Category Archives: U

The One We All Wanted

08 Friday Feb 2019

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Saturday 26th January 2019 ko 13.30

Norfolk Senior Cup Quarter Final

U.E.A. 0

SWAFFHAM TOWN 3 (Pearson 5 Castellan 65 75)

Att c60 at University of East Anglia Playing Fields, Colney Lane, Norwich

Free Entry

It’s probably common knowledge that GroundhopUK and the Anglian Combination have agreed to work together to stage an Anglian Hop in 2020. If you’d have told me even at the start of this season I’d get to write that, I’d have laughed at you. We’d tried, and tried again but each time received a firm, but polite “No” from the league. I’d mentally filed the idea along with the Highland League Hop in that folder marked “Nice idea but it’ll never happen” but then Twitter intervened! Continue reading →

Those Lights

02 Sunday Oct 2016

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Friday 16th September 2016 ko 19.45

North Berkshire League Division 3

UFFINGTON UNITED 1 (Larman 49og)

MARCHAM 2 (Yallop 65 Larman 68)

Att 99

Entry & Programme £4

The North Berkshire League Hop has managed to produce plenty of memorable moments since we first visited Steventon back in 2011. Since then we’ve introduced minibuses called Rod, Jane & Freddy, been on two military bases, and seen off a Step 5 league who presumably thought that since we’re off-pyramid we don’t matter. Continue reading →

The Balancing Act

15 Friday Jul 2016

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15th July 2016

United Counties/ Peterborough & District League Hop 29th-31st July

It’s just about to get busy…. as one half of GroundhopUK-  the organisers of this year’s event I don’t think there’s ever been an organised groundhop this early, not that that’s a bad thing, long days, and hopefully warm weather are things to be enjoyed and taken advantage of. This will be the third event the two leagues have done, so now is good time to step back for a minute and look at how it all works. Continue reading →

To The Power Of Ten

12 Sunday Jun 2016

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Friday 3rd June 2016 ko 19.00

Division 4 Mellersta Stockholm

URSVIK IK 4 (Kullberg 36 74 89 Papathanasiou 81)

REYMERSHOLMS IK 2 (Rykelt 53 Engström 58)

Att 75

Back in 2007 if you had have suggested to either organiser Kim Hedwall or I that in 9 years’ time we’d be sat on a coach to Arlanda airport to do the pick-ups for the tenth Swedish Hop we’d have laughed at you. In fact we’d have probably only just stopped laughing now! For the most part the Swedish Hop has made copious use of Kim’s encyclopedic knowledge of the Swedish non-league scene, to the extent that on at least one occasion – Strömsbergs– its taken me some time to work out exactly where I was!
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Second Servings

01 Sunday May 2016

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Wednesday 20th April 2016 ko 18.30

North Berkshire League Division 3

UFFINGTON UNITED 2 (Masterlez 19 Byrne 33)

GROVE RANGERS 2 (Cramp 31 Chalmers 46)

Att 7

Entry FREE

No Programme

For many groundhoppers the village of Uffington means one thing. It’s where in 2012 188 of us watched a NBFL Division 5 game. It was quite an evening, Uffington beat the now defunct Appleton 12-0, one player scored 8 and another scorer made the Chilli con Carne that sold in quite gargantuan quantities!  Continue reading →

The Golden Lion

04 Thursday Dec 2014

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Sunday 30th November 2014 ko 13.30

Welsh Cup 3rd Round

UNDY AFC 2 (Cullimore 10 Hooper 45)

CARMARTHEN TOWN 4 (Harling 37 Belle 62p Hartland 76 White 90)

Att 331

Entry £5

Programme £2

When Carmarthen Town’s historian and press man Chris Harte emailed to alert me to the unusual day for this fixture I knew I had background in this part of the world. If you travel into Wales on the M4 using the second Severn Bridge the first village you see is Magor and its service station. Adjacent to Magor is Undy, and for years I travelled here to see Bethan, a friend of my ex-wife’s. Continue reading →

Malted Milk

29 Wednesday Oct 2014

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Tuesday 28th October 2014 ko 19.45

Midland League Division One

UTTOXETER TOWN 3 (Curley 15 85 Redshaw 80)

ATHERSTONE TOWN 1 (Storey 49)

Att 227

Entry £3

Programme £1

The Staffordshire town is reckoned to have had 79 different spellings of its name since its mention in the Domesday Book as “Wotocheshede” Perhaps now you know Uttoxeter now for its racecourse, or for Fox’s Malted Milk biscuits, or even Samuel Johnson’s penance. Dr Johnson’s father ran a bookstall on Uttoxeter market, and young Samuel once refused to help out on the stall. When Johnson was older, he stood in the rain (without a hat) as a penance for his failure to assist. Now Uttoxeter has another reason to be famous, its football team. Continue reading →

Sunset

16 Wednesday Jul 2014

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Tuesday 15th July 2014 ko 19.30

Pre-season Friendly

UNITED SERVICES PORTSMOUTH 2 (Coker 9 Dark 26)

FAREHAM TOWN 5 (Neal 22 Houks 53og Robinson 55 A T Rialist 83 90)

Att 13 at 3G pitch HMS Temeraire, Portsmouth

Entry FREE

Programme- You are joking aren’t you?

I visited USP’s Victory Stadium around 4 years ago, and it too is in HMS Temeraire, near Portmouth Docks. There’s no great security here, just a contracted-out guard, who seemed to be about as interested in me as I was in him! When I found out about this fixture, two things immediately struck me, firstly that I now had the camera to do the backdrop justice, and secondly that I was banned!

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Einstein-a-go-go

09 Wednesday Apr 2014

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Friday 4th April 2014 ko 19.00

Regionalliga Südwest

SSV ULM 1846 FUẞBALL 2 (Ludmann 71 Trkkulja 81)

SpVgg NECKARELZ 0 Gerstle missed penalty 89

Att 798

Entry €16 (€1 =82p) for Haupttribune (Main Stand)

Programme €1

Badge €2.50

The university of city of Ulm lies on the on the Baden-Württemberg side of the river Danube, its twin city Neu-Ulm lies on the Bavarian side. It’s a genteel place, even if the likes of Daimler, and Siemens have large presences here, and the makers of James Bond’s PPK gun, Walther are based here too. Ulm Minster towers over just about everything, sporting as it does the world’s tallest steeple, a massive 530 feet, and 768 steps to the top. No, I was not tempted to climb it!

Ulm is the birthplace of the greatest scientist of all, Albert Einstein and is where the founders of the White Rose movement, siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl were brought up. The, Die Weiße Rose movement was a non-violent resistance group to the Nazi regime that distributed leaflets calling for the overthrow of Hitler between 1942 and 1943, until the group were arrested, tried and beheaded. A memorial is to be found on the Münsterplatz commemorating the Scholls’ sacrifice.

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Circles

12 Sunday Jan 2014

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A week or two ago I was asked by the United Counties League Facebook page to write a guest article. It quite deliberately doesn’t mention the Peterborough & District League, who are also involved in August’s hop, after all it was for a purely UCL audience!

I’m a groundhopper, there I’ve said it, and the United Counties League and I go back to October 2003. I’d just moved to Banbury, and saw that Woodford United were at home to Stewarts & Lloyds. The ground was a devil to find, it helped when the lights were switched on, and I watched S & L triumph once their regular goalkeeper arrived and was substituted on! The people were friendly, and the barbeque tasted as good as it smelled!

I must have enjoyed myself, Continue reading →