Category Archives: P

Pent or Five

10 Thursday Sep 2015

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Monday 31st August 2015 ko 11.30

Welsh Alliance Division 2

PENTRAETH 10 (McGonnigle 1 18 54 55 R Roberts 14 Monument 18 37 C Jones 59 89 D Owen 72)

GAERWEN 2 (McGuiness 21 Leuthwaite 27)

Att 376

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

As the coach pulled in back at Chester University the previous evening I remember glancing up at the evening sky. It was dark, with nothing to see, but I’d remembered the previous year’s hop at the pouring rain at Kinmel Bay and how disappointed I’d felt that we’d finished the longest hop of the year on a damp squib. That was a feeling enhanced at 2.30am when I woken by the rain lashing down against the window pane. I slept fitfully after that and when it was still raining at breakfast it took driver Jase to laugh, “Don’t worry mate, it’s not raining in Bangor!” to make me smile. Continue reading →

Long Walk To Football

27 Monday Apr 2015

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Wednesday 22nd April 2015 ko 18.30

Welsh League Division Three

PANTEG AFC 4 (Sweeny 9og Probert 43 Dyke 55 Ryan 68) Hicks sent off 87 (foul and abusive language)

CWM WELFARE 0

Att 19

Entry £3

Programme “Sold Out”

I suspect that many British schoolchildren get sent to an outward-bound centre for a week at least once during their education. If, like me, you’re from Oxford that was in Wales, to Glasbury near Ross-on-Wye, and I’ve visited the one for Wales, Gwersyll Yr Urdd for football. But what does that have to do with the Panteg House Sportsground in Pontypool? Continue reading →

Worship

12 Sunday Apr 2015

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Saturday 4th April 2015 ko 19.30

Northern Counties East League Division One

PENISTONE CHURCH 0 Howes sent off (2nd booking) 70

PONTEFRACT COLLIERIES 7 (Danville 15 Radford 33 Moxam 34 56 Catton 74 Lindley 89 Whitehouse 90)

Att 511

Entry £5

Programme £1.50

We didn’t have much time as tired minds made for the foothills of the Peninnes, and the club new to the NCEL for this season. It was good to see the man in his day-glo jacket directing us in, and the staff on the gate shepherding the coach passengers through the pre-paid ticket gate. “A team sheet? Just go the table to the left of the clubhouse?” As organiser you just love it when all that planning and preparation bears fruit! Continue reading →

Steelman

12 Sunday Apr 2015

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Saturday 4th April 2015 ko 13.45

Northern Counties East League Premier Division

PARKGATE 1 (Stapleford-Jones 46)

STAVELEY MINERS WELFARE 2 (Watters 63 Smith 88)

Att 301

Entry £5

Programme £1.50

I love it when a club makes the best of what they have, and let’s face it Parkgate’s Green Lane ground, in Rawmarsh, Rotherham does have its challenges. The view of the steelworks is spectacular, but the space isn’t huge. One side is out-of-bounds, and the club have managed to squeeze in the essentials of life everywhere else.

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Contingencies

13 Friday Mar 2015

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Sunday 8th March 2015 ko 11.00

Ceredigion League Division 2

PENCADER 7 (Sears 22 A Hazelby 35 65 73 Taw 37 83 Morgan 85)

FFOSTRASOL WANDERERS 3 (Rumble 9 C Davies 53 Befan 77)

Att 188

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

When you get bad weather on a groundhop the whole nature of the event changes. You accept that you’ll see less locals, and those hoppers who tend to dip in out of an event disappear too. You end up testing commitment, and back in Carmarthen I looked nervously out between the curtains of my hotel room window. It couldn’t be that bad could it? I stepped outside after my breakfast and confirmed the worst, it was hammering it down with rain.

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Questions & Answers

19 Thursday Feb 2015

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Tuesday 17th February 2015 ko 19.45

Portsmouth Senior Cup Semi-Final

PETERSFIELD TOWN 3 (McEnery 19 Read 42 Howes 50)

UNITED SERVICES PORTSMOUTH 0

Att c80

Entry £5

Programme £1

For a town a mere 12 miles north of Portsmouth, Petersfield isn’t half tucked away. Perhaps its the twisting A272 from Winchester that gives that impression, clearly the A3 would have been a better idea! It’s a genteel place, with an internal ring road, and a level crossing serving to slow the pace of life down as the traffic stops to let Portsmouth Harbour-bound trains in to the town station. Continue reading →

Bubble

20 Tuesday Jan 2015

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Saturday 17th January 2015 ko 19.30

Greece Superleague

PANIONIOS GSS 1 (Boumale 34) Kolovos missed penalty 86

PANATHINIAKOS 1 (Berg 78)

Att 1,849

Entry €25 (Main Stand)

No Programme

Badge €3

Here’s a tip for you. When you take the €8 metro trip from Athens airport into the capital, the metro platforms are the two in the middle, it is very easy to jump on a suburban train headed to…. !

After you’ve reached Athens itself it costs further €10 for a 5 day mass transit pass for the metro, buses and trams. That is easy enough to buy, the machines have an “English” button, but you do need to validate the ticket via one of the machines by virtually every escalator. There are plenty of warnings about failure to pay or validate, but I’m bound to say I saw no ticket checks during my 4 days here, and there are no barriers either!

Greece’s financial problems were manifest, and not just from the political posters and campaigners for the imminent general election. There seems to be a general attitude of make do and mend, but in no way shape or form has the Greek welcome I’d remembered from childhood holidays been diluted. Continue reading →

Fairlie

31 Sunday Aug 2014

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Sunday 24th August 2014 ko 15.30

Welsh Alliance Division One

PENRHYNDEUDRAETH 1 (Griffiths 11)

GWALCHMAI 1 (Roberts 48)

Att 394 (Welsh Groundhop record)

Entry £4

Programme £1

Badge £3

With both Blaenau Ffestiniog and Penrhyndeudraeth both on the Ffestiniog railway we really did have to travel between the two grounds on the famous narrow-gauge line didn’t we? It took a little organising, and Penrhyndeudraeth were great help, including pointing out that you can’t get two coaches to Penrhyn station, that’s why we alighted a Minffordd, but once we got the coach party on our 2 and a half chartered carriages the enjoyment was obvious. Continue reading →

Time

27 Wednesday Aug 2014

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Saturday 23rd August 2014 ko 11.00

Welsh Alliance Division One

PWLLHELI 5 (C Jones 7 82 Scott 45 49 68)

LLANRUG UNITED 4 (Lloyd 8 Owen 24p DN Williams 56 Sadler 80)

Att 328

Entry £4

Programme £1

Badge £3

When you’re organising a groundhop time is everything. You sit for hours with lists of clubs grouped by geography then use Google maps to calculate distance and from that, time. It’s a precious commodity and a simple error on the part of the coach company, a lost set of keys to one of our coaches, threatened to derail us. Continue reading →

The Bouncy Castle

09 Saturday Aug 2014

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Sunday 3rd August 2014 ko 11.00

United Counties League Premier Division

PETERBOROUGH NORTHERN STAR 1 (MacLeod 8) Clay sent off 21 (denying clear goalscoring..) Stebbing sent off (2nd booking)

HOLBEACH UNITED 6 (Beeson 22p Fuller 34 Parker 49 Dube 71 78 Spencer 90)

Att 357

Entry £6

Programme £1

Badge £3

Picture the scene; Chris Berezai and I are at a GroundhopUK planning meeting with the host clubs on this hop. We’re new to each other, none of these clubs has ever seen a hop game, let alone participated in one, so at the end of it all, I wanted to give the clubs an idea of what good looks like.

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