Author Archives: laurencereade

The Clutch

06 Monday Apr 2015

Posted by in B

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Friday 3rd April 2015 ko 11.30

Northern Counties East League Premier Division

BARTON TOWN OLD BOYS 0

CLEETHORPES TOWN 3 (Robertson 36 90 Grant 87)

Att 517

Entry £5

Programme £1.50

I woke up with a start in Wakeford, and I really must learn to put some clothes on before opening the curtains to check the weather. It was hammering it down with rain, and my torpor was only slightly eased during breakfast with the news that it wasn’t raining in Barton-upon-Humber. That ground had seen significant rainfall during the week and the last thing we wanted was a postponement. I was worried enough about Barton’s prospects anyway.

Continue reading →

The Lump

06 Monday Apr 2015

Posted by in N

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

Thursday 2nd April 2015 ko 19.45

Northern Counties League Premier Division

NOSTELL MINERS WELFARE 2 (Boardman 30 90)

RETFORD UNITED 0 Thornton sent off 90 (Foul language)

Att 265

Entry £5

Programme £1.50

Badge £3

So for the final time this season back on GroundhopUK duty, and to complete our triptych of Ceredigion, Lowland, and North Counties East hops in a mere 5 weeks! From Chris Berezai and I’s perspective this hop was possibly one that we were the most used to organising. Take a look at the 12 year history of the organisation, and the blueprint for the Step 5/6 league (or similar) is one we’ve used the most often.

Continue reading →

The Oxford Movement

06 Monday Apr 2015

Posted by in O

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , ,

Monday 30th March 2015 ko 18.00

Hampshire Premier League, Senior Division

OTTERBOURNE 2 (Sands 5 18p)

HAMBLE CLUB 1 (Liam Crook 40)

Att 62

Entry FREE

No Programme

Tea £1

When the clocks go forward the more senior groundhoppers tend to divert their attentions during the week to fixtures played without floodlights, preferring to leave that finite commodity for when there’s no other option. Of course the trouble with these early kick-offs is that you have very little time for traffic problems when you’re driving down from Oxford, so I positively roared into the car park as the game kicked off! Continue reading →

Sapphire

05 Sunday Apr 2015

Posted by in O

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Wednesday 1st April 2015 ko 18.00

Hampshire Premier League, Senior Division

OVERTON UNITED 2 (J Jupp 9 Lavisher 40)

COLDEN COMMON 2 (Dankins 20 O’Brien 42og)

Att 25

Entry FREE

Monthly newsletter FREE (from the bar)

Other than for football there are many reasons to visit Overton, the medieval church of St Mary which provides the backdrop for many of these photos has parts dating from the 11th century, the village was used in part as a base for the Bank of England during World War II, and is a centre for Morris Dancing.

I suspect though the vast majority will remember though the “Bombay Sapphire” distillery on the road in from Whitchurch! Is this more important than the fact that in Richard Adams’ novel “Watership Down” the rival rabbit warren of Efrafa was located just north of the railway above Northington Farm in Overton? Continue reading →

Sea Change

31 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by in E

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

Friday 27th March 2015 ko 19.30

Isle of Wight DFA Senior (Gold) Cup Quarter-Final

EAST COWES VICTORIA AFC 2 (Gregory 59 Craig 90) Thompson sent off 78 (2nd booking)

EAST COWES SPORTS 2 (Tyler 11 Robjoint 76)

AET East Cowes Sports won 6-5 on penalties

Att 82

Entry £3

Programme 50p

It’s probably now common knowledge that we tried to get a Wessex League groundhop up and running, but a few weeks ago I had to end the project. While there was support from many quarters a final meeting in Totton convinced me that there wasn’t enough enthusiasm where it mattered to make it work. A real shame, as many people put a lot of effort into the project, and I was very taken by the carload of officials from the 3 Wessex League clubs Newport (IW), Cowes Sports, and East Cowes Vics who took the time and expense to take the ferry over to hear what I had to say. When it was all over I felt rather bruised by the encounter, so was heartened when several clubs contacted me to commiserate and invite me to their grounds.

Continue reading →

The Cricket

29 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by in E

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Tuesday 24th March 2015 ko 19.30

Combined Counties League Division One

EVERSLEY & CALIFORNIA 0

CHESSINGTON & HOOK UNITED 3 (McLaughlin 11 54 Bowles 68og)

Att 23

Entry & Programme £5

After the exertions of the Lowland League Hop I wanted something reasonably local and after 1700 or so grounds the Hampshire side of the border with Berkshire is just about as good as it gets for a floodlit tick these days!

It’s fair to say Eversley is an extremely affluent area, with the Prep schools dotted around the executive houses and the forests, Will Carling lives in this area, reckoned to be the least deprived area in the UK. Of course as is usually the case none of that helps the local football team. Continue reading →

Grand Day Out

29 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by in T

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Sunday 22nd March 2015 ko 15.00

Lowland League

THREAVE ROVERS 2 (Struthers 7 Donley 43) Miller sent of 87 (violent conduct)

EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY 3 (Daniels-Yeoman 12 Aitken 61 Ward 81)

Att 462

Entry £5

Programme £1.50

Here’s a first for you, has a groundhop every visited a club named after a tea rooms? The club is named after the café in Castle Douglas where it was formed in 1953. The tea rooms in turn were named after Threave Castle, and Threave is derived from the Welsh term “Tref,” meaning homestead. Perhaps that’s why we used two Welsh coaches for the weekend! Continue reading →

Hitting the straps

28 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by in D

≈ 1 Comment

Sunday 22nd March 2015 ko 12.00

Lowland League

DALBEATTIE STAR 2 (Steele 2 Sloan 77p)

EDINBURH CITY 1 (Gair 45)

Att 400

Entry £5

Programme £2

I sat at breakfast at the hop HQ watching 100 or so hoppers have their buffet meal. The previous morning, the staff had been rather surprised by two coachloads descending on the restaurant all at once, but today there was an extra staff member and the queue moved efficiently. It proved to be a good analogy for the two clubs we visited.

Continue reading →

Brutalist

26 Thursday Mar 2015

Posted by in G

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Saturday 21st March 2015 ko 19.00

Lowland League

GALA FAIRYDEAN ROVERS 1 (Bonnar 49)

UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING 2 (Bonar 43 Geddes 90)

Att 323

Entry £5

Programme £2

The sun began to set and as the coach reached Galashiels I relaxed for the first time since we’d left Hilingdon 36 hours earlier. I knew everyone wanted to visit the iconic club of Gala, and in Graeme McIver I had a club contact who was competent to the point where Chris and I knew all we needed to do is let him get on with staging the game. That doesn’t happen very often, clubs at the level GroundhopUK organise hops for aren’t used to having 300-plus crowds so guidance is essential, to do otherwise is at best unfair, and at worst folly. Graeme simply needed to know how many tickets we’d sold and a rough idea of the likely attendance, and he was more than capable of doing the rest. Continue reading →

Battleground

25 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by in S

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

Saturday 21st March 2015 ko 15.30

Lowland League

SELKIRK 1 (See 58)

THE SPARTANS 1 (Brown 84)

Att 281

Entry £5

Programme £2

With so much riding on this hop I was nervous as the coach left Innerleithen for our middle game of the day. It’s that word “middle” that’s key, on any organised groundhop you tend to see, “Drift” where hoppers find an alternative games for the middle game on a Saturday when the competition for them is at its greatest. The solution is to schedule 4 games so that the hopper has to miss 2 hop games to go elsewhere but the geography and the lack of floodlights at Selkirk’s Yarrow Park made that impossible. Continue reading →