Category Archives: O

A Million Miles Away

22 Thursday Jan 2015

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Sunday 18th January 2015 ko 19.30

Greece Superleague

OLYMPIACOS 2 (Dosseni 69 Maniatis 90)

PANAITOLIKOS 0

Att 18,462

Entry €25

Season’s membership €10

Programme FREE

It only took around half an hour for the metro train on the M1 line to travel from Apollon to Faliro station in Piraeus, but in all honesty it felt like a different world. The Georgios Kamaras stadium was a friendly, homely place, but the Karaiskakis Stadium was a corporate vision of concrete and steel, with the inevitable procedures to go with it.

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The Barnett Formula

14 Sunday Dec 2014

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Saturday 13th December 2014 ko 15.00

League 2

OXFORD UNITED 2 (Jones 70og Barnett 90)

BURY 1 (Mayor 63)

Att 6,912 (215 away)

Entry- Season Ticket, my guest FREE

Programme £3 (incl Oxford Mail)

There are several strands to my footballing life, what I travel to watch personally is often different from what I’d organise a groundhop to, and I the only club I watch with any degree of regularity is my home-town team Oxford United. Perhaps the great irony of my existence is that the further the club slid down the footballing pecking order the more creditability I gained in my groundhopping life!

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Priorities

20 Thursday Nov 2014

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Tuesday 18th November 2014 ko 19.30

FA Youth Cup 2nd Round

OXFORD UNITED 3 (Graham 14 45 George 20p)

swindon town 2 (McCormack 83 Oulridge 85)

Att 727

Entry £5

Programme 50p

If, perchance you are an Oxford United fan there is a prescribed order when it comes to local rivals. In strict order it goes like this,

 
  1. Swindon Town
  2. Swindon Town Reserves
  3. Swindon Town Youth team
  4. Swindon Town Ladies,

and so on…

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Lucky 13

05 Friday Sep 2014

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Sunday 31st August 2014 ko 15.00

Rugby League Championship 1

OXFORD RL 29

SOUTH WALES SCORPIONS 22

Att 240 at Oxford University RUFC, Iffley Road.

Entry £12

Programme £2.50

I’m indebted to Calne-based Paul Fergusson to alerting me to this one, especially to the location! My encounters with rugby started and finished with an ex-girlfriend who worked for Brakspear’s brewery in Henley-on-Thames and supplied a steady supply of complimentaries for me to be bored rigid watching Henley RUFC play in the second tier of English rugby union. Now there are many advantages of having a blonde girlfriend who gets staff discount at a brewery, but believe me rugby union wasn’t one! I should however point out though the end-of-season dinners were superb, I still don’t remember how I arrived back at my flat in Bell street with a Williams F1 brolly, and a meal for two at a rather swish Italian restaurant one year. Continue reading →

My English Friends

28 Monday Apr 2014

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Wednesday 23rd April 2014 ko 19.45

Western League Premier Division

ODD DOWN (BATH) 3 (Hunt 41 Jones 50 Hiroli 55)

BITTON 1 (Corrick 81)

Att c60

Entry & Programme £6

Badge-  Comp’

 

I’d had no intention of watching anything more under lights in the UK this season, but when my mate Andreas was over from Germany and decided he was going to Odd Down, it was an easy decision to join him. Apart from anything else I’d had a postponement a few weeks earlier report here so the place owed me a game, and it turned out to be an inspired choice, as I had an answer provided to a question I’d been pondering for a week or two. Continue reading →

The Nightwatchman

23 Sunday Mar 2014

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Friday 21st March 2014 ko 19.45

League 2

OXFORD UNITED 1 (Connolly 77)

HARTLEPOOL UNITED 0

Att 4,954 (185 away)

Entry S/T

Programme £3 (inc Oxford Mail)

Sometimes its wonderful how things conspire to help you. With Oxford’s game away at Southend on Monday televised, this fixture was moved forward a day to allow the team a little time to recover and me to plan another destination for tomorrow. The move didn’t help the Hartlepool fans, and all credit to those who make the trip, and it didn’t help Ian Lenagan the Oxford United chairman either. Continue reading →

The 100 Club

18 Tuesday Mar 2014

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Monday 17th March 2014 ko 19.45

Isthmian League Division One North

BARKINGSIDE 3 (C Liddiard 5 Carwell 32 Rolls 45)

ERITH & BELVEDERE 0

Att 92

Entry £8

Programme £1.50 (reissue from postponed game)

Badge £1.50

Tea 80p

Supporters Handbook £1

In the beginning, well 1957, the underground trains at Barkingside rattled along the Central Line destined for Central London, but if you fancied something more exotic you could travel the other way and visit Hainault and from there change. That got you to Woodford, and exciting-sounding destinations were within your grasp such as Theydon Bois and Epping. There was even a further branch north-east of that where treats such as North Weald, Blake Hall and Chipping Ongar could be explored.

But just beyond the northbound platform, a football ground was being built. Barkingside took a long lease from the local council to give them a suitable home and slowly Oakside Park was put together. Very much from the Heath Robinson School of Architecture it was practical, but homely. The club built themselves up on the field too, moving through the leagues until a second place finish in last season’s Essex Senior League saw them play Isthmian League football for the first time this season. Continue reading →

Fogbound

16 Sunday Mar 2014

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Thursday 13th March 2014 ko 19.45

Somerset Premier Cup

ODD DOWN (BATH) P

PAULTON TOVERS P

Postponed due to fog (!)

Not much needs to be said about this other than that I arrived just as the referee made the correct decision to call off the tie.

I had a look round and took a few shots, and I quite like the results. It’ll be interesting to compare these with the ones I’ll take when I return!

And that is the sole reason for publishing this. Normal service will soon be resumed!!

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Quality

16 Sunday Feb 2014

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Saturday 15th February 2014 ko 15.00

League 2

OXFORD UNITED 3 (Connolly 27 Wroe 53 Smalley 68)

MANSFIELD TOWN 0

Att 5,108 (365 away)

Entry S/T

Programme £3 (inc’ Oxford Mail)

Its been a good week to look at sport as a whole. I do enjoy the Olympic games, and like many others I watched agog as Lizzie Yarnold won gold for Team GB in the Skeleton Bobsleigh. I’m not sure why I enjoy watching the sports that I don’t know intimately, but there’s something visceral about throwing yourself down an ice tube on a tray with your chin an inch from the ice. Of course she won by just under a second over 4 runs, a massive margin, but it was the way she conducted herself afterwards that impressed me. Calm, collected and respectful she is a credit to herself, her country and her sport, and watching her interview you could imagine a legion of young girls taking up sport with her as their inspiration. I fact a few hours later I saw a tweet of a 5 year-old girl, face down on a skateboard wearing her brothers cycle helmet. It’s a powerful, positive message, and one I hope will be repeated many, many times. Continue reading →

Loneliness

05 Wednesday Feb 2014

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1st February 2014 ko 15.00

League 2

OXFORD UNITED 2 (Newey 40 Connolly 56)

AFC WIMBLEDON 1 (Wyke 75)

Att 5,745 (693 away)

Entry S/T

Programme £3 (inc’ Oxford Mail)

A few years ago I was genuinely lonely. I was sat in a house that I was doomed to be leaving, on my own. Although friends and family spent plenty of time with me and I’ll always be grateful for their support,  I didn’t start rebuilding my life until I moved out.

It felt a lot like that at Oxford United over the last few weeks with former manager Chris Wilder surrounded by people, but utterly alone with only his own thoughts for company.  On Saturday with Wilder happily ensconced in a relegation battle at Northampton Town, it felt that the burden has been lifted on both club and former manager.

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