Category Archives: B

Easy

27 Thursday Jul 2023

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Saturday 8th July 2023 ko 15:00

Pre-Season Friendly

HOLMER GREEN 0

RISBOROUGH RANGERS 8 (5 22 24 27 32p 38 41p 57)

Att 35 at Kingsbrook School 3G, Bierton

Free Entry

It should have been so easy. From the morning’s game in Leatherhead, a quick blast round the M25 and up the A41 to the outskirts of Aylesbury. Of course I didn’t work out that way, the M25 was a slow dirge, and the humidity made it difficult to stay awake. I made it in one piece, but it was a horrible few miles.

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Metroland

10 Saturday Jun 2023

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Wednesday 26th April 2023 ko 18:30

Oxfordshire Senior League Premier Division

ASHTON FOLLY 5 (Laver 5 24 35 65 Benjamin 68)

Baker sent off (foul & abusive)

HALSE UNITED 0

Att 15 at Brill Sports and Social Club

For a small village on the westernmost tip of Buckinghamshire, the village of Brill seems to punch above its weight. Brill used to have a palace as the centre of the Forest of Bernwood, owned by the crown, so the likes of Henry II, King John, and Henry III all stayed here. Charles I used the palace as a garrison during the English Civil War, which is probably why the place was destroyed during the Commonwealth! Continue reading →

Timing

09 Tuesday May 2023

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Saturday April 2023 ko 14:30

Spartan South Midlands League Division Two

BUCKINGHAM UNITED 3 (King 30p Urquhart 35 68)

RISBOROUGH RANGERS DEVELOPMENT 1 (Martins 30)

Att c15 at Lace Hill

After my adventures in Scotland, I needed something straightforward, as did the car. The clutch had spent the weekend slowly dying, and while the car was booked in to get it replaced, I was still limping it around for short journeys. So a trip to Buckingham was handy and there was a bus service home if the car really let go. But car or no car, or even bus or no bus, there was good reasons for me to be at Lace Hill, serendipity is a wonderful thing! 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 →

Robyn

27 Monday Feb 2023

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Sunday 29th January 2023 ko 15:00

FA Women’s Cup 4th Round

BRISTOL CITY 4 (Hayles 45 Hutton 48 Woolley 73 Syme 83)

OXFORD UNITED 0

Att 449

Entry £8

Teamsheet- Free

After seven years together and three years married, its a little surprising that Robyn and I’s teams Bristol City and Oxford United have only met once, again the women’s teams back in 2016 at Stoke Gifford Stadium. So when the two clubs were drawn again, this time in the FA Women’s Cup it was obvious we’d be making a beeline for the game! Continue reading →

Cheer

06 Monday Feb 2023

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Saturday 24th December 2022 ko 14:00

Central Midlands League Division One North

BESSACARR 3 (Cooper 25 34 Tyers 77)

780 JLC 2 (Teal 7p Allison 88)

Att c65

Free Entry

Programme £2

Badge £2.50

Judging by the amount of groundhoppers at this one a lot of folk had the same conversation I’d had with Chris Garner. It went something like, “Do you fancy a game? Where? Yeah, but where?” 

For the record Bessacarr is a district of Doncaster, its where One Direction singer Louis Tomlinson is from. He of course famously turned out for Doncaster Rovers’s reserves, and while he didn’t actually play there, we did pass by the site of Doncaster Rovers old ground Belle Vue on the way to Cantley Park. 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 →

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!

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A Mixture

19 Wednesday Oct 2022

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Saturday 27th August 2022

11.15 South Wales Alliance Division Two

FAIRWATER 2 (Coles 30 Jefferies 69)

PENYGRAIG UNITED 3 (Tann 13 63 Langford 24)

Att 201

Entry £3

Programme £1

14:00 South Wales Alliance Division Two

CARDIFF COSMOPOLITAN 0

ST ALBANS 0

Att 109

Entry £3

Programme £2

17:00 South Wales Alliance Premier Division

BRIDGEND STREET 1 (Taylor 90+ 4)

CARDIFF CORINTHIANS 1 (Davies 78)

Att 264

Entry £4

Programme £1

Saturday on the Welsh Hop was a little unusual. For a start we normally make Bank Holiday Monday “Cardiff Day” but here we ended up having two days in the capital.  Now while a lot of that was due to the slightly unusual set of circumstances that saw us hopping the South Wales Alliance for a one-off reunion year. Like Tongwynlais the evening before Fairwater were one of the winners of the series of last season’s play-offs of the district leagues’ champions to get into the SWAL. Continue reading →

Cherry

07 Wednesday Sep 2022

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Saturday 23rd July 2022 ko 15:00

Pre-Season Friendly

AFC BOURNEMOUTH 0

BRISTOL CITY 1 (Martin 49p)

Att 4,870

Entry £15

Programme £2 

Teamsheet FREE

As a footballing couple Robyn and I have one small issue that we work with and it’s that she’s roughly 1,900 grounds behind me. We’ve dealt with it by having what gets called “Robyn Revisits” where I take her to what I tend to describe as my “Greatest Hits;” trips to the likes of Chesham United have certainly fallen into that category. But Robyn is also interested in completing her “92” and that will involve a lot of the expense and inconvenience that can come with watching a club in the Premier League and EFL. Continue reading →