La Grange

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Tuesday 21st October 2025 ko 19:45

Northern Premier League Division One Midlands

LONG EATON UNITED 1 (Taylor 11)

ANSTEY NOMADS 2 (Thomas 18 53)

Att 144

Entry £11

Programme £2

With Swedish Hop organiser Kim Hedwall still visiting us, I picked a game as much for who the host club’s media officer is than anything else. GroundhopUK’s Chris Berezai is originally from Bridgend but has lived in Long Eaton for well over 20 years. And other than organising more groundhops than anyone else, he’s also media team manager at Long Eaton United. Add Dan Bishop, the self-styled Poundland Peter Ustinov into the mix- he also is doing his “92” by rejection letter- he applies for every manager’s job going, and you have possibly the club least likely to ditch the printed programme!

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Changes

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Monday 20th October 2025 ko 19:45

Southern League Premier Central

REDDITCH UNITED 1 (Loughlan 52)

Fowler (manager) sent off 58 (foul & abusive)

ALVECHURCH 0

Hamilton sent off 55 (2nd booking)

Att 777

Entry £12

Programme- online only, non downloadable

The downside of the “Everywhere Once” groundhopping culture is that you seldom see how a ground develops over time. I’d visited Redditch United’s Valley Stadium back in August 2007 for a pre-season friendly against Bromsgrove Rovers. I liked the place, who couldn’t love that main stand, the terracing and that massive club shop? But I’d ticked the place, so why go back?

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Connections

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Saturday 11th October 2025 ko 14:00

Oxfordshire Senior League Division 4

OXFORD PHOENIX 3 (Abdalla 4 EL Bardhdadi 15 Sikod 18)

BICESTER PARK 0

Match abandoned due to safety pins on the pitch.

Att 15 at Greyfriars Catholic School, Cricket Road, Oxford

Free Entry

It’s not massively unusual for me to be invited to games, although it’s always humbling to be asked. This one was a little unusual. Around 15 years ago I was watching a Sunday league game on a little used pitch in the suburb of Botley to the north of Oxford. As a club White Horse Abingdon have long since folded but recently I was sent a message by one of their former players.

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The Hollandites

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Sunday 5th October 2025 ko 14:00

Southern Counties East League Premier

HOLLANDS & BLAIR 2 (Rowlands 35p Gray 73)

SNODLAND TOWN 2 (Shoderu 37 Lee 90+1)

Att 372

Entry £7

Programme £2

Whatever happened prior to our trip to Gillingham I just wanted to GroundhopUK’s stint with the Southern Counties East to end well. We’d enjoyed the morning with Hythe Town, and as the coach pulled into the Star Meadow Social Club I fully expected to find the place looking similar to what I’d seen roughly 10 years earlier. The truth was, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

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Ting Ting

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Saturday 4th October 2025 ko 11:00

Southern Counties East League-Division One

CROYDON 6 (Asafu 2 25 87 Cormack 4 Barton 8 Ward 15)

HALLS ATHLETIC 0

Att 266

Entry £7

Programme £2

In so many ways it was obvious that this was the final SCEFL Hop. The main thing was the teams we were visiting seemed to consist of clubs relegated into the league being paired with others whose levels of enthusiasm at hosting were, at best lukewarm. As organisers you manage to the red lines, and hope for best.

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Saxon Times

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Tuesday 30th September 2025 ko 19:45

Notts Saturday Senior Cup First Round

STAPLEFORD TOWN 3 (Harrison 23 Phillips 48 Hughes 87)

DUNKIRK 2 (Walsh 68 Wilson 81)

Att 78

In the nicest possible way it was a shame this game was taking place. Two weeks earlier the game had been abandoned, due to a serious injury to Stapleford defender Mitchell Robinson, but I happened to be working in Nottingham on the day of this re-arranged tie. Whatever the opposite of serendipity is- this was it!

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The RAF

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Saturday 20th September 2025 ko 14:00

Witney & District League Premier Division

RAF BRIZE NORTON 1 (Castle 41)

Henderson sent off 90 (violent conduct)

Fletcher sent off 90 (violent conduct)

CHARLBURY TOWN 2 (McCallum 32 Eley 87)

Hornblow sent off 90 (violent conduct)

Att 15 at Belfast Square, RAF Brize Norton

Free Entry

I must admit, I do like a military game, and particular one actually behind the security barrier at a base. That fact indirectly led to two games behind security on GroundhopUK events, at RAF Benson and DA Watchfield. I’ve also seen games at MOD Lyneham and at RAF Brize Norton under my own steam so you may wonder why I wanted to head back to the base at Brize?

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Stur

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Tuesday 18th September 2025 ko 19:45

Western League Division One

STURMINSTER NEWTON UNITED 5 (Lane-Leney 19 52 Bevis 20 57 Hall 54)

WELLS CITY 2 (Wright 13p Taylor 44)

Att 144

Entry £8

Programme £2

In so many ways a visit to Barnett’s Field left like tidying up loose ends. You may recall I’d visited this corner of Dorset to visit Sturminster Newton’s former home, the War Memorial Recreation Park 10 years ago. That was to see a game in the now sadly defunct Blackmore Vale Sunday League, and in the days when I was a fairly regular visitor here, that league never failed to provide me with interesting games to go and see.

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Wild West End

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Sunday 13th September 2025

11:00 West Wales Premier League

GARDEN VILLAGE 1 (Arnold 61)

CK SWISS VALLEY 1 (James 84)

Caul sent off (2nd booking) 87

Att 136

14:30 (but brought forward to 14:15)

West Wales Premier League

WEST END 1 (Griffiths 36)

Brain sent off 59 (dangerous play)

PENLAN 4 (Lorey 17 Jenkins 75p Otten 90 T Jenkins 90+4)

Charles sent off 59 (dangerous play)

Att 84

Entry & Programme at each game £5

It was (for now) the final day of the West Wales Premier League Hop- but we knew we had a problem, or more accurately two. The first issue was that we at GroundhopUK knew that both Garden Village and West End had recent history in the Welsh League, and given the crowd we’d attracted on the Saturday there was a fair chance that many of them would have visited the Sunday selection before and so headed for home.

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Family

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Saturday 13th September 2025 ko 17:30

Carmarthenshire League-Premier Division

BURRY PORT 0

Brown sent off 72 (handling outside of box)

KIDWELLY TOWN 2 (Boucher 86 Bessent 90+1)

Att 203

Entry & Programme £3

The final game of the day saw the West Wales Hop do something I didn’t think we’d ever do, and that is head back to the Carmarthenshire League. We’d used the league are a replacement for the the hugely successful Ceredigion Hops, but our time with them was nowhere near as succcessful, not least because we had real issues getting clubs to be away teams. It all culminated in the 2018 Hop that contained Swansea City’s youth team, the Bridgend Sunday League and a trip to Butetown in Cardiff but absolutely no games in Carmarthenshire.

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