Category Archives: S

Ox-Bow

06 Thursday Aug 2015

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Thursday 30th July 2015 ko 18.30

West Dean Charity League Junior Section Group 1

ST BRIAVELS 3 (38 58 85)

WESTON 3 (27secs 12 50)

Att 8

Its tempting to define the Forest of Dean as that part of Gloucestershire that’s between the rivers Wye and Severn and is south of the A40. You soon discover the fallacy of that when you head south down the A48, then turn off at Westbury and climb. The forest gradually takes over and the pace of life slows, it really is a different but beautiful part of the world, and you forget just how close you are to the Welsh border until you see mileage signs to Monmouth in single figures. Continue reading →

Island of Sheep

14 Tuesday Jul 2015

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Thursday 9th July 2015 ko 19.45

Europa League 1st Qualifying Round 2nd Leg

ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC 0

SKONTO RIGA 2 (Sorokins 37 Karasavkas 59p)

Skonto win 4-1 on aggregate

Att 2,345

Entry €15 (c £10.59)

Programme €3

St Pats have their own seagull. That’s right, a seagull and she sits atop a floodlight casting a beady eye on proceedings below, and isn’t adverse to attacking visitors who she thinks are threatening her nest in the stand. Richmond Park is in the Inchicore (in gaelic “Island of Sheep”) suburb in the west of Dublin, and is named after the former British army base here. Nearby is the preserved Kilmainham Jail where several members of the 1916 Rising were executed. Continue reading →

Another Way of Looking At It

21 Sunday Jun 2015

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Stockholm June 2015

One of the fringe benefits of watching obscure football matches all over the world, is that you inevitably end up seeing a country and its people as they are, not as the tourist guides try to present it. Over the last 9 years Stockholm has signposted many significant times in my life; I jump on plane and 2 hours later there it is, welcoming me back. But until now I’d failed to take the short-cut and visit all the touristy bits. Continue reading →

Rounding It All Off

11 Monday May 2015

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Saturday 9th May 2015 ko 19.00

North Berkshire Cup Final

BERINSFIELD 5 (Saunders 21 D Murphy 26 37 90 Holdsworth 60)

SAXTON ROVERS 0

Att c450 at Northcourt Road, Abingdon (Abingdon United FC)

Entry & Programme £3

If there’s one game at the end of each season I hate to miss its this one, and please don’t confuse it with the North Berkshire League Cup Final, this one is open to all first XI’s in the league, and you get a far better class of guest of honour, the trophy was presented by Angela Lawrence, Mayor of Abingdon. She was rewarded for her efforts with a champagne soaking! It’s the traditional closing of the NBFL season, a celebration, but this year there was more than usual to consider.

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Nursery

01 Friday May 2015

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Saturday 25th April 2015 ko 18.15

Notts Senior League- Senior Division

SANDHURST 4 (Shaw 30 Pearson 32 Clarkson 54p Chapman 55)

KIRTON BRICKWORKS 2 (Ricketts 6 Cooper 82)

Att 346

Entry £3

Programme £1

You could sense the worry as the stream of traffic left Burton Joyce. With hop organiser Rob Hornby scheduling four games in a day without floodlights the game that would be tightest for time would be this one, pulled forward to preserve the light. We put the postcode into the satnav, and winced as the ETA showed just 15 minutes before kick-off. With no delays, that would be fine, but the queue to the junction was being exacerbated by the regular trains using the level crossing. Continue reading →

Treading Caerphilly

26 Sunday Apr 2015

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Tuesday 21st April 2015 ko 18.30

Peterborough & District League Premier Division

STILTON UNITED 0

SAWTRY 4 (B Smith 30p 44 61 Ablitt 55)

Att 24

Entry FREE

Nothing for sale

A few years ago, I visited United Counties League side Yaxley at their Leading Drove Ground. The car park was full so I parked at a pitch opposite and a little further along the road. I marvelled at how little there was there, literally just a pitch, two dugouts and two goals surrounded by flat fields all the way to the East coast main line in the distance. The highest structure in the place is the two crossbars! I found out that Stilton FC played there, logged the place for future reference, and completely forgot about the place for 3 years! Continue reading →

Ambitions

19 Sunday Apr 2015

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Monday 13th April 2015 ko 18.30

Hampshire Premier League, Senior Division

AFC STONEHAM 1 (Forbes 48)

HAMBLE CLUB 3 (Thomson 5 90 Watts 35)

Att 71

Entry FREE

No Programme

When you visit a few grounds in a particular league, you start to get a feel for that league. And then a club comes along that completely changes that perception and that club for me was AFC Stoneham. Continue reading →

Imagine

12 Sunday Apr 2015

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Saturday 4th April 2015 ko 16.45

Northern Counties East League Premier Division

SHAW LANE AQUAFORCE 1 (Denton 38)

HEANOR TOWN 0

Att 344

Entry £5

Programme £1.50

Imagine if you will, you were from Barnsley and a keen Sheffield Wednesday fan. You’ve started and built a successful water meter business, so you decide to rent an executive box at Hillsborough. You’ve won the game of life, and are metaphorically munching the prawn sandwiches at your favourite club, but there’s something missing.

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Battleground

25 Wednesday Mar 2015

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Saturday 21st March 2015 ko 15.30

Lowland League

SELKIRK 1 (See 58)

THE SPARTANS 1 (Brown 84)

Att 281

Entry £5

Programme £2

With so much riding on this hop I was nervous as the coach left Innerleithen for our middle game of the day. It’s that word “middle” that’s key, on any organised groundhop you tend to see, “Drift” where hoppers find an alternative games for the middle game on a Saturday when the competition for them is at its greatest. The solution is to schedule 4 games so that the hopper has to miss 2 hop games to go elsewhere but the geography and the lack of floodlights at Selkirk’s Yarrow Park made that impossible. Continue reading →

Mix & Match

07 Wednesday Jan 2015

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Tuesday 6th January 2015 ko 19.45

Northern Premier League Challenge Cup 2nd Round

STAFFORD RANGERS 2 (Curtis 71 90)

RUSHALL OLYMPIC 2 (Mugisha 35 Heath 88)

No extra time, Rushall won 6-5 on penalties

Att 192

Entry £5 (reduced from £9)

Programme £1 (reduced size)

Don’t you just love seeing a floodlit stadium come into view as you turn round a bend? If like me you do, then a trip to Marston Road is a must. That must for me was way overdue, perhaps that one season when in the Conference Premier, my club Oxford United played Rangers made me subconsciously procrastinate from going.

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