Category Archives: M

Necessity

23 Monday Jan 2023

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Tuesday 6th December 2022 ko 19:45

Spartan South Midlands League Division One Cup Quarter Final

MOULTON 3 (Evans 32p 46 Ansu 87)

NORTHAMPTON O.N. CHENECKS 1 (Ling 61)

Parsons sent off (violent conduct) 52

Att 92

Entry £5

Programme £2

It is a fact of life that whenever either a new ground opens, or a club is promoted to Step 6, the groundhoppers will make a beeline for it. Part of it is something of a mystery to me, surely the grounds to target are the ones that are facing demolition? The other part of it affects those of us who ticked off everything with a set of floodlights within a reasonable distance from home. From my perspective, at the start of the season I suddenly had the likes, of Eaton Socon, Moulton and Fleetlands, all within a couple of hours from home. Issues over Fleetlands’ floodlights have delayed my visit, and you can take it as read I won’t be visiting on a Saturday.  Continue reading →

Brief Encounter

16 Wednesday Nov 2022

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Saturday 1st October 2022 ko 14:00

Westmorland Junior Cup 1st Round

MILLHEAD 2 (Salkerd 15 Shaw 66)

LUNESDALE UNITED 11 (Wharton 9 24 77 Mandle 13 O Jackson 13 54 Collison 34 42 68p B Jackson 47 Huddleston 85)

Att c20

Free Entry

I suspect any groundhopper who either has visited Iodine Park, or is about to do so gets asked the same question, and that is where is it? The answer is of course Carnforth in North Lancashire, and anyone who has ever watched David Lean’s classic film “Brief Encounter” should do as we did and factor in time to visit the station beforehand. Continue reading →

Rejiggery

28 Friday Oct 2022

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Monday 29th August 2022 

11:00 South Wales Alliance Division One

MAESTEG PARK 2 (Kingdon 26 Evans 42)

VALE UNITED 2 (Hanson 40 Jefferies 70)

Gauci sent off (DOGSO) 55

Jefferies missed penalty 60

Att 302

Entry £3

Programme £2

14:00 South Wales Alliance Division One

CANTON RANGERS 3 (Injai 32 Tegeltha 62 Power 68)

AFC BUTETOWN 2 (Abdulkaliq Yusuf 6 24)

Att 223

Entry £3

Programme £1

16:15 South Wales Alliance Division One

CLWB CYMRIC 4 (Withers 18 Hughes 60 Roberts 77 90)

GRANGE ALBION 0

Att 226

Entry £3

Programme £1

With this being a South Wales Alliance reunion hop we’d always planned on the Monday being the traditional “Cardiff Day.” With Canton Liberal and Canton Rangers having moved into adjacent grounds as part of the development behind the Cardiff International Sports Stadium. So it was an obvious move to make the first game at Liberal then stroll over to Rangers. There was only one issue with that idea though…. Continue reading →

Grasshoppers!

26 Wednesday Oct 2022

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Sunday 28th August 2022 ko

11:15 South Wales Alliance Premier Division

MERTHYR SAINTS 1 (Maia 37p)

ABER VALLEY 5 (Razimielski 6 45 65 James 22 Neville 83)

Att 302

Entry & Programme £5

14:00 South Wales Alliance Division One

ABERDARE TOWN 6 (Johnson 12p Jones 14 64 Olson 18 Thomas 22 Welsh 70)

AFC PENRHIWCEIBER 0

Turner missed penalty 90

Att 305

Entry £3

Programme £1

17:00 South Wales Alliance Division Two

NELSON CAVALIERS 0

CWMBACH ROYAL STARS 3 (Jones 19 J Price 43 L Price 66)

Att 254

Entry & Programme £4

In some ways Sunday was when the South Wales Alliance Hop really hit its stride. For one thing we had 3 superb grounds to visit this time, with all respect to Cardiff Cosmopolitan their 3G cage was unlikely to excite many! The other factor was having league chairman Phil Sweet on the coach, he’s a man of Merthyr so hearing his memories and knowledge of his home town put where were were and what we were watching right in perspective. Of course the hop and later myself had visited the Saints before, the hop seeing it as the very first club visited on the very first Welsh hop in August 2002. But there was a move to consider… Continue reading →

Saturday’s Revisits

15 Thursday Sep 2022

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Saturday 30th July 2022

11.00 United Counties League Division One

BIRSTALL UNITED 4 (Crossley 9 29 64 84)

Lefley sent off (DOGSO) 13

SAFFRON DYNAMO 0

Gladman penalty saved 69

Att 303

Entry £5

Programme £2

13.45 United Counties League Division One

BARROW TOWN 1 (Raceala 81)

Larter sent off (violent conduct) 45

RADFORD 5 (Halls 27 45p Jebbison 68 Seaton 79 84)

Att 240

Entry £5

Programme £2

16:45 United Counties League Division One

HOLWELL SPORTS 3 (Pope 55 Allcock 69 Bestwick 86)

HUCKNALL TOWN 3 (Westcarr 9 Knight 22 Bell 68)

Att 249

Entry £5

Programme £2

19.30 United Counties League Premier Division North

MELTON TOWN 2 (Anderson 45 Lee 53)

SELSTON 0

Att 316

Entry £6

Programme £1

I do think as a groundhopper and a writer the aim should be to find something for yourself in every game you see. It could be simply following the team you love, it could be ticking of a new ground but what is there when it’s something new- four revisits in a day? For me it was seeing how the clubs had changed in the time since I first visited. Some places had changed more than others! Continue reading →

Monsieur Madeleine

07 Thursday Jul 2022

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Monday 16th May 2022 ko 19:45

Spartan South Midlands League Division One Cup Final

SHEFFOLD TOWN & CAMPTON 1 (Renney 90+2)

STOTFOLD 0

ATT 147 at Manor Fields, Bletchley (MK Irish FC)

Entry & Programme £7

Over the years this blog has explored the where, the how, and the why of groundhopping. Here the where was somewhere I’ve visited several times before, the how the usual short drive, but the why was a first- it was all due to a musical! Continue reading →

Reunion

22 Wednesday Sep 2021

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Monday 13th September 2021 ko 19:30

Spartan South Midlands League Division Two

MILTON KEYNES FOOTBALL ACADEMY 3 (Harvey 19 secs Aluko 35 Boyce 60)

BERKHAMSTED RAIDERS 0

Att 128 at Sport Central MK, Elder Gate, Milton Keynes

Free Entry

Programme £2

I’m not sure whether TalkSport’s Tony Incenzo meant it, but organising one of his “Groundhopper” games was a classic case of the law of unintended consequences. On one level it was game featuring a new club, in a new ground in a new league with a programme on a night with nothing much else on, but in the end I found a little bit more in it.

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Barley Town

06 Monday Sep 2021

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Saturday 21st August 2021 ko 15:00

FA Cup Preliminary Round

MULBARTON WANDERERS 1 (Eagleton 2)

HADLEIGH UNITED 0

Att 156

Entry £7

Programme £1

I suppose you could look at this as yet another foray into the Eastern Counties League, it is a fairly regular destination for me. You could look at it as yet another long drive along the A11 towards Norwich and its hinterland, but oddly enough it really didn’t feel that way. I’m sure the return from watching the likes of Loch Ness had something to do with it, I was well and truly back in my footballing comfort zone, but more than anything else what made it feel different was that it was an FA Cup game.  Continue reading →

The Mumbles Mile

13 Tuesday Jul 2021

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Saturday 10th July 2021 ko 14:00

Welsh Cup 1st Qualifying Round

MUMBLES RANGERS 1 (E Smith 1)

March sent off 56 (foul & abusive)

PENLAN CLUB 2 (Fisher 56 Edwards 72)

L Otten sent off 77 (serious foul play)

Att c100  😉 at Underhill Park.

Without question Welsh clubs have suffered tougher Covid restrictions than their English counterparts; it does take a remarkable turn of events for me to have not seen a game in Wales since a visit to Afan Lido back in December 2019! Many Welsh teams hadn’t played a game since the first UK lockdown in March 2020, and just to make life more complicated there was a restructuring to the footballing pyramid in Wales too! Continue reading →

The Pitch

14 Monday Jun 2021

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Monday 7th June 2021 ko 18:30

Thames Valley Premier League- Premier Division

MARLOW UNITED 1 (Austin 90)

FINCHAMPSTEAD 3 ( Vallance 9 J Day 14p Payne 33)

Att c64 at Gossmore Lane

Free Entry

I haven’t checked but over the last 15 or so years you could have watched Marlow United at home on at least 4 different grounds. There was Flackwell Heath, Marlow FC, Bisham Abbey and Loudwater that I can name off the top of my head. The reason for the first two was to allow the club two stints in the Hellenic League, including a two-season stint in the Hellenic Premier from 2008-10. The issue for the club is always the same, there’s no lack of ambition, but having few facilities of their own makes progression extremely difficult. Continue reading →