1. I think Northants was nearer than that, but I've never really felt any loyalty to their teams. 2. You've taken the bottom remark out of context. "That part of East Anglia" was referring to Norfolk/Suffolk. I'd consider Bedfordshire to be about as far west as EA goes.
Well all I remember is that we counted as East Anglia for BBC purposes, so that's what I always classified it as. Or over here, an hour north of London.
Fairly certain that even Peterborough don't get the Anglian news when the BBC breaks down into regional news channels, so I don't see how Bedford does. Tbf though, if you google search it, it says that Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and parts of Cambridgeshire make up East Anglia, but google images suggests that part of Bedfordshire should be involved too.
Not sure if I've already posted in this. In cricketing terms, I was born in Cheshire, but Lancs is my nearest 'proper cricket' county and I'm half-scouse in terms of blood so yeah.