Category Archives: R

Making It Work

08 Thursday Dec 2022

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Sunday 9th October 2022 

11:00 Southern Counties East League- Premier Division

RUSTHALL 4 (Fares 9 Clark 16 Gitiba 60 Baldwin78)

K SPORTS 2 (Holliday 27 Lewins 48)

Att 344

Entry £8

Programme £2

14:00 Southern Counties East League- Premier Division

TUNBRIDGE WELLS 1 (McCreadie 58)

LORDSWOOD 1 (Reid 32)

Att 518

Entry £8

Programme £2

Without a massive amount of evidence I felt supremely confident about the SCEFL Hop’s Sunday schedule. Part of it was that I felt I knew the clubs a little, I’s seen what a go-ahead club Rusthall are when I’d visited 9 years ago, and my visit to Tunbridge Wells  a year later gave me the impression that they were an Isthmian League club in waiting. Normally my internalised challenge to clubs I revisit on hops is to change my perception of them., here I wanted them to reinforce my view. There were a couple of snags with that though. Continue reading →

Travelling Without Moving

09 Wednesday Mar 2022

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Tuesday 1st March 2022 ko 19:45

Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division

RISBOROUGH RANGERS 5 (Enver-Marum 27 69 Osborne 41 80 Lamboh 90)

LONDON COLNEY 1 (Igriya 84)

Att 88

Entry £7

Programme FREE, 4 page printed, remainder downloadable 

I think it was in 2003 when I first visited Windsors. The oddity was that I’d just started a new job based in Amersham and on my first day day there I decided I needed a new work shirt. I finished early and headed for Aylesbury where in the local shopping centre’s department store a pleasant young man served me, and a couple of hours later I ended up watching him play for Risborough Rangers! Continue reading →

The Rail

02 Wednesday Feb 2022

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Saturday 29th January 2022 ko 15:00

Northern Counties East League- Division One

RETFORD FC 3 (Scott 37 45 L White 39)

CLIPSTONE FC 2 (Bennett 51og Finnernan 70)

Att 137

Entry £5

Programme £1

A quirk of my groundhopping past is that somehow I’d visited neither of the two Retford clubs. A lot of the reason for that is that the older club Retford United somehow managed to evade both the Central Midlands League’s and the Northern Counties East’s organised hops. Given the length of time those two hops ran that is an achievement of sorts. But Retford FC’s reason for never having featured on an organised hop is more straightforward- they didn’t exist until 2015! Continue reading →

Tornados!

12 Wednesday Jan 2022

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Monday 3rd January 2022 ko 11:30

Southern Combination Division Two

RUSTINGTON 5 (Howard 19 67 73 Irish 37 38p)

WORTHING TOWN 0

Att 63

Free Entry

The alarm went off, and I quietly cursed the Southern Combination making use of the Bank Holiday by scheduling the vast majority of their fixtures in the morning leaving all manner of opportunities for doubles. In fact the surprise was so few other groundhoppers were at our first game. Continue reading →

The Rock

24 Wednesday Nov 2021

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Saturday 6th November 2021 ko 14:30

East Cornwall Premier League

ROCHE AFC 3 (Rowe 2 20 Robinson 88)

PLYMOUTH MARJON 2NDS 0

Att c15

Entry £2

In my mind it was time to head off the beaten track again. There is a strong element amongst groundhoppers to be target driven- finish a division, league or even a level of non league. I’m target driven in my professional life so when groundhopping the only real rule for me is to go where the mood takes me. And on this occasion I fancied another trip to Cornish China Clay Country.

Continue reading →

Reformation

08 Tuesday Jun 2021

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Saturday 5th June 2021 ko 14.30

Thames Valley Premier League – Division One

ROTHERFIELD UNITED 1 (Clarke 45p)

READING YMCA 2 (Hormola 7 Donegan 61p)

Att c24 at Bishopswood Sports Field, Gallowstree Common.

Free Entry

Given I’d not seen a game at Bishopswood this was something of a sentimental return for me. Back in the day I had a blonde girlfriend who worked for a brewery, which did have a few advantages. The brewery in question was Brakspear in Henley-on-Thames, and we spent many an evening ticking off the pubs of the Brakspear estate- it was clear looking back that the groundhopping gene was active even then! One of the best pubs was the Reformation at Gallowstree Common and I remember driving past the Bishopswood Sports Field and me thinking “I really ought to see a game there!” It only took another 25 years…. Continue reading →

Dancing In The Streets

27 Saturday Jun 2020

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Saturday 9th May 2009 ko 15.00

Scottish League Division Two

RAITH ROVERS 0

ARBROATH 0

Att 4,426

Entry £14

Programme £2

Its the oft uttered line isn’t it? “They’ll be dancing in the streets of Raith tonight!” is often described as “Colemanballs” even if it was the BBC’s Sam Leitch that said the line. Of course Raith Rovers are from Kirkcaldy, Fife. Raith isn’t a specific settlement, it refers to the area between Kirkcaldy and Loch Gelly. But the famous error wasn’t the first time someone called Leitch had an impact on Raith Rovers. Continue reading →

Crossing St George

25 Thursday Jun 2020

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Saturday 3rd January 2011 ko 14.15

Western League Division One

ROMAN GLASS ST GEORGE 1 (Mansfield 53)

CADBURY HEATH 1 (Colbourne 24) 

Att 70 at Bell Hill Playing Field, Whiteway Road, St George, Bristol

Entry £4

Programme £1

You may remember GroundhopUK visiting Oaklands Park– the Gloucestershire FA Ground on the final Western Hop. The ground is shared by Lebeq United and Roman Glass St George but since neither club is primary tenant and Lebeq wanted to, they hosted, but what of Roman Glass St George? Continue reading →

Baltic

24 Wednesday Jun 2020

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Saturday 13th June 2009 ko 13.00

Division 5 Norra Stockholm

ROSLAGSKULLA IF 6 (Åkerström 25 80 Fredriksson 66 Ledin 70 Nilsson 85 Makoli 87)

KISTA SC 0 

Ghiasand sent off 67 (Using offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or gestures)

Att 73

Entry FREE

In the 13 (so far) editions of the Swedish Hop, there have been no end of highlights – just put “Sweden” into the search bar to the left of this text. But I may surprise organiser Kim Hedwall and those who’ve been regular visitors on the hop. I reckon the best group of grounds were on the 3rd event in 2009. There was however one problem with that hop- the weather! Continue reading →

Endurance

16 Saturday May 2020

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With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell.

Friday April 10th 2009 ko 14.30
South West Peninsula League Division One East

ROYAL MARINES 1 (Sullivan 54og)

Foster sent off 88 (2 x dissent)

EXETER CIVIL SERVICE 2 (Hawes 60 Mortimer 68)

Att 421 at Endurance Park, Heartbreak Lane, Lymphstone

Entry £3

Programme £1

On any organised hop there’s always a club or ground the organiser knows the groundhoppers are going to love. In Easter 2009 Phil Hiscox organised the South West Peninsula Hop around his stamping ground of Devon, and it really didn’t take a genius to work out that a trip to watch the Royal Marines play at Endurance Park, at the end of Heartbreak Lane would turn out to be rather popular.

Continue reading →