Category Archives: H

Douglas

05 Friday Jul 2019

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Sunday 2nd June 2019 ko 16.10

Scottish Junior Cup Final

AUCHINLECK TALBOT 2 (McCracken 3 Samson 37)

LARGS THISTLE 0

Att 4,639 (1,950 Largs, 2,471 Talbot, Remainder- Hospitality)

At New Douglas Park, Hamilton Academical

Entry £10

Programme £3

Picture the scene, I’m stood at the corner of the two permanent stands at Hamilton Accies. In front of me are two lines of supporters both wearing predominantly amber and black, to my left the Largs fans and to my right the Auchinleck Talbot fans. Which team should I lend my support to for the afternoon? The problem was that I had a foot in three camps, if such a thing is possible? Continue reading →

Peanuts & Crackerjack

04 Monday Feb 2019

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Sunday 23th January 2019 ko 12.00

Tercera Divisio Grup 5

C.E. L’HOSPITALET 1 (Rodri 24p)

TERRASSA FC 1 (Arranz 61) Yaya sent off 78 (2nd bk) 

Att c400

Entry €10

Teamsheet FREE

Maybe its the groundhopper’s OCD, but there is something rather satisfying about riding the train all the way to end of the line. Here it was Barcelona’s metro, and the red line’s terminus of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat in the south-west of the city. On the face of it it was an odd place to have a terminus, in the middle of a car park, but the hospital is a major one, and the the football ground beyond has it’s own story to tell. Continue reading →

Roxonian

09 Wednesday Jan 2019

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Tuesday 18th December 2018 ko 19.45

Southern League- Premier Division South

HARROW BOROUGH 2 (Kearney 11 87)

BEACONSFIELD TOWN 1 (Morgan 4)

Att 127

Entry £10

Programme £2

In the great unwritten book of groundhopping tactics, the idea of using 3G pitches as insurance against bad weather is fairly well entrenched. It seems, unfortunately, to have replaced the rule of having a knowledge of well-draining pitches for those times. I was navigating my way around a rain-lashed M25, when I got notification that my intended destination- Sittingbourne, was postponed. It was time to consider my options, and simply going home wasn’t one of them! Continue reading →

Second Impressions

27 Thursday Dec 2018

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Saturday 24th November 2018 ko 13.30
Eastern Counties League- Division One North

HARLESTON TOWN 4 (Roberts 3 Stone 21 Imrie 69 Delaney 88)

FELIXSTOWE & WALTON UNITED RESERVES 2 (Lee 27 Hillyard 27)

Att c100

Entry & Programme £5

We turned right in to Harleston’s leisure centre car park from Wilderness Lane, and spotted two sets of players warming up on an unrailed pitch. Our collective hearts sank a little, I do like going back to basics every so often, try Headington Butchers for example, but I couldn’t even see a set of goals! Harleston are new to Step 6 for this season having won the Anglian Combination. With the Eastern Counties League expanding into 3 divisions for this year new clubs have been given 3 years to bring their grounds up to standard, but this looked extreme!

Continue reading →

Planning Gain

08 Thursday Nov 2018

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Saturday 6th October 2018 ko 17.00

Western League Premier Division

HALLEN 0

SHEPTON MALLET 3 (Willmott 45 Pollard 59 Morgan 77)

Att 218

Entry £6

Programme £1

Given one or two groundhoppers’ predisposition for getting their geography in a twist I ought to make it clear that this in the Hallen, which is the other side of the M5 from Bristol and not the club playing at the World’s oldest football ground- that’s Hallam! And while we were never ever going to visit the Hallen Centre on the Northern Counties East Hop, we could have easily have visited back in the day on the Hellenic Hop, the club are based in, and affiliated to the Gloucestershire FA, and it took until 2000 to prise themselves away and into the more logical Western League. That isn’t the limit of the club’s adventures though! Continue reading →

The High Fortified Place

26 Wednesday Sep 2018

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Saturday 4th August 2018 ko 15.00

Gloucestershire County League

HENBURY 1 (Cox 11)

HARDWICKE 1 (Smith 79) Tracey penalty saved 78

Att c30

Entry FREE

Programme £1

I’m not sure why, but every time I drop Robyn off at Ashton Gate and I drive under the Clifton Suspension Bridge on the A4, I think I’m heading west. In fact I’m heading more northerly than west, especially when you turn right just past Bristol Manor Farm, and you soon end up in Bristol’s northern suburbs. As Robyn would put it, you’re in Gashead (Bristol Rovers) country here! Continue reading →

The Red Line

26 Thursday Jul 2018

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Monday 4th June 2018 ko 19.30

Division 5 Stockholm

IK HEPHATA 1 ( Radhe 17)

SKOGÅS/ TRÅNGSUND A.I.K. 0

Att 19 at Mälarhöjdens IP

Free Entry

The metro train trundled south-west on the red line heading towards its terminus at Fruängen. Robyn was looking at the route map above the door,

“So it’s all the way to Fruängen then catch the 163 bus to the ground?” she half-asked, half told.

She was absolutely correct, but the time she’d spent interrogating the map she missed the train stopping at Hägerstensåsens. That was where’d watched Hägersten SK, her first Swedish football match. I pondered all that had changed since then.

Continue reading →

Harry

28 Thursday Jun 2018

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Saturday 5th May 2018 ko 17.00

Central Midlands League- South Division

HILTON HARRIERS 1 (Jones 14og)

HUCKNALL TOWN 0

Att 236

Entry £3

Programme £1

On one hand the hop had been hugely enjoyable, and a fourth game would have been welcome, on the other, the red faces told the story of sunburn on a hot day. Perhaps it was no bad thing it was only a 3 game day!

The Derbyshire village of Hilton is famous for being the birthplace of Herbert Massey the leader of the Great Escape from Stalag Luft III in March 1944. He was fortunate to escape the fate of 50 of the escapees who were shot on Hitler’s orders. Massey’s birthplace is marked with a blue plaque. Continue reading →

Fergie Time

24 Sunday Jun 2018

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Saturday 5th May 2018 ko 11.00

Central Midlands League-South Division

HOLBROOK ST MICHAELS 5 (Sanders 19 65 Kirl 30 Collingwood 47og Hayes 80)

LINBY COLLIERY WELFARE 2 (Gill 50 Butler 90)

Att 212

Entry £3

Programme £1

One of the advantages of being involved in organising these events is knowing you’ll be at each and every game come what may. Because as you ground count gets higher and higher you run the risk of forgetting exactly where you’ve been! The Derbyshire village of Holbrook I knew to have 2 football teams, and I remembered seeing Holbrook Miners Welfare for ground #500 back in the day. Time blurs memories so when I saw Holbrook Sports and Holbrook St Michaels I wondered which one I’d visited! Continue reading →

Milestone

11 Friday May 2018

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Wednesday 11th April 2018 ko 18.00

Oxford City FA League

HEADINGTON BUTCHERS 1 (Rowbotham 80)

DORCHESTER 3 (Kay 18 Brown 46 J Lyne 58)

Att 5 at Sandy Lane Sports Ground, Oxford

Free Entry

By far the most common question about groundhopping I get asked is how many grounds I’ve done. It’s an obvious one, but it’s also one with little meaning, after all it’s a figure that is only really relevant to myself. There is no award, thank God, to the groundhopper with the most grounds visited.  I used to celebrate each hundredth  ground I visited, 900 was the Cardiff City Stadium, and the thousandth was Newbridge (on Wye) Town.

Since then those milestones have felt less and less important, but there was an unintended consequence of Honiton Town’s game on the Easter Hop being moved to Exwick Villa, a ground I’d visited before. Continue reading →