Abbey Lawn is right in front of you as you arrive through the turnstile. Inside is decent sized room with with plenty of tables. There are windows looking directly out to the pitch which I’m sure are very useful on a cold Tuesday game.
Outside the clubhouse is an outdoor bar in a garden shed. This created a little fan zone kind of area with many fans watching the game from just in front of here. This is a great little addition to ease the queues inside.
Look: 7/10
The main feature of the ground at Abbey Lawn is the main stand which spans over half the length of the pitch in 3 sections. The first of these is in front of the clubhouse and contains a few steps of terracing covered by a low roof. As the ground is on a slight slope, this side of the pitch gives you a raised view of the pitch. This is the area the majority of the fans stood and we watched the first half from here getting a great view of the action.
The next 2 sections contain the grounds only seats with old wooden benches in this traditional looking stand.
In 2024 two new stands were added, both covered standing areas. One on the opposite side to the main stand and another behind the goal. The ground is surrounded on 2 sides by a large hedge giving the ground a lovely countryside feel befitting the village itself.
Even with recent success now meaning the club are playing at the highest level they ever have, the recent improvements mean the ground doesn’t look out of place at this level and is a lovely place to watch football especially when the sun is out as it was for us!
Food and Drink: 3/10
After a couple of drinks and a wander around the town ahead of the game we arrived at the ground starving! After a lap of the ground and a look in the clubhouse we started to worry that there was no food at all!
Luckily there was a small window on the side of the clubhouse although the food choices were limited to pukka pies or sausage rolls. I went for a steak pie while Emma had a sausage roll. On first inspection these both looked good but the bottom of Emma’s sausage roll was very overdone making it very dry. We were still hungry after this and wished we had decided to have something at the pub beforehand.
The bar itself had a pretty uninspiring line up too with madri, carling and coors on offer.
TOTAL SCORE: 33/50
Bourne are a club we have been told about many times since starting this blog so a visit here was definitely long over due and after watching them against Bottesford Town in the last round thought this was the perfect opportunity to follow them in the next round. We both had a great time exploring a new town and continuing our attempt to watch a game in every round of this seasons FA cup with an entertaining game between two closely matched sides.
If you would like to see where this places Bourne in our Non League Leaderboard click here: NON LEAGUE
If you’d like to see the football league grounds we have visited click here: The 92
