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Football: Wherever it may be

~ Laurence's football travels

Football: Wherever it may be

Category Archives: S

The Shocker

08 Wednesday Jan 2020

Posted by laurencereade in S

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

9-0, Ali Dia, Ayoze Perez, Ben Chilwell, Jamie Vardy, Leicester City, Premier League, Ryan Bertrand, Southampton, St Mary's, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha

Friday 25th October 2019 ko 20.00

FA Premier League

SOUTHAMPTON 0 

Bertrand sent off 10 (serious foul play) (VAR)

LEICESTER CITY 9 (Chilwell 10 Tielemans 18 Perez 19 39 57 Vardy 45 55 90p Maddison 85)

Att 28,762

Entry – Complimentary

Programme £4

Back in Albania I was sat in the cable car heading down from Mount Dajti and was speaking to one of our guides Ditmar. He has the advantage of being a footballer, playing in the 3rd tier of the Albanian League for Mirdita so I attempted to explain groundhopping to him. The mechanics aren’t difficult to explain, watch a football match in as many places as possible, but the philosophical side is always a little more difficult. Why would someone set out to visit 5 Albanian grounds with only one being top flight? I explained it as being the type of person that likes to see what’s round the next corner.

But where are the limits he asked? For me there are very few, as long as its 11-a-side I’m happy, which does tend to throw people a little. It did with Ditmar, so he asked where I was heading next. I half smiled, half winced. “Southampton” I said, I’m not convinced he still understands completely just how far down the pecking order I watch. Part of me wished I’d said something in the Southampton & District League!

Continue reading →

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Behind (And Under) The Bike Sheds

12 Thursday Dec 2019

Posted by laurencereade in S

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Bedfordshire County league, Bedfordshire Hop, Beds Hop, Craig Dabbs, Football, Harlington Juniors, Non League, Stopsley United

Saturday 12th October 2019 ko 14.00

Bedfordshire County League Division 3

STOPSLEY UNITED 2 (Prosper 9 Downey 90)

Frater sent off 61 (violent conduct)

HARLINGTON JUNIORS 3 (Frantazelli 7 Lambert 40 77)

Thompson sent off 61 (violent conduct)

Att 128

We left village life in Haynes and headed south into Luton’s suburbs. Stopsley is a classic example of a former village that had been slowly absorbed by the larger town nearby. But I had a comment by Beds Hop organiser Craig Dabbs turning over in my mind. Continue reading →

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The Return

10 Tuesday Dec 2019

Posted by laurencereade in S

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Enfield Borough, Football, Hitchin Road, Non League, Shefford Sports Club, Shefford Town and Campton, Spartan South Midlands League

Tuesday 8th October 2019 ko 19.45

Spartan South Midlands League Division One

SHEFFORD TOWN & CAMPTON 3 (Snee 10 58 Foley 23)

ENFIELD BOROUGH 1 (Bangura 78)

Att 55

Entry & Programme £5

Its odd how sometimes the fixtures fall. With the Bedfordshire Hop on the Saturday I really didn’t fancy a trip to Bedfordshire in the preceding days. But new grounds under floodlights aren’t easily found midweek for me, and this one was only 90 minutes from home. And the ones you don’t expect too much from, usually end up being the interesting ones don’t they? Continue reading →

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The Lottery

24 Thursday Oct 2019

Posted by laurencereade in S

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Debdale Park, East Midlands Counties League, England, FA Cup, Football, groundhopping, Loughborough Dynamo, Mansfield Woodhouse, Non League, SHERWOOD COLLIERY

Tuesday 3rd September 2019 ko 19.45

FA CUP Preliminary Round Replay

SHERWOOD COLLIERY 0

LOUGHBOROUGH DYNAMO 1 (Robbins 29)

Att 341

Entry £5

Programmme £1

It’s strange how some clubs and grounds seem to pass you by. Mansfield Woodhouse-based Sherwood Colliery managed to time their rise through the ranks so as to avoid the Central Midlands League’s groundhops, and when they won promotion from that league went into the East Midlands Counties League, avoiding the Northern Counties East Hops too! I ended up driving past no end of places I’d travelled to on a hop coach to Debdale Park!

Continue reading →

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The Saint Returns

15 Thursday Aug 2019

Posted by laurencereade in S

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Banbury Road, Bobby Hancocks Park, Cropredy, England, Football, groundhopping, hellenic league, Midland League, Non League, Southam, Southam Town Juniors, Southam United

Friday 19th July 2019 ko 18.30

Pre-Season Friendly

SOUTHAM UNITED 2 (72 85)

CROPREDY 3 (Welch 25 Dineen 35 Reeves 80)

Att 26 at Youth Ground, Banbury Road.

Free Entry

Back in the the day when I lived in Banbury it became something of a tradition for Southam to play near neighbours Leamington at 11am each Boxing Day. It was never likely to be a tradition that lasted, the reformed Leamington were never likely to stay in the Midland Combination for long. Nevertheless I’m sure Southam enjoyed the bumper crowd, and I enjoyed visiting each time, even to the point of me enjoying a plate of bubble and squeak as my ex-wife drove me to Oxford United for their festive fixture afterwards! Continue reading →

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The Canal Jumpers

24 Wednesday Jul 2019

Posted by laurencereade in S

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Bosniska FK Behar, Clarion Magazinet, Football, Kim Hedwall, Möllevallen, Mikael Rubin, Non League, Skanor Falsterbo, Sweden, Swedish hop, Tre Lyktor, Trelleborg

Saturday 8th June 2019 ko 17.00

Division 6A Sydvästra Skåne

SKANÖR/FALSTERBO IF 3 (Persson 22 Lindell 48 54)

BOSNISKA FK BEHAR 3 (V. Khoshawi Essa Essa 45 Bektasevic 67 Pajovic 74)

Att 70

The Swedish Hop’s cost of £285 included all entry fees, programmes, coach travel, 2 bridge tolls on the Øresund Bridge and 2 nights’ bed and breakfast at the Clarion Magasinet Hotel in Trelleborg.

The final game of the day saw us head over the Falsterbo canal over the isthmus on to what amounts to a man-made island. The canal is short, only around 1.6km and was built in 1941. With Denmark under German occupation and with them having mined extensively the usual shipping route outside Falsterbonäset, a canal was needed to allow ships to pass through the isthmus of what’s now the island of Näset and shorten the travel from the Baltic to the Øresund strait. Continue reading →

The Four Timer

25 Tuesday Jun 2019

Posted by laurencereade in D, S

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Abingdon United, Drayton, Football, groundhopping, nbfl, Non League, North Berkshire Cup Final, Pete Ivey, Saxton Rovers

Saturday 11th May 2016 ko 18.00

North Berkshire Cup Final

DRAYTON 1 (Dennis 87p) 

SAXTON ROVERS 2 (Stanley 7 Parry 19)

Att 469 @ Abington United FC

Entry & Programme £4

I sat having a meal in the Boundary House with the rest of the NBFL’s committee before heading over the road to the Northcourt. As ever it was a convivial hour or so before the job in hand, making the final and most important game of the NBFL season run like clockwork. Continue reading →

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The Oxfordshire Day (That Wasn’t)

25 Saturday May 2019

Posted by laurencereade in C, L, S

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Chalfont Wasps, Chinnor, England, Football, groundhopping, GroundhopUK, hellenic league, Holyport, Long Crendon, Non League, Stokenchurch, Yateley United

Saturday 20th April 2019

11.00 Hellenic League Division 2 East

STOKENCHURCH 0

CHALFONT WASPS 3 (Letterman 29 42 Williams 47)

Att 234

Entry & Programme £5

15.30

15.30 Hellenic League Division 1 East

CHINNOR 1 (Knowles 54)

HOLYPORT 4 (Raply 4 45 56 Driffill 16)

Att 196

Entry £4

Programme £1

19.00 Hellenic League Division 2 East

LONG CRENDON 0

YATELEY UNITED 0

Att 269

Entry £6

Programme £1

It was unusual to be in the middle of an organised hop and for me to wake up at home. But with the Hellenic Hop visiting 3 clubs all within 20 miles from home and with an elderly father to keep an eye on, it made sense to have a couple of nights back home, even if Robyn and I did miss the full English breakfasts back at the Almondsbury Interchange! I found myself harking back to the days of the North Berkshire League’s Hops too, and on arrival at Stokenchurch you could see why. Continue reading →

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Bert

04 Thursday Apr 2019

Posted by laurencereade in S

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Football, groundhop, groundhopping, GroundhopUK, Non League, North West Counties League, Ruskin Drive, St Helens Town

Saturday 9th March 2019 ko 19.45

North-West Counties League Division One North

ST HELENS TOWN 1 (Diggle 49)

GARSTANG 3 (Coar 12 Sailor 60 Hothersall 75)

Att 292

Entry £5

Programme £2

One of the advantages of the day’s first 3 games all being so close together was that I still felt reasonably fresh as the coach pulled into the wide expanse of the Ruskin Drive Sports Ground. As with Lower Breck and Litherland Remyca earlier we’d be visiting a ground new to the league, but here was a club with a long history of membership. Continue reading →

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Adur

30 Wednesday Jan 2019

Posted by laurencereade in S

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

England, Football, Goal, groundhop, groundhoppers, groundhopping, Non League, Old Barn Way, Selsey, Southern Combination, Southwick

Tuesday 8th January 2019 ko 19.45

Southern Combination Division One

SOUTHWICK 0 

SELSEY 2 (Coates 55 Miller 77) Jefkins sent off 38 (2nd booking)

Att 35

Entry £5

Programme £1

I’m not sure how I managed to miss this place. 35 years ago I regularly used to visit my aunt in Hove (actually) and since she owned a beach hut in Shoreham we regularly took the train from Hove and given that the line runs behind Old Barn Way, I must have passed here many many times. Somehow I managed to contrive to miss Southwick’s home, but I can assure you, that wouldn’t happen on a train now! Continue reading →

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  • Damage In The Box Chris Powell’s travels across the UK and Europe. The artist must frequently seen in the pub 0
  • Emma's Ground Guide Emma and Max are a groundhopping couple based in Newark, exploring grounds in the area. 0
  • FA Cup Factfile Phil Annets on all things to do with the World’s greatest cup competition 10
  • Football Club History Database Want to know where a club finished in what league and in what year? Richard Rundle’s site is a veritable goldmine! 0
  • Football Hopper “Fast” Eddie McGeown’s erudite perambulations around the nation’s football grounds 0
  • Groundhopping.se Per-Gunnar Nilsson’s trips around his native Sweden, and into Europe 0
  • Grounds for concern The late Mishi Morath’s picture blog. Obviously no longer updated but still a wonderful archive. 0
  • Modus Hopper Random Graham Yapp’s travels 0
  • Swedish Football History & Statistics Mats Nyström’s curates this site, which does exactly what you’d expect 0
  • The 100 Grounds Club Shaun Smith’s groundhopping football blog. The original internet ground logging website. 0
  • The Football Traveller The bible for every groundhopper. Non-League fixtures magazine delivered weekly. Published and edited by Chris Bedford 0
  • The Itinerant Football Watcher Peter finds the grounds other hoppers cannot reach. Top bloke too! 0
  • The66POW Rob Waite’s travels 0

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