Category Archives: S

The Groove

07 Thursday Mar 2024

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Friday 1st March 2024 ko 19:45

North West Counties League Division One North

FC ST HELENS 1 (Hall 24)

Hall penalty saved 21

DAISY HILL 0

Att 504*

Entry £5

Programme £2

Maybe it was the weather, or maybe it was being in such a groove with Step 5/6 hops another GroundhopUK event seemed little more than a continuation of what had finished last October at Billingshurst. Of course there were massive differences, a shift in locale from Sussex to the North West for one but such is the preponderance now of hop in leagues at that “Sweet Spot” of Steps 5 and 6 as part of the organising team there is usually very little that a club can do that will really surprise us. And yet on this weekend, one club managed to do precisely that.

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The Lasses

22 Monday Jan 2024

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Sunday 14th January 2024 ko 13:00

FA Women’s Cup 4th Round

SUNDERLAND AFC WOMEN 0

SOUTHAMPTON FC WOMEN 2 (Wilkinson 55 88)

Att 300 at Eppleton Colliery Welfare, Hetton-le-Hole

Entry £10

Once Robyn and I had decided that the trip to watch Carlisle United was going to be 3-day affair, then I knew we’d have no end of alternatives for a game on the Sunday. There was of course the inevitable bending of “It’s on the way home” but I imagine that by now you’ve come to expect that? I mean of course Hetton-le-Hole is en route from Carlisle to Oxford, isn’t it? Just the A69 to negotiate…..

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Nesting

09 Tuesday Jan 2024

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Saturday 30th December 2023 ko 15:00

Northern Counties East League Division One

SWALLOWNEST 1 (Spick 84)

SHIREBROOK TOWN 6 (Macaskill 17 38 Day 44 54 Skelton 49og K Watson 80)

Att 135

Entry £6

Programme £2 (reissue from 12/09/23)

On the way back from Warrington we’d pondered ideas for our last game of 2023. I must admit we’d rather neglected the Northern Counties East, I’d more or less completed the league when the groundhop was based there, but that event finished at Selby in 2017 and there’s been plenty of club churn since then.

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Almost

05 Tuesday Dec 2023

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Saturday 11th November 2023 ko 14:00

Shropshire County League Premier Division

ST MARTINS 1 (Smart 28og)

DAWLEY TOWN 9 (Sabar 17 Knowles 48 67 81p 88 90 Watkins 65 Smart 67 McLeod 75)

Att c40

Entry FREE

Programme £2

After being involved in 3 organised groundhops in 5 weeks, I wanted to avoid anything quite so organised for a while. If you have asked me on the way back from Billingshurst what I fancied visiting next I’d have probably said something low-key with a view. I’ll leave you, dear reader to work out whether St Martins added up to that choice!

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The Brother

29 Wednesday Nov 2023

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Saturday 28th October 2023 ko 17:45

Southern Combination Division One

SELSEY 2 (Henton 54 Morey 72)

ROFFEY 2 (Fernades 16 Joseph 20)

Fender sent off (violent conduct 50)

Att 327

Entry £6

Programme £2

The fact that it wasn’t raining between leaving Bosham and arrival at Selsey felt like a window of opportunity. We’d passed by the oddity that is Infinity at Sidlesham with many of the coach party craning to catch a glimpse of the Memorial Ground. It’s always the same whenever we pass by a ground….

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Mussel Bound

22 Wednesday Nov 2023

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Friday 27th October 2023 ko 19:45

Southern Combination Premier Division

SHOREHAM 0

Tims sent off 50 (2nd booking)

CROWBOROUGH ATHLETIC 4 (Murraine 59 Killick 62 Pearson 72 83p)

Att 223

Entry £8

Programme £2

I must admit an organised groundhop for the Southern Combination came as a surprise to me. My regular reader might remember that we’d wanted a southern-based hop for a while. That started in 2015 with my unsuccessful attempt to get the Wessex League on board but out of the ashes of that project two things happened. The first was that late Mark Edmonds contacted us at GroundhopUK to organise a hop for the Western League, and around that time I contacted the Southern Combination.

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Tell Sid

21 Tuesday Nov 2023

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Tuesday 24th October ko 19:45

Hampshire Premier League Senior Division

INFINITY 1 (Powell 15)

BISHOPS WALTHAM DYNAMOS 2 (Riddell 11 Dawson 74)

Att 34 at Sidlesham Memorial Recreation Ground

Free Entry

When GroundhopUK’s Chris Berezai phoned me to say that the Southern Combination Hop was in part, going to be based in around the Selsey Peninsula I looked at a map and wondered why I’d never got around to visiting Sidlesham FC? With the line-up we had I knew the following weekend’s event would be passing by the Memorial Ground, and I knew not having seen a game there would irk me.

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Crazy Bear

14 Tuesday Nov 2023

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Sunday 22nd October 2023 ko 10:30

Upper Thames Valley Sunday League

STADHAMPTON 0

J Davies sent off 86 (2nd booking)

FC CHILTON 3 (Barrett 13 Hickman 27 Jacks 71p)

Att 27

Free Entry

I don’t think too many hoppers would put up a Swedish groundhopper in their house for the weekend and immediately think, “I know, let’s go and watch Stadhampton FC!”

Swedish Hop organiser Joachim “Kim” Hedwall was over from Stockholm for the weekend, and like me when in his country we see it as the host’s responsibility to find a game that isn’t too obvious. The idea is if the visitor can find it from home, then it’s probably not obscure enough! I’ll leave it to you to decide whether the Upper Thames Valley League is obvious!

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Leisure

18 Monday Sep 2023

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Tuesday 12th September 2023 ko 19:45

Eastern Counties League Division One North

STANWAY PEGASUS 5 (Booth 6 Kabongu 14 Griffith 35 81 Ager 73)

CORNARD UNITED 0

Att 156

Entry & Programme £7

Roughly speaking I reckon there are three reasons why a groundhopper visits a new ground. One is simply because it’s there, another its because it’s known to be superb, and the third is you need it to complete a league. There can be little doubt the reason I was at Stanway School was the third reason….

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The City That Isn’t

22 Tuesday Aug 2023

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Sunday 30th July 2023 ko 12:00

United Counties League Division One

SOUTHWELL CITY 3 (Law 5 Peace-McDonald 42 Bowles 81)

LEICESTER ST ANDREWS 0

Att 477

Entry £5

Programme £1

As is so often the case, the whole timbre of the event changed for the Sunday games. We left suburban Nottingham and headed north to Southwell and got caught in the middle of a bicycle race, and don’t let football club’s name mislead you, Southwell’s minster refers to the Newark diocese rather than the town itself. On a groundhopping basis though, our visit was a little unusual.

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