Author Archives: laurencereade

Saxon

17 Tuesday Jan 2023

Posted by in H

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Saturday 26th November 2022 ko 15:00

Isthmian League Premier Division

HASTINGS UNITED 3 (Pope 9 McKenzie 13 Scott 72)

CORINTHIAN-CASUALS 0

Att 652

Entry £12

Programme £2.50

There are football grounds that do what they need to, there are some that I’d recommend you visit, but the list of football grounds I recommend you drop everything and go and see is extremely small, but top of that list is the Pilot Field. And a small part of the reason why, is that is in a fashion you get another ground thrown in too! Continue reading →

Wye

12 Thursday Jan 2023

Posted by in H

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Tuesday 22nd November 2022 ko 19:45

Herefordshire Senior Challenge Cup 2nd Round

HINTON 2 (Nicholls 24 Burley 63og)

WELLINGTON RANGERS 4 (Andrews 6 Mann 28 Woodcock 42 Nunn 45)

Mann missed penalty 45

Att c30

Free Entry

Any hopper might find it useful to look out for this competition on Full Time. The Herefordshire League’s comparative isolation is also its strength and there are clubs with excellent facilities playing at Step 7 when if they were a little more centrally placed you wonder if they’d be playing higher up the pyramid. Travelling costs for the likes of the Hellenic League must be substantial here. Continue reading →

Blue

10 Tuesday Jan 2023

Posted by in C

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Tuesday 15th November 2022 ko 19:45

National League South

CHIPPENHAM TOWN 0

HAVANT & WATERLOOVILLE 3 (Faal 12 Roberts 22 28p)

Att 503

Entry £14

Programme £3

It is a fact of life that in your 50’s you tend to go to more funerals than weddings. I find saying goodbye to someone who’s led a long and happy life a bearable, and sometimes cathartic process, but when it involves a life cut short well, that’s a different matter entirely. Robyn and I had spent the day attending such a funeral in Bristol and we ended up in Chippenham in no small part wanting to clear our minds of the day’s sorrow. Continue reading →

Spiegerhalter

05 Thursday Jan 2023

Posted by in S

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tuesday 8th November 2022 ko 19:45

London Senior Trophy 1st Round

WIMBLEDON CASUALS 6 (Wren 10 Marshall 55 90 Lane 61 67 Parsons 90)

SPORTING BENGAL UNITED 0

Att c20 at Stepney Green Asto

Free Entry

Sometimes you stumble across a game that seems so far removed from your normal experience that you simply feel compelled to give it a go. For one thing having only a shade over two hours to get from Oxford to East London after work made driving out of the question and that was without thinking about Congestion charges, ULEZ charges and the like. I knew of the ground, some British Somali Champions League games get played there, but the time and location I thought would make me arriving there in time impossible, but then I had a brainwave. Continue reading →

Deer

03 Tuesday Jan 2023

Posted by in F

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Saturday 5th November 2022 ko 14:00

North Berkshire League Division One

FRILSHAM & YATTENDON 1 (Johnson 61)

STEVENTON 4 (D Burgess 27 33 McKenzie 80 Craft 90)

Att c10

Free Entry

Over the years since the last North Berkshire Hop I’ve made the effort to visit the clubs that for one reason or another the event didn’t get to visit. There was Cholsey whose ground wasn’t in use, and Grove, on their normal ground, but the game proved to be their last. With Frilsham & Yattendon, the reason for the hop not visiting, was that they weren’t in the league. That’s a source of regret to me, as what a wonderful ground it is.  Continue reading →

Crabtree

22 Thursday Dec 2022

Posted by in W

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Tuesday 25th October 2022 ko 19:45

Sussex R.U.R. Cup First Round

WICK 0

BROADBRIDGE HEATH 5 (Croal 27 59 Parminter 47 Carvalho 88 Barbary 90)

Att c50

Entry £8

Programme £2

It’s in the makeup of any groundhopper to collect. For some it’s programmes, badges and the like. Others like completing leagues, but I like completing clubs with something in common. Here I found myself thinking back to Wick Academy, Hackney Wick, Eton Wick and the other Wick FC who hail from Bristol’s suburbs. Oddly enough given Bristol is Robyn’s home town, the only Wick that’s now left for me to visit is the Gloucestershire County League outfit! Continue reading →

Stag

19 Monday Dec 2022

Posted by in W

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

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

Posted by in T

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

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

Posted by in E

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

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

Posted by in R, T

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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 →