Category Archives: L

Suffolk Punch

02 Friday Jan 2015

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Thursday 1st January 2015 ko 15.00

Isthmian League Premier Division

LEISTON 1 (Godbold 78og)

WITHAM TOWN 1 (Wraight 21)

Att 210

Entry £10

Programme £2

Badge £3.50

As a carload of slightly hungover groundhoppers half clambered, half fell out the car at the Crown Inn, Leiston no one remembered just how close we all were to Sizewell Nuclear Power Station. Just the railway line with its old-fashioned level crossing gates gave a clue when we bumped over the line, waking my 3 passengers!

The Suffolk town grew in the 19th century through the production of steam tractors. At the Leiston Works, Garrett & Sons produced the vehicles together with a wide variety of metal products, munitions included. Continue reading →

Bells End

30 Tuesday Dec 2014

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Sunday 28th December 2014 ko 15.00

Conference North

LOWESTOFT TOWN 2 (Ainsley 14 Woods-Garness 81)

GAINSBOROUGH TRINITY 0

Att 534

Entry £12

Programme £2

Badge £3.50

The trains all terminate at Lowestoft, and one solitary piece of track strikes out towards the harbour 200 yards away before giving up, blocked by the crossroads. Yes this the most easterly town in the UK, unequivocally defined by fish, although I did wonder whilst having my lunch at the local Wetherspoon pub whether my scampi was locally sourced- I do have my doubts!

Of course Lowestoft is famous for being the hometown of the rock band, “The Darkness” rather overshadowing the fact that classical composer Benjamin Britten was born here! Darts fans will no doubt point out that shy, retiring Peter “Snakebite” Wright lives locally!

Continue reading →

Blood swept Lands and Seas of Red

31 Friday Oct 2014

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Let’s start with the facts, this is the moat of the Tower of London, gradually filled with 888,246 ceramic poppies each representing one British military fatality during the First World War.

The Poppies were designed by Paul Cummins, with setting by stage designer Tom Piper, and over the last few months the moat has gradually filled with a sea of red. In time the poppies will be sold, with 6 charities benefitting, but what is it like to visit? What does it look like, and more importantly how does it make you feel? Continue reading →

Words

16 Thursday Oct 2014

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Saturday 11th October 2014 ko 19.00

Promotion D’Honneur

TITUS LAMADELAINE 0

CS PÉTANGE 1 (Smigalović 45)

Att c239

Entry €8

No Programme

So over the border into the Grand Duchy and one of Europe’s smaller countries. Luxembourg lies between France, Belgium and Germany, and the Stade Jos Phillipart in Rodange lies roughly a kilometre from France to the south and two from Belgium to the North. So I got my eighteenth countrypoint, but not by much! Continue reading →

Here, There & Everywhere

11 Friday Jul 2014

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Saturday 5th July 20145 ko 19.45

League of Ireland Division One

LONGFORD TOWN 3 (O’Sullivan 65 81 Shaw 79) G. O’Connor sent off 62 (dangerous play)

SHELBOURNE 0 McDonagh sent off 62 (violent conduct)

Att 780

Entry €10

Programme €3

Badge €5

NB. The Irish tour’s cost of £285 included entry into all the 3 games, and programmes, all transport, all excursions, and 3 nights bed and breakfast at Dublin City University

The great advantage of a day with just the one match to see is that the rest of your time is a blank canvas. There was time for a leisurely, if large breakfast before the coach headed north to the pretty seaside town of Skerries, In fact you could trace the coast north and see over the border to Northern Ireland. Continue reading →

Research you understand?

09 Monday Jun 2014

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Saturday 20th August 2011 ko 11.00am

Division 7 Norra Örebro

IFK LINDESBERG II 1 (Fredriksson 90)

HÄLLEFORS A.I.F. 4 (Eriksson 5 Mohammed 45 65 85)

Att 17 at Stadskogsvallen

Entry FREE

No Programme

With the 8th annual Swedish Groundhop starting on Friday, I thought I’d give you a little of the background on the event, and the lengths that the organiser Kim Hedwall goes to make the event a success. I help Kim where needed, mainly as a sounding board, and we’ve developed the hops as being for discovering the kind of ground that is a little more obscure. And let’s be frank, it’s not difficult to book a flight to Arlanda to watch A.I.K. at the Friends Arena, and if you do have difficulties, contact me at this site, and I’ll give you guidance. We use the hop to find places that probably have not seen a British hopper, an example on last year’s hop was Månkarbo where the weather was matched only by the locals’ curiosity! Continue reading →

Resurrection

10 Monday Mar 2014

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Friday 7th March 2014 ko 19.45

Welsh League Division Three

LLANELLI TOWN 3 (J Evans 22 Samuel 37 John 73p)

CWMAMAN INSTITUTE 1 (Jenkins 52)

Att 257

Entry £3

Programme £2

GroundhopUK special hospitality ticket (entry, programme, buffet, presentation) £10

Badge £3

From an overnight stop in Bridgend it didn’t take long to reach our base for the Welsh Spring Hop, the Ivy Bush Hotel in Carmarthen. We’d organised the five clubs’ programmes to be delivered to journalist Chris Harte who lives locally, and it was a pleasure to catch up with him in his library before returning to the hotel to make up 116 programme packs before heading off to Caerphilly and Castell Coaches to meet the coach and our new driver Carl. We had a pick-up near Cardiff station before heading west to the end of the M4 and then off to Llanelli at Stebonheath Park. Continue reading →

Doing it Right

23 Monday Sep 2013

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Saturday 21st September 2013 ko 17.00

North Berkshire League Division One

LONG WITTENHAM ATHLETIC 4 (Murphy 27 Saunders 35 Bowler 55 Barton 64)

CROWMARSH GIFFORD 0

Att 193

Entry & Programme £4

Badge £3

Didcot Power Station Beer £3 a bottle

I like Bodkins Field, as its looks like the kind of place that ought to host village football. There’s a clubhouse, a pitch and a tarmacked road, and not much else. And you know what, what more do you need? Its beautiful, its historic, and the hoppers loved the place as much as I do. In fact its views of the Wittenham clumps and the peaceful village setting convinced me to ask local author Kate Shrewsday to write a piece for the programme. It was typically thought provoking, and here’s her site. Continue reading →

Creamery

04 Wednesday Sep 2013

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Monday 26th August 2013 ko 14.30

Welsh Alliance Division One

LLANDYRNOG UNITED 1 (J Davies 4)

PWLLHELI 1 (M Williams 40)

Att 232

Entry £4

Programme £1

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!

I was a little nervous about the fixture, Continue reading →

People Watching

02 Monday Sep 2013

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Sunday 25th August 2013 ko 18.15

Welsh Alliance Division One

LLANRWST UNITED 0

BODEDERN ATHLETIC 0

Att 370

Entry £4

Programme £1

Badge £3

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 →