Category Archives: N

East Isn’t West

24 Thursday Jan 2019

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Saturday 5th January 2019 ko 15.00

Northern Premier League- Premier Division

NORTH FERRIBY UNITED 0

MARINE AFC 2 (Doyle 46 Cummins 88)

Att 181

Entry £10

Programme £2

In groundhopper parlance a “Vulture Job” is heading to a ground that is possibly not going to be there for much longer. Normally it’s because the club is moving to a new ground, and you could argue that this is the case with North Ferriby. However it isn’t certain that North Ferriby are on the move, and if they do move it will certainly be without the agreement of their supporters. Continue reading →

The Surprise

02 Wednesday Jan 2019

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Tuesday 4th December 2018 ko 19.30

Leicestershire Senior Cup 2nd Round

NORTH KILWORTH SPORTS 2 (D Laywood 51 90)

KIRBY MUXLOE RESERVES 0

Att 23

Free Entry

These days, I tend to get the most satisfaction from those “Ticks” that are unexpected. Once you push past four figures of grounds visited, your opportunities for easily reached floodlit new grounds rapidly diminish. I’d been keeping an on Cosby-based Saffron Dynamo for a while, the Leicestershire Senior League doesn’t schedule that many midweek fixtures, but when I checked their fixture for this date, I was disappointed to see the game postponed due to a floodlight fault. But I scanned down, and… “Who are North Kilworth?”  Continue reading →

The Ghost Train

23 Friday Nov 2018

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Tuesday 16th October 2018 ko 19.45

Southern Combination Peter Bentley Cup 3rd Round

NEWHAVEN 2 (Robinson 31 76) Robinson missed penalty 16

Jallou sent off 79 (2nd booking)

CRAWLEY DOWN GATWICK 1 (Leslie 69)

Att 72

Entry £6

Programme £1

Here’s a riddle for you. I’ve been to Newhaven hundreds of times but never visited, how is this possible? The answer is via my late Grandmother Rose, who was from the East Sussex town. She moved to Oxford to get married, but her nod back to her home town was to name the family home in Valentia Road, “Newhaven.” The house was a 5 minute walk from the Manor Ground, so I visited the place hundreds times in my youth! Rose has long since gone, but the stencilled “Newhaven” above the front door is still there! Continue reading →

The Miniature Railway

28 Sunday Oct 2018

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Saturday 15th September 2018 ko 14.00

North Berkshire League Division One

NORTH OXFORD 2 (T Mawema 22 T Mungai 65)

LONG WITTENHAM 4 (Bowler 12 36 Houseman 17 47)

Att 5 at Top Pavilion, Cutteslowe Park, Oxford

As a small boy growing up in Oxford I was fortunate to have a public park at the back of our house. You could say that park, and regular trips to the Manor Ground are the reason you’re reading this. But to the 5-year-old self the real treat was when Mum and I sat on a bus for the entire length of the “Number 2” bus route and spent the day at Cuttleslowe Park. Continue reading →

The Spur

19 Thursday Apr 2018

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Thursday 29th March 2018 k0 19.30

South West Peninsula League Division One East

NEWTON ABBOT SPURS 2 (O Aplin 13 Metters 51)

TEIGNMOUTH 1 (Ayre 18) 

Breslan sent off 83 (2nd booking 83)

Eves sent off 90 (2nd booking 90)

Att 318

All games Hop ticket £25 (entry only)

Entry £4

Programme £1

I was around half-way down the M5 heading for the South West Peninsula Hop and was debating whether to stop for a coffee. Robyn was, as normal, fast asleep in the passenger seat, so I delayed my stop for another service station; there are no lack of them in this part of the world. I spent the extra few minutes imagining what hop organiser and League General Secretary Phil Hiscox was doing at that moment. I knew what I’d been feeling on eve of the Easter Hop I’d helped organise the previous year but as the Thursday and Friday games in Devon proved, I didn’t succeed in coming remotely close. Continue reading →

Adge

24 Tuesday Oct 2017

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Saturday 30th September 2017 ko 15.00

Somerset County League Premier Division

NAILSEA UNITED 3 (Penberthy 7 Iles 72 Olsen 78)

STAPLEGROVE 0

Att c40

Free Entry

I have to confess I hadn’t intended to visit the Grove Sports Centre. But then the M4 intervened and I ended up stopping in the middle of Bath, and interrogating that essential tool for the groundhopper, The Football Traveller. Yes, I know you can get all the fixtures via the web, but sometimes there’s no substitute for having all the fixtures sorted by date, then league, and this was definitely one of them! Continue reading →

The X Factor

10 Monday Jul 2017

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Saturday 9th July 2017 ko 12.00

Pre-season Friendly

NANTYGLO 2 (7 60)

WHITEHEADS RHISGA 5 (16 25 36 72og 78)

Att c10 at Ebbw Vale Sports Centre

Free Entry

The delight of this one was how all the pieces fell into place. Firstly I knew I’d be in Bristol, making easy a trip over the Severn Bridge to probably my favourite place to watch non-league football, the South Wales Valleys. Then when Nantyglo left me know that they’d booked Ebbw Vale Sports Centre for midday, it allowed a visit to a ground -not (yet) used, by a club side, and the chance to double it up with a 3pm kickoff too! Continue reading →

Incentiviser

29 Thursday Dec 2016

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Tuesday 21st December 2016 ko 19.45

FA Trophy 2nd Round Replay

NORTH LEIGH 1 (Cook 89p)

SOUTH PARK 3 (Lavery 29p Quartey 62 O’Sullivan 81)

Att 157

Entry £8

Programme £1

Back in the day I used to regularly drive along the A4095 between Witney and Woodstock. With psyche like mine that added up to finding out whether each village I passed through had a football club, and where they played. It didn’t take long to pay the grounds a visit. There was Witney Town who played in the Southern League, then as you headed towards Woodstock, there were no end of grounds to visit. Continue reading →

Groundhopping Hell?

30 Wednesday Nov 2016

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Saturday 26th November 2016 ko 14.00

Notts Senior League- Premier Division

NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY 2 (Fletcher 31 81p)

UNDERWOOD VILLA 2 (Voller 39og Thompson 78) Wright sent off 71 (foul language)

Att 14

Entry FREE

Programme FREE

On one hand if you want to complete the Notts Senior League, you’ll need to pay the Clifton Campus a visit, and it gives the club precisely what they need, a good facility at which to play its games. On the other for the spectator its a one-sided plastic pitch in a cage, utterly bereft of character; save for the Uni’s corporate branding you could be anywhere. It is though where the needs of the participatory league and those of a spectating league collide. Continue reading →

Doughty

28 Monday Nov 2016

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Saturday 26th November 2016 ko 11.30

U18 Professional Development League-North

NOTTINGHAM FOREST 3 (Gomis 26 28 McCormick 75)

HUDDERSFIELD TOWN 2 (Scott 44 Dyson 79)

Att 88

Entry FREE

Teamsheet FREE

If a former owner of a club wants to leave a legacy, then there aren’t many better places than the club’s academy. Nottingham Forest’s academy in Gresham Close is named after former owner Nigel Doughty who ploughed over £100million of his own funds into the club but died suddenly in 2012 aged just 54. Continue reading →