Category Archives: E

The Conundrum

22 Monday Sep 2025

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Tuesday 15th July ko 19:15

James Chisnell Memorial Cup

EAST THURROCK COMMUNITY 0

GRAYS ATHLETIC 4 (Fitzer 22 Bantick 32 Lukaku 42p Shelvey 51)

Att 130 at Wyldecrest Sports Country Club, Corringham

Free Entry

On the face of it East Thurrock United always were a little unusual. They never actually played in Thurrock, rather in Corringham around 6 miles east, with the name apparently being because the Corringham name had already been taken! I, like no end of groundhoppers saw them at their final ground, Rookery Hill, but they folded in 2023 with owner Alfie Best blaming the club’s demise on “Historic Debt”

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Priorities

29 Wednesday Jan 2025

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Saturday 11th January 2025 ko 15:00

FA Cup 3rd Round

EXETER CITY 3 (Mitchell 22 40 Harper 63)

OXFORD UNITED 1 (Phillips 13)

Goodrham sent off 81 (violent conduct)

Att 6,149 (640 away)

Entry (Lounge Hospitality/ 2 course meal) £55

Programme £1 (included in hospitality)

No matter who you support, if you’ve made it to the FA Cup 3rd round you look for a good draw don’t you? If you’re a Championship or Premier League club you look for a lower league club at home, and hopefully a straightforward route to the fourth round. If you’re from the leagues that have had to win games to get here, then you want a glamour, money-spinning tie. I’d argue that League 1 Exeter City versus Championship Oxford United added up to neither.. unless you were Robyn and I.

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Smooth Hoperator

30 Monday Dec 2024

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Sunday 27th October 2024 ko 14:30

Southern Combination Division One

EAST PRESTON 1 (Kaffo 18)

Green penalty saved 31

Hastings sent off 65 (DOGSO)

GOLDALMING TOWN 2 (S Ndiulor 5 Edwin 59)

Att 231

Entry £6.50

Programme £2

I’d had to look up my previous visit to the Lashmar, 2007 for those interested, and my abiding memory of the place was that the footprint of the area pitchside wasn’t big so I wondered how East Preston might make best use of it with a big crowd expected. I’d seen their plans, but expectation and delivery can be two completely different things, can’t they?

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Holloway

12 Monday Aug 2024

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Saturday 6th July 2024 ko 12:00

Pre-season friendly

ASCOT UNITED 2 (15, 34)

FLEET TOWN 3 (9, 21, 84)

Att c30 at 3G pitch, Royal Holloway College Sports Centre, Egham

Free Entry

I must admit, pre-season friendlies for me are little more than an excuse to get back on the road after the close season. With that in mind I try to make a virtue of them, such as seeking out games where the club plays at home when normally groundsharing or in this case playing at a completely 3rd party ground!

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Alcantara & Last

29 Wednesday May 2024

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Saturday 30th March 2024 ko 15:00

South West Peninsula League Premier East

ELBURTON VILLA 1 (Alcantara 56p)

Alcantara sent off 90+10 (violent conduct)

BOVEY TRACEY 2 (Haynes 12 29)

Thomas sent off (DOGSO) 56

Last sent off 90+10 (violent conduct)

Att 311

Entry £6

Programme £2

From Liskeard the cavalcade headed more or less due east, and over the Tamar to Plymouth and its environs. Elburton sits on the south-eastern edge of the conurbation, subsumed into Plymstock but the football club maintains the village’s identity.

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Leggatts

26 Tuesday Mar 2024

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Tuesday 12th March 2024 ko 19:45

Hertfordshire Senior County League- Premier Division

EVERETT ROVERS 2 (Kerley 52 60)

BELSTONE 9 (Akinbulumo 3 Costin 23 Swain 26 Blunden 36 45 87 Marley Wilson-Braithwaite 39 Campbell 45 Bernhauser 79)

Att 48

Entry & Programme £3

These days I’m not used to being able to visit a new ground under lights on a work night and be able to drive there in less than an hour from Oxford. So how come Leggatt’s Playing Field sailed under my, and other groundhoppers’ radars?

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Ex

19 Tuesday Mar 2024

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Sunday 3rd March 2024 ko 11:45

North West Counties League Division One North

EUXTON VILLA 3 (Singleton 24 63 Briggs 37)

DARWEN 0

Att 618

Entry £5

Programme £2

Sunday dawned in Blackpool and I had two reasons to marvel. The first was the Savoy Hotel’s ability to shift legions of the various coach parties staying there through a buffet breakfast, whilst maintaining the piles of bacon, sausages and so on. The second was relevant only to the GroundhopUK party- we still had two matches to watch.

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The Lasses

22 Monday Jan 2024

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Sunday 14th January 2024 ko 13:00

FA Women’s Cup 4th Round

SUNDERLAND AFC WOMEN 0

SOUTHAMPTON FC WOMEN 2 (Wilkinson 55 88)

Att 300 at Eppleton Colliery Welfare, Hetton-le-Hole

Entry £10

Once Robyn and I had decided that the trip to watch Carlisle United was going to be 3-day affair, then I knew we’d have no end of alternatives for a game on the Sunday. There was of course the inevitable bending of “It’s on the way home” but I imagine that by now you’ve come to expect that? I mean of course Hetton-le-Hole is en route from Carlisle to Oxford, isn’t it? Just the A69 to negotiate…..

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Leveller

18 Friday Aug 2023

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Saturday 29th July 2023 ko 20:00

United Counties League Premier Division North

EASTWOOD COMMUNITY 0

MELTON TOWN 2 (Mills 9 Palmer 71)

Att 468

Entry £7

Programme £2

For me at least the principle attraction to another visit to Coronation Park, was for the metaphorical “Before and after shots.” For those unaware the original Eastwood Town played in the Northern Premier League at Coronation Park but folded due to bankruptcy in 2014.

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Pershall

31 Friday Mar 2023

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Saturday 4th March 2023 ko 19:45

North West Counties League Division One South

ECCLESHALL 2 (Pickup 82 Stanton 90)

Lewis sent off 86 (violent conduct)

BARNTON 1 (T Turkington 72)

T Turkington sent 86 (violent conduct)

Att 314

Entry £6

Programme £2

Memory is an oddity- I’d visited Eccleshall back in September 2008 and remembered it being far closer to the Stoke interchange on the M6 than this. Perhaps the difference was we were on our fourth game of the day… and that it was bitingly cold. In fact you’re a good deal closer to Stafford to Stoke, and you will pass by HMP Prison Drake Hall on the way there! Continue reading →