Enfield: We first met Enfield in 1899, winning 3-0 against the then Enfield Spartans. They were plain Enfield by the time of our next meeting two years later when we continued our winning ways to the tune of 7-0. Two more victories over them in the FA Amateur cup in 1905 and 1908 seemed to confirm our place as a successful amateur club.

In fact it was almost a century before we logged another win against them. The intervening period was one in which Enfield rose to be one of the outstanding amateur sides in the country before financial pressures after the sale of their ground turned them into nomads. Grond shares have followed including a spell at Wodson Park but for this season they will be at Hertingfordbury Park which is the reason for their transfer from the Isthmian North division where they were playing at Bishop’s Stortford.

They had finished one place above the relegation positions after the death of their main sponsor whose backing had seen them win the Essex Senior League the season before. It suggests that they may have a difficult time in 2024/5. It’s a long way from their eight Isthmian championships and their two championships of the Alliance Premier (now the National League).

Of their multiple appearances in the competition proper of the FA Cup their best was to reach the fourth round in which they lost to Barnsley in a replay. They have won the FA Trophy twice and done likewise in the FA Amateur Cup in which they have also been beaten finalists twice.

Our last meeting was in December 2021 when we won a Herts Senior Cup game by 5-1 against a side containing Jack Grosvenor and Alex Warman.

Northwood: We first came across Northwood in 2000 and our 14 meetings since then have seen both clubs winning six times with Ware edging goals scored by 30 to 27. Both have scored big wins but it is our 4-1 victory in the Isthmian League division one north that stands out. We were 2-0 up after just 63 seconds with yours truly still taking gate money from late arriving spectators and not immediately aware of the drama.

The Woods have been transferred across from the Isthmian South Central division in which they finished 15th last season. It’s the same division that we were in before also being transferred across to the Southern League. We have tended to shadow each other having both been in the Southern League in 2015/6 when we scored a double over the Woods. They did however knock us out of that season's league cup.

Our last meetings were back with the Isthmians in 2019/20 when we again recorded two wins in a season that was soon to be terminated by the Covid pandemic. We were due to meet again the following season but that hardly got going before it was abandoned.

Real Bedford: First question is how is “Real” pronounced? As in “really” or is it homage to that team from Madrid? We’ll find out soon enough. As if that little complication isn’t enough the current name is their fifth since the club's founding in 1957 as Bedford United. I won’t trouble you here with the names that came in between.

Wikipedia tells me that they have foreign backing to the tune of $4.5 million so hardly surprising that they have clinched successive league championships in the last two years ending with promotion to Step 4. Will the rest of us be fighting it out for the play-offs behind them or will they find life at the new level tougher than they’re used to? That’s something else we’ll find out in due course.

As yet they’ve not set the FA Cup or FA Vase alight but give them time, at least as far as the FA Cup is concerned. The Vase though is now beyond them as the rise to Step 4 sees them entering the FA Trophy for the first time.