Author Archives: laurencereade

Pullman

17 Monday Apr 2023

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Saturday 18th March 2023 ko 11:15

East of Scotland League Division One

DUNBAR UNITED 0

McFarlane sent off 22 (dangerous play)

Walker penalty saved 80

Hare sent off 90 (violent conduct)

COLDSTREAM 1 (Briggs 77)

Att 553

Entry £7

Programme £2

We limped into Saturday both literally and figuratively. Robyn was rather sore after her fall down the stand at Tynecastle and the car’s clutch was clearly on its way out, sticking in the down position when I really didn’t want it to. I headed along the M8 towards Hermiston Gait, and hoped.  Continue reading →

The Right People

11 Tuesday Apr 2023

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Friday 17th March 2023 ko 19:45

East of Scotland League Premier Division

TYNECASTLE 2 (Hamilton 5 77)

Blaney sent off 12 (dangerous play)

SAUCHIE JUNIORS 3 (Hutchison 23 secs Columbine 60 Morgan 67)

Hutchinson sent off 3 (foul & abusive)

Att 448

Entry £8

Programme £2

I was under pressure. I was driving my wife Robyn and Craig Dabbs up to Edinburgh as the GroundhopUK advance party. Our role was to collate the 6 sets of programmes for the weekend’s hop into ticket and programme packs for those who had bought prebooked tickets. For once the M6 behaved, but my clutch wasn’t, and despite a litre of clutch fluid bought from a lad in Halfords, Hamilton who seemed happy to have someone to talk to, the concern was would we get to Meggetland, then get round the grounds? Continue reading →

Evans

05 Wednesday Apr 2023

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Sunday 5th March 2023 ko 14:30

North West Counties League Division One South

STAFFORD TOWN 2 (Simcox 27 57)

ABBEY HEY 1 (Kirkman 90)

Att 489

Entry £6

Programme £1.50

The great mercy of this particular Sunday on the North West Counties Hop is that we didn’t get the chance to get cold, in fact and don’t say this too loudly, the day was actually a relaxing meander through two charming Stafford clubs. Robyn and I even managed to get home at a sensible time after it all- that will never do! Continue reading →

Silkmore

04 Tuesday Apr 2023

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Sunday 5th March 2023 ko 11:45

North West Counties League Division One South

BROCTON 1 (Smith 61)

STOCKPORT GEORGIANS 0

Curbishley sent off 76 (2nd booking)

Att 457

Entry £6

Programme £2

Sunday on the hop dawned, and as a coachload of hoppers kept a Stafford hotel’s staff busy replenishing the bacon at the breakfast bar. I contemplated the day’s football, two Stafford-based teams, or in purely personal terms two revisits! Brocton is a village to the south east of Stafford but the club bearing their game play at the former Staffordshire Police Ground in Silkmore Lane, in Stafford itself. Continue reading →

Pershall

31 Friday Mar 2023

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Saturday 4th March 2023 ko 19:45

North West Counties League Division One South

ECCLESHALL 2 (Pickup 82 Stanton 90)

Lewis sent off 86 (violent conduct)

BARNTON 1 (T Turkington 72)

T Turkington sent 86 (violent conduct)

Att 314

Entry £6

Programme £2

Memory is an oddity- I’d visited Eccleshall back in September 2008 and remembered it being far closer to the Stoke interchange on the M6 than this. Perhaps the difference was we were on our fourth game of the day… and that it was bitingly cold. In fact you’re a good deal closer to Stafford to Stoke, and you will pass by HMP Prison Drake Hall on the way there! Continue reading →

Hulton

29 Wednesday Mar 2023

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Saturday 4th March 2023 ko 16:45

North West Counties League Division One South

ABBEY HULTON UNITED 0

CHEADLE HEATH NOMADS 0

Att 367

Entry £5

Programme £2

As the sun set so the temperature fell. It didn’t take long for us to reach the car park at Birches Head Road from Foley Meir. That was a task made easier by some well thought out traffic marshalling by the Abbey Hulton volunteers . But I was aware the coach was struggling, picking its way along narrow lanes and we were getting concerned we might have to delay kick-off slightly. Craig and I dashed into the ground, expecting to have to make ourselves useful.  We didn’t, the club were completely in control and the coach arrived well before kick-off. Continue reading →

Foley

27 Monday Mar 2023

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Saturday 4th March 2023 ko 13:00

North-West Counties League Division One South

FOLEY MEIR 0 

MAINE ROAD 1 (Keyworth 68)

Livesey (gk) sent off 13 (foul & abusive)

Att 303

Entry £6

Programme £1

For Saturday’s second game we headed to Stoke-on-Trent, for what was, for me at least, the most surprising visit on the hop. I’d visited Whitcombe Road back in 2010 when the club were still just Foley FC for a Staffordshire County League game. The ground was just as basic as it gets, albeit with a wonderful vista of Stoke from behind the near goal. I just couldn’t imagine that the club could get the place fit for pyramid football. I am wrong on occasion…. just ask my wife Robyn! Continue reading →

Gilbert

23 Thursday Mar 2023

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Saturday 4th March 2023 ko 11:00

North West Counties League Division One South

ROCESTER 0

SANDBACH UNITED 4 (Tatters 22 Fitzpatrick 44 Cope 48 Barton 85)

Att 356

Entry £6

Programme £1

I should start by answering the two most frequent questions asked about Rocester; it’s near Uttoxeter and its pronounced Roaster! We set off from Stafford knowing that we had 4 completely different grounds to visit. On a personal note, I knew 3 of them, and I fully expected Rocester’s to be my highlight, at least on architectural grounds. Continue reading →

Borders

22 Wednesday Mar 2023

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Friday 3rd March 2023 ko 19:45

North-West Counties League- Division One South

ELLESMERE RANGERS 2 (Harris 62 Rogers 79)

ALSAGER TOWN 1 (Bebbington 34)

Att 272

Entry £5

Programme £1

It would be so easy to paint this as Robyn and I’s return to GroundhopUK duty, but in reality we hadn’t stopped, even after the final games in the SCEFL Hop. Robyn gradually took over social media duties, and you really couldn’t have failed to see her efforts on the @NWCLHop2023 account. That really helped us both to tease the hop, but also to update people too. Continue reading →

Gifford

21 Tuesday Mar 2023

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Tuesday 28th February 2023 ko 19:45

Gloucestershire County League

STOKE GIFFORD UNITED 7 (McInevery 34 43 72 Weaver 38 72 90 Barry 45)

HARDWICKE 0

Att 39

Entry FREE

Programme £1

It does pay to keep an eye on the Gloucestershire County League. I tend to see it as a quasi-Step 6 league, the mandatory programme rule, and the reasonably stringent ground gradings to make for an experience unlike most at the level. It was though, an odd evening to be in Bristol.

On one hand Bristol City were at home to Manchester City that night in the FA Cup, but that only meant that the southern half of the city would be having cup fever. Stoke Gifford is in the northern suburbs, and well and truly in Bristol Rovers territory, so I expected and got studied indifference to the goings on at Ashton Gate. Continue reading →