Category Archives: K

The K Took My Stand Away

07 Monday Nov 2016

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Friday 4th November 2016 ko 19.45

Southern Counties East League-Division One

K SPORTS 4 (Smith 4 40 Russell 7 Norman 73)

ELMSTEAD FC 1 (Babalola 45)

Entry £5

Programme £2.50

More or less 2 years ago I paid a visit to Kent County League outfit APM Contrast, mainly to gaze upon their wonderfiul pitched roofed stand, a relic from the club’s former guise, Aylesford Paper Mills’ stint in the Kent League, now the Premier Division of the Southern Counties East League. What I and many others who made the journey found was club struggling with the loss of the club’s main source of support, the paper mill and the ground grading realities of regaining their lost status. Continue reading →

Comparatively Speaking

16 Sunday Oct 2016

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Saturday 1st October 2016

10.45 Bedfordshire County League – Division One

HENLOW 3 (Hills 11 Knight 45 Walker 50)

ICKLEFORD 3 (Miceli 48 Bussle 72 G Follano 83) G Follano sent off 87 (2nd booking)

Att 126

13.45 Bedfordshire County League – Division Two

KEMPSTON HAMMMERS SPORTS 2 (Grandidge 16 67)

WIXAMS 0

Att 93

16.30 Bedfordshire County League – Division Three

WOOTTON VILLAGE 2 (A Flynn 49 Churchill-Hall 80)

WHITE EAGLES 2 (Cygan 55 Ptak 87)

Att 131

Entry for all games was free with programmes available for £2, and badges for £3

It’s a point of some regret that the only organised hop on the calendar this season that I’m not involved in is this one. I like to attend other people’s hops, firstly because I’m under no pressure, and secondly because there’s always an opportunity to learn something. Here the organiser is Craig Dabbs and the beauty of his offering is that there’s a direct comparison possible with at least one GroundhopUK offering, and his his philosophy of offering the maximum opportunity for clubs, hoppers and league is the same as ours. Continue reading →

Heart

20 Monday Jun 2016

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Sunday 6th June 2016 ko 13.00

Division 5 Södra Uppland

GoIF KÅRE 1 (Zachrison 64)

UNIK FK 0 Holm sent off 81 (violent conduct)

Att 126

Sweden’s countryside is so friendly, even the bus shelters talk to you (If you push the button on them)! Following Swedish hop tradition it seemed, we followed the Roslagsbanan narrow gauge railway, but this time to its terminus at Kårsta, although there are plans to reinstate the line right through to the heritage lines further north-east to Rimbo. We were at the furthest outpost of Stockholms Lan (Stockholm County) and our coach bumped down a track at the edge of the village but what we were to find at the end blew us all away. Continue reading →

Sweet Emotion

08 Wednesday Jun 2016

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Sunday 29th May 2016 ko 16.05

Scottish Junior Cup Final

BEITH JUNIORS 1 (Christie 61)

POLLOK 1 (R. Winters 72)

No extra time, Beith won 4-3 on penalties

Att 4,877 at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock (Kilmarnock FC)

Entry £10

Programme £3

Odd isn’t it? A football match that coincides with virtually nothing, is televised and south of Scotland you’d have had to know what you were looking for to find out about it. There’s really no good reason for it, do the rest of the UK really mistake Junior for Juvenile, surely nearly 5,000 wouldn’t turn out for a youth game? The truth of the matter is that the Scots’ Junior scene is vibrant and for a few reasons its main cup competition is especially gripping. Continue reading →

Mystery Trip

18 Monday Apr 2016

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Thursday 7th April 2016 ko 18.45

Northants Combination Division Two

KETTERING PARK ROVERS 0

WELDON UNITED RESERVES 4 (B Smith 5 34 Brown 24 Thompson 74)

Att 9

Entry FREE

No Programme

I’d organised to collect fellow hopper Chris from near Milton Keynes, but save for the game being in the Northants Combination, I had no idea where I was going. That didn’t change when Chris gave me the club’s name, Rovers don’t actually play in Kettering! Continue reading →

The One-Off

10 Sunday Apr 2016

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Wednesday 30th March 2016 ko 19.30

West Hertfordshire Saturday League- Premier Division

KINGS SPORTS 1 (Gray 67)

CROXLEY COMMUNITY 2 (Martindale 20 McClyment 53)

Att 13 @Dacorum Athletics Track, Jarman Way, Hemel Hempstead

Entry FREE

No Programme

In the great unwritten book of groundhopping tactics the topic of floodlights looms large. The less experienced hopper tends to ignore the fact that the number of floodlit grounds is finite. They then find when they reach around 1,500 grounds ticked they’re rapidly running out of new grounds to visit midweek. But is the converse of that argument also correct? Continue reading →

Eastbound Train

22 Sunday Nov 2015

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Saturday 21st November 2015 ko 15.00

FA Vase 2nd Round

KIRKLEY & PAKEFIELD 1 (Smith 50)

EDGWARE TOWN 2 (Butt 60 Ali 86)

Att 60

Entry £6

Programme £1

As a committeeman at the North Berkshire League, you’d have reason to think I dislike the Eastern Counties League, but I’ll let you dear reader into a little secret- I do like visiting their clubs, and this visit proved why. Like all the other clubs in the ECL I’ve visited, they were an absolute joy to meet and spend some time with. Continue reading →

Jules/Jewels

25 Sunday Oct 2015

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Saturday 17th October 2015 ko 19.45

Western League First Division

KEYNSHAM TOWN 2 (Abang 74 Harris 86)

WESTBURY UNITED 2 (Matthews 7 Adams 90og)

Att 224

Entry £5

Programme £1

The coach pulled into the Crown Field’s car park, and Chris Berezai, Dave the driver, and I strained our eyes trying to find where we were to park. Nothing usual about that, and we quickly spotted club secretary Julian “Jules” French pointing out a coned off area for us. I was beginning to flag a little, and I’m sure I wasn’t only one, so it was good to know that with Jules in charge I could mentally slow down a little. I had after all, had a preview… Continue reading →

Skydiver

16 Sunday Aug 2015

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Sunday 2nd August 2015 ko 17.00

Peterborough & District League Division One

KINGS CLIFFE UNITED 0

STAMFORD LIONS 1 (Kelly 84)

Att 296

Entry £4

Programme £1

Badge £3

So all too soon we reached the final game of Rutland Weekend Groundhopping, and a trip to “Kings Cliffe Active” a name that seemed to me to wholly give the wrong impression of what the ground would be like. Was I the only one who thought it would be at the back of leisure centre? Beds Hop organiser Craig Dabbs strolled over to the coach with a grin on his face, and laughed, “You’re going to love this!”

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Much In Little

07 Friday Aug 2015

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Saturday 1st August 2015 ko 10.45

Peterborough & District League Premier Division

KETTON 2 (Waldron 32 Brockbank 83p)

NETHERTON 2 (Randall 16 Rankin 65)

Att 284

Entry £4

Programme £1

Badge £3

When we at GroundhopUK took on a the task of organising a hop for the United Counties and Peterborough Leagues, one area loomed large and that was the tiny county of Rutland. The tradionally smallest county in the UK intrigued Chris Berezai and I, and when I paid Uppingham Town a visit around 4 years ago, I wrote an article titled “Rutland Weekend Television.” a nod to Eric Idle’s 1970’s humorous TV show. So when we agreed the hop we were able to see if we could organise a groundhop exclusively in Rutland but was it even possible? Continue reading →