Category Archives: W

Bird Watching

06 Thursday Nov 2025

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Friday 22nd August 2025 ko 18:45

West Lancashire League Premier Division

BLACKPOOL WREN ROVERS 2 (King 58 68)

POULTON 1 (Hallan 55)

Scammell sent off (serious foul play) 72

Att 388

Entry £3

Programme £2

For groundhoppers of a certain age August Bank Holiday always added up to multiple games in Wales. The Welsh Hop lasted from 2002 to 2022 and we all missed the epic events they always were. Any replacement had to be good, and we even ran events without anything on August Bank Holiday for two years. The irony is that you could say the solution to it was in house…

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Randomness

29 Wednesday Oct 2025

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Saturday 16th August 2025 ko 13:45

North East Wales Senior Challenge Cup 2nd Round

CPD YR WYDDGRUG 2 (Summer 25 North 33)

RHYDYMWYN FC 3 (Whelan 59p 80 Farron 83)

Att 20 at Gwernymynydd Village Centre

Free Entry

One of the great joys of a day out with Chris Garner is that he shares my liking for making the game as random as possible. Where doesn’t matter too much, or at what level, in fact if it’s in a league we don’t know- all the better. Here though the idea was straightforward- we picked the most unpronounceable game (to English ears!) we could find!

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Bodieve

18 Wednesday Jun 2025

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Friday 18th April 2025 ko 19:00

South West Peninsula League Premier West

WADEBRIDGE TOWN 1 (Harris 80)

CAMELFORD AFC 1 (Bidgood 78)

Att 427

Entry £6

Programme £2

From the crush at Truro the Peninsula Hop returned to a sense of normality at Wadebridge. That said, the rains persisted, and the fact that we’d got a soaking meant I really didn’t fancy another at Bodieve Park.

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The Elephant

20 Tuesday May 2025

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Saturday 29th March 2025 ko 14:00

Oxfordshire Senior League Division Two

WITNEY TOWN 5 (Oliver 22 Morton 63 76 86 Holloway-Carney 90+3)

BLETCHINGTON 1 (Simpson 37)

Att 88 at Witney ATP, Gordon Way

Entry & Programme- By Donation

You could argue this is Witney Town’s third incarnation. The first played Witney Town played at Marriotts Close, got as far as the Southern League, moved to Oakey Park later renamed Marriotts Stadium in 1992, but were controversially folded by chairman Brian Constable in 2001. A phoenix club, Witney United were formed and based at Marriotts Stadium and entered the Hellenic League in 2002. They renamed themselves Witney Town in 2011, but debts saw the club liquidated in 2013.

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The Five Sisters

23 Wednesday Apr 2025

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Saturday 15th March 2025 ko 13:45

East of Scotland League Division Two

WEST CALDER UNITED 4 (Wilkins 21 45 McConnell 66 Young 83og)

KENNOWAY STAR HEARTS 3 (Nugent 23 Lawrie 54 Walker 90+1p)

Att 336

Entry £8

Programme £2

From Harthill it seemed like no distance at all to West Calder, another village that owes its existance to the mining industry- in this case shale. We passed “The Five Sisters” on the way- huge bings, or spoil heaps that sadly you can’t see from Hermand Park.

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Another kind of hopping

02 Wednesday Apr 2025

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Friday 7th March 2025 11:00

National League U19 Alliance-South Division

WELLING UNITED 4 (13 24p 71 90+2p)

MAIDENHEAD UNITED 0

Att 5 at Goals Eltham, Baldon Sports Ground, Eltham Palace Road

Free Entry

I’m well used to explaining my rather odd hobby to people, a starting point is usually “Some folks collect stamps or coins, I collect visits to football grounds” and then the next question is invariably “how many?” and that produces incredulity, to which my response is that there are people who watch far more football than I do! This game was in part to demonstrate that, and try out what some of the more committed hoppers do.

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The Curious Case Of Hubert Busby Junior

24 Monday Feb 2025

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Tuesday 18th February 2025 ko 19:45

EFL League 1

WYCOMBE WANDERERS 2 ( Humphreys 5 Udoh 58)

BRISTOL ROVERS 0

Forde sent off 82 (serious foul play)

Att 4,419 (419 away)

Entry £31 (middle 3 blocks, top tier Frank Adams stand)

As an Oxford United fan I’m all too aware that when we play Wycombe Wanderers it gets seen as some kind of local derby. I can understand why, the closest EFL ground to Grenoble Road is Adams Park. But to Oxford United fans the derby is with sw!ndon town, with any other team it’s a rivalry.

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Lucky Ducks

23 Thursday Jan 2025

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Wednesday 1st January 2025 ko 15:00

Northern Premier League-Premier Division

WHITBY TOWN 0

Gell sent off (2nd booking) 74

STOCKTON TOWN 2 (Sweet 70 Nicholson 76)

Att 826

Entry £12

Programme £2.50

I do question my sanity sometimes. A 4 hour trip north the morning after a New Year party, in the aftermath of the a storm affecting the North East and Scotland. In fact so daft was my idea we cruised into Whitby far earlier than we needed to be, which got me thinking…

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Wish You The Best

23 Tuesday Apr 2024

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Sunday 17th March 2024 ko 12:00

East of Scotland League-Division One

WHITBURN JUNIOR 1 (Liddell 65)

WHITEHILL WELFARE 0

Att 540

Entry £8

Programme £2

I came into this game with a little inside knowledge. I knew just how fortunate we’d been that the Sauchie Juniors but I also knew from Craig Dabbs just how nervous Whitburn were over the state of their pitch. He’d been there on Friday morning to collect their programmes for advance ticket holders, saw how hard they were working in their pitch, and clearly built up an excellent working relationship with Ann Haddow the club secretary. Now no organiser likes to see a postponement, but that relationship meant we all felt that little bit extra pressure.

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Royalty

15 Monday Jan 2024

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Saturday 6th January 2024 ko 13:45

Witney & District League Division One

WITNEY ROYALS 0

DUCKLINGTON 2 (Fisher 25 Williams 70og)

Att c15 at Pitch 1 Burwell Recreation Ground, Thorney Leys, Witney

Free Entry

I’d had all kinds of ideas as to where to watch a game. The determining factor was a triple of sorts, football, Oxford City Stars Ice Hockey unusually facing off on a Saturday evening, and the pub quiz at 9pm. But as much as I like being busy there was another factor to be considered- the rain.

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