Author Archives: laurencereade

Floodlight Fancy

27 Thursday Mar 2014

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Tuesday 25th March 2014 ko 19.45

Sussex County League Division One

CHICHESTER CITY 1 (Groom 7)

RINGMER 0

Att c50

Entry £5

Programme £1

Chichester and I go back a long way. My ex-wife loved Butlins so regularly we’d spend weekends at the nearby Bognor Regis stockade, to watch the likes of Coghlan’s Quo, and a version of Bucks Fizz with only one original member. We even saw Limahl in support of The Wurzels once, which looked less like entertainment and more like a gentle nudge towards alternative employment for the former Kajagoogoo man.

There was one massive advantage to the place, and that was on Saturday afternoons I could escape the high fences and security patrols, and find a game locally. Even now, a look at the grounds I’ve visited in this part of the south coast show a marked slant to Bognor Regis. Nice town Bognor, if nothing else for the annual Birdman of Bognor competition, and the heroic David Purley, but as for Butlins, well I’m rather with King George V on that one!

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Roytown

23 Sunday Mar 2014

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Saturday 22nd March 2014 ko 14.30

Anglian Combination Division Two

HOVETON WHERRYMEN 1 (King 67p)

BUNGAY TOWN 2 (Flint 43 Andrews 52)

Att 19

Entry FREE

Nothing for sale

In the Norfolk Broads, the village of Hoveton has reason to feel downtrodden. On the south side of the River Bure is Wroxham, and you cross the narrow swing-bridge to get to Hoveton. You cross to by far the larger settlement, but what did they call the railway station built on the Hoveton side? That’s right, Wroxham with the suffix, “and Hoveton,” was only added in 1966. To add insult to injury the narrow gauge Bure Valley Railway terminates at a station a hundred-or-so yards from the main station. What’s that station called? That’s right…Wroxham!

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The Nightwatchman

23 Sunday Mar 2014

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Friday 21st March 2014 ko 19.45

League 2

OXFORD UNITED 1 (Connolly 77)

HARTLEPOOL UNITED 0

Att 4,954 (185 away)

Entry S/T

Programme £3 (inc Oxford Mail)

Sometimes its wonderful how things conspire to help you. With Oxford’s game away at Southend on Monday televised, this fixture was moved forward a day to allow the team a little time to recover and me to plan another destination for tomorrow. The move didn’t help the Hartlepool fans, and all credit to those who make the trip, and it didn’t help Ian Lenagan the Oxford United chairman either. Continue reading →

Essex Man

23 Sunday Mar 2014

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Thursday 20th March 2014 ko 19.45

Essex Senior League

HULLBRIDGE SPORTS 1 (Nash 23)

BASILDON UNITED 2 (Murphy 53 Pinto 70)

Att 51

Entry £6

Programme £1

Tea £1

Bacon Sarnie £2

It’s not often I risk turning up at the wrong ground, but this fixture could easily have ended up being one of a small group. A few weeks ago, with Hullbridge’s Lower Road ground waterlogged the clubs made the sensible move to swap their games against each other around as Basildon’s Gardiners Close was playable. The trouble is a few of the fixture websites didn’t keep up! That’s why a Twitter account can be a groundhopper’s best friend! Continue reading →

The 100 Club

18 Tuesday Mar 2014

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Monday 17th March 2014 ko 19.45

Isthmian League Division One North

BARKINGSIDE 3 (C Liddiard 5 Carwell 32 Rolls 45)

ERITH & BELVEDERE 0

Att 92

Entry £8

Programme £1.50 (reissue from postponed game)

Badge £1.50

Tea 80p

Supporters Handbook £1

In the beginning, well 1957, the underground trains at Barkingside rattled along the Central Line destined for Central London, but if you fancied something more exotic you could travel the other way and visit Hainault and from there change. That got you to Woodford, and exciting-sounding destinations were within your grasp such as Theydon Bois and Epping. There was even a further branch north-east of that where treats such as North Weald, Blake Hall and Chipping Ongar could be explored.

But just beyond the northbound platform, a football ground was being built. Barkingside took a long lease from the local council to give them a suitable home and slowly Oakside Park was put together. Very much from the Heath Robinson School of Architecture it was practical, but homely. The club built themselves up on the field too, moving through the leagues until a second place finish in last season’s Essex Senior League saw them play Isthmian League football for the first time this season. Continue reading →

The Bartender & The Thief

16 Sunday Mar 2014

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Saturday 15th March 2014 ko 14.30

Welsh League Division Three

CWMAMMAN UNITED 5 (M Hughes 16 Spring 39 Bonomi 58 66 L Hughes 69)

CWMAMAN INSTITUTE 0

Att 23

Entry FREE

Programme Comp

As a child growing up in Oxford, my parents had a liking for holidays in West Wales so I got well used to getting to the end of the M4 at Pont Abraham and the 10-year-old me always felt that this was where my holiday began. And decades later, when I reached that road’s end, almost in a random place- why wasn’t it built all the way to Carmarthen, I felt exactly the same way. Continue reading →

Fogbound

16 Sunday Mar 2014

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Thursday 13th March 2014 ko 19.45

Somerset Premier Cup

ODD DOWN (BATH) P

PAULTON TOVERS P

Postponed due to fog (!)

Not much needs to be said about this other than that I arrived just as the referee made the correct decision to call off the tie.

I had a look round and took a few shots, and I quite like the results. It’ll be interesting to compare these with the ones I’ll take when I return!

And that is the sole reason for publishing this. Normal service will soon be resumed!!

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Whatever happened to Goronwy Jones?

16 Sunday Mar 2014

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Sunday 9th March 2014 ko 13.00

Ceredigion League Division Two

FFOSTRASOL WANDERERS 2 (A Bowen 57 C Griffiths 88)

DEWI STARS 2 (Andrew Jones 45 Owens 90)

Att 166

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

It seemed such a long time ago when Keith drove the coach past Troedyrhiw (Troy-dur-roo) Park on the way back from New Quay and the entire coach turned to their left and gawped at the beautiful ground in rural West Wales. It’s fair to say it helped push us into towards making the Ceredigion League a regular fixture.

The main stand (and you don’t get to say that very often in this league) is a classic piece of influence. Ffostrasol played at Builth Wells and liked their stand, so in 1978 built their own version. It’s a vision of lichen covered concrete, corrugated iron, and plank seating and there wasn’t a single one of the 166 present that didn’t immediately fall in love with it! Perhaps its the process of nature gradually claiming everything back to itself that appeals. Continue reading →

Plan C

14 Friday Mar 2014

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Sunday 9th March 2014 ko 10.15

Ceredigion League Division One

BARGOD RANGERS 3 (Skinner 2 35 D Evans 76)

MAESGLAS 3 (J James 15 38 Irvine 29)

Att 238

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

Tea & A Welsh Cake £1

Hat £3

So picture the scene, I’m sat in my office at work and I’ve got Twitter on in the background. All of a sudden the following tweet pops up….

Llanybydder

….and our Sunday morning game goes out of the window just under 3 weeks before the event. I knew Chris Berezai was at a business meeting in the north, so I spent a frantic few minutes looking at the Ceredigion website (and I’m thankful its detailed and up to date). It became clear that unless we were either going to run the hop a game short, or rejig all the other fixtures there was only one game open to us, Bargod vs Maesglas. We’d already postponed our visit to Saron as they’d played every 1st XI in their league, many hoppers won’t watch games involving reserves, and the only 1st XI Bargod had to meet was Maesglas. Continue reading →

Menu

12 Wednesday Mar 2014

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Saturday 8th March 2013 k0 16.00

Ceredigion League Division Two

CILGERRAN ROVERS 1 (K Phillips 66)

LLANON 0

Att 226

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

Beer £2.75

Cheese £4

Hat £5

Food – All of it!

I have a mate Graeme who has an unusual hobby, he collects Chinese takeaway menus. Other than that and the groundhopping he’s quite a well-adjusted chap he’s a schoolteacher, but if you’re in a car and you pass the takeaway, your journey will be paused for him to dash out and collect another one for his collection. Being a groundhopper helps his cause and other hoppers collect for him, so he’s got menus from places such as Hungary, the USA and Malta but I think the centrepiece of his collection ought to be a British takeaway menu from China! Continue reading →