Timing

01 Sunday Nov 2026

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Tuesday 1st September 2026 ko 19:45

Spartan South Midlands League Division Two

REDBOURN 1 (Bowyer 55)

De Beer sent off 58 (2nd booking)

ASTON CLINTON 2 (Elsey 29 Kiff 87)

Att 51

Entry £5

Life on the road is tough but the chance to meet people you’d never have got to know otherwise is a real bonus. We met geologist Ben on the 2019 Swedish Hop that rather counter-intuitively started and ended in Denmark, and even more counter-intuitively, he’d flown in from Norway to be there. He soon moved back to England and he was kind enough to find Robyn and I tickets for Walsall’s biggest game in many-a-year before showing us the sights/pubs of his native town.

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Finale

30 Friday Oct 2026

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Monday 31st August 2026 ko 14:00

West Lancashire League Premier Division

ROSSENDALE FC 4 (Wilde 18 26 Mensay 75 90)

MILNTHORPE CORINTHIANS 0

Att 278

Entry £5

Programme £2

The final club on this year’s West Lancashire Hop proved to be a little controversial. Part of it was who Rossendale are, but more was where they play.

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Taking Heed

29 Thursday Oct 2026

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Monday 31st August 2026 ko 11:00

West Lancashire League Premier Division

HASLINGDEN ST MARYS 2 (Anderson 12 Halwey 82)

LOSTOCK ST GERARDS 2 (Gainge 19 Markland 23)

Att 315

Entry £5

Programme £2

Attending a hop game at Haslingden St Marys was a little unusual. For a start there was a question of which club we were watching. It wasn’t the Haslingden that were a North West Counties League team from 1993 to 1998 at Ewood Bridge, in Rossendale a ground later used by Stand Athletic and now derelict.

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Eldest

26 Monday Oct 2026

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Sunday 30th August ko 17:00

West Lancashire League Division One

TURTON 0

CARNFORTH RANGERS 3 (Holmes 11 44 Johnson 44)

Att 314

Entry £5

Programme £2

In just about every groundhop that’s ever been organised there’s always one club that proves to be a problem. Normally it’s a failure to communicate so the ideas that make these events successful don’t take root, and so the club runs the risk of failing to make the best of their opportunity. There was little doubt that Turton FC’s staging was always going to create issues, but this is the story of they moved heaven and earth to make their part of the West Lancs Hop work.

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Mills

16 Friday Oct 2026

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Sunday 30th August 2026 ko 14:00

West Lancashire League Premier Division

EAGLEY 2 (Stafford 41 O’Mahoney 67)

HURST GREEN 2 (J Craven 90+3 Bowlin 90+4)

Att 359

Entry £5

Programme £2

We stayed in Bolton’s environs for our next game, and a steady stream of traffic inched to an industrial estate with a sports ground at the back. That gave a hint as to the background of one of the oldest clubs in Lancashire.

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The English Game

13 Tuesday Oct 2026

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Sunday 30th August 2026 ko 11:00

West Lancashire League Division One

STONECLOUGH 3 (Greenhalgh 14 Howlin 36 80)

Bentley sent off 67 (2nd booking)

CHIPPING 2 (Edmundson 10 Hewitt 74)

Att 324

Entry £5

Programme £1

The third day of the West Lancashire Hop saw us stay in Bolton’s envirions, but of all the games on this year’s event the one I was most looking forward to was Stoneclough, and for the oddest of reasons. Put simply the ground is a star of Netflix!

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The Bride

11 Sunday Oct 2026

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Saturday 29th August 2026 ko 17:00

West Lancashire League Division 2

GALGATE 2 (Moore 45+2 McKeeking 78)

Lewis sent off 62 (DOGSO)

APPLEY BRIDGE 3 (Ray 11 Atkins 64 90+2)

Att 268

Entry & Programme £5

From Storeys to the village of Galgate the heavens opened. I smiled at two ironies, the firest was that the rain would help the rhubarb that grows prolifically here, and was once reckoned to havge been used to dye the silk that once was spun here. The second was that since we were sat in a traffic jam, I knew the hop was causing it, and so the weather wasn’t putting people off.

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Storied

09 Friday Oct 2026

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Saturday 29th August 2026 ko 14:00

West Lancashire League Division Two

STOREYS OF LANCASTER 7 (Hollywood 11 19 47 Creech 40 64 88 Fenton 43)

HAWCOAT PARK 0

Att 253

Entry £5

Programme £2

We headed into Lancaster itself for our next game, and another with difficult parking, in suburban streets. It wasn’t difficult to find a suitable space and half the fun of doing so was walking down York Road to the ground. A cat glowered at me, wondering why I and so many other strangers were invading his territory!

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At The Heart

06 Tuesday Oct 2026

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Saturday 29th August 2026 ko 11:00

West Lancashire League Division Two

CATON UNITED 1 (Curwen 69)

LANGHO 5 (Clarke 7 McLoughlin 56 Darcy 57 Cumpstey 73 Phelps 90+3)

Att 241

Entry £5

Programme £2

Saturday on the West Lancs Hop was unquestionably Lancaster day, even if the pedants like me would point out that the village of Caton does lie a few miles outside! It is a pretty place, and we did get to see more of it than normal as car parking at the Caton Sports Field is limited, so an overspill car park was organised a 5 minute walk away. It did serve to burn off some off my hotel breakfast!

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Cream

05 Monday Oct 2026

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Friday 28th August 2026 ko 18.30

West Lancashire League Division One

COPPULL UNITED 1 (Richardson 80)

FRECKLETON 3 (Kelsey 43 61 Ako 64og)

Att 353

Entry & Programme £5

You may find this surprising, but I think you see GroundhopUK at its very best when it operates at Step 7 or below. Let me explain; if you understand the organised groundhop as a compromise between the needs of clubs, leagues and groundhoppers, then the needs of the groundhopper- game, programme, and badge you’d think would be mostly easily be satisfied at Steps 5 & 6, or would they?

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