Category Archives: H

Easy

27 Thursday Jul 2023

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Saturday 8th July 2023 ko 15:00

Pre-Season Friendly

HOLMER GREEN 0

RISBOROUGH RANGERS 8 (5 22 24 27 32p 38 41p 57)

Att 35 at Kingsbrook School 3G, Bierton

Free Entry

It should have been so easy. From the morning’s game in Leatherhead, a quick blast round the M25 and up the A41 to the outskirts of Aylesbury. Of course I didn’t work out that way, the M25 was a slow dirge, and the humidity made it difficult to stay awake. I made it in one piece, but it was a horrible few miles.

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The Canal Plan

13 Thursday Jul 2023

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Saturday 3rd June 2023 ko 16:00

Ettan Norra

HAMMARBY TALANG FF 0

STOCKHOLM INTERNAZIONALE 1 (Rashidi 90)

Att 324 at Kanalplan/ Hammarby IP

Entry 100 sek (approx. £7.20)

The Swedish Hop’s cost of £450 included bed and breakfast for two nights, all transport in Sweden, together with entry fees and programmes for all games.

Just about every Swedish Hop we’ve run in the Stockholm area over the 16 years has been based around a ground that either Kim Hedwall or I or the both of us has previously visited and wanted to take folks to. Normally Kim picks the ground, we watch a game and without actually saying it he says, “What do you think of this?” Continue reading →

Alternate

28 Wednesday Jun 2023

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Hertfordshire Senior County League, Premier Division 

HINTON 0

CHIPPERFIELD CORINTHIANS 1 (C Chapman 53) 

Att 49 at The Hub, Barnet Lane (grass pitch)

Free Entry

Programme £2

Sometimes everything conspires to attract groundhoppers, and this was a case in point. Firstly with the season all-but-ended there was little competition for games to watch, the ground, or should I say pitch rarely gets used, and then Hinton decided to produce a programme. Yes, I did know I high percentage of the crowd! Continue reading →

The Mill

20 Thursday Apr 2023

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Saturday 18th March 2023 ko 14:00

East of Scotland League Premier Division

HADDINGTON ATHLETIC 1 (McGarry 75)

DUNDONALD BLUEBELL 3 (Hall 11 Cameron 32 Lumsden 86)

Lumsden sent off 90 (violent conduct)

Att 462

Entry £7

Programme £2

Can I admit to have being a little twitchy about the hop game at Haddington? I knew that the ground was going to be tucked away, and so getting people in and out on a 4-games-in-a-day schedule might be an issue. For no reason whatsoever I’d looked at my programme the night before, and it was an excellent publication. I’m not sure why I felt comforted, a car with a failing clutch, and wife Robyn struggling after her fall at Tynecastle was more than enough reason to worry after all. It was a case of judging a book by its cover, or more accurately a club by its magazine. Continue reading →

Station

21 Tuesday Feb 2023

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Monday 2nd January 2023 ko 14:00

Eastern Counties League Division One North

HEACHAM 1 (L Mitchell 42)

NORWICH C.B.S. 0

Att 131

Entry £5

Programme £2

There has been a running theme in my groundhopping for the last few years and that has been the Eastern Counties League. A lot of it is that there is no organised groundhop in that league, so I’m not likely to be helping guide a coachload of hoppers into these clubs any time soon. There’s also the fact that the ECL does seem to have a healthy intake of new clubs each season, to the extent that that without that process I’m certain I’d have finished the league years ago! Continue reading →

Lads

09 Thursday Feb 2023

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Monday 27th December 2022 ko 15:00

Hellenic League Premier Division

HEREFORD LADS CLUB 0

WESTFIELDS 6 (Pitman 15 Hunt 23 McDonald 34 Muirhead 41 Edwards 65 Newbury 82p)

Att 460

Entry £7

Programme £1

I remember the phone calls last Easter all too well, with Lads Club being on the previous Hellenic Hop why as GroundhopUK’s deputy organiser wasn’t I there ? After all, I hadn’t missed an organised hop in years! The truth was that finally Robyn and I managed to get on the honeymoon in Austria that the pandemic had delayed by 2 years. That said, it didn’t stop me taking calls asking what was going on with the Worcester Raiders game? The catch was that I was watching FC Balzers of Liechtenstein at the time! Continue reading →

The Payoff

18 Wednesday Jan 2023

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Monday 5th December 2022 20:00 (ish!)

Somali British Champions League- Group A

HILLTOP 2 (Yislam 14 A Mohamed 64p)

O.I.R. FC 0

Att 126 at Ark Elvin Academy, Cecil Avenue, Wembley

Free Entry

Programme £3

I tend to have two pieces of advice on the odd occasion I get for groundhopping tips. One is to go “weird” early and the other is to never rule anything out until you’ve tried it. Of course the fact that I’m now at a point where finding a floodlit tick within a 2 hour drive from Oxford midweek does tend to force creativity on you! Continue reading →

Saxon

17 Tuesday Jan 2023

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Saturday 26th November 2022 ko 15:00

Isthmian League Premier Division

HASTINGS UNITED 3 (Pope 9 McKenzie 13 Scott 72)

CORINTHIAN-CASUALS 0

Att 652

Entry £12

Programme £2.50

There are football grounds that do what they need to, there are some that I’d recommend you visit, but the list of football grounds I recommend you drop everything and go and see is extremely small, but top of that list is the Pilot Field. And a small part of the reason why, is that is in a fashion you get another ground thrown in too! Continue reading →

Wye

12 Thursday Jan 2023

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Tuesday 22nd November 2022 ko 19:45

Herefordshire Senior Challenge Cup 2nd Round

HINTON 2 (Nicholls 24 Burley 63og)

WELLINGTON RANGERS 4 (Andrews 6 Mann 28 Woodcock 42 Nunn 45)

Mann missed penalty 45

Att c30

Free Entry

Any hopper might find it useful to look out for this competition on Full Time. The Herefordshire League’s comparative isolation is also its strength and there are clubs with excellent facilities playing at Step 7 when if they were a little more centrally placed you wonder if they’d be playing higher up the pyramid. Travelling costs for the likes of the Hellenic League must be substantial here. Continue reading →

Humble Bumble

11 Friday Nov 2022

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Saturday 24th September 2022

11:00 Witney & District League Division 2

BRIZE NORTON 0

CASSINGTON RANGERS 1 (Blackman 3p)

Att 168

14:00 Witney & District League- Division 1

TOWER HILL 1 (Scott 82)

HATHEROP 3 (Hathaway 31 Turner-Williams 56p 63)

Skinner sent off 20 (violent conduct)

Att 154

17:00 Witney & District League- Division 1

HEYFORD ATHLETIC 2 (Chambers 20 Phipps 90)

CHADLINGTON 2 (Charlesworth 7 61)

Att 153

Entry to each game, including programme £4

When the league and I were putting together this event, I found myself thinking back to Steventon, the first game on the first North Berkshire League Hop back in 2011.

Rightly or wrongly I see the North Berks and Witney Hops as being continuations of each other- both are grassroots leagues playing (mostly) in Oxfordshire. I remember a senior (in terms of numbers) groundhopper coming up to me before the event in 2011 to inform me that, in his opinion, a groundhop here couldn’t possibly work. We held 7 hops in the North Berks, and this was to be the 3rd in the Witney & District. And while I’ll be the first to admit that these hops aren’t for every hopper, they certainly do a lot of good for the clubs, I get a lot of personal satisfaction from seeing a good club do well, and any hop organiser will tell you, the smaller clubs tend to make the most effort!

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