28 Saturday Mar 2015
Sunday 22nd March 2015 ko 12.00
Lowland League
DALBEATTIE STAR 2 (Steele 2 Sloan 77p)
EDINBURH CITY 1 (Gair 45)
Att 400
Entry £5
Programme £2
I sat at breakfast at the hop HQ watching 100 or so hoppers have their buffet meal. The previous morning, the staff had been rather surprised by two coachloads descending on the restaurant all at once, but today there was an extra staff member and the queue moved efficiently. It proved to be a good analogy for the two clubs we visited.
24 Wednesday Sep 2014
Posted in D
Tags
and, Ardington & Lockinge, CROWMARSH GIFFORD, Dorchester, Dorchester-on-Thames, Drayton Road, J Nicholls, Mike Stimpson, nbfl, North Berkshire hop, North Berkshire League
Saturday 20th September 2014 ko 13.00
North Berkshire League Division One
DORCHESTER 3 (J Nicholls 6 J Fleet 6 Patterson 16)
ARDINGTON & LOCKINGE 0 Fairclough sent off 73 (dangerous play)
Att 204
Entry & Programme £4
Badge £3
Food: Meat or veggie pasta
Beer: Rebellion Brewery
It was only a 4 mile journey from Crowmarsh Gifford to Dorchester-on-Thames, and for some of the trip I followed the reverse of the signs put up by Crowmarsh to guide people in to their game. I’d relaxed a little, we’d just set the second highest ever attendance for the North Berkshire Hop, and the hop’s history shows an event where few go to one game then disappear elsewhere. We’d also seen the event being backed by local people as we’d planned, and I had confidence that Dorchester had taken steps to ensure that too. Continue reading
05 Tuesday Aug 2014
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Tags
Ben Lewis, Daniel Leggett, Deeping Rangers, GroundhopUK, Harborough Town, Peterborough, Peterborough & District League, Rob Hornby, UCL, United Counties League
Friday 1st August 2014 ko 19.45
United Counties League Premier Division
DEEPING RANGERS 3 (Lewis 38 Oliver 78 Flack 85) Lewis sent off 43 (dangerous play)
HARBOROUGH TOWN 0
Att 307
Entry £6
Programme £1
Badge £3
So back on GroundhopUK duty and the fruition of something that started with a tweet from league official Daniel Leggett to Notts hop organiser Rob Hornby. That found me visiting Peterborough Sports to meet Daniel, only to find most of the committee there wanting a chat, and things moved fairly quickly from there. The next move was a first for us, involving a new league, the Peterborough & District League, a feeder to the UCL. We’d visited other league’s clubs where geographically convenient, Penybont and Radnor Valley for example on the Mid-Wales hops but a dual hop would be something new for us to plan. Continue reading
23 Friday May 2014
Posted in D
Tags
1912 Olympics, AIK, Division 4 Mellersta Stockholm, Djurgårdens, Olympic Stadium, Stadion, Stockholms, Stockholms Stadion, Sundsvall, Tele-2
Sunday 5th October 2008 ko 15.00
Allsvenskan
DJURGÅRDENS I.F. 3 (Komac 20 Rajalakso 43 Quirino 90)
G.I.F. SUNDSVALL 1 (Patricksson 85)
Att 5,012 at Stockholms Stadion
Entry Comp
Programme FREE
Pennant 69 sek (approx. £6.90)
Badge FREE (“Because you are a guest”)
There aren’t many hard and fast rules in groundhopping, but the unpopularity of football grounds with running tracks is more or less universal. However, every rule should have an exception, and the Stockholms Stadion is definitely one. It was built from 1910-1912 for Stockholm’s hosting of the Olympic games in 1912, and was the first Olympic Stadium in the modern era to be permanent, architect Torben Grut actually changing the design away from a temporary wooden structure during construction. Even now the stadium seems unaltered by time, the floodlights are anchored outside of the stadium’s fabric, the 1990 facelift freshening up the place without altering its innate nature. Continue reading
27 Thursday Mar 2014
Posted in D
Tags
Bury St Edmunds, Debenham, Eastern Counties League, Garce, L C, Leisure Centre, Maitlands Football Ground, Team Bury, Thompson
Wednesday 26th March 2014 ko 19.45
Eastern Counties League Division One
DEBENHAM LEISURE CENTRE 0
TEAM BURY 1 (Thompson 72)
Att 63
Entry £5
Programme 50p
Raffle £1
Tea £1
Burger £1.50
I suppose the first point to make is that this Suffolk village near Bury St Edmunds has absolutely nothing to be with the department store of the same name! Apparently the pronunciation is different, the village sounds more like Dee- ben- am, but that could be local inflection! The village takes its name from the River Deben who runs through the village in what is claimed to be Britain’s third longest ford, eventually reaching its estuary at Felixstowe Ferry with two Martello Towers marking the mouth.
03 Monday Mar 2014
Posted in D
Tags
Brinkburn Road, Darlington Railway Athletic, groundhop, Harvey Harris, Mike Amos, Northern League, Thornaby, Woodhouse
Saturday 1st March 2014 ko 18.30
Northern League Division Two
DARLINGTON RAILWAY ATHLETIC 2 (Allison 33 84)
THORNABY 3 (Bythway 10 Melvin 22 Woodhouse 82)
Att 195
Entry £4
Programme £1
Badge £3
Teamsheet 20p
So journey’s end for the 3rd of the 4 Northern League hops, and for me at least the first revisit of the 3 events! I’d paid Brinkburn Road a visit in 2006 on a Friday night for a FA Vase game against, yes, Thornaby! Continue reading
01 Friday Nov 2013
Posted in D
Tags
Barney Martin, Cain McCormack, Didcot Town, Duran Martin, FA Youth Cup, Josh Ashby, Kieran Beesley, Matthew Woodley, McCormack, oxford united., Southend United
Wednesday 30th October 2013 ko 19.45
FA Youth Cup 1st Round
DIDCOT TOWN 0
OXFORD UNITED 3 (Ashby 26 56p McCormack 67)
Att 291
Entry £4
No Programme
Team Sheet FREE
Regular readers of these articles will be aware that the Loop Meadow Stadium is one of my semi-regular haunts. There are no lack of local clubs I could frequent, but Didcot are a friendly bunch, and they seem to be a club that stages a game well. The game was intriguing too, with the club’s respective youth teams facing off for the right to play the winners of Maidstone vs Southend United.
What I hadn’t expected was the size of the crowd, or the demographic of them. Continue reading
04 Wednesday Sep 2013
Posted in D
Tags
Andy sneddon, black dragon, Denbigh, Evan Pierce, Kristian Pierce, Mike Lundstram, sicilian marble, team line ups, Town, wars of the roses, Welsh Alliance, Welsh Groundhop
Monday 26th August 2013 ko 11.15
Welsh Alliance Division One
DENBIGH TOWN 4 (Lundstram 27 Pierce 30 72p 75)
BARMOUTH & DYFFRYN UNITED 0
Att 285
Entry £4
Programme £1
Badge £3
Back in Chester as I woke I carried out a mental inventory of how I was feeling. Legs – sore, feet – swollen, and face- sunburnt! In truth I was pleased this was the last day of the hop, there is a limit on how much football you can watch, both physically and mentally. Over breakfast, notably quieter compared to the other days, I pondered the very first Northern Counties East hop when we’d planned a 14-game 5 day hop over Easter. We’d received many emails telling us it would be too much, Continue reading
11 Sunday Aug 2013
Posted in D
Tags
Aiden Hawtin, Didcot, Didcot Town, Dylan McGlade, oxford united., Scott Davies, Town, tyrone marsh
Wednesday 7th August 2013 ko 19.30
Pre-Season Friendly
DIDCOT TOWN 0
OXFORD UNITED 3 (Marsh 13 71 McGlade 27)
Att c150
Entry £6
No Programme
I like visits to Didcot Town’s Loop Meadow Stadium, as unlike at least one club local to me the welcome is always fulsome, and the they work at the little things that add up to great customer service.
This game proved the point well. The press area required the line-ups, so the club knocked up a team sheet at zero notice. It wasn’t pretty, but it did the job and was much appreciated.
It did seem odd recording this as a Continue reading
26 Friday Jul 2013
Posted in D
Tags
Catford, Football, Friendly, Guildford City, Jerome Walker, Mishi Morath. Dulwich Hamlet, Rutland Walk, Ryan Blake
Wednesday 24yh July 2013 ko 19.00
Pre-Season Friendly
DULWICH HAMLET 1 (Walker 33)
GUILDFORD CITY 1 (Blake 41)
Att 22 at Rutland Walk Sportsfield, Catford
Entry FREE
Programme No
One of the downsides of the “Do everywhere but once,” culture is that you don’t get to spend nearly enough time with the stalwarts who both run, and are devoted to a particular club. There’s Splodge at Fareham, who these days dreads my presence at his club’s games, http://wp.me/s1PehW-banned but another is Continue reading
Football: Wherever it may be 