Category Archives: W

Dashwood

14 Friday Oct 2016

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Sunday 25th September 2016 ko 11.00

Kent Youth League U18 North

WEST WICKHAM 0

DULWICH HAMLET 6 (Wilson 19 Osideko 34 42 Histon 39 Buchan 56 Kamara 87)

Att 48

Entry FREE

No Programme

Now here’s a curiosity, a part railed pitch with hard standing near Bromley in Kent that until recently would have passed muster for Step 6. But to use a piece of groundhopping vernacular it doesn’t fall under many hopping “Radars.” But the reason Corkscrew Hill is an oddity is due to what happened in 1907.

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Supreme Irony

21 Sunday Aug 2016

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Wednesday 9th August 2016 ko 19.45

Eastern Counties League Division One

WISBECH ST MARY 6 (Lennon 9 18 Davey 23 62 Harris 60 Woods 76)

DEREHAM TOWN RESERVES 0

Att 72

Entry £4

Programme £1

It was an evening of ironies, not least passing the likes of Thorney and Eye that the Peterborough Hop had visited less than a fortnight earlier en route to an Eastern Counties League game. Then  was the fact that a few had opted to miss two hop games to visit this ground. I know and understand the hopper that refuses to drop below Step 6, and of course there were plenty who couldn’t simply pick Beechings Close up on a midweek like this. I did ponder also the irony of the hop organiser getting 3 ticks out of Thorney, Eye, and Wisbech St Mary when plenty managed one. Each to their own of course… Continue reading →

Compromise

21 Sunday Aug 2016

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Thursday 4th August 2016 ko 19.45

UEFA Europa League 3rd Qualifying Round 2nd Leg

WEST HAM UNITED 3 (Kouyate 8 25 Feghouli 81)

NK DOMŽALE 0

West Ham won 4-2 on aggregate

Att 53,914

Entry £15

Programme £3.50

When you go to the first match at a new stadium one or two things you take for granted go out of the window. There are no end of means of getting to the Olympic Stadium in East London, West Ham’s new home, but stood at the concourse of London Marylebone station there were quite a few people in claret and blue looking slightly perplexed. It really wasn’t a case of follow the stream of colours.

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Aftermath

20 Saturday Aug 2016

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Sunday 31st July 2016 ko 17.30

Peterborough & District League Division One

WITTERING HARRIERS 5 (Lockwood 23secs Middleton 27 Braint 37 Cayley 56 Tippett 90)

LONG SUTTON ATHLETIC 2 (W Oliver 3 Cawthorn 59)

Att 250

Entry £4

Programme £1

The throng finally managed to escape Sawtry’s car park and headed off for the last game of the hop. We were bound for the RAF town of Wittering, and in the planning stage this did throw up an unusual decision or two. The club do play some of their games on the air base, beyond security so there was a decision on where to play this one. At GroundhopUK we’ve held games with a security check, who could forget Benson Lions at the Defence Academy in Shrivenham? In this case though the base don’t seem to like Wittering holding all their games there, so we decided to stick with the straightforward, for this time anyway! Continue reading →

Take It Easy

16 Monday May 2016

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Wednesday 4th May 2016 ko 18.45

Cambridgeshire County League- Senior B

WHITTLESFORD UNITED 2 (Walkley 39 83)

WITCHFORD 96 1 (Loker 46)

Att 13

Entry FREE

No Programme

My regular reader I suspect has long since worked out I live life at million miles an hour. It all started a few years ago as a means of not thinking about other parts of my life, but now I’ve got to a point where I feel slightly guilty if I’m not on the move! Still my friends seem to have found inventive ways of slowing me down, and this was a good example. Continue reading →

The Long Goodbye

05 Thursday May 2016

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Monday 25th April 2016 k 19.00

U21 Premier League Cup Final 1st leg

WEST HAM UNITED 1 (Parfitt-Williams 90)

HULL CITY 0

Att 10,267

Entry £5

Programme FREE

I’ve got no great connection with West Ham United, just two previous visits with Oxford United, but when this fixture came up I felt drawn to it. At the time I wasn’t sure why, perhaps it was that regular travelling companion Simeon hadn’t paid the Boleyn Ground a visit, but as we approached the ground I could see, or rather feel why. Continue reading →

The One That (Nearly) Got Away

01 Friday Apr 2016

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Friday 25th March 2016 ko 15.00

South West Peninsula League Division One

WENDRON UNITED 1 (Mulroy 90)

PORTHLEVEN 1 (Best 23)

Att 427

Entry £3

Programme £1

When hop organiser Phil Hiscox announced the line-up for this hop was I the only one whose eyes immediately zoomed in on one name- Wendron’s? The SWPL hop had been due to visit them on the 2010 hop but Wendron folded prior to the event, so the event was rejigged with the Friday ending at a revisit to Penzance. I’m sad to note that another club on that hop, Hayle are no longer in the SWPL and are now plying their trade in the Cornwall Combination. Continue reading →

Fox, Fowler, & Company

20 Sunday Mar 2016

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Wednesday 16th March 2016 ko 19.30

Western League Division One

WELLINGTON AFC 1 (Woodgate 25)

CHEDDAR 2 (Ham 10p Jones 65)

Att 29

Entry £5

Programme £1

In case the league doesn’t give the game away completely, this is the Wellington in Somerset, or to put it another way, the Wellington that is neither in Telford, nor in Herefordshire! It is, however the Wellington that gave the Duke of Wellington his title; Arthur Wellesley also having the honour of the Wellington Monument erected in his name nearby. The town is also famous for being the home of Fox, Fowler and Company- the last commercial bank to issue its own banknotes, the last one circulated in 1844. Continue reading →

Reading Matters

14 Monday Mar 2016

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Saturday 12th March 2016 ko 11.00

Lowland League

WHITEHILL WELFARE 3 (Muir 17 Connolly 28 Devlin 76) Williams missed penalty 81

GALA FAIRYDEAN ROVERS 0 Gibson sent off 47 (violent conduct)

Att 324

Entry £5

Programme £2

If there was one club I’d wanted to visit on the Lowland Hop’s run it was Rosewell’s Whitehill Welfare. The roots of this hop, and the organised hop in Scotland lie with a tip I’d had at a Camelon Juniors game, and a subsequent phone call with Welfare’s Jamie McQueen. He put the idea to his committee who then got the league committee involved, and the rest is history! So if there was one club I really didn’t want to have a problem it was Whitehill…… Continue reading →

The Zone Of Opportunity

27 Friday Nov 2015

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Wednesday 25th November 2015 ko 19.30

Western League Premier Division

WILLAND ROVERS 5 (Wilson 36 Shepherd 53 75 Tasker 68 Blake 81)

LONGWELL GREEN SPORTS 1 (A Summers 83)

Att 54

Entry & Programme £6.50

Let’s face it, you really do have to love the road to be a serious groundhopper. The hold-ups, the roadworks and the faceless service stations all add up to a high price for visiting a football ground that the vast majority of your friends won’t have even heard of.

Then there’s the planning, especially for midweek games. Everyone has what I’ll call the “Zone of opportunity,” which translates to how far you can travel. For some it’s how far you can travel starting from what time you leave work, or how late you are prepared to arrive back home. For some it’s how long they’re prepared to be cooped up in a car or on public transport, and for some it’s on economic terms. But as you start clocking up the grounds, you start running out of floodlit grounds, and you start stretching that zone of opportunity. For me travelling from Oxford to Willand was doing precisely that. Continue reading →