Sunday 28th July 2024 ko 15:30

United Counties League-Premier Division South

RUGBY BOROUGH 5 (McGahey 20 54 Sawyer 24 67 Wilson 58)

LEICESTER NIRVANA 1 (Brown 34)

Att 401

Entry £7

Programme £2

If the point of groundhopping is to visit as many football grounds as possible, then if you’re going to revisit anywhere then let it be somewhere that has changed beyond recognition. While my first visit to Kilsby Lane was back in 2011 when Rugby Borough were Rugby Town Juniors. As an aside it was also the second article I wrote for this site. How times change.. the pitch was grass back then!

When you organise these events, you look to find that air of unconcious competance where you think of something that might need doing, turn round and find its been done. That was certainly the case with the line-ups board, but I was intrigued by the way the cafe was being run.

The idea was that you paid at a hatch pitchside, were issued with a ticket, then walked into the clubhouse and collected your food from another hatch inside. I’d not seen the like in the past but without wishing to recommend the method for future clubs, it worked well here. Every day is a school day I suppose!

Certainly this was radically different Rugby Borough from their former selves. There was a sense of confidence in all they did, and that definately extended to the team’s performance too. There wasn’t much wrong with Leicester Nirvana (who could forget their Biriyani for breakfast!) but they were utterly taken to pieces by a Borough side that looked irresistable. It was a fitting finale to another successful hop.

The UCL hop is a little unusual. It started its run as a joint venture with the Peterborough & District and I do regret that league boundary changes have seen that link severed. That said, the general drift of the UCL northwards is why we’ve still got enough clubs to run this event each July. It does seem barely believable that we’ve been doing this hop now for 10 years, it really doesn’t seem that long since that visit to Deeping Rangers.