Monthly Archives: September 2013

Milk & Alcohol

29 Sunday Sep 2013

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Saturday 28th September 2013 ko 15.00

FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round

CANVEY ISLAND 2 (Dumas 19 Belotti 83)

ST NEOTS TOWN 2 (Hilliard 5 Adjei 74)

Att 256

Entry £10

Programme £2

It would be all-too-easy to write off Canvey as a Chav Town, full of takeaways and amusement arcades, bereft of any history and culture. I’ve yet to visit a place that fits that description, and Canvey is no different!

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Doing it Right

23 Monday Sep 2013

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Saturday 21st September 2013 ko 17.00

North Berkshire League Division One

LONG WITTENHAM ATHLETIC 4 (Murphy 27 Saunders 35 Bowler 55 Barton 64)

CROWMARSH GIFFORD 0

Att 193

Entry & Programme £4

Badge £3

Didcot Power Station Beer £3 a bottle

I like Bodkins Field, as its looks like the kind of place that ought to host village football. There’s a clubhouse, a pitch and a tarmacked road, and not much else. And you know what, what more do you need? Its beautiful, its historic, and the hoppers loved the place as much as I do. In fact its views of the Wittenham clumps and the peaceful village setting convinced me to ask local author Kate Shrewsday to write a piece for the programme. It was typically thought provoking, and here’s her site. Continue reading →

The Charm Offensive

23 Monday Sep 2013

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Saturday 21st September 2013 ko 14.00

North Berkshire League Division One

BERINSFIELD 4 (D Murphy 34 45 46 Curtis 80)

FARINGDON TOWN 0 Quegan sent off (2nd Booking)

Att 251

Entry & Programme £4

Badge £3

Chicken Curry & Baked Potato £3

All the way back on the very first North Berkshire League groundhop, we’d reached Sutton Courtenay and the game was just about to kick off. Me being me, I’d gone for an extra cup of tea so was a little late in walking over from the clubhouse. I was rushing over, when someone tapped me on the shoulder. It was a young lady, and she half asked, and half demanded, Continue reading →

Cooperation

23 Monday Sep 2013

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Saturday 21st September 2013 ko 11am

North Berkshire League Division Three

BENSON LIONS 1 (Keightly 83)

WESTMINSTER 4 (McMahon 17 59 Bourton 30 69)

Att 153

Entry & Programme £4

Badge £3

Bottle of Real Ale £2.50

Full English RAF breakfast including tea £5

The North Berkshire League Groundhop is very much my baby, so much so it’s the only time that at GroundhopUK Chris Berezai and I swap places, with me leading, and him acting as deputy. It makes sense, when I live a mere 10 miles from Steventon, the village that provides the centre-point of the league. Continue reading →

Shine On

20 Friday Sep 2013

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Wednesday 18th September 2013 ko 19.45

Central Midlands League South Division

SOUTH NORMANTON ATHLETIC 2 (Mottershead 35 Fretwell 62)

HUCKNALL TOWN 0

Att 82

Entry £3

Programme £1

Lees Lane is one of those grounds that circumstances have led me to fail to visit. I like many others visited much of the CMFL during the years of their organised groundhops, but I found myself watching Newry City during their groundhop game. That was something that needed rectifying, I’d heard good things about the club and the ground. Continue reading →

Beautiful Deception

19 Thursday Sep 2013

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Sunday 15th September 2013

Matlock Bath and The Heights of Abraham

Stood in the Derwent Valley you are aware of so many different sights and sounds. There’s the tree-lined sides, the shops, the bed and breakfasts, even the grumble of a motorbike’s exhaust. In many respects its a seaside resort a good 80 miles from the coast, but take a cable-car trip up and over the gorge and the secrets are revealed. Continue reading →

Essence of England

16 Monday Sep 2013

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Saturday 14th September 2013 20.00

Matlock Bath Parade of Illuminated and Decorated Boats

Entry £5

When I was asked to photograph Rowsley versus Newhall, it gave me a excuse to stay on and photograph a wonderful English tradition.

Matlock Bath lies just over a mile south of Matlock, in Derbyshire. It’s a spa town, sitting snugly in the Derwent valley, and Princess Victoria of Kent’s visit in 1832 made the village the place to visit for those attached to the social scene. The likes of Ruskin and Lord Byron took the waters and the latter nicknamed the place Little Switzerland, a name that has stuck! Continue reading →

The Long Shot

16 Monday Sep 2013

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Saturday 14th September 2013 ko 15.00

Midlands Regional Alliance Premier Division

ROWSLEY 86 2 (T Baker 29 Roome 85)

NEWHALL UNITED 1 (Ward 26p)

Att 8

Entry FREE

Tea FREE

No Programme

Head north on the A6 from Matlock and in around 6 miles you’ll reach the pretty village of Rowsley. It’s at the confluence of the rivers Derwent and Wye, and was the site of an extensive marshalling yard for the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway. The station was frequently used by King Edward VII when he visited nearby Chatsworth House. The station became a goods depot until 1968, when it was closed and converted to a contractor’s yard. It then became the centrepiece of a shopping development which is still open today. Perhaps it goes without saying I didn’t pay it a visit! Continue reading →

‘Ommer ‘Em!

12 Thursday Sep 2013

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Wednesday 11th March 2013 ko 19.45

West Midlands (Regional) League Premier Division

CRADLEY TOWN 2 (Hill 85 Devlin 87)

BEWDLEY TOWN 0

Att 40

Entry £3

Programme £1

If like me you’re 40-plus and from Oxford, the Black Country town of Cradley equals Speedway. I remember watching the likes of Erik Gundersen, Lance King and Gert Handberg at Dudley Wood Stadium and being vaguely disturbed by a poster of former great Bruce Penhall in the bath, with far too few bubbles to preserve his modesty! Continue reading →

Taking the King’s Shilling

08 Sunday Sep 2013

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Saturday 7th September 2013 ko 14.30

Anglian Combination Division Two

BUNGAY TOWN 11 (ELEVEN) (Flint 8 Barnes 19 27 Ling 20 87 Mirner 24 52 89 Wilby 32 Andrews 76 Hammersley 86)

BRANDON TOWN 0

Att 88

Entry -5p

Programme 50p

Burger £2.50

Once a year Football has, ” Non League Day,” when an international weekend means there’s no Premier League and Championship games scheduled. Fans are encouraged to support grass roots football, and the smaller clubs try their best to entice new supporters to come and visit them. Last year, I ended up at an iconic ground, Northern League Crook Town http://wp.me/p1PehW-1dV, but this year I wanted a fresh approach, so I decided to pick the club with what I thought was the best marketing gimmick. And Bungay won that battle by an absolute mile. Continue reading →