Category Archives: S

The Flock

20 Wednesday Jun 2018

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Friday 4th May 2018 ko 19.00

Central Midlands League -South Division

SWANWICK PENTRICH ROAD 3 (G Wilding 52 Brooks 77 83)

ASLOCKTON & ORSTON 0

Att 194

Entry £3

Programme £1

If there was ever a league with a history with the organised groundhop it was the Central Midlands League. It reached the national consciousness in 2004 when the league hosted the first and so far only 5-in-a-day hop with the Times in tow to cover it! The hop also managed to be the first to feature 8 games in 48 hours in a freezing March in 2008. Who could forget the snow in Calverton? Of course at the centre of the hops were Chris Berezai at GroundhopUK and the league’s Rob Hornby. Continue reading →

Patterns

16 Wednesday May 2018

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Saturday 14th April 2018 ko 11.00

FA Premier U18 League

SWANSEA CITY 0

LEICESTER CITY 0

Att 113 @ Landore Training Centre

Entry FREE

Teamsheet FREE

With the Welsh Spring Hop almost completely rejigged we left our hotel at Carmarthen a little earlier than usual. With the loss of the Carmarthenshire League’s fixtures I found myself feeling a pang of regret as the coach turned left out of the hotel and headed towards Pont Abraham and the M4. I remembered our 4 year stint in the Ceredigion League where we turned right and headed north; I don’t remember a club on those hops who didn’t host beautifully. It’s a shame we’ve completed the league and there’s no new grounds to visit. But that’s in the past sadly, and there was a trip to Swansea City’s training ground to ponder. Continue reading →

The Hammer of Tours

30 Monday Apr 2018

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Saturday 31st March 2018 ko 11.00

South West Peninsula League Division One East

ST MARTINS 4 (Watson 5 90 Davies 62 Richards 81)

ALPHINGTON 0

Att 383

Entry £4

Programme £1

Finally, an organised hop in the UK in 2018 saw a day with pleasant weather. It seemed an almost entirely different journey from Paignton to Exeter than it had been during the rain-soaked preceding two days. Robyn and I headed to Exeter’s southernmost suburbs, to the almost subsumed village of Exminster, with the austere-looking form of the former Devon Mental Hospital overlooking proceedings. The building was designed by Charles Fowler who also designed the main Covent Garden market building, and is converted to housing, but the feeling of unease still persists about the place.  Continue reading →

Reputations

22 Sunday Apr 2018

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Friday 30th March 2018 ko 11.30

South West Peninsula League Division One East

SIDMOUTH TOWN 3 (Davies 32 Knight 74 83)

BUDLEIGH SALTERTON 4 (Taylor 37 Antat 49 A Boere 54 White 78_

Att 336

Hop Ticket (programmes not included) £25

Entry £3

Programme £1.50

The alarm sounded at Robyn and I’s bed and breakfast, and I didn’t need to open the curtains to check the weather, I could hear the torrents hammering the cars parked outside. Whilst the Full English breakfast was superlative, we ate in near silence knowing that the weather was at best going make watching 3 matches in a day difficult and at worst curtail the fun early. It was a day to trust Phil Hiscox the event organiser, and take what was coming. Little did we know that their would be a whole series of problems beyond the organiser’s control.  Continue reading →

Nigel of Stafford

13 Tuesday Feb 2018

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Tuesday 6th February 2018 ko 19.45

East Midlands Counties League

STAPENHILL 1 (Gough 85)

KIMBERLEY MINERS WELFARE 3 (Bowen 32 Hassall 60 74)

Att c50

Entry & Programme £5

I sometimes wonder what a non-groundhopper makes of this blog. On one hand there are visits to some high-profile games such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s demolition of England in 2012 and games such as White Horse Abingdon where the attendance was me! People do seem to forget the commonality is that both are still football matches, but the question that isn’t answered by either is “What drives someone to drive through sleet and snow to watch over a 100 games a season?” Continue reading →

Jerusalem

01 Thursday Feb 2018

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Saturday 27th January 2018 ko 14.00

West Riding County Amateur League Premier Division

SALTS 2 (Pleasance 53 59)

BRITANNIA SPORTS 0

Att c50

With an honourable mention to Salts 4th’s 4 Horton FC 1 on the adjacent pitch!

Entry FREE

Programme £1

I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In Englands green & pleasant Land.

Blake. “And did those feet in ancient time”

Maybe when William Blake wrote what eventually became the hymn “Jerusalem he had Bradford in mind. The area was famous for being the wool capital of the world and the Industrial Revolution saw rapid expansion and industrialisation. The city grew unchecked during the early 19th century and that growth came without any thought to workers rights, or or the lives they led in or out of the workplace. The result was terrible living conditions with horrifying mortality and morbidity figures among the dark Satanic Mills but local mill owner Titus Salt chose to do something about it.

Continue reading →

The Anticompletionist

25 Thursday Jan 2018

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Tuesday 16th January 2017 ko 19.45

Essex Senior League

SAWBRIDGEWORTH TOWN 5 (Mays 35 Cleaver 46 67 Wickenden 62 Monk 80)

HULLBRIDGE SPORTS 0

Att 38

Entry £7

Programme £1

When I started clocking up the grounds the aim was never completion in any league or region. Years later I still like the idea that I can pick up the Football Traveller and still have plenty of options across the levels of the game particularly midweek. But for better or for worse, and for what little it’s worth, this game saw me complete the Essex Senior League. It is after all an achievement notable only to me, and there is a tinge of regret as I do have a lot of time for the league. So for now my journey through the ESL has reached its terminus, but it did end rather oddly. Continue reading →

The Wrong Floodlights

10 Sunday Dec 2017

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Saturday 2nd December 2017 ko 14.00

Combined Counties League Division One

SHEERWATER 5 (Rideout 30secs 6 Wilson 3 Machay 35 76)

AC LONDON 1 (Silva 69) Dallal sent off (DOGSO) 35

Att c40

Entry £4

Programme £1

Sheerwater is of course the home of mod band The Jam. Paul Weller, Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler were all residents of this 1950’s suburb of Woking before hitting the big time with their first single “In the City.” It is a typical commuter town’s suburb with the community’s facilities all at the southern edge but within all of that the local football club has a real problem.

Without doubt the pressure is increasing on those Step 6 clubs whose grounds fail ground grading. The reasons for failing are varied, sometimes it’s because the ground isn’t enclosed and a common one is lack of floodlights, but Sheerwater’s reason is unusual, they do have floodlights, it’s just that they are the wrong ones! Continue reading →

The Youngest Of The Old

04 Monday Dec 2017

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Saturday 25th November 2017 ko 15.00

League 1

SOUTHEND UNITED 1 (Cox 19)

OXFORD UNITED 1 (Thomas 22)

Att 6,797 (566 away)

Entry – Complimentary

Programme £3

It would be a mistake to lump Roots Hall into the category of venerable UK football grounds. I’ve covered visits to the likes of Fulham and Brentford here, but Roots Hall has only been home to Southend United since 1955, although the original Southend United did play games on a pitch on this site on formation in 1906. But until 1988 when Scunthorpe United moved from the Old Showground to the hideous Glanford Park, Roots Hall was the youngest ground in the Football League. Continue reading →

Into The Light

16 Thursday Nov 2017

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Wednesday 18th October 2017 ko 19.45

Wiltshire Senior Cup- First Round

SHREWTON UNITED 0

CHIPPENHAM TOWN 7 (Ricketts 15 77 81 Richards 24 Smile 51 87 Bowman 54)

Att c115

Entry £5

When groundhoppers get deeper into the hobby they tend to realise that the number of floodlit grounds is far more finite than those without, so tend to go for unlit grounds on Saturdays and save the floodlit grounds for midweeks when the lights are in use. That throws up the unusual sub-set of grounds who have floodlights, but seldom use them. An extreme example of this is North Berkshire League club Uffington United who currently are the only club in their league to have lights, and have only used them twice, both times for games I’ve helped organise! Shrewton’s case is less extreme, as their lights are there as a legacy. Continue reading →