Author Archives: laurencereade

The Fugitives

21 Thursday Nov 2024

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Saturday 12th October 2024 ko 14:00

Gwent Premier League, Premier Division

ROGERSTONE AFC 4 (Smith 30 56 Porter 59 Goodfellow 82p)

LUCAS CWMBRAN 0

Att 102 at Newport Fugitives Athletic Club

Entry & Programe £3

On occasion I’ve opined that I don’t pick my games they pick me; this was a classic example. After the glut of games that was the Kent Hop all I knew was that the last thing I wanted to watch was something English and at Steps 5 or 6. So when Rogerstone tweeted that they were opening their new ground, my mind was charmingly made up for me!

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Hextable

20 Wednesday Nov 2024

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Sunday 6th October 2024 ko 14:30

Southern Counties East League-Premier Division

SUTTON ATHLETIC 2 (Ahmed 89 Fisher 90+2)

TUNBRIDGE WELLS 0

Att 284

Entry £10

Programme £2

For those in the know, Sutton Athletic don’t actually play in Sutton at Hone, but rather at nearby Hextable, but even that isn’t completely accurate. Lower Road is a short distance east of the village, itself a few miles north of Swanley, and within hearing of Brands Hatch motor racing circuit. The club moved from the Roaches Recreation Ground in 2011 in order to find a ground they could develop.

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Another Dawn

19 Tuesday Nov 2024

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Sunday 6th October 2024 ko 11:00

Southern Counties East League Premier Division

CORINTHIAN 2 (Arnold 10 Fitzgerald 13)

ERITH & BELVEDERE 1 (Melconian 80)

Att 247

Entry £9

Programme £2

I’d long since changed my way of thinking once it became clear that in my terms the SCEFL Hop was going to be, in my terms, six revisits. Other than a social event, there was the idea of how 200 or so hoppers might react to each of the host clubs. However I knew everyone would love Corinthian…

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Crayford

13 Wednesday Nov 2024

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Saturday 5th October 2024 ko 19:00

Southern Counties East League Premier Division

V.C.D. ATHLETIC 2 (Freeman 45+5, 56)

Gboda sent off 39 (serious foul play)

LARKFIELD & NEW HYTHE 1 (Alaka 73)

Ibbertson sent off 29 (DOGSO)

Gordon sent off 90+4 (serious foul play)

Att 382

Entry £10

Programme £3

Over the years Vickers Crayford Dartford has been good to me. I’d first seen them play around 25 years ago when they were groundsharing at a dilapidated Harrow Meadow, the Eltham-based home of the now defunct Greenwich Borough. Borough and Harrow Meadow was where Ian Wright first played his football, the club giving him a chance when others wouldn’t.

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Blessed

11 Monday Nov 2024

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Saturday 5th October 2024 ko 15:00

Southern Counties East League Premier Division

FISHER FC 1 (Barrington 14)

FAVERSHAM TOWN 3 (Kwayie 43 90+6 Newman 75)

Att 423

Entry £8

Programme £2

It has to be said that over the years I’ve developed a soft spot for Fisher Athletic and when they folded in 2009; the phoenix club Fisher FC. There is no obvious reason for it, I first saw Athletic well after the loss of the Surrey Docks Stadium in Rotherhithe in 2004 during their stint sharing at Dulwich Hamlet, and even at Bacon’s College in pre-season in 2012 when I could still have a brief look at the old ground, now well and truly derelict.

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Perception

10 Sunday Nov 2024

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Saturday 5th October 2024 ko 11:00

Southern Counties East League Division One

MERIDIAN V.P. 1 (Sowah 26)

TOOTING BEC 2 (James 10 Robinson 90+4)

Att 160 (Club Record)

Entry £8

Programme £2.50

Perception in all things is everything. When you organise events at Steps 5 & 6, and let’s face it GroundhopUk has plenty of experience at this level, you do expect a certain level of uniformity, mainly due to FA ground gradings. What that doesn’t mean is the clubs, or their aspirations will be similar.

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The Transformation

07 Thursday Nov 2024

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Friday 4th October 2024 ko 19:45

Southern Counties East League Premier Division

SNODLAND TOWN 0

RUSTHALL 3 (Barton 5 Clover 60 Bissett 76)

Att 395

Entry £8

Programme £2

In GroundhopUK terms October added up to 12 games at 12 grounds in south-eastern England. The games were split over 2 weekends 3 weeks apart between the SCEFL and Southern Combination. In my terms that added up to 11 revisits, so I approached the two events as part organiser, part social event, and part seeing how some of the clubs and their facilities had changed. And nowhere across those twelve games saw more of a transformation than at Snodland’s Potyn’s Field.

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The Ships

06 Wednesday Nov 2024

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Sunday 22nd September 2024 ko 14:15

West Wales Premier League

GIANTS GRAVE 4 (Wayman 39 D Williams 75 Sofiu 78 Palla 81)

CWM WANDERERS 1 (Shaw 49)

Att 204

Entry & Programme £5

The final stop of this year’s West Wales Hop saw our first visit of the weekend to a former Neath League side. Giants Grave is in the environs of Briton Ferry and the unusual name is usually seen as referencing the TW Ward’s Shipbreaking Yard, but the inconvenient truth is the name pre-dates shipbreaking or even heavy industry. I suspect the derivation probably comes from folk tales with the exact stories lost in the mists of time, and perhaps the mystery adds to the legend?

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The Former

31 Thursday Oct 2024

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Sunday 22nd September 2024 ko 11:00

West Wales Premier League

AFC GLAIS 1 (Lewis Pritchard 55)

PONTARDDULAIS TOWN 3 (Jones 39secs 2 Williams 90+4)

Att 191

Entry & Programme £5

The final day of the West Wales Hop saw us move slowly towards its terminus at Cardiff station. We left Carmarthen and headed for Pontardawe, and once again a Cymric portmanteau – this time of Bridge on the River Tawe. Other than the production of tin plate the town as being the birthplace of singer Mary Hopkin and former Pop Idol starlet Rosie Ribbons. You’ve not heard of Rosie Ribbons? Well try asking my wife Robyn; her former workmates back in Bristol still nickname her “Ribbons!” I don’t see the resemblance myself!

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Home From Home

29 Tuesday Oct 2024

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Saturday 21st September 2024 ko 17:30

West Wales Premier League

MUMBLES RANGERS 7 (Jenkins 22 Evans 24 Spring 42 Amphlett 50 69 James 57 Williams 88)

Amphlett missed penalty 45

BRYN ROVERS 0

Att 160

Entry £3

Programme £2

You may recall that Chris Garner and I paid Mumbles Rangers a visit back in 2021 when Covid restrictions were starting to ease. We picked Underhill Park purely as it was a public park so the Welsh Senedd’s dictat that crowds of over 100 for an event were still banned couldn’t possibly be breached (!)

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