Its only about 3 miles from Central Park to Cae Nant but in terms of the feel of the place, it felt a lot more. From the urbane Denbigh, Llandyrnog seemed….well asleep! The coaches and cars drove through the deserted village to what seemed the only place alive, the football ground Cae Nant! As we sorted out somewhere for the coaches to park, the club had earmarked the local Creamery, but that was too far from the ground, many hoppers had found the local pub The Golden Lion, and convinced the landlord it would be profitable for him to open. From what I’ve learned he made a fair bob, and we’re glad as organisers to have helped the local economy!
As organiser you love to see good decisions made without you having to prompt them. We were part of a huge convoy leaving Glan Conwy on the A470, and heading into Snowdonia, and I was day-dreaming on how the A470 eventually goes right past the University of Glamorgan in Treforest, the base for the first Welsh Groundhops. Neil our coach driver suddenly turned right, with Colin in the other coach following with the rest of the convoy carrying on along the main road. I asked why the detour Continue reading →
HOLYWELL TOWN 5 (McElmeel 25 G Williams 45 S Jones 54 J Jones 73 PD Williams 81p) PD Williams missed penalty 65
Att 302
Entry £4
Programme £1
Badge £3
As we’d left Anglesey the previous evening I’d expected a change of feel for the Sunday fixtures. Yes, 3 games in a day is easier in many ways but despite the fact that Llandudno Junction is only 22 miles from Llanfairpwll, it felt far more urbane, yet still unmistakably Welsh.
Llandudno Junction, once known as Tremarl, lies south of Llandudno, and unsurprisingly grew up around the railway station here. Opposite the station is The Old Station Hotel. Its known locally as ‘The Killer’ Continue reading →
LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH 4 (Frazer 8 48 Smith 39 J Vousden 71)
PWLLHELI 0
Att 271
Entry £4
Programme £1
Of the 4 days on this groundhop, Saturday proved to be by far the most difficult to organise. We prefer to have 4 games on the Saturday, as with 3 games you tend to see attendances drop alarmingly for the middle game, as hoppers go off-piste and find alternate games. With 4 they have to give up two hop games which tends to see more stay with the hop.
With a day on Anglesey, the obvious last game would have been Llangefni, with a set of floodlights a relic of their one season in the Welsh Premier, but that idea was scotched as we soon discovered they no longer work. They were replaced by Glantraeth, but were to be the away team at Llanfairpwll. Sadly Llangefni then opted to drop down to the Anglesey League, so we were grateful to Pwllheli who offered to replace them and be an away side twice on the hop.
With all 4 clubs lacking floodlights, it meant an early start from the University Continue reading →
If you look back to most of my foreign jaunts there’s always a common factor; the thing was it took me until half way across the English Channel to realise what it was.
The roots of this trip lie with Fareham Town secretary Paul “Splodge” Proctor, and his liking for a particular brand of Belgian beer. That necessitated a trip over or under the Channel, and ever the hopper he found two games to take in too! He soon roped me in and with Peter Miles ( The Itinerant Football Watcher) and Lee West (Adventures In Football) we had a full car, and as the midnight ferry left Dover for a bargain £67 return, it dawned on me what we’d created. As far as I’m concerned Lee is the best groundhopping photographer out there, and Peter the best writer. Splodge is one of the most popular and knowledgeable people in Non-League, which just left little old me to make up the numbers! Sat here now typing away, I’m not completely sure why I’m doing this, look at the links to your left, it’s all there already!
From Dunkirk it takes no time at all to reach Belgium, and after a little rest, we found a boulangerie in the beautiful town of Veurne for breakfast, before calling in at it’s not so beautiful twin Adinkerke. That town exists it seems, to sell all those passing through the products you shouldn’t buy such as tobacco, porn, chocolates, and yes Splodge’s beer!
From there the Splodgemobile (his term, not mine!) blasted north-west around Antwerp to the town of Lier. The town has around 34,000 inhabitants, and is the base of the coachbuilder Van Hool. The great Belgian footballer Jan Ceulemans was born here.
What we always had on this trip was time, which allowed us the time to sample that most Belgian of cuisines, the Frituur. These Friteries offer several fried and grilled dishes served with frites, such as hamburgers, brochette, meatballs, merguez and fried chicken. The portions tend to be large, to the extent that all 4 of us had food left over!
But let’s be honest here, we were all we just waiting for the gates to be opened! We’d had a mosey around before we went to eat, and the reports we’d heard were being borne out before our eyes!
Lyra have played at the Lyra Stadion since 1912, and the history is there for all to see. The most obvious is the main stand, originally a small wooden affair, but extended both forwards and lengthways, but with the original features still there. There’s also the terrace and tunnel behind the goal with, to the groundhopper’s eye, an almost indecent curve at the corner.
And folks, if this appeals, then take heed, this is the last season of this wonderful edifice. Already the narrow terrace opposite the stand has been demolished, to make way for, would you believe, a new Police Station! Here’s what the terrace used to look like.
The club will groundshare for around 2 years, while a new ground is built, but the stalwarts aren’t happy. One said “Our President…..” and made the throttling gesticulation. And if the Lyra stadion isn’t sufficient to convince you to pay the club a visit, the club officials will well and truly convince you. We were standing open-mouthed on the terrace when an official tapped us on the shoulder, and presented us with copies of the club’s centenary brochure, and when we decamped to the raised bar area, despite the fact that the key to the club shop couldn’t be found, merchandise was found including copies of the club anthem, “Lyralied,” on 7″ single no less. I hope they enjoyed they enjoyed our company as much as we enjoyed theirs.
With no badges available on the day, the club found a young lady that spoke excellent English to organise posting them over to us. She said she’d email us when she’d sent them, which she did, and her surname proved to be interesting! She is Jan Ceulemans’ niece! It’s a small world isn’t it? The great man sometimes comes to watch Lyra but at the moment he’s coaching 3rd division outfit R. Cappellen FC.
Which left the vexed question of the game! After all that has preceded it, it had to be an anti-climax didn’t it? Well, actually it wasn’t, with Lyra in the 4th tier Promotion League Group C, having just that little bit too much for their visitors plying their trade in the 6th tier Antwerpen Provincial League 2nd Division.
The game kept us all royally entertained, and it was with genuine regret that the final whistle went, and it was time to bid this magnificent ground, and its gallant officials goodbye. They are great, and please use these words and pictures as a reason to pay them a visit, the 4 of us owe them that for a quite wonderful afternoon.
North Leicestershire League Chairman’s Shield Final
LOUGHBOROUGH FC 1 (Varnham 64)
WHITWICK UNITED 4 (A Raine 40 Wade-Jones 53 90p Lawrence 80)
Att c80
Entry & Programme £3
I’m well used to trips to Loughborough, my famously unsporting ex-wife did her PhD at the famously sporting university, and I reflected as I passed the institution that this was the only time I’d turned LEFT at the roundabout on Epinal way!
I’d wanted to visit The Luffs for years, and for the most spurious of reasons. I’d visited Nanpantan-based Loughborough Dynamo, and soon after picked up an enamel badge from a dealer, only to notice that it wasn’t quite what I thought it was. I filed it away until I’d ticked off the ground, the trouble is that took 10 years…. Still it was well worth the wait!
The Drome sits on the site of the former Loughborough Aerodrome, on Bishops Meadow. That was originally planned to be a civil aerodrome but when World War II broke out the site was used for aircraft manufacture by Brush Coachworks. Around 335 de Havilland Dragon Rapide (known as de Havilland Dominie when used for military use) aircraft were built here between March 1943 and March 1946. Several other aircraft were refurbished at the Loughborough Brush factory including Douglas Bostons and Lancasters by the Airwork company. The airfield even made it on to the Luftwaffe’s target list!
The postal address is on the Derby Road, but the ground is accessed through an industrial estate on Cotton Way. It isn’t straightforward to find, and I was not blessed with time to kill.
It became obvious that The Drome is a far better ground than just about every other ground in the North Leicestershire League, which was why the League picked it for their 3 supplementary cup finals. That was not popular with Whitwick who would have preferred a neutral venue, although I suspect their objections dissipated as the evening wore on!
The Drome is well appointed for two reasons, the first being the club’s 1998-2006 stint in the Midland Combination. The second is that the club’s administration is clearly of a standard way above their current station. They have a website, an active Twitter feed, and produce programmes for all home games, including this one, technically a game hosted by the league.
The club are go-ahead despite the limitations placed upon them. There’s no power, so the tea bar is powered by a generator, and solar panels provide part of the power needed for the showers. The club are pondering the installation of a wind turbine to supplement this. There’s no running water either so rainwater is collected, filtered and stored in bowsers. There’s a £38,000 grant application lodged with the Sports Foundation to get electrical power installed, but the local council aren’t easy to deal with and the club are worried as to whether they’ll let them dig the trench from the industrial estate.
The team have had no so such problems winning the First Division with only a solitary draw sullying their record. In fact their only defeat this season came against Shepshed in the county cup, no disgrace since they play 5 divisions higher than the Luffs. It does leave the club with a dilemma, do they go for the NLFL Premier Division, or do they fancy a crack at the Central Midlands League? It’s a quirk of the local football scene that the Leicestershire Senior League’s lower division is only open to them if they win the NLFL’s Premier Division, even though the two divisions are at the same level, 8 promotions from the Football League!
I did wonder though why the League had bothered with 3 supplementary cup competitions? League President Mike Jones, resplendent in his chain of office provided the answer.
” We were way ahead of schedule with our fixtures, at Christmas so we decided to play these as we didn’t want the lads to have nothing to do. Of course as soon as we started to play them it didn’t stop raining!”
What the game added up to for the Luffs, was a game too far for them. The competition is for sides in Divisions 1 and 2 of the NLFL but the opposition could not have been tougher, Whitwick finished second, and the opposition soon worked out they could win the tie if they slowed the game down, harassed the hosts and take their chances. That they did, and restricted the hosts to a handful of chances.
Adam Raine fired home from a corner, before Mitchell Wade-Jones doubled their lead after the break. Ashley Varnham jinked through to reduce the arrears, but Damon Lawrence’s magnificent free-kick settled the tie. Wade-Jones’ late penalty was mere garnish on an excellent win. They enjoyed the presentation, but I walked away impressed by the Luffs organisation in what has been a wonderful season, but also of the league they play in. I’ll keep an on both, they provided me with an excellent evening’s entertainment.
Loughborough FC are looking for supplies of corrugated iron etc…
This might come as something as a surprise to you, but I really like art galleries. Yes, there are the obvious artistic qualities to the work of one of the great American exponents of Pop Art, but there’s far more to a trip to an art gallery than just the exhibits.
The Tate Modern has the advantage of a stroll over the Millenium Bridge from St Paul’s Cathedral if you take the tube to either Mansion House or St Pauls stations. But the interest starts as soon as you enter the gallery.
In my normal trips round the world’s football grounds I see, well football types. I know them, I understand them, and in many cases I like them, but artistic types are a whole new breed, and I find them fascinating! It was a shame that the gallery didn’t like me taking pictures, understandable if I were looking for pictures of the actual Lichtenstein works themselves, but if you want reproductions of those, there are no end of books available, or better still come to the exhibition, it really is excellent.
But look out for the people too. There’s the culture vultures, studying every brush stroke, and there’s the gaggle of sixth form art students, who feel they ought to be there. There’s people like me, the tourists eager to learn something, and look out also for the pensioners on their Sunday out. Then there’s the parents to whom it hasn’t occurred that for a 5 year old the art gallery is nothing more than an adventure playground.
But the people I found the most interesting were the poor souls who were employed to mind every room. In today’s digital age it’s impossible to enforce a no photography rule, short of banning every mobile device. It was almost written on their faces, “Be involved at the cutting edge of art they said…Britain’s best gallery for Modern Art they said… Now look at me- stopping a tourist taking a picture….” I felt for them even if I was part of their problem.
I smiled as I exited via the gift shop (isn’t that the way these days?) but I did enjoy the genius that is a Lichtenstein colouring-in book, and the great advantage of having a coffee in the Tate Café is that the people watching needn’t finish!
I dread to think how many times I’ve passed the viewpoint of Barrow Wake on the A417 between Gloucester and Cirencester without stopping for a look over the Vale of Gloucester. I’ve been in the nearby Hot Air Balloon pub more often.
The area derives its name from the discovery in 1879, of a late Iron Age burial (c. 50 AD) site. Three skeletons were discovered and associated with the central figure, that of a woman aged about thirty years, a rich array of grave goods including the world-famous Birdlip Mirror. The finds represent some of the finest surviving examples of British Celtic metal work, are displayed in Gloucester City Museum.
I suspect that if you know where to look, you can see Longlevens new ground in the Barnwood districts of Gloucester. Tucked away behind the Ibis hotel, the club moved here for this season after their former home at Longford Lane was deemed unsuitable for County League football. That ground is now used by Gloucestershire Northern Senior League outfit Minsterworth, but the new ground is exactly what the Longlevens needs. There’s plenty of parking, a good-sized changing room block and the pitch is fully railed. There are floodlights, currently only suitable for training, but upgrade these, and add a small stand and they’d have a ground suitable for a tilt at either the Hellenic or Western Leagues.
The latter is where Tuffley Rovers, also Gloucester-based see their future. They used to play in the Hellenic, but dropped down due to travelling costs. They feel the Western League, with a glut of journeys down the M5 is a realistic option, and with the club second in the table, and Glevum Park easily fulfilling ground grading necessities, elevation looks possible.
What made this fixture so attractive was that Longlevens were top. Add to that a glorious sunny day and a local derby, and the bumper crowd was only to be expected. A shed served as a highly efficient tea bar, and the club coped well with the influx of people.
Unfortunately the team didn’t fare anywhere near as well, as within 21 minutes they found themselves 3-0 down. The difference was Tuffley striker Dorian Colling, whose movement completely perplexed the home defence; he collected a brace and completed his hat trick just after the hour. The hosts didn’t compete at all until Brad Martin’s late brace gave their performance a veneer of respectability, but even with this set-back Longlevens still have the whip-hand.
Tuffley are 3 points clear with a game left, but Longlevens have 3 games left. You wouldn’t bet against both sides getting what they want, Longlevens the title, and Tuffley the promotion. Its definitely one to watch!
Even as organiser groundhops always seem to fly by, and I felt slightly melancholy as the coach pulled into the public car park by Llandysul Memorial Park. The club gave an immediate good impression as they’d placed a steward by the “Pay and display,” machine to make such the coach didn’t have to pay the £1.20 to park there. It was unnecessary, but appreciated, and was a good indication of how much thought the club had put into their day. Like St Dogmaels the previous day, the club got the local populace involved making a bumper crowd. Continue reading →
Situated on the edge of the New Forest, the pretty town of Lymington is primarily a port. It’s the only place I’ve ever encountered where the docks (for the Isle of Wight ferry) can be accessed if you turn either right or left! That said, the town is more famous for smaller boats, yachts, and the boutiques and coffee shops suggest more Howard’s Way than, Brittany Ferry.
The name Lymington is derived from the Old English word tun means a farm or hamlet whilst limen is derived from the Ancient British word lemanos meaning elm-tree. It’s a a fair allegory to its arboreal location. From the early nineteenth century it had a thriving shipbuilding industry, particularly associated with Thomas Inman the builder of the schooner Alarm. Much of the town centre is Victorian and Georgian, with narrow cobbled streets, giving an air of quaintness. The wealth of the town at the time is represented in its architecture.
For a watcher of the non-league game, a well-to-do town is often a sign of a club who finds it difficult to get the necessary ground grading to progress, and the Lymington Sports Ground is a case in point. Shared with both tennis and cricket, the latter makes it difficult to fully enclose the ground, and it looks like a public footpath runs around the pitch. In most cases this and the fact that the changing rooms are a little too small to pass muster, are overlooked but the ground-graders have called a meeting, and the club are nervous…
The ground is dominated by the main stand, a benched affair with park seats at its centre. Its spick, span and obviously does the job, but then agaisn ground-graders don’t like benches, preferring the easily counted plastic flip-up seats commonplace in the fully professional game. I liked the pavilion-style clubhouse with tea served in a mug, no ecologically unfriendly paper cups here. The only downside was the R & B music blasting out from the television in the corner, even the young girl who presumably the barman was trying to impress had retreated to her ipod!
The Russell Cotes Cup was described by one official is “Just be in Hampshire and pay £30 and you’re in.” It’s for senior clubs in the county but holds no senior status, existing as a fund-raising competition for the Hampshire FA’s benevolent coffers. Clubs don’t always take it too seriously, although tonight’s side did, and for those interested in such fripperies, programme production is not mandatory.
And for all the world it looked like a nil-nil, and extra-time game. No lack of action, or goal-mouth incident, but poor finishing and a howling wind put paid to chance after chance. Peter Hurford’s header over the bar from a corner could well be miss of the season, it looked a good deal easier to simply bury the header. Eventually the deadlock was broken by Matt Vokes for Lymington. His elder brother by the way is Sam Vokes, currently playing for Burnley, and representing Wales.
The coup de grace was applied by Sam James, whose neat turn wrong-footed the Fareham defence completely, although I was more than happy to avoid extra-time on a cold evening!
Football: Wherever it may be 