21 Friday Nov 2014
Posted in W
Wednesday 19th November 2014 ko 19.30
Western League Division One
WARMINSTER TOWN 0
RADSTOCK TOWN 2 (Metcalf 45 Harvey 45)
Att 110
Entry £5
Programme £1
Sausage & Chips £1.50
When the rains come you drive to football with the risk that when you reach your destination the game will be off. You can mitigate the risk by phoning ahead, and Twitter is a godsend to the groundhopper, but you never quite know until you turn the corner and see the floodlights shining through the trees. Continue reading
26 Sunday Oct 2014
Tags
Hereford, Hereford United, Lee Hooper, Malvern Town, Playing Field, Wellington, Wellington FC, West Midlands Police
Tuesday 21st October 2014 ko 19.45
West Midlands (Regional) League Premier Division
WELLINGTON FC 0 Fisher missed penalty 41
MALVERN TOWN 1 (Hooper 82)
Att c50
Entry £4
Programme £1
I suppose the league gives the game away that this is the Wellington that’s around 5 miles north of Hereford, not the version just a few miles from the M5 in Somerset. The Herefordshire team are Wellington FC, the Somerset club are Wellington AFC!
Or in my terms this club are the team close to the junction where I very nearly drove the wrong way up a dual carriageway! The turn-off for the village is at a point where the A49 goes from dual to single-carriageway, and I misread the white lines briefly, and was fortunate to spot an arrow pointing towards me a yard or two later. A quick volte-face saved face, so be warned! Continue reading
22 Wednesday Oct 2014
Tags
Émile Pierre Joseph Storms, Belgium, Frituur, Jonas Droessaert, Marcel de Kerpel, Sporting West Harelbeke, Standaard Wetteren
Sunday 12th October 2014 ko 15.00
4de Nationale A
K STANDAARD WETTEREN 1 (Droessaert 90)
SPORTING WEST HARELBEKE 0
Att c270
Entry €10 (all areas)
One advantage of the Sobemai game finishing sooner than we’d planned was that we reached the East Flanders town of Wetteren earlier than we expected. The town is most famous for the explorer Émile Pierre Joseph Storms who was born here and did much to open up what is now the Congo to western influence, and expand the Belgian empire in the late 19th century. Continue reading
21 Sunday Sep 2014
Posted in W
Tags
Bedford FC, Hertfordshire County Senior League, Spartan South Midlands League, Ware, Wodson Park, Wodson Park Leisure Centre
Wednesday 17th September 2014 ko 19.45
Spartan South Midlands League Division One
WODSON PARK 0
BEDFORD FC 2 (Johnson 14p Rocco 87)
Att c35
Entry £4
Programme £1
In an odd way Wodson Park FC very nearly passed me by. On being promoted from the Hertfordshire County Senior League in 2009 the club arranged a groundshare at Ware FC’s Wodson Park home, adjacent to the Wodson Park Leisure Centre that was home.
That was too many Wodsons for my addled mind, and I didn’t spot that the club moved back to the leisure centre for the start of last season! Continue reading
18 Thursday Sep 2014
Posted in W
Tags
On the way back from Tow Law Town I decided to pause my trip home and stop to visit something than hadn’t been in situ when I paid West Auckland Town FC many moons ago.
West Auckland play in the Northern League Division One and in recent times have made a couple of appearances in the FA Vase final here and here, but they have a far more illustrious past than that. Continue reading
17 Sunday Aug 2014
Tags
Athersley Recreation, Edward VIII post boxes, England, Geoff Horsfield, Lee Bennett, North West Counties League, northern counties east, Winsford, Winsford United
Saturday 16th August 2014 ko 15.10
FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round
WINSFORD UNITED 0
ATHERSLEY RECREATION 1 (Bennett 56)
Att 107
Entry £6
Programme £1.50
There are two great motorways heading north in England, the M1 and M6 but it does pay to have a series of back-up plans if you decide to take either of them on! For that the best modus operandi is the The Football Traveller, in fact I’m sure there’s been many a hopper stuck in a tail-back on the M6 that, frustrated at it all, grabs the little magazine for somewhere to go.
29 Sunday Jun 2014
Posted in W
Tags
Dorking Wanderers, Edward VIII, Elmbridge Leisure Centre, Elmbridge Xcel Leisure Centre, pillar boxes, post boxes, Walton Casuals, Walton on Thames
Saturday 28th June 2014 ko 12.00
Pre-Season Friendly
WALTON CASUALS 2 (Cove 28 Mustapha 74)
DORKING WANDERERS 2 (? 1 ? 40)
Att c20 at Elmbridge Xcel Leisure Centre, Walton-on-Thames
Entry FREE
No Programme
I haven’t got used to these June pre-season friendlies, even though this is the 3rd year I’ve seen them featured. To make it even more odd, at least one car-load of hoppers made their way to Scotland to take in a cup final marking the very end of last season. So two football seasons running simultaneously, work that one out!
08 Sunday Jun 2014
Posted in W
Tags
Banbury, Ebenezer Place, Fraserburgh, Harmsworth, Harmsworth Park, Highland League, Inverness, Scotland, Wick, Wick Academy
Saturday 10th May 2008 ko 15.00
Highland League
WICK ACADEMY 3 (Weir 9 Shearer 27 Macadie 73)
FRASERBURGH 2 (Johnston 22 Hale 78)
Att 263
Entry Comp’
Programme £1
Pain is part and parcel of being a groundhopper, it’s the yang to the ying of a wonderful ground and an exciting game. For some the pain is self-inflicted, the hopper who doesn’t count nil-nil draws travelling from Blackpool to Fakenham 3 times for example, but my ground of pain for years was Harmsworth Park. Of course if the place had have been just a few miles from where I was living at the time, Banbury in Oxfordshire, it wouldn’t have been an issue, but Wick Academy are the most northerly senior club in the UK, and a trip here took more than a little planning. Continue reading
14 Wednesday May 2014
Posted in W
Tags
Bobby Moore Lounge, FA Vase, final, Northern League, Sholing, Vase, Wembley, Wembley Stadium, wessex league, West Auckland, West Auckland Town
Saturday 10th May 2014 ko 15.00
FA Vase Final
SHOLING 1 (McLean 71)
WEST AUCKLAND TOWN 0
Att 5,341 at Wembley Stadium
Entry to Bobby Moore Lounge, Programme, and Team Sheet – Complementary (Thanks to the EMCL and the NCEL)
So, a third visit to the Vase final in three years, for last year’s final click here, and the method is more or less set in stone. You park at Hillingdon Tube station for £2, then buy a six-zone travelcard for £8.90 for the Metropolitan Line trip to Wembley Park. I could park at Bicester North and take the train to Wembley Stadium, but that’s £22, or drive but it’s £30 (£15 for Blue Badge holders) to park at Wembley. I’ve yet to find a cheaper way of doing it, and yes I did try an unofficial car park for a rock concert here once. I drove home with no driver’s window or sat nav! Yes, Wembley is an expensive place to visit, and I get the feeling that’s part of the reason why the stadium has been close to empty each of the 8 Vase Finals held at the rebuilt stadium. Continue reading
17 Thursday Apr 2014
Posted in W
Tags
Bingham, Bingham Town, Charlesworth, Jurgen Charlesworth, Kirton Brickworks, Nick Gammon, Notts Senior League, Regatta Way, Rob Hornby, West Bridgford
Saturday 12th April 2014 ko 18.30
Notts Senior League Division One
WEST BRIDGFORD 2 (Charlesworth 9 75)
BINGHAM TOWN 1 (Gammon 19)
Att 448
Entry £3
Programme £1
Badge £3
Team sheet 20p
Tea 70p
Here’s a quirk for you, West Bridgford has no streets, just roads, as when the suburb of Nottingham was built in Victorian times the word “Street” was deemed too urban! They obviously saw just how close it is to the centre, I could see Trent Bridge’s floodlights as we arrived at Regatta Way, but no streets, that’s a little odd! The ground reminded me a little of where we’d just left, at Keyworth with three pitches and a large clubhouse. All the pitches are railed off, and the show pitch has floodlights too, and there was ample space to park the dozens of cars that showed up, as for many reasons this game was organiser Rob Hornby’s trump card.
Continue reading
Football: Wherever it may be 