Category Archives: G

Disappointment?

29 Thursday Jul 2021

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Saturday 24th July 2021 ko 15:00

Pre-season Friendly

GILLINGHAM TOWN 3 (Paterson 4 Samuel 40 43)

CHARD TOWN 1 (Parris 15)

Att c46 at Harding’s Lane

Free Entry

On one level this was the most straightforward a reason for attending a game as you could imagine. Gillingham Town moved from their old ground at Harding’s Lane at the end of last season to a purpose built ground around 200 yards away at Woodwater Lane. In fact so close are the two grounds that you pass by the old to get to the new. That proved to be of some benefit…. Continue reading →

The Bonus

30 Friday Apr 2021

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Tuesday 27th April 2021 ko 18:30

North Berkshire League Division One

GROVE RANGERS 1 (Faircloth 42)

DRAYTON 3 (Harrison 2 Jacks 61 Wilde 82)

Jacks penalty saved 77

Att c30 at Grove Recreation Ground

Free Entry

Now I know what you’re thinking, didn’t we pay Grove a visit on the 2015 North Berkshire Hop? You’d be right, but we actually visited them at their original ground at Wasbrough Field. That lies around 200 yards north of their normal home at the Recreation Ground, and the game got moved there because the rugby club didn’t want football fans in their bar. I’d have thought our money was as good as theirs but I regarded the switch as something as a groundhopper’s bonus and planned to visit the Recreation Ground at later date, but circumstances got in the way. 

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Cappielow

22 Monday Jun 2020

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With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell.

Saturday 31st January 2009 ko 15.00

Scottish League Division One

GREENOCK MORTON 0

ST JOHNSTONE 0

Att 2,810

Entry £16 (seat- main stand)

Programme £2

Can I be honest with you? I wasn’t intending to write about Greenock Morton but such was the reaction from the Ayr United article that I feel honour-bound to put something together, because so many people agree with me, if you want two great Scottish League grounds you head to Somerset Park and to Cappielow Park. Continue reading →

Sanity

17 Tuesday Mar 2020

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Monday 10th February 2020 ko 19.45

Southend Charity Shield Section A Quarter-Final

WAKEBURY 3 (Little 59 81 89)

WAKERING SPORTS 0

Att 36  at Garon Park 3G, Southend-On-Sea

Free Entry

Programme £1

There are some games you know that the groundhoppers will travel to in their droves, there are others however, that are only ever going to attract the committed and then there are the few that only those with questionable sanity are going to head to. This is the story of one of those. Continue reading →

Way On Down South

18 Thursday Jul 2019

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Saturday 8th June 2019 ko 11.00

Division 6 Sydvästra Skäne

GISLÖVS IF 1 (O Idrizi 34)

VÄSTRA INGELSTAD IS 4 (Reuterskold 54 81 86 Wästerberg-Hertz 65)

Att 75

The Swedish Hop’s cost of £285 included all entry fees, programmes, coach travel, 2 bridge tolls on the Øresund Bridge and 2 nights’ bed and breakfast at the Clarion Magasinet Hotel in Trelleborg.

If Robyn’s I’s trip to Copenhagen over the previous 4 days had been about change then the same applied to the Swedish Hop afterwards. Leaving aside the fact that the hop had started in Denmark we awoke in the same hotel as for the previous two hops, the Magazinet in Trelleborg, but even that had switched from being a Best Western to a Clarion over the course of last year. Other changes though were more fundamental. Continue reading →

The Day After

14 Sunday Jul 2019

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Thursday 6th June 2019 ko 20.10 but delayed to 20.45 due to lightening

Copenhagen Series Division One

FC GRÆSRØDDERNE 4 (Juul Hansen 52 Frederickson 57 Pedersen 65 Haile 75)

ØSTERBRO IF (Olesen 80)

Att 22 at Ved Stadion, Gentofe Sportspark.

FREE Entry

We awoke to a slightly changed Copenhagen. Save for the fact that thunderstorms were going to arrive at some point that day there was the small matter of Denmark waking up to the results of a General Election. They’d opted for a change in government but as foreigners we were of course divorced from the realities of what it all added up to for the people of Denmark. So much so that what happened next surprised us, and quite honestly it shouldn’t have done.

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The Light Blue Side Of Things

23 Sunday Jun 2019

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Thursday 11th April 2019 ko 19.30

Cambridge University Association Football League- Cuppers Final

FITZWILLIAM 3 (Saunders 40 Ellis 103 Burrows 110)

PEMBROKE 1 (Ireland 69)

After extra time of 10 minutes each way

Att c300 at Grange Road (Cambridge University RUFC)

Entry & Programme FREE

If you haven’t scrolled passed this, and headed straight for the pictures you may be wondering what the appeal was here? You might assume that since I’m from Oxford that I was looking at this through some sense of rivalry but unless you’re involved at either city’s university there is no rivalry at all. As I blasted along the M11 the sense was far more about this being a “Cradle of the game” job. Continue reading →

East Heading West

31 Friday Aug 2018

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Saturday 21st July 2018 ko 15.00

Pre-season Friendly

GORLESTON 3 (Gilfedder 13 45 Ramm 21)

LOWESTOFT TOWN 4 (Brown 9 12 Overy 46 Folkes 54)

Att 193

Entry £3

No Programme

My regular reader my have spotted a running theme of me gradually ticking off the grounds of the Eastern Counties League. Part of the reason is prioritising those Leagues not being visited by an organised hop, and another is regular trips with Wavendon- based Chris. His location near Milton Keynes makes heading east sensible, but there is the vexed question of what to do about the grounds he’s done that I haven’t. One was Gorleston, and with him being unavailable I simply picked the furthest one east! Continue reading →

The Revenge of the Sixth

05 Thursday Jul 2018

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Sunday 6th May 2018 ko 14.00

Bridgend & District Sunday League- Division One Cup Final

GARTH VADER 3 (Roberts 55 66 Evans 58p)

THE SEAGULL 1 (Jones 9)

Att c70 at Llangeinor FC

Free Entry

To some people’s logic, driving from Long Eaton via Bristol to the valleys north of Bridgend to watch a Sunday League game doesn’t make a lot of sense. In fact to some groundhoppers it made no sense either, and we’re a breed that’s used to travelling long distances for the most obscure of games. But when you boiled this one down it meant complete sense for the purest of reasons- you may not drive for 4 hours for football, but you would to support your friends.

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Horwudu

19 Tuesday Jun 2018

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Wednesday 2nd May 2018 ko 18.30

North Bucks & District League Premier Division

GREAT HORWOOD 7 (Broom 20 Dixon 32 65 85 Tappin 36 Hawkins 60 Cronin 67)

WING VILLAGE 1 (Robinson 1p)

Att c15

Free Entry

This one definitely was one to salve my slice of OCD that tells me I simply have to watch a game at any ground I drive past more than once. Great Horwood lies on the main A421 between Buckingham and Bletchley, the village to your left and the Castlefields playing fields to your right. There’s been a village here since Saxon times, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records this place as “Horwudu” meaning muddy wood in 792! Continue reading →