Captain:

Captain

Welcome to my page. I hope you have found the site of interest, if you still have any questions then do drop me a line.

About Me.

I am a very active person, and as well as running a BB Company, also do Running, Football and Badminton weekly. I'm a father of two, Rachel (aged 11) & Luke (aged 10) and am married to Nicola.

We live in Wootton which is quite a trek to Brickhill each week. So why do we do it ?

Well Nicola & I grew up in Brickhill Baptist during the early 1970's and when old enough were both enrolled in the 2nd Bedford Boys' & Girls' Brigade companies respectively. Its really through the church and the Brigades we met and were later married, complete with a Brigade Guard of honour.

BB & Me

I joined BB in 1976 and now have over 30 years with the organisation. In that time I have founded two other companies, 4th Bedford [1993] and 1st Douglas (Isle of Man) [1994] and was OIC for 3rd Bedford Company Section from 1999-2002. I gained the Queens Badge - the Brigades Highest Award and thoroughly enjoyed my time as a Boy, from representing the company in sports, to going to the annual camps, to those special events such as the Centenary in 1983 and the International Camp in Ayr 1986.

I went on the National Level, by becomming the Chairman of the England & Wales Youth Forum and took part in a number of steering groups & committees that helped to shape the BB of today.

As a Captain, I try my best to ensure that we fulfil our object with every member. I like to see members being encouraged and reach their potential. There are some people in our country who like being politically correct and would welcome non-competitive sports and non-contact where possible - I even heard recently of a school banning tag in the playground, or another case where a team manager wouldn't let the team play football because it was raining.

I like to see competitive sports, but where the member knows good sportsmanship and can be gracious in defeat. I like to see boys being boys, but knowing what is right from wrong. Safety is a key element to modern youthwork, and its far more difficult and complicated now than its ever been, and qualifications are required for everything. However, given that we are based in England, I do try to ensure that the rain doesn't beat us. Here at 2nd Bedford, we our doing our best to provide youthwork in this modern world. We've been doing it for over 50 years and we hope that with your continued support we'll do another 50+ more.

My Passion

I have many hobbies but my passion is West Ham. You're always guaranteed an interesting season with them. I've supported them since 1975. Happy to be making up the numbers each year. After all, it'd get boring if we won the Premiership year and year, where's the excitement in that !

I'm sure no one needs reminding that for England to win the world Cup again, they need 3 hammers in the team !
In fact, I'm sure the World Cup will be won with a team made up of ex-hammers.

And a Cup Final after 25 years (bout time too !) and what a great game it was. That'll be because the Hammers were there... Hopefully I won't have another 25 years to wait until the next one...

My Dreams & Visions

• To see Bedford achieve a BB camping/activity centre, making use of water sports and land based activities.
• I would love to be able to work full-time for the Brigade as a Development Officer, I even got down to the final 4 once! I'd hoped to have achieved that dream by my 30th Birthday, that's now long gone, but I live in hope.
• For 2nd to own 'something special', something that would really make a difference to our work.. this is work in progress.
  
  
  Above all, I believe that we should ALL give Service and that is what I have dedicated my life to.
  
  Allan Tresidder.

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