Category Archives: H

Essex Man

23 Sunday Mar 2014

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Thursday 20th March 2014 ko 19.45

Essex Senior League

HULLBRIDGE SPORTS 1 (Nash 23)

BASILDON UNITED 2 (Murphy 53 Pinto 70)

Att 51

Entry £6

Programme £1

Tea £1

Bacon Sarnie £2

It’s not often I risk turning up at the wrong ground, but this fixture could easily have ended up being one of a small group. A few weeks ago, with Hullbridge’s Lower Road ground waterlogged the clubs made the sensible move to swap their games against each other around as Basildon’s Gardiners Close was playable. The trouble is a few of the fixture websites didn’t keep up! That’s why a Twitter account can be a groundhopper’s best friend! Continue reading →

Shooting Practice

30 Thursday Jan 2014

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Wednesday 22nd January 2014 ko 18.00

Malta FA Trophy 4th Round

HIBERNIANS 0

PIETA HOTSPURS 1 (Kooh Sohana 82)

Att c150

At Centenary Stadium, Ta’ Qali

Entry €6 (both games)

No Programme

Teamsheet FREE

Kinnie €1.50

Popcorn €2.00

Our last full day in Malta allowed a visit to one of the islands most famous sites, Fort Rinella, on the eastern side of the Grand Harbour, over the water from Valletta. The number 3 bus made its way past Vapur for Hibernians’ ground, then past the former Naval Prison and Kalkara before terminating outside the main gate. Continue reading →

Victor

29 Wednesday Jan 2014

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Tuesday 21st January 2014

18.00 Malta FA Trophy 4th Round

LUXOL ST ANDREWS 0

BIRKIRKARA 4 (Camenzuli 12 86 Bissi 32 Benites 74)

Att c400

20.00 Malta FA Trophy 4th Round

QORMI 0 Bajada missed penalty 120

TARXIEN RAINBOWS 0

AET Qormi won 6-5 on penalties

Att c200

Both games at Victor Tedescu Stadium (Hamrun Spartans), Hamrun

Entry €6

No Programme

Teamsheets FREE

Coffee 60c

With the change in locale it was high time for Andy and I to explore Malta’s capital, Valletta. It’s one of the world’s smallest capitals, being just 0.8 km2 in size. It was named after Jean Parisot de Valette, who succeeded in defending the island from an Ottoman invasion in 1565, and is one of the world’s first examples of a city designed along the grid system.

It’s the defences though that grab the attention, the huge walls were constructed in the 15th century and proved to be a bastion against German and Italian attack during the Axis powers attempts to invade the strategically important island in World War II. The legend has it that the island was defended by 3 Gloster Gladiator aircroft named Faith, Hope and Charity. Continue reading →

Hope

25 Saturday Jan 2014

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Saturday 18th January 2014

14.00 Malta Premier League

RABAT AJAX 2 (Allopardi 61 Micallef 72)

TARXIEN RAINBOWS 6 (Barbosa 10 Pulo 29 77 82 Santos Silva 36 71)

Att c350

16.00 Malta Premier League

VITTORIOSA STARS 0

VALLETTA 4 (Nafti 26 Agius 28 Dos Santos 78 Nyang 84)

Att c350

At Hibernians Stadium, Paola

Entry €6 (both games)

No Programme

Teamsheet FREE

If you want to find out about what makes a country tick, give its public transport a try. With Andy headed to tick a ground on Gozo I decided to tick one of Malta’s most famous grounds Hibernians, very much in the hinterlands of the country’s capital Valletta.

The bus wended its way along the northern coast of the island, passing past the salt pans at the edge of St Paul’s Bay, then through the small villages due east. Hearing the Maltese language fascinated me. The structure is Semetic, or Arabic and its the only language of its type to have a western alphabet albeit with some adapted letters, there’s an H with an extra horizontal bar for example. However with Sicily only 50 miles north, the Italian influence is clear with large chunks of the language thrown into the linguistic melting pot, Grazie and Ciao being perhaps the most obvious. Continue reading →

Cojones!!!

25 Wednesday Dec 2013

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Sunday 22nd December 2013 ko 12.00

Liga Adelante (Segunda A)

R.C RECREATIVO HUELVA 2 (Joselu 24) Cifu sent off 13 (denying clear goalscoring opportunity)

U.D. LAS PALMAS 3 (Christantus 22 Valeron 40 Nauzet Aleman 51)

Att 7,368

Entry €35

Programme FREE

Teamsheet FREE

So an early start and check-out for Andy and I from our base in Seville’s Old Town. As we walked over to the bus-stop there were still young people partying from the night before, things start and finish later in Andalucía.

We soon arrived a Santa-Justa station and this time we were charged for our coffee (!) before catching a commuter train due west to the terminus at Huelva. The impression we got of Renfe the train operator, was that although the trains are modern, and the prices cheaper than in the UK, there aren’t that many trains running. Perhaps that was due to the economic downturn in Spain, it was clear time after time that the recession has hit this part of the world more heavily than in the UK. Continue reading →

The Teenage Honved

11 Monday Nov 2013

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Friday 8th November 2013 ko 14.00

Hungary U18 No 1 Osztaley Liga

BUDAPEST HONVED 0

MTK BUDAPEST 0

Att 89

Entry FREE

No Programme

Ever had one of those moments when you take a step back and contemplate where you are? Honvéd was another in a series for me, and when I glanced over to my travelling companion Andy, his glazed eyes told me his reaction was the same as mine.

We’d flown into Budapest the night before, and taken full advantage of the excellent, and cheap Continue reading →

Money for Muscle

27 Sunday Oct 2013

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Saturday 26th October 2013 ko 10.30

Northern League Division Two

HEATON STANNINGTON 3 (Wright 19p 89 Smith 21)

BIRTLEY TOWN 0

Att 412

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £2

Is the heartland of the Northern League Newcastle-on-Tyne? If not, it certainly feels like it! With the Northern League celebrating its 125 year anniversary this 4-game hop in Newcastle was the second of 4 events, that will culminate in a massive 11 game 4-day hop over Easter next year. The events are covering the grounds not in the league when the Northern League groundhops ended 17 years ago.

It was certainly handy that the grounds on this hop were all in a 3 mile radius of each other in the east of the city. Nearby is Gosforth where Continue reading →

Heart & Soul

21 Monday Oct 2013

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Just occasionally I get asked to do a piece for a programme which is a rather different task from what I do on this blog, still its good to do something different once in a while!

Rightly or wrongly I ask for the same thing. A copy of the programme with my article in, and if I’m writing about a specific game, a press pass too. I’m certainly up for doing a few more, so if you want me and my camera at your ground just contact me via this site.

This piece appeared in Hellenic League outfit AFC Hinksey’s programme a week or two ago. They asked for around 500 words on “Groundhopping,” and I think they were reasonably happy with what I gave them. Hope you enjoy it. Continue reading →

New Round Here

27 Tuesday Aug 2013

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Friday 23rd August 2013 ko 18.30

Welsh Alliance Division 2

GREENFIELD 3 (Robinson 36 Jones 70p Johnson 85)

HALKYN UNITED 0

Att 263

Entry & Programme £3

Badge £3

So back on GroundhopUK duty on what is, I suppose the spiritual home of the organisation, Wales. Chris Berezai’s first forays into organising groundhops started in South Wales, and as leagues have been completed, the offers have led us through the Mid-Wales League, to North Wales and our first groundhop game in the Welsh Alliance, which covers the 3rd and 4th tiers of football along the North Wales coast and Anglesey.

A new league means starting the planning from scratch, from attending League committee meetings, through the clubs voting on whether to go ahead with the venture, then attending groundhop planning meetings with participating clubs. There’s a lot of work that goes on in the background to ensure the days go without a hitch, the hoppers enjoy their weekend and the clubs make a lot of money for their efforts.

Part of that experience is the programme packs that are handed to hoppers with a pre-booked ticket before the first game. They’ve become a staple of the organised groundhop since Rob Hornby introduced them on a Central Midlands League hop many years ago. They do involve the clubs getting sufficient numbers of the publications to us the day before the event, so Chris spent Thursday afternoon collecting 155 programmes from each of the 11 participating club from 4 locations. Continue reading →

Sleepy Hollow

02 Friday Aug 2013

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Tuesday 30th July 2013 ko 19.00

Stewards Cup

HAMBLEDEN 0

HENLEY TOWN 5 (Sawyer 18 Rann 50 Cripps 64 65 74)

Att 30

Entry FREE

No Programme

If ever there was a contrast with my last game, this was it. For the avoidance of doubt, this is HambledEn, near Henley-on-Thames, and not HambledOn in Hampshire.

Its best approached from the Stokenchurch turn on the M40, and you drive along narrow lanes down in the valley through the most bucolic villages. I used to live in Henley so the area is known to me, and with a connection or two to the former Brakspear brewery I knew most of the pubs too! And how could you not love The Frog pub when it’s in a village of Skirmett!! I wonder if Jim Henson stopped for a pint! Continue reading →