Category Archives: E

The Cricket

29 Sunday Mar 2015

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Tuesday 24th March 2015 ko 19.30

Combined Counties League Division One

EVERSLEY & CALIFORNIA 0

CHESSINGTON & HOOK UNITED 3 (McLaughlin 11 54 Bowles 68og)

Att 23

Entry & Programme £5

After the exertions of the Lowland League Hop I wanted something reasonably local and after 1700 or so grounds the Hampshire side of the border with Berkshire is just about as good as it gets for a floodlit tick these days!

It’s fair to say Eversley is an extremely affluent area, with the Prep schools dotted around the executive houses and the forests, Will Carling lives in this area, reckoned to be the least deprived area in the UK. Of course as is usually the case none of that helps the local football team. Continue reading →

The Game Changer

23 Monday Mar 2015

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Friday 20th March 2015 ko 19.45

Lowland League

EAST KILBRIDE 1 (McLeish 64)

WHITEHILL WELFARE 0

Att 491

Entry £5

Programme £2

Badge £3

In 1992 the Northern League’s Mike Amos invented the organised groundhop, a series of staggered kick-offs with transport between the fixtures. Phil Hiscox took the concept to the South-West and GroundhopUK’s Chris Berezai to Wales, but Scotland had never seen a groundhop. That wasn’t through lack of trying, we at GroundhopUK tried for the Highland League who told us variously that they didn’t need any extra crowds, and that we’ve never bring them, “More than 30 hoppers.” A region of the Juniors even told us we could hold a hop in their leagues but all the games would have to kick-off at 2.30 on a Saturday….

To be honest, we’d given up and when hoppers mentioned the idea we’d trot out one of the stories and shrug our shoulders. A shame, but that was life.

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The Town That Didn’t Stare

26 Wednesday Nov 2014

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Tuesday 25th November 2014 ko 19.30

Isthmian League Cup 2nd Round

EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN 2 (Campbell 3 Joseph 37)

PEACEHAVEN & TELSCOMBE 1 (Gatting 62)

Att 59

Entry £8

No Programme

Tea £1

It would be all too easy to treat East Grinstead as part of that sprawl of London commuter-belt south of the M25. Are you in Surrey, or are you in Sussex (the latter!) the endless affluent suburbia making the county irrelevant. But this is one of those towns where you need to park your prejudices and look at little deeper. Continue reading →

Another Octave

24 Monday Nov 2014

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Sunday 23rd November 2014 ko 15.00

Women’s International Friendly

ENGLAND 0

GERMANY 3 (A Scott 6og Sasic 12 45)

Att 45,619 at Wembley Stadium

Entry- Complimentary

Programme £5

It’s a fact of my footballing life that I don’t watch nearly enough women’s football. My cause in that respect was aided when a league I work with offered two Club Wembley seats, and I pondered how to get to the national stadium with the Jubilee, and Metropolitan tube lines closed for planned engineering work.

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Synchrotron

11 Monday Aug 2014

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Tuesday 5th August 2014 ko 18.45

Pre-Season Friendly

EAST HENDRED 3 (Sutton 24 Riccio 65 Hummel 84)

GROVE RANGERS 1 (Vaux 51p)

Att 22 at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory pitch, Chilton

Entry FREE

No Programme

If you’re travelling along the A34 north of Wantage and south of what’s left of Didcot Power Station you’ll see quite an edifice. When it was built in 2007 I saw it and wondered if Wantage Town were making an unannounced tilt for the Premier League! It’s the Diamond Light Source, a scientific facility attached to the Harwell International facility, and no I wasn’t visiting the ground used by now defunct North Berks League outfit Harwell International.

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It’s a Gas Gas Gas

01 Tuesday Jul 2014

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Saturday 28th June 2014 ko 15.00

Pre-Season Friendly

EPSOM ATHLETIC 3 (W Cathcart 29 74 Mollatt 76)

KNAPHILL 0

Att 31 at N.E.S.C.O.T. Reigate Road, Epsom

Entry FREE

No Programme

I suppose the first question is what is NESCOT? It’s the North East Surrey College of Technology, not that I saw too much of it, the pitch was the other side of the car park from the college buildings so the only thing I learned was that if you fancy becoming a gas fitter, you’re in the right place! I do like these friendlies where the home team is in a groundshare, Athletic share at Chessington & Hook’s Chalky Lane ground, but this isn’t a case of the club simply playing at their home, more a case of simply hiring a pitch. Continue reading →

Mackin’s Folly

26 Monday May 2014

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Saturday 24th May 2014

Firs Park, Falkirk. Former home of East Stirlingshire FC

This is very much the “After,”  of my 2006 visit to the, The Shire. If you haven’t read the “Before,” bit here’s the the link to that article. What follows doesn’t make much sense without it.

Not that, in all honesty, much makes sense about East Stirlingshire. The club left here in 2008, the two stands were demolished in 2012, and despite this being in a less than salubrious part of Falkirk, a massive retail park next door should have meant the ground should be either flats or a parade of shops by now. Continue reading →

Foam

18 Sunday May 2014

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Saturday 5th August 2006 ko 15.00

Scottish League Division 3

EAST STIRLINGSHIRE 2 (Dymock 75 Tweedie 78)

ELGIN CITY 1 (Mackay 6) Nelson sent off 41 (dangerous play)

Att 227

At Firs Park, Falkirk

Entry £9

Programme £1

With my football watching winding down for summer, I thought I’d use the time to cover some of the places I’ve visited before I started the blog. There are plenty I could write about, so I’m going to filter these quite carefully down to grounds you can’t see anymore, or those you really should visit. You could say this is my “Greatest Hits” tour!!

If you know me well, you’ll be well aware I need no excuse to go and find a game, however back in the dim and distant past this flight of fancy took me on one of the longest drives I’d ever attempted, Banbury to Falkirk and back in a day! Continue reading →

The Ex’s

09 Friday May 2014

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Monday 5th May 2014 ko 11.00

South West Peninsula League Division One East

EXWICK VILLA 3 (Harris 23 Taylor 69 Chalke 71)

EXETER UNIVERSITY 5 (Bouwers 29 Hale 39 Blenkinsop 45 Jones 89 Yates 90)

Att 51

Entry & Programme £3.50

Badge £2

Tea 70p

For such a popular league with groundhoppers, League Secretary Phil Hiscox did ask me to stop telling people what a top bloke he is. “Tell ’em I’m a miserable so-and-so,” he said, whilst gaining the line-ups for the gaggle of hoppers that made up the vast majority of the attendance. Phil, my friend I think you rather were foisted by your own petard there! And you and I both know how popular the Easter Hop will be in 2016. Still while Phil was helping me out with the line-ups it did allow me to explore a little. Continue reading →

Dereliction

26 Sunday Jan 2014

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Monday 20th January 2014

Empire Stadium, Gżira

Monday morning saw us swap the north-east of Malta for Sliema just over the bay from the capital Valletta. It was altogether more urbane than the zoo-like hotel with the nervous pensioners we’d left behind.

The real bonus was the views over the bay of Valletta, and the proximity of so much of interest to visit, but our first destination was a site that has been derelict for over 30 years, and it was just a few stops on the bus along the bay. Continue reading →