Author Archives: laurencereade

Stag

19 Monday Dec 2022

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Tuesday 18th October 2022 ko 19:45

Combined Counties League Premier Division North

WINDSOR 2 (Mirtahmasabi 24og Debayo 80)

Appleton sent off 90 (DOGSO)

EGHAM TOWN 4 (Campion 20 48 64 Lopes 90)

Att 122

Entry £7.50

Programme FREE

I’m fairly certain this year’s Royal Funeral is what triggered this revisit to Stag Meadow. The committal was after all, in Windsor Castle and on the trip south from the M4 you do see the signage for the oh-so familiar sites such as the Great Park, and the Long Walk. Of course the football club are the Royalists, not least because they’ve had the likes of George V, George VI, and Philip Duke of Edinburgh as patrons. Continue reading →

Shelter

13 Tuesday Dec 2022

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Saturday 15th October 2022 ko 15:00

Central Midlands League Cup 1st Round

TEVERSAL 1 (Fletcher 23)

Fletcher sent off 45 (2nd booking)

DERBY SINGH BROTHERS 1 (Lawrence 43p)

No extra time, Teversal won 5-4 on penalties

Att 33

Entry £3

Programme £1

As a groundhopper there are always occasional grounds that seem to pass you by. In the case of Teversal, I always imagined the Northern Counties East Hop would visit Carnarvon Street, but two things happened, first the club seemed sufficiently unhappy at the whole procedure neither league nor organisers dared to ask them, and then they got relegated back to the Central Midlands League, where ironically we could actually feature them now. I wonder; they’ve certainly got the ground! Continue reading →

Nickleby

11 Sunday Dec 2022

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Tuesday 11th October 2022 ko 19:45

Hinchingbrooke Cup 1st Round

EATON SOCON  3 (R Baxter 25 Reece-Brown 57 B Roberts 90)

NETHERTON UNITED 1 (Mead 4)

Att 74

Entry and Programme £5

I have a nasty feeling I’ve passed Eaton Socon by no end of times without every really considering the place. You’re just off the A1 here, one roundabout north of the Black Cat, in what is traditionally Huntingdonshire, administeratively in Cambridgeshire, but the club played in the Bedfordshire League until this season. Yes, you are in border country, and very much in St Neots’ environs, and that location means the town grew up as Stage Coach overnight stopping  point, even earning a mention in Charles Dickens’ novel “Nicholas Nickelby” as Eton Slocomb! Continue reading →

Making It Work

08 Thursday Dec 2022

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Sunday 9th October 2022 

11:00 Southern Counties East League- Premier Division

RUSTHALL 4 (Fares 9 Clark 16 Gitiba 60 Baldwin78)

K SPORTS 2 (Holliday 27 Lewins 48)

Att 344

Entry £8

Programme £2

14:00 Southern Counties East League- Premier Division

TUNBRIDGE WELLS 1 (McCreadie 58)

LORDSWOOD 1 (Reid 32)

Att 518

Entry £8

Programme £2

Without a massive amount of evidence I felt supremely confident about the SCEFL Hop’s Sunday schedule. Part of it was that I felt I knew the clubs a little, I’s seen what a go-ahead club Rusthall are when I’d visited 9 years ago, and my visit to Tunbridge Wells  a year later gave me the impression that they were an Isthmian League club in waiting. Normally my internalised challenge to clubs I revisit on hops is to change my perception of them., here I wanted them to reinforce my view. There were a couple of snags with that though. Continue reading →

Men of Kent

01 Thursday Dec 2022

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Saturday 8th October 2022

11:00 Southern Counties East League Division One

STAPLEHURST MONARCHS 1 (Osagie 74)

ROCHESTER UNITED 0

Att 331

Entry £6

Programme £2

15:00 Southern Counties East League Premier Division

BEARSTED 2 (Freeman 18 52)

FISHER 1 (Kationa 52)

Att 229

Entry/ Parking/ Programme £8

17.45 Southern Counties East League Division One

LARKFIELD & NEW HYTHE 2 (Burdon 13 West 30)

GREENWAYS 1 (Saxton 49)

Att 243

Entry £5

Programme £1

There could be no doubt as to how important the SCEFL saw the groundhop; they did as the South Wales Alliance did and placed an official on the coach, mainly to help with directions but to troubleshoot where needed. Having Barry Fenn around was a godsend, not just for what he was mandated to do, but for the little nuggets of knowledge he imparted on the way. Continue reading →

Kentish Man

23 Wednesday Nov 2022

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Friday 7th October 2022 ko 19:45

Southern Counties East League- Premier Division

PUNJAB UNITED 1 (Vines 70)

STANSFELD 1 (Friend 68)

Att 347

Entry £8

Programme £2

If you drill down to the roots of every hop GroundhopUK organises they all have a conversation with a league official with either Chris Berezai or I at their genesis. Scotland is one of mine, as was the Western Hop while Chris’ include Wales, and the Northern Counties East. But the SCEFL is different, because the conversation wasn’t Chris’ or mine, it was between league chairman Andy Short and my wife Robyn! Continue reading →

Brief Encounter

16 Wednesday Nov 2022

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Saturday 1st October 2022 ko 14:00

Westmorland Junior Cup 1st Round

MILLHEAD 2 (Salkerd 15 Shaw 66)

LUNESDALE UNITED 11 (Wharton 9 24 77 Mandle 13 O Jackson 13 54 Collison 34 42 68p B Jackson 47 Huddleston 85)

Att c20

Free Entry

I suspect any groundhopper who either has visited Iodine Park, or is about to do so gets asked the same question, and that is where is it? The answer is of course Carnforth in North Lancashire, and anyone who has ever watched David Lean’s classic film “Brief Encounter” should do as we did and factor in time to visit the station beforehand. Continue reading →

Humble Bumble

11 Friday Nov 2022

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Saturday 24th September 2022

11:00 Witney & District League Division 2

BRIZE NORTON 0

CASSINGTON RANGERS 1 (Blackman 3p)

Att 168

14:00 Witney & District League- Division 1

TOWER HILL 1 (Scott 82)

HATHEROP 3 (Hathaway 31 Turner-Williams 56p 63)

Skinner sent off 20 (violent conduct)

Att 154

17:00 Witney & District League- Division 1

HEYFORD ATHLETIC 2 (Chambers 20 Phipps 90)

CHADLINGTON 2 (Charlesworth 7 61)

Att 153

Entry to each game, including programme £4

When the league and I were putting together this event, I found myself thinking back to Steventon, the first game on the first North Berkshire League Hop back in 2011.

Rightly or wrongly I see the North Berks and Witney Hops as being continuations of each other- both are grassroots leagues playing (mostly) in Oxfordshire. I remember a senior (in terms of numbers) groundhopper coming up to me before the event in 2011 to inform me that, in his opinion, a groundhop here couldn’t possibly work. We held 7 hops in the North Berks, and this was to be the 3rd in the Witney & District. And while I’ll be the first to admit that these hops aren’t for every hopper, they certainly do a lot of good for the clubs, I get a lot of personal satisfaction from seeing a good club do well, and any hop organiser will tell you, the smaller clubs tend to make the most effort!

Continue reading →

Weirdness

08 Tuesday Nov 2022

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Tuesday 20th September 2022 ko 19:45

Cambridgeshire County League Division 4A

FC KENNETT 4 (Earl 24 Haydon 52 65 Adams 60)

SAWSTON UNITED RESERVES 2 (Carter 69 D’Ambrosio 83)

Att 36

Free Entry

Just occasionally a younger groundhopper asks me for advice, and I always try imagine myself 20 years ago. What were my aims back then? And was I quite as aimless as I am now? These days my only real aim is to have a new tick on as many midweeks as I can! So the advice I normally give is to go weird, and do so as early on as you can. Continue reading →

The Professionals

07 Monday Nov 2022

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Friday 16th September 2022 ko 19:45

Southampton Senior Cup-First Round

HEDGE END RANGERS 1 (Gould 11)

COLDEN COMMON 4 (Nash 19og Course 21 65 Ryan 51)

Att 135

Free Entry

Programme £2

You do see things differently according to your perspective. If you’re a club this looked like an ideal opportunity to get a cup game played, and to show off their new ground. But for a groundhopper this was something altogether different. Continue reading →