Category Archives: T

The Popular Front

02 Wednesday Aug 2023

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Saturday 15th July 2023 ko 15:00

Pre-season friendly

TOOTING & MITCHAM UNITED 3 (A Trialist 23 Siklawi 25 B Trialist 75)

CORINTHIAN-CASUALS 1 (Trialist 34)

Att 118 at Back Pitch, Imperial Fields

Entry £3

This one started with a comment that was unlikely to be endearing to a Tooting fan. My wife Robyn has been slowly trying to complete her “92” and suggested she go to Sutton United vs Reading if I could find a game at a new ground for me nearby. However much Tooting’s fans might hate Sutton United, their existence got me to this game!

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The Bridge

24 Monday Jul 2023

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Saturday 24th June 2023 ko 13:00

Pre-season Friendly

TREFELIN BGC 2 (54, 60)

CARDIFF CORINTHIANS 5 (16 40p 45 76 89)

Att 45 at Cefn Saeson Comprehensive School

Some folks, it seems, do like rules. After the Swedish Hop I’d been quite happy to do very little in footballing terms. It was a chance to rest, recharge, and pursue other interests. Yes, there is a lot more to Robyn and I than just football! But then Robyn wanted to spend the afternoon with her mum in Bristol, and I’d spotted a game, in South Wales. And if you can’t find something interesting there, then with all due respect, you probably have your eyes closed.

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Selfishly Thinking

18 Tuesday Jul 2023

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Sunday 4th June 2023 ko 13:00

Ettan Norra

TÄBY FK 3 (Hellqvist 16 Johannsson 18 Grönborg 45)

BODENS BK FF 3 (Bawa 56 Cief 81 Hejal 90+5)

Att 154

Entry & Programme 120 sek (approx. £8.94)

The Swedish Hop’s cost of £450 included bed and breakfast for two nights, all transport in Sweden, together with entry fees and programmes for all games.

It was the final day of the 14th Swedish Hop and although there was the normal regret of soon leaving, it was tempered by a quite superlative breakfast at our hotel in Sollentuna. Three types of pickled herring, 2 of smoked salmon, and the inevitable crispy bacon and meatballs meant I ate bit both extensively and well! Again, in an ideal world we’d have then headed for a lower league Sunday morning game, but since we’d drawn a complete blank, organizer Kim Hedwall did have a plan.

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The Derby Of Ten

14 Wednesday Jun 2023

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Monday 1st May 2023 ko 14:45

Kent County League Premier Division

TENTERDEN TOWN 2 (Kirby 3 Sharp 31)

Burton sent off 57 (2nd booking)

TEN-EM-BEE 1 (Nelson 7)

Att 41

Free Entry

From leafy Surrey it didn’t take long to relocate to leafy Kent, and no the difference wasn’t massive! Tenterden lies close to Ashford, and maintains a feeling of gentle affluence. In fact Robyn and I took full advantage, after the game we decamped to the White Lion for a quite superb meal. It seemed churlish not to.  Continue reading →

The Day Off

24 Wednesday May 2023

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Saturday 8th April 2023

11:00 Hellenic League Division 2 East

MORTIMER 2 (Gorman 22 Parfitt-Bowes 57)

CHINNOR 0

Att 209

14:30 Hellenic League Division 2 East

TAPLOW UNITED 2 (Eaves 35 Umbewa 38)

CHALFONT WASPS 2 (Drummond 45 Sava 76)

Pereira penalty saved 90

Att 140

17:30 Hellenic League Division 2 East

WOODCOTE FC 4 (Allen 19og Webber 28 Nowell 45 Downes 84)

FC BEACONSFIELD 0

Att 243

Entry & Programme for each game – £4

I suppose it had to happen at some point, I actually took a day off- from GroundhopUK at least! It had certainly been a while, to the point that I’d actually got married, separated, divorced, engaged, and married again during all those hops we’ve organised over the last 15-plus years. But the great beauty of GroundHopUK these days is that it isn’t just about Chris Berezai and I. Since the Bedfordshire League decided to spurn Craig Dabbs’ skills, kindness and hard work, he’s come on board- your loss Mr Francis, and now my wife Robyn deals with the social media too. There are also no end of folks that help us out, and there’s the various league officials to do some of the leg work too. Continue reading →

Bert

23 Sunday Apr 2023

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Saturday 18th March 2023 ko 17:00

Lowland League

TRANENT JUNIORS 1 (Reid 90)

BO’NESS UNITED 1 (Walker 49)

Att 607

Entry £8

Programme £3

So half-way through the event and in so many ways a statement of where the Scottish Hop is at. It’s easy to forget that the hop started as an exclusively Lowland League event in 2014 and didn’t take in an East of Scotland League game until Eyemouth 3 years later. I remember shrugging my shoulders as one or two prejudiced types scuttled off elsewhere as they thought the level would be beneath them. I’ve always been an advocate of going weird early, so found their actions odd, and allowed myself a wry smile when they ended up watching the East of Scotland League a couple of years later. Continue reading →

The Right People

11 Tuesday Apr 2023

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Friday 17th March 2023 ko 19:45

East of Scotland League Premier Division

TYNECASTLE 2 (Hamilton 5 77)

Blaney sent off 12 (dangerous play)

SAUCHIE JUNIORS 3 (Hutchison 23 secs Columbine 60 Morgan 67)

Hutchinson sent off 3 (foul & abusive)

Att 448

Entry £8

Programme £2

I was under pressure. I was driving my wife Robyn and Craig Dabbs up to Edinburgh as the GroundhopUK advance party. Our role was to collate the 6 sets of programmes for the weekend’s hop into ticket and programme packs for those who had bought prebooked tickets. For once the M6 behaved, but my clutch wasn’t, and despite a litre of clutch fluid bought from a lad in Halfords, Hamilton who seemed happy to have someone to talk to, the concern was would we get to Meggetland, then get round the grounds? Continue reading →

Zaja

13 Monday Mar 2023

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Saturday 18th February 2023 ko 19:00

Kategoria Superiore

PARTIZANI TIRANA 3 (Rrapajy 45 Da Silva 46 Hoti 71)

Gueye sent off 1 (dangerous play- VAR)

KF ERZENI 0

Att c 1,500 at Kompleksi Partizani

Entry- Complimentary (tickets in our stand was on sale of 1000 lek – roughly £7.69; opposite was 300 lek)

We’d got back from Vorë with more than enough time for a late lunch. We’d settled in the Tirana suburb of Kinostudio, Ditmar’s home and where the communists used to produce their propaganda films. Since those days the area has seen no little investment, and I suspect the bar we sat in had never known rule by Enver Hoxha.

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Shelter

13 Tuesday Dec 2022

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Saturday 15th October 2022 ko 15:00

Central Midlands League Cup 1st Round

TEVERSAL 1 (Fletcher 23)

Fletcher sent off 45 (2nd booking)

DERBY SINGH BROTHERS 1 (Lawrence 43p)

No extra time, Teversal won 5-4 on penalties

Att 33

Entry £3

Programme £1

As a groundhopper there are always occasional grounds that seem to pass you by. In the case of Teversal, I always imagined the Northern Counties East Hop would visit Carnarvon Street, but two things happened, first the club seemed sufficiently unhappy at the whole procedure neither league nor organisers dared to ask them, and then they got relegated back to the Central Midlands League, where ironically we could actually feature them now. I wonder; they’ve certainly got the ground! Continue reading →

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 →