Category Archives: H

The Men From The Pru

03 Sunday May 2015

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Wednesday 29th April 2015 ko 18.00

Thames Valley Premier League- Premier Division

HIGHMOOR IBIS RESERVES 3 (Chowdhary 45 86 Reid 60)

MARLOW UNITED 5 (Mason 10 Nichol 14 Flint 56 Thomas 68 71)

Att 19

Entry FREE

No Programme

Many moons ago I paid a visit to Reading Town’s home in Scours Lane in Tilehurst. I endured a dreadful 0-0 draw vs Hartley Wintney and so bad was the game that I became very aware that there was another game going on next door at the Sports Club. I didn’t switch allegiances, even though the cheers indicated that a goal or two was scored, but when I returned to my flat in Henley-on-Thames, I asked my father-in-law who played there. Continue reading →

Through The Round Window

26 Sunday Apr 2015

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Monday 20th April 2015 ko 18.30

Hampshire Premier League- Senior Division

HAMBLE CLUB 4 (Shrimpton 11 Thomson 32 Cox 53 Bull 76)

WINCHESTER CASTLE 0

Att 36

Entry FREE

No Programme

I have a feeling that many will look at my photos of the Shell Mex ground in Hamble-le-Rice and suggest that the new champions’ home isn’t up to much. Yes, the players change in Portakabins, and the tea bar is housed in another. There’s no cover, no hard standing, and the nets behind the goals are a feat of Heath Robinson-style engineering. All of this is true, but pay attention to these pictures carefully, because when you visit, the place will look nothing like this. Continue reading →

Finally

15 Sunday Mar 2015

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Tuesday 10th March 2015 ko 19.45

Wessex League Division One

HYTHE & DIBDEN 3 (De’Ath 7 Stacey 27 Burch 79 (!))

ROMSEY TOWN 2 (Parker 2 Prince 90) Andrews sent off (DOGSO) 26

Att 45

Entry £4

Programme £1

When you encounter the hoppers with huge (thousands) of grounds visited they always have exactly the same problem, finding a new ground to visit midweek when the game has to be floodlit. With, in simple terms, only the top 6 levels of non-league football being lit any time you see a club in those levels move grounds, you tend to see a lot of the senior hoppers congregate!

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Opportunities

12 Thursday Feb 2015

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Tuesday 10th February 2015 ko 19.30

Western League Division One

HENGROVE ATHLETIC 1 (E Saunders 42)

WARMINSTER TOWN 2 (Lapham 25 54)

Att c40

Entry £5

No Programme

Tea-in-a-mug £1

I have spent far too much of my life sitting in traffic in that dead zone of Bristol that sits between the end of the M32 and Bristol Temple Meads station. The latter, Brunel’s great monument to the Industrial Revolution in general and the Great Western Railway specifically, marks the point where the Central Business District starts to give way to housing then off towards suburbia. Once suburbia ends, that’s where you’ll find Hengrove Athletic.

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Turkish Delight

06 Friday Feb 2015

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Saturday 29th May 2010 ko 18.45

London Turkish League Invitation Cup Semi-Final

GONYELI 2 (Cagin 64 Yagas 86)
AKINCILAR 2 (Turkman 45 McKenzie 70)

Att 155

@ Coles Park, Tottenham (Haringey Borough FC)

Entry FREE
Tournament Brochure FREE
Raffle £2

For this look back into the archives sees one of the more bizarre games I’ve ever seen, and roots of it all lie in a traffic jam.

I’d had a day watching Bethnal Green A, followed by a shoot-out for the Essex Olympian League title at Buckhurst Hill, but then groundhopping sage Brian Buck let me know there was the possibility of a third game, at Haringey Borough. With Swindon Town having just lost a play-off final at Wembley, I reasoned that the traffic on the North Circular would be dreadful, so the only reasonable course of action was to go and watch a game of football. Haringey’s ground has the distinction of being in White Hart Lane, while their more famous neighbours Tottenham Hotspur do not, their stadium being in Tottenham High Road.
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Home Made

28 Wednesday Jan 2015

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Tuesday 27th January 2015 ko 19.45

Southern Counties East League Cup First Road

HOLMESDALE 1 (Coleman 23) Prescott sent off (violent conduct) 84

ERITH TOWN 3 (Weston 3 Cassius 63 70) Craddock sent off (violent conduct) 84

Att 25

Entry £7

No Programme

If you’re thinking,

“Holmesdale- isn’t that the name of the stand with the curved roof at Crystal Palace?”

you’d be thinking along the right lines. The club was formed on Holmesdale Road, South Norwood as Holmesdale Baptists in the 1920’s, before Crystal Palace moved to Selhurst Park in 1924. They moved to Oakley Road, Bromley Green in 2000 in order to progress out of the Surrey South-Eastern Combination. The result is the reason the vast majority of groundhoppers visit.

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The Blairites

20 Tuesday Jan 2015

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Wednesday 14th January 2015 ko 19.45

Kent Invicta League Challenge Trophy Quarter-Final

HOLLANDS & BLAIR 6 (Greenfield 6p 54p Denness 21 40 87 West 44)

GRAVESHAM BOROUGH 1 (Heddon 60)

Att 52

Entry & Programme £5

If you were to have a flick through the 700 or so articles on this site, you’d find a common theme, I don’t watch much Step 6 football in the south-east. Part of it is that I clocked up a lot of my local grounds well before I started this, but it is also because Step 6 in this part of the world in many areas is close to not really existing. Continue reading →

Men of Harlech

01 Monday Dec 2014

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Saturday 29th November 2014 ko 14.00

Gwynedd League

CPD HARLECH TOWN 3 (H Williams 10 Parry 13 77)

Y FELINHELI 5 (Pennie 21og AW Jones 44 Martin Hughes 50 G John 55 Daffyd 64)

Att 21

Entry FREE

Nothing for sale

This part of Northern Wales has always held great resonance for me. From childhood holidays in Barmouth, to travelling home from a weekend in Porthmadog in complete silence as my marriage collapsed, the area has signposted stages of my life, although I am bound to comment that my father still hasn’t managed to pronounce Bettws-Y-Coed correctly yet!

But then during this year’s Welsh hop our coaches left Nefyn and travelled via Penrhyndeudraeth to Barmouth and we passed through Harlech on the way, passing more or less under the Edward Longshanks-built castle. Apart from humming “Men of Harlech” for the rest of the journey I wondered whether there was a team in the town. That was answered conclusively when we arrived at Barmouth when the Harlech team made themselves gloriously known by commandeering the stand. Continue reading →

Common Decency

24 Friday Oct 2014

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Monday 20th October 2014 ko 19.45

Southern League Premier Division

HITCHIN TOWN 2 (Webb 50 Burns 68)

BANBURY UNITED 0 Jervis sent off 41 (dangerous play)

At 288

Entry £10

Programme £2

As a groundhopper I don’t revisit many grounds, but Hitchin’s Top Field is definitely one to provide an exception to that rule. Perhaps its the wooden terracing, or the low slung stand, full of nooks and crannies, or the clubshop that you never quite know what delights will be on sale there. Last time I visited I bought a book on FC Start that toured with me in Sweden! Increasingly architecture on all buildings, not just football grounds is becoming more bland, so the potential loss of the Top Field is particularly hard to stomach.

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Adventure

16 Thursday Oct 2014

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Saturday 11th October 2014 ko 14.00

Regionaliga West

FC HENNEF 05 0

SV RÖDINGHAUSEN 0

Att 418

Entry (Haupttribune) €12

Programme FREE

From Saarbrücken we headed north leaving Saarland and passing into Nord Rhine Westphalia. The two-and-a-half hour drive took us past the Nürburgring, scene of Niki Lauda’s infamous accident. I glanced over to driver Lee, then the speedometer showing below the speed-limit so no race influence here! Continue reading →