15 Thursday Nov 2018
Posted in B
Sunday 7th October 2018 ko 11.00
Western League Premier Division
BRIDGWATER TOWN 1 (Ellis 74)
BRIDPORT 0 Martin sent off 70 (Serious Foul Play)
Att 371
Entry £6
Programme £1
Sunday dawned and with it the longest drive of the hop, from our base in Almondsbury to Bridgwater. It was odd driving one of our 3 minibuses, full of hoppers but utterly incapable of going more than 60 mph! The extra time on the M5 did give me time to consider what we’d be likely to find at Fairfax Park. Continue reading
13 Tuesday Nov 2018
Tags
Axa, Cribbs FC, Football, Friends Life, groundhoppers, Hengrove Athletic, Non League, redmaids school, Western League
Saturday 6th October 2018 ko 19.45
Western League Premier Division
CRIBBS 2 (Dowdell 4 Wanjah-Smith 83)
HENGROVE ATHLETIC 1 (Fear 74)
Att 227
Entry £6
Programme £1
I remember well my feeling of unease when I first visited Cribbs six years ago. Back then the ground and club were very much the works side of insurance company Friends Life, and as couple of years earlier that firm in its guise as AXA had turned me down for a job twice! It’s strange how things work out isn’t it, if on either occasion I’d have got the job, there would have been a fairly high chance that I’d have moved to Bristol. Now given my fiancee Robyn is from Bristol that would have been handy, but we didn’t meet for another 6 or so years… and if I’d moved then would we have ever met? Continue reading
08 Thursday Nov 2018
Tags
Football, groundhopping, GroundhopUK, Hallen, Hallen Centre, Non League, Shepton Mallet, Western League
Saturday 6th October 2018 ko 17.00
Western League Premier Division
HALLEN 0
SHEPTON MALLET 3 (Willmott 45 Pollard 59 Morgan 77)
Att 218
Entry £6
Programme £1
Given one or two groundhoppers’ predisposition for getting their geography in a twist I ought to make it clear that this in the Hallen, which is the other side of the M5 from Bristol and not the club playing at the World’s oldest football ground- that’s Hallam! And while we were never ever going to visit the Hallen Centre on the Northern Counties East Hop, we could have easily have visited back in the day on the Hellenic Hop, the club are based in, and affiliated to the Gloucestershire FA, and it took until 2000 to prise themselves away and into the more logical Western League. That isn’t the limit of the club’s adventures though! Continue reading
05 Monday Nov 2018
Posted in C
Tags
Buckland Athletic, Clevedon Town, groundhoppers, GroundhopUK, Hand Stadium, Non League, Western League, Western League Hop
Saturday 6th October 2018 ko 14.15
Western League Premier Division
CLEVEDON TOWN 1 (Camm 12)
BUCKLAND ATHLETIC 3 (Johansen 30 Bush 72 Richards 85)
Att 213
Entry £6
Programme £1
Without wishing to be in any way disparaging to the good folk at Clevedon Town, the Western Hop’s visit to the Hand Stadium was the one I was anticipating the least. That was for two reasons, I’d visited twice before, during their Southern League days, and that the ground is still relatively new, being opened in 1992. Of course, life being as contrary as it is, it turned out to be one I’ll remember the most! Continue reading
03 Saturday Nov 2018
Posted in L
Tags
Bristol, Community Centre, England, Football, GroundhopUK, Longwell Green Sports, Non League, Welton Rovers, Western League
Saturday 6th October 2018 ko 11.00
Western League Division One
LONGWELL GREEN SPORTS 2 (Brittain 2 Keary 36)
WELTON ROVERS 3 (Hunt 28 Seviour 54 77)
Att 213
Entry £5
Programme £1
When we started the Western Hop back in 2015 we actually passed Longwell Green Sports on our way between Bitton and Oldland Abbotonians. Whilst amusing myself with the knowledge that we’d succeeded in convincing a hopper that the latter club was so named because comedian Russ Abbott was a secret benefactor (He actually recorded it in his blog before rapidly deleting it!) we passed the ground and I wondered why we weren’t visiting there and then? Continue reading
01 Thursday Nov 2018
Tags
Brislington, Bristol, Chris Berezai, GroundhopUK, Ironmould Lane, Julian French, Odd Down, Western League, Western League Hop
Friday 5th October 2018 ko 19.45
Western League Premier Division
BRISLINGTON 2 (Taylor 40 Biggins 71)
ODD DOWN (BATH) 3 (Lloyd6 79 82)
Att 262
Entry £6
Programme £1
For as long as I visit grounds of the Western League I will always think of the late Mark Edmonds, That goes double for the Western Hop, the idea he had, that every year Chris Berezai and try our best to make the most of his legacy for the clubs he set out to help. It puts us under a good kind of pressure, and that goes for everyone involved that remembers Mark. This year it was lovely to see his widow Sarah joining us all for this hop, mainly based in and around Bristol, and I hope she feels we did Mark’s idea justice. Continue reading
Football: Wherever it may be 