Author Archives: laurencereade

The Decider

03 Thursday Jun 2021

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Sunday 30th May 2021 ko 10:30

Upper Thames Valley Sunday League

CHILTON BLUE & WHITES 2 (Carrigan 27 A Stevens 31p)

GREATER LEYS YELLOWS 3 (Smith 10 Ludlow 13p Harvey 90)

Att c50 at Atomic Energy Research Engineering (South) Ground, Chilton, near Harwell

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Some games you attend due to friendship, some you attend to visit a new ground, while others you find yourself watching purely because there’s something riding on the result. Oddly, in the end this one ended up being all three!

The root of it all was Chilton’s win at Tackley United a week earlier which set up a straight shootout with Greater Leys Yellows for the title in the final game of the season. A draw would see Greater Leys take the title, but Chilton would have home advantage. Chilton sent me details of where their ground is and I took it as being the former Harwell International Ground that was featured on the final North Berkshire League Hop. Life wasn’t to be as straightforward as that though! Continue reading →

The Community Umlaut

01 Tuesday Jun 2021

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Saturday 29th May 2021 ko 14:30

Staffordshire County Senior League Division One

CITY OF STOKE 5 (Meek 19 82 Marcisz 25 Sargeant 61 Armstrong 82)

Marcisz sent off 80 (foul & abusive)

HAWKINS SPORTS 2 (Pike 8 57)

Att c25 at North Stafford Sports Club, Whisper Lane, Butterton

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I’ve often opined that I don’t pick my games, most of the time they pick me, and this was the latest in the long list. You may remember that just under two years ago, I battled both appalling weather and traffic to watch a game at Keele University.  At the time I questioned why I was the only hopper there, and subsequently came to the conclusion that the reason I was the only one there with no connection to either side was my own insanity. But there was a silver lining to the evening. Continue reading →

The Unlikely Station

24 Monday May 2021

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Sunday 23rd May 2021 ko 10:30

Upper Thames Valley Sunday League

TACKLEY UNITED 1 (Wynn 38)

CHILTON BLUE & WHITES 5 (Stevens 12 Burton 45 Kerry 56 Ayres 77 Mangan 90)

Stevens missed penalty 41

Att 48

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Back in the day I was working as a financial adviser and one evening I had an appointment in Tackley. It wasn’t a push to get me there, I lived in Banbury and the village is roughly equidistant on the A423 between there and Oxford. I pulled up outside the Village Hall and as I went to my customer saw Tackley FC about to kick off a Witney & District League League game. I didn’t get much out of that appointment but I did make a mental note to visit the ground properly. Continue reading →

Bux Bunny

19 Wednesday May 2021

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Saturday 15th May 2021 ko 14:00

Hope Valley League Premier Division

BUXWORTH 1 (Hyde 62)

TANSLEY JUNIORS 3 (Hill 37 71 81)

Att c50 at Western Lane

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If the Westmorland League is the league for the Lake District then I’d argue the Hope Valley is the league for the High Peak. And if you’re thinking that the idea was to take the pretty football ground with a backdrop I’d tapped into at Sedbergh & Dent FC a week earlier and move it to the Peak District then you’d be absolutely right! Or putting it another way, “All Creatures Great & Small” became “Peak Practice!” Continue reading →

The Town And The Village

14 Friday May 2021

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Tuesday 12th May 2021 ko 18:30

Oxfordshire Senior League Premier Cup Group Stage

BURE PARK 3 (Hallam 47 79 Chappell 83)

LAUNTON SPORTS 3 (Horn 16 30 Clark 52)

Att c65 at Pingle Field, Bicester

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Anyone from Oxfordshire will be more than aware of the expansion of Bicester in the last couple of years. I remember Iain my regular companion on many of my Scottish jaunts booking a hotel in Bicester, and when I visited him I  thought, “This used to be fields a few months ago!” Continue reading →

All Creatures Great And Small

11 Tuesday May 2021

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Saturday 8th May 2021 ko 14:00

Westmorland FA Senior Cup 2nd Round

SEDBERGH & DENT 4 ( Ferguson 7 42 105 Burrow 85)

KESWICK 3 (Bannister 10 Cumber 38 T Thexton 68og)

Att c20 at Church Bridge Playing Field, Dent

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As most of you know I wear a few footballing hats. There’s the groundhopper, the Oxford United season ticket holder, the organiser of groundhops with GroundhopUK, and the committeeman with the North Berkshire League.  I’m bound to say Sedbergh and Dent both suffer from exactly the same problem that we have at the North Berkshire League- and its all because of 1974. Continue reading →

The Alternate

06 Thursday May 2021

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Monday 3rd May 2021 ko 18:00

Thames Valley Premier League: Premier Division

FINCHAMPSTEAD 4 (J Payne 15p Vallance 22 Hunt 73 Day 77)

MARLOW UNITED 1 (Goode 65)

Att c42 at Arborfield Recreation Ground

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I still have some affinity for this part of the world even though its been well over twenty years since I lived in Henley-on-Thames. Back then the modus operandi was driving through Wargrave and Twyford to Winnersh, then via Sindlesham to Arborfield. I suppose I associated Sindlesham with the Nirvana Health Spa that the ex-wife seemed to love going to but objected every time the monthly membership payment left her account! Continue reading →

The Somerset European Superleague

04 Tuesday May 2021

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Saturday 3rd May 2021 ko 15:00

Somerset County League Junior Supplementary Cup Group Stage

HUTTON FC 5 (Dearnley-Bright 44 47 63 Popperwell 78p N Blake 88)

NAILSEA UNITED 0

Att c25 at Springwood Gardens, Hutton, Weston-super-Mare

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With Robyn visiting family in Bristol I’d long since made a mental note to simply head south in search of a game. The route out of the south of Bristol, heading towards Weston-super-Mare will always hold great significance for me. We got married in Blagdon, drank no end of Butcombe beer and Thatchers cider and Lee Hatherall our photographer is based in Weston! Perhaps it was inevitable I’d visit Hutton. Continue reading →

The Bonus

30 Friday Apr 2021

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Tuesday 27th April 2021 ko 18:30

North Berkshire League Division One

GROVE RANGERS 1 (Faircloth 42)

DRAYTON 3 (Harrison 2 Jacks 61 Wilde 82)

Jacks penalty saved 77

Att c30 at Grove Recreation Ground

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Now I know what you’re thinking, didn’t we pay Grove a visit on the 2015 North Berkshire Hop? You’d be right, but we visited them at their original ground at Wasbrough Field. That lies around 200 yards north of their normal home at the Recreation Ground, and the game got moved there because the rugby club didn’t want football fans in their bar. I’d have thought our money was as good as theirs, but I regarded the switch as something as a groundhopper’s bonus and planned to visit the Recreation Ground at later date, but circumstances got in the way. 

Continue reading →

Pass, Move, but Grin?

29 Thursday Apr 2021

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Saturday 24th April 2021 ko 15:00

Central Midlands League Division One South

PASS MOVE GRIN ACADEMY 1 (Adeifeh 84p)

MELBOURNE DYNAMO 0

Jones penalty saved 73

Savage sent off (Foul & Abusive) 84

Goodband sent off (Foul & Abusive) 84

Att c25 at Bulwell Hall Park, Nottingham 

With Robyn and I meeting GroundhopUK’s Chris Berezai for a lunch and a chin-wag it was close to inevitable that we’d end up at a Central Midlands League game, it does pay to be attending the game with the fixture secretary. The issue the league has for next few weeks is which of their clubs’ grounds counts as a public space? Most of the leagues I’ve watched since Lockdown#3 that simply hasn’t an issue. There was absolutely no question though of Bulwell Hall Park in Nottingham being anything other than public land. Continue reading →