Saturday 27th July 2024 ko 11:00

United Counties League- Premier North

SHIREBROOK TOWN 1 (Costa 62)

NEWARK & SHERWOOD UNITED 1 (Monteiro 50og)

L White penalty saved 69

Att 448

Entry £5

Programme £1

I must say I enjoyed my close season far more than I expected, the chance to recharge my groundhopping batteries was appreciated, even the pre-season friendlies were often an exercise in enjoying a day out, rather than with any kind of aim. Robyn and I were ready to return to GroundhopUK duty for the UCL Hop but then we hit a snag….

Our twin niece and nephew were turning 1 this weekend, and Robyn felt she ought to be there. Thankfully we’re a big enough organisation to cope with covering for each other, and since I’d already been to Aylestone Park I took an evening off, and the hop enjoyed their excellent company on Friday evening. I organised to collect Robyn from Beeston station straight after Saturday’s final game at Harrowby.

We’d had to alter the line-up slightly from what we’d originally planned. One of the few issues with running a hop in the first weekend of the season is that it doesn’t allow us as much time to react to the FA’s League allocations and quite a few potential host clubs saw themselves shunted off to different leagues. One got relegated, and one decided that they didn’t want to host. Sad to say the latter probably will never host, I can’t think who we haven’t visited that we could pair them with; such is life.

Some might remember us planning to visit Shirebrook during our stint with the Northern Counties East. That didn’t happen because that hop was over Easter, and Langwith Road, is a centre for Whippet Racing, and its fair to say we’ve never been turned down for anything remotely similar! You can see the course in my final photo.

I’d had a horrible drive up so was happy to park up, collect my ticket and programme pack and watch a thoroughly competant club host really well, and no there wasn’t a dog in sight. It had been nearly 17 years since my last visit, and it’s funny what you can and can’t remember about a place. Here it was the vintage turnstiles, and the programme back then didn’t have staples in it! I’m pleased to say both things are still the same, and the latter did make me smile!

We saw an entertaining game with the unusual spin that the away team was once featured on a completely different hop under a different name! Newark & Sherwood used to Newark Flowserve and the 2008 Central Midlands Hop visited their former home at the Flowserve Sports & Social Club in Balderton. Here they’ll consider themselves unfortunate not to have won, espcially given Luke White seeing his penalty saved.

I made my way back to the car, smiling at that dog course. I was glad to see Shirebrook finally get their chance to host, and do it really well.