Category Archives: F

Featherly Hills

18 Thursday May 2023

Posted by in F, W

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

Saturday 1st April 2023 ko 15:00

Northern Counties East League- Division One

WAKEFIELD AFC 3 (Morrison 14 45p Mole 62)

ROSSINGTON MAIN 3 (Wilson 22 Kianga 43 Harrison 90)

Att 408

Entry £5 (but pay what you like for this game)

Programme £2

I’d very nearly left it too late; this iteration of football for Wakefield had announced they were leaving Featherstone Rovers RLFC’s Post Office Road, to “return” to Belle Vue, home to Wakefield Trinity RLFC. In footballing terms, they hadn’t been around for long, being formed in 2019 initially playing at the Dorothy Hyman Stadium, in Barnsley. They moved to Post Office Road for the start of the 20/21 season, but this was to be their final game in Featherstone, so Robyn and I made a beeline for it while we still could. But the history of Wakefield and the round ball goes back a lot further than 2019. Continue reading →

Foley

27 Monday Mar 2023

Posted by in F

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Saturday 4th March 2023 ko 13:00

North-West Counties League Division One South

FOLEY MEIR 0 

MAINE ROAD 1 (Keyworth 68)

Livesey (gk) sent off 13 (foul & abusive)

Att 303

Entry £6

Programme £1

For Saturday’s second game we headed to Stoke-on-Trent, for what was, for me at least, the most surprising visit on the hop. I’d visited Whitcombe Road back in 2010 when the club were still just Foley FC for a Staffordshire County League game. The ground was just as basic as it gets, albeit with a wonderful vista of Stoke from behind the near goal. I just couldn’t imagine that the club could get the place fit for pyramid football. I am wrong on occasion…. just ask my wife Robyn! Continue reading →

Deer

03 Tuesday Jan 2023

Posted by in F

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Saturday 5th November 2022 ko 14:00

North Berkshire League Division One

FRILSHAM & YATTENDON 1 (Johnson 61)

STEVENTON 4 (D Burgess 27 33 McKenzie 80 Craft 90)

Att c10

Free Entry

Over the years since the last North Berkshire Hop I’ve made the effort to visit the clubs that for one reason or another the event didn’t get to visit. There was Cholsey whose ground wasn’t in use, and Grove, on their normal ground, but the game proved to be their last. With Frilsham & Yattendon, the reason for the hop not visiting, was that they weren’t in the league. That’s a source of regret to me, as what a wonderful ground it is.  Continue reading →

A Mixture

19 Wednesday Oct 2022

Posted by in B, C, F

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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 →

In Defence Of the Atcost

31 Friday Dec 2021

Posted by in F

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

Tuesday 21st December 2021 ko 19:45

Cymru Premier

FLINT TOWN UNITED 3 (Roberts 27 Cadwallader 75p 76)

Weaver sent off 87 (2nd Booking) 

CAERNARFON TOWN 4 (Hayes 21 Hughes 22 Edwards 41 Donohue 45p)

Simpson sent off 62 (Serious Foul Play)

Att 453

Entry £8

Programme £1 (re-issue from postponed game- cover price £2)

Teamsheet FREE

There are always those grounds that somehow evade your attention, and perhaps top of my list was Flint Town United’s Cae-Y-Castell. A lot of that was due to the pandemic and before that it slipped through the net despite a mixture of the Welsh Alliance Hops and a concerted effort around 15 years ago to visit as much as I could along the North Wales coast. So with both Robyn and I having finished work for Christmas and Robyn never having visited North Wales before, we took advantage of the Cymru Football App’s accuracy, and a twice postponed fixture. Continue reading →

Passing By

08 Monday Nov 2021

Posted by in D, F, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Saturday 16th October 2021 ko 14:00

Bristol Premier Combination Division 1

D.R.G. S.V. FRENCHAY 8 (Hyslop 4p 35 Sterling 31 Van-Meir 33 Hudson 65 Holden 67 Day 69 May 83og)

MENDIP BROADWALK RESERVES 0

Att c25

Free Entry

For me half the fun of travel is the sometimes unique set of circumstances that lead you somewhere. It was leaving day after Robyn and I’s week in Penzance and such are the realities of Covid cleaning protocols, we had to be out by 9am. Normally we’d have looked for something Cornish to watch but in addition we needed to be back in Oxford for roughly 7pm. What it all added up to was us visiting a club I’d wanted to visit for 6 years, but never thought I’d visit this way. Continue reading →

Wroslyn

25 Saturday Sep 2021

Posted by in F

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Saturday 18th September 2021 ko 14:00

Witney & District League Division One

FREELAND 4 (Simlett 17 52 White 24 Burgess 83)

WITNEY ROYALS 1 (Harris 86)

Att 116

Entry by programme £4

Our coach turned out of Cassington Rangers’ car park, and almost immediately into a traffic jam. I nervously glanced at my watch, and ruefully thought about another decision I’d made. From the moment when the Witney & District League’s officials and I started talking about how we’d like to do this event one topic of conversation was how Saturday was going to look. We initially thought about a 4 game day- so many of the grounds in this area are less than 2 miles from each other so we could have loaded up the day with football. In the end I’m so glad we didn’t, as what happened here proved. Continue reading →

Fishing

18 Wednesday Aug 2021

Posted by in F

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

Saturday 7th August 2021 ko 15:00

Highland League

FRASERBURGH 6 (Young 24 P Campbell 28 Butcher 64 Beagrie 72 Meekings 75og Barbour 82)

BRORA RANGERS 2 (Gillespie 3 J Macrae 13)

A Macrae sent off 87 (2nd booking)

Att c300 at Bellslea Park

Entry £10

Teamsheet – Free (I asked a committee member)

It was Saturday morning and the M90 was misbehaving. The satnav was telling me my margin for error was shrinking alarmingly and I was tired. Some folks go on holiday to relax, while I use that map exclusive to groundhoppers, that somehow makes Fraserburgh on the way from Hamilton to Inverness! There were no end of games we could have watched that really were on the A9 north but I’d seen photos of Bellslea Park….. Continue reading →

Going Weird (again!)

30 Friday Jul 2021

Posted by in F, W

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Tuesday 27th July 2021 ko 19.45

Pre-Season Friendly

FLEET SPURS DEVELOPMENT 1 (44)

FLEET TOWN YOUTH 2 (32 43)

Att c30 at Wavell Ground, Queens Avenue, Aldershot

Free Entry

If the last few months since lockdown have been about one thing its the idea to go weird early! I should explain; since lockdown ended in April very little football was played by clubs in the recognised pyramid, so I’ve used the time to try to dig out some gems that perhaps have been overlooked by some. As my wife Robyn and her family would testify, I am all about pushing myself and others out of our comfort zones! But normal English non-league pyramid football starts again this coming weekend, so there was just enough time to go weird one more time!

Continue reading →

The Alternate

06 Thursday May 2021

Posted by in A, F

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Monday 3rd May 2021 ko 18:00

Thames Valley Premier League: Premier Division

FINCHAMPSTEAD 4 (J Payne 15p Vallance 22 Hunt 73 Day 77)

MARLOW UNITED 1 (Goode 65)

Att c42 at Arborfield Recreation Ground

Free Entry

I still have some affinity for this part of the world even though its been well over twenty years since I lived in Henley-on-Thames. Back then the modus operandi was driving through Wargrave and Twyford to Winnersh, then via Sindlesham to Arborfield. I suppose I associated Sindlesham with the Nirvana Health Spa that the ex-wife seemed to love going to but objected every time the monthly membership payment left her account! Continue reading →