Category Archives: W

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 →

All Aboard

20 Sunday Sep 2015

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Friday 18th September 2015 ko 19.45

North Berkshire League Division One

WALLINGFORD TOWN 0

ABINGDON TOWN 1 (Pitson 59)

Att 125

Entry & Programme £4

There are so many tales I could tell of the North Berkshire League. The most important one for me personally is that they invited me on to their/our management committee a few weeks ago. It’s a massive honour, and validation for what Media Officer Phil Annets, GroundhopUK’s Chris Berezai and I have done together for the last 4 years’ worth of hops. What it did do too was imply more pressure on this year’s event, and true to form we ended up having to work far harder for our success than in previous years. Continue reading →

The Newbies

16 Wednesday Sep 2015

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Wednesday 9th September 2015 ko 18.00

Cheltenham League Division 5

WINDYRIDGE ROVERS 5 (May 15 33 48 Brady 18p 60)

REGENCY TOWN 3 (Jones 17 Pullen 66 Lee 79)

Att 39

Entry FREE

No Programme

As a child I remember when I discovered the real joy of the FA Cup. It was and still is at that point where the last amateur clubs meet the professional ranks, and the latter’s fans indulge in the same question,” What League do they play in?”

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Patronage

24 Monday Aug 2015

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Wednesday 19th August 2015 ko 19.45

Hellenic League Premier Division

ROYAL WOOTTON BASSETT TOWN 2 (Packer 32 Bailey 89)

ARDLEY UNITED 1 (Howkins 40p)

Att 92

Entry £6

Programme £1.50

This season has seen Wootton Bassett return home after a two-year exile at Cirencester Town. They’ve moved into a purpose-built facility on the Malmesbury Road, with their old ground at Rylands way now gradually disappearing under a close of houses. Continue reading →

The River

03 Monday Aug 2015

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Tuesday 28th July 2015 ko 18.30

West Dean Charity League, Senior Section Group 1

WESTBURY UNITED 1 (Jeffries 45)

MITCHELDEAN 1 (Jones 31)

Att 25

Entry FREE

Programme NO

Is there such a thing as a quasi-friendly? If there is then the West Dean Charity League would be it. It serves for the most part in lieu of pre-season friendlies for clubs in the North Gloucestershire League with the competition divided into Senior, Intermediate, and Junior sections according to the clubs’ league status. The big change for this season is that the competition is being covered on the FA’s Fulltime website. Continue reading →

The White Mark

02 Thursday Jul 2015

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The White Mark, Hill Road, Watlington, Oxfordshire.

About two years I paid Watlington Town FC a visit and in my sloppy way I looked up the small town’s claim to fame afterwards, missing out on a great photographic opportunity. Because Watlington’s claim to fame is the White Mark, and millions of people have passed close by without either seeing it, or learning its secret. Continue reading →

Extra Time

23 Tuesday Jun 2015

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Saturday 20th June 2015 ko 13.30

Extra-Time Project

AC WOLLATON 6 (Pietraforte 59 Todd 81 88 94  109 Burke 102)

RUSHCLIFFE DYNAMO 5 (Firth 47 Brown 55 Walker 90p 113p Rudge 101)

2 hour game

Att 14

Entry FREE

Programme- By donation

As far as I’m concerned this is Rob Hornby territory. As I exited the M1 at Kirby Muxloe and headed north-east I began to pass the villages whose clubs he’s featured on his hops. I saw a Metropolitan line train on the Old Dalby test track, and found myself reminiscing over a hard fought contest at Keyworth United. From there is wasn’t far to the Rushcliffe Leisure Centre, with the Nottingham Football Centre tucked in behind it. Continue reading →