Category Archives: B

Ambivalence

06 Wednesday Dec 2017

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Wednesday 29th November 2017 ko 19.45

United Counties League Division One

BUCKINGHAM TOWN 3 (Osei-Addo 26p Wreh 67 79)

POTTON UNITED 2 (Murrell 38 Webb 74)

Att 77

Entry £4

Programme £1

It’s been over 4 years since Buckingham Town moved into the Irish Centre in Bletchley and over 6 since they were evicted from their spiritual home, Ford Meadow back in Buckingham a rather distant 14 miles away. My reader might remember my surprise when I visited here 2 years ago at just how much the place had been improved since the club had taken on the pitch following the demise of Bletchley Town. Home in Buckingham Town’s case though, isn’t necessarily where the heart is. Continue reading →

Learnings

26 Sunday Nov 2017

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Friday 10th November 2017 ko 19.45

Essex Senior League

BARKINGSIDE 2 (Toke 45 Ogborn 75)

CLAPTON 3 (Coblah 40 Reed 48 87)

Att 275

Entry & Programme £5

I’d first heard the Essex Senior League were looking at hosting a “Groundhoppers Event” a month or two ago on Peter Dudley’s excellent “Grassroots Footy Show” on East London Radio. There, league secretary Michelle Dorling outlined the idea, and made it clear that the idea needed fleshing out before they could commit to it fully. Very much with my GroundhopUK hat on I wondered how we could help. Continue reading →

White Line Fever

17 Friday Nov 2017

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Monday 23rd October 2017 ko 19.45

Southern League- Eastern Division

BEACONSFIELD TOWN 0

AYLESBURY 3 (Scott 52 66 Deacon 80)

Att 91

Entry £8

Programme £2

I suspect many see Beaconsfield’s Holloways Park as the ground next door to the M40 Service Station, you can see the lit gibbet from behind the goal. A less well-known fact is that the original plans for the M40 saw the service placed between the Wycombe and Loudwater junctions, you can see the truncated slip roads on either side of the carriageway. But one way or another the motorway has been good for the club. Continue reading →

Qualities

08 Wednesday Nov 2017

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Sunday 8th October 2017 ko 14.15

Western League Division One

BISHOPS LYDEARD 2 (James Quick 39 Hebditch 45) James Quick missed pen 51

CHEDDAR AFC 4 (Coomes 9 Jones 67 Bennett 75)

Att 264

Entry & Programme £6

The Western hop’s final destination for 2017 was easily the most anticipated of the weekend. There was nothing too involved about the reason why, it was because Bishops Lydeard are new to the league joining last season, and that Cothelstone Road has seen massive improvements to allow the club that  promotion. That meant that a large strand of the groundhopping hobby would suddenly have the club on their radar for a visit and that was reflected with the second-highest attendance of the event, and easily the highest number of hoppers. The question was how would Lydeard cope with the large crowd?

Continue reading →

Cater Bank

20 Friday Oct 2017

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Tueaday 26th September 2017 ko 19.45

Combined Counties League Premier Challenge Cup 1st Round

CB HOUNSLOW UNITED 5 (Roberts 30 44 Ireland 55 Morris 71 G Bamford 82) J Watt missed pen 82

EVERSLEY & CALIFORNIA 2 (Robson 28 Brown 43)

Att c65

Entry £5

Programme £1

Around 10 years ago one of my earliest forays into the Combined Counties League saw me visit CB Hounslow’s former home at Osterley Sports & Social Club. It was an interesting place, if extremely run down and the lack of basic facilties made it obvious that the club would either have to move, or accept relegation back to the Middlesex County League. My only surprise is that the move took 10 years! Continue reading →

Brecknock

24 Sunday Sep 2017

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Sunday 27th August 2017 ko 18.00

South Wales Alliance Premier Division

BRECON CORINTHIANS 2 (Bain 54 C Jones 83)

PONTLOTTYN AFC 0

Att 236

Entry £3

Programme £1

We headed north from Cwmbach heading past the site of the Tower Colliery in Hirwaun. It was quite a poignant moment as one of our coach drivers Nigel, was and is a shareholder in the workers’ buyout that saw the mine re-open in 1995 and continue work until 2008, and even now the site is being used for open-cast mining.

From there, we left the valleys crossing the Brecon Beacons National Park, and to my way of thinking at least, we left South Wales, entering Mid-Wales in the process.  Continue reading →

Rubber Sheet Geometry

31 Thursday Aug 2017

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Friday 18th August 2017 ko 19.45

Wessex League Cup 2nd Round

BEMERTON HEATH HARLEQUINS 0

HAMBLE CLUB 4 (Magookin 2 S Wilson 6 Byrne 14 Lynch 47)

Att 71

Entry £6

No Programme

I remember as an 11 year old my maths teacher introducing the concept of rubber sheet geometry. Topology to use its correct term is the idea that by distorting distance or shape you may simplify its depiction. The London Underground map is a classic example, but groundhoppers do tend to use their own version, and this game rather proved the point. Continue reading →

Old School

23 Wednesday Aug 2017

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Tuesday 15th August 2017 ko 19.45

Championship

BRENTFORD 2 (Watkins 56 Maupay 77)

BRISTOL CITY 2 (Brownhill 5 Reid 90)

Att 9,811 (1,650 away)

Entry £24

Programme £3.50

There aren’t many grounds like this left. Grounds tucked away in amongst the houses in the communities they represent with only the floodlights to beckon you in from afield. Grounds built to tessellate with the footprint of the land available, and grounds that positively ooze with history and tradition. Continue reading →

The Itch

18 Friday Aug 2017

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Thursday 3rd August 2017 ko 18.45

Pre-season friendly

FC ASCOT 9 (6 12 16 29 34 41 50 60 72)

BRIZE NORTON 2 (80 82)

Att c10 at Tanners Lane, Burford

To be a groundhopper you do need a large dose of OCD, and I’ll leave you to judge whether that’s in any way healthy. Some worry about what counts as a suitable game, some as to whether there’s a programme and one or two obsess about whether a goal is scored, they can’t count the ground as visited if it finishes nil-nil! ( I know….) But my little bit of OCD is different…… Continue reading →

The Power of 3000

07 Monday Aug 2017

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Saturday 29th July 2017 ko 19.45

United Counties League Division One

BOURNE TOWN 1 (Russell 90p)

RAUNDS TOWN 2 (Porter 36 Townsend 81)

Att 459

Entry £5

Programme £2 (poor for what it was)

I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating how much Chris Berezai and I love it when there’s someone there to meet the hop coach, it takes any uncertainty out what adds up to GroundhopUK handing over a coachload of hoppers to another club for another couple of hours, even if a fair few immediately disappear to tick off a pub or pubs! Here Bourne did the greeting in spades with an official there to welcome each and everyone to Abbey Lawns before whisking Chris, coach driver Dwayne and I off to hospitality. But this wasn’t an evening about hospitality, this was an evening about redemption. Continue reading →