Category Archives: O

Thirds

05 Thursday Dec 2024

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Saturday 26th October 2024 ko 11:00

Southern Combination Division One

OAKWOOD 1 (Morris 59)

ALFOLD 2 (Heath 84 Agbontean 89)

Att 187 (ground record)

Entry £7

Programme £2

God knows it can’t be easy being Oakwood. Being the second club in any town is difficult but try being the third club in Crawley with Crawley Town and Three Bridges in front of you in the pecking order. For the Saturday of the Sussex Hop Craig and I acted as an advance party, getting to each ground before the coach and helping out where where needed.

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Crawdaddy

18 Wednesday Sep 2024

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Saturday 10th August 2024

Ko 12:30 Championship

OXFORD UNITED 2 (Harris 28 Brannagan 58)

NORWICH CITY 0

Att 11,333 (1,476 away)

Entry (seat in South Stand Upper Premium) £35

Programme £4

17:30 League 1

BRISTOL ROVERS 1 (Bilongo 90+1)

NORTHAMPTON TOWN 0

Att 8,529 (586 away)

Entry (Home covered terrace) £20

Monthly magazine £5.99

As the coach left Wembley after Oxford United’s play-off final win, I took a deep breath. It was less a feeling of celebration, that was yet to come back at the pub, more a feeling of “Now what?” I hadn’t expected promotion, but when it happened I began to look at the consequences.

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One Of Ours

03 Wednesday Jul 2024

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Saturday 18th May 2024 ko 16:15

EFL League 1 play-off final

BOLTON WANDERERS 0

OXFORD UNITED 2 (Murphy 31 42)

Att 70,472 at Wembley Stadium

Entry (Club Wembley level) £59

Programme £10

It may surprise you dear reader, but Oxford’s appearance at Wembley completely took me by surprise. Just before Easter I’d been on a stadium tour at Exeter City and Martin the tour guide mentioned that our two clubs would play each other there in the final game of the league season. At that point I couldn’t see that anything would be riding on it.

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Marriage Guidance

31 Thursday Aug 2023

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Wednesday 9th August 2023 ko 19:45

EFL Cup 1st Round

BRISTOL CITY 5 (Cornick 15 Knight 35 47 Naismith 62)

OXFORD UNITED 1 (Bodin 30)

Att 9,616 (1,201 away)

Entry (Atyeo Stand) £10

Programme -officially none, but the fans are producing an unofficial programme “Cider Reds” for £4 available from underneath the Atyeo statue. It’s rather good!

Robyn and I have been together 7 and a half years, and married for 3 and a half, so the only real surprise is that it took this long for our two sides to meet. I’ve been an Oxford United season ticket holder since the mid-80’s and Robyn was a season ticket holder at Bristol City when we met. And let’s face it, her name is Robyn!

There are a couple of caveats, the women’s teams have met twice in that time, in 2016 and again last season. The male teams did also meet in a behind closed doors friendly a few weeks ago- I imagine both clubs played that game with more than half an eye on this game!

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Fields Of Fire

06 Friday May 2022

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Sunday 20th March 2022 ko 12:15

East of Scotland League- Division One Conference B

OAKLEY UNITED 2 (Love 20 40)

EASTHOUSES LILY MINERS WELFARE 1 (Goodlad 37og)

Inglis penalty saved 44

Att 365

Entry £6

Programme £2

The final game of the Scottish Hop is an odd one. Part of me would like a second game on the Sunday but coach drivers’ hours make that impossible and I do tend to change my mind about it when I type “Oxford” into the satnav as I leave the final game; I certainly did here! Continue reading →

St Wilfrids

03 Thursday Feb 2022

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Tuesday 1st February 2022 ko 19:45

Southern Combination Division One

OAKWOOD 0

Neathey sent off 65 (2nd Booking)

GODALMING TOWN 2 (McAleese 57 Oakley 77)

Att 37

Entry £5

When your opportunities for a new ground to visit midweek are limited sometimes its funny how somewhere so straightforward to get to could have somehow have avoided my attention for all my years groundhopping. Oakwood are named after the district of Crawley they play in, and were formed in 1962 by former pupils of St Wilfrids School, an establishment that preferred the oval ball! Continue reading →

The Secret Santa

29 Tuesday Dec 2020

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Saturday 19th December 2020 ko 15.00

Hellenic League Division One East

LONG CRENDON 1 (Warwick 54)

WALLINGFORD TOWN 2 (Dean 43 Silkstone 85)

Att 36 at Oxford City FC

Entry £5

No Programme

You could say I was at this game because of Santa Claus! As you may know I’m part of a pub quiz team based at the Masons Arms in Oxford. Each Christmas we have a meal out at a local gastro-pub and exchange gifts in a “Secret Santa” arrangement. Covid of course had meant that meal out was impossible, but we decided to do the Secret Santa gift exchange, and I offered to play Santa for the afternoon and do the collections and deliveries from the doorsteps of our homes. The idea was afterwards to go and watch either of two Oxfordshire Senior League games. The first was Bicester-based Bure Park with Oxford Irish (based at Rose Hill Community Centre) as back-up. Both were 2pm kickoffs. 

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A Route Forward?

16 Sunday Aug 2020

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Saturday 8th August 2020 ko 14.00

Friendly

OLD WINDSOR 4 (Farnan 12 25 49, May 80)

CHALVEY DEVELOPMENT 0

Att 33 at Old Windsor Park

Free Entry

Sunday 9th August 2020 17.00

Speedway British Youth Championship

500cc 1st Jordan Palin 

250cc 1st Max James

125cc (Group A) William Cairns

125cc (Group B) Billy Budd

Att 441 at Scunthorpe Speedway

Entry & Programme £6.50

Last weekend the UK saw what could easily be the only speedway meeting staged this year. It was the Scunthorpe Scorpions promotion that managed to get both guidelines and permission to stage what in the normal scheme of things would be a fairly low-key meeting. The 3 speedway leagues have had their 2020 seasons cancelled due to the Coronavirus outbreak so short of a few challenge matches this could easily be it for British speedway this year. With 2 sports events in 2 days to watch there was the added bonus of comparing how the events were staged, under what restrictions and for non league football the chance to assess a possible safety blueprint should supporters be allowed back into non league grounds from National League down to feeder league level. Continue reading →

The Other Ossett

26 Sunday Jul 2020

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Wednesday 26th September 2007 ko 19.45

Northern Premier League Challenge Cup First Round

OSSETT ALBION 4 (Kelsey 7, 32 78p Newton 15)

HARROGATE RAILWAY ATHLETIC 2 (Ryan 64 Hobson 74)

Jones sent off (2nd booking) 69

Att 69

Entry £6

Programme £1.50

Thank heaven for bank training courses. Thirteen years ago I’d just joined a major UK bank’s commercial department and was spending a week on a training course. I was based in a 4 star hotel in Sheffield, and once the day’s work was done there was little else to do but find a beer or ten somewhere. Unless of course you were a groundhopper…. Continue reading →

The Tavern

26 Tuesday Nov 2019

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Friday 4th October 2019 ko 19.45

Western League Division One

LEBEQ UNITED 3 (Brown 7p 59 Sarr 13)

DaCosta sent off 55 (violent conduct)

RADSTOCK TOWN 1 (Rustell 14p)

Att 192 at Oaklands Park, Almondsbury (Gloucs FA Ground)

Entry £5

Programme £1

In a few ways the organised groundhop should have visited Oaklands Park far far earlier than this. Think back 15 or so years ago to the days of the Welsh Hellenic Hop, when GroundhopUk would spend August Bank Holiday Saturday in the South Wales Amateur League then spend Sunday and Monday in the Hellenic. Each and every year we traveled east across the Severn, and each time we failed to visit, but why? Continue reading →