Friday 28th July 2023 ko 19:45

United Counties League Division One

SAFFRON DYNAMO 1 (Scott 68)

BIRSTALL UNITED 5 (Burton 4 16 Crossley 13 30 45)

Att 400

Entry £6

Programme £1

Such is the dynamic of the United Counties League Hop, and the expanded GroundhopUK meant that Robyn and I could do a normal Friday day at work and Chris had Craig and Paul to make up the programme packs and set up the stall outside the first gate. Next time round it’ll be Robyn and I with Chris. Many hands and all that!

The United Counties Hop has metamorphosed a lot since that first game at Deeping Rangers in 2014. I do miss the participation of the Peterborough & District League clubs but the general drift of the league’s footprint has made that impossible. That move northward drift though has greatly extended our stay in the UCL and its fair to say they’re made the opening day of the season completely their own.

Unusually for Robyn and I on a hop game, this was a revisit for the both of us, we’d visited Cosby with Chris 3 years ago, and saw that parking would be issue. We thought it would be for a typical 250-300 crowd, then the ticket sales were 30% up on last year’s event, and then 400 turned up! And you know what? Saffron coped superbly, so much so that I found parking and exiting easier than 3 years ago when the attendance was 70!

There were several people there of note. One was Harvey Harris organiser of the latest Northern Hops and his geographically opposite number, Phil Hiscox of the South West Peninsula League. Phil will be organising this season’s Easter Hop, based in Devon and Robyn and I will be looking forward to be a fare paying passenger for a change! I’m sure he got to see a lot of his potential customers, at a game that was a reverse of the fixture at Birstall but would the result be any different?

The answer was a fairly emphatic no, as once again Josh Crossley scored a hat trick, and this time round he didn’t have to complete the feat playing a man short! But as the game wound down and people contemplate their overnight stays, it was clear that the real winners that evening were our hosts. Never have I been so happy to see a traffic cone!