Category Archives: Y

Brecknock

06 Saturday Feb 2021

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Sunday 18th February 2007 ko 14.00

Welsh League Division 3

YSTRADGYNLAIS 3 (Hopkins 37p Maggs 82 86)

CWMBRAN CELTIC (Williamson 9 32 Cheedy 16)

Att 47

Entry & Programme £2

When I put together these articles, I tend to ask myself the same question and that’s “Why would someone visit here?” but in this case I think there are two more pressing things to answer! The first and please forgive the mauling of the Welsh language is “Ustra-Gun-Lice” the name means ‘Vale of the river Cynlais’ these days the River Tawe, which gives Abertawe, or Swansea its name. That tells you a little of your second question, the town is roughly 16 miles north west of Swansea.

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2020, the year

31 Thursday Dec 2020

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Whoever you are 2020 was undoubtedly the year of Covid. This time last year we didn’t know what furlough meant, and thought Brexit would be the biggest challenge we’d face.

But I can’t write off the year completely. After all it contained unquestionably the greatest day of my life, January 11th- my wedding day, and seeing Robyn walking down the aisle in that beautiful dress was breathtaking. It was wonderful to have so many of our family and friends there to share it with us. Special thanks to my best man Sim who went over and above the call of duty to make our day so special.

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The Chains

26 Tuesday May 2020

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With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell.

Saturday 6th April 2007 ko 10.30
Central Midlands League- Premier Division

YORKSHIRE MAIN 1 (Hawthorne 84)

THORNE COLLIERY 1 (Bitton-Price 27p)

Att 347

Entry £3

Programme £1

I don’t think it’s any secret that the the hop I’ve enjoyed the most was the Ceredigion, but without question the one I learned the most from was the Central Midlands League’s. It certainly wasn’t as a result of being involved in the organisation, of the original GroundhopUK/ Rob Hornby events I was only involved in 2010, the final one. No, my absorption of facts at the CMFL was cultural.

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Uppaddus

14 Friday Jun 2019

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Tuesday 30th April 2019 ko 20.00

Gwent County League Division One

YNYSDDU WELFARE 4 (Price 47 53 62 Watkins 72)

WATTSVILLE 2 (Roch 24 79)

Att 43 at Pontllanfraith Leisure Centre

Entry FREE

Programme £1

As a groundhopper you find yourself questioning your sanity on a fairly regular basis. You take a psychological step back from what you’re doing and in this case wonder why you’re travelling from Oxford to South Wales, through evening rush hour traffic to watch a game on a plastic pitch in a cage at a leisure centre the local council are trying to close. But if there was one club I simply had to write about this season it was Ynysddu Welfare. Continue reading →

A Lovely Town For a Murder

05 Sunday Aug 2018

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Friday 8th June 2018 ko 19.00

Division 5 Sydöstra Skåne

YSTADS I.F. F.F 0

LIGA 06 I.F 3 (Andersson 27 A Svensson 64 H Nilsson 71)

Att 140

Entry 50sek

The Swedish Hop’s £230 cost included two nights bed and breakfast in Trelleborg, coach travel including to and from Kastrup Airport, tolls on the Øresund Bridge, and all entry fees and programmes for the games.

Last year’s Swedish Hop produced some amazing memories, not least the drinks reception at the Mayor of Trelleborg’s home. There was one massive disappointment, and that was that only 12 people booked, down from our usual 20 or so. I decided to take a little advice.

The usual chestnut came out, to feature top flight games more. That’s easily done on the eastern European hops, where entry costs tend to be nominal to western wallets, and the general costs far lower than in Scandanavia. Additionally, we’d included Allsvenskan and Superettan games on previous hops to little increase in numbers. But I didn’t want to dismiss the big ground idea out of hand, in the end I saw it as time to get creative, and simultaneously, so did organiser Kim Hedwall! What we ended up doing was supplementing our normal unknown gems with one massive ground.  Continue reading →

Lurvill’s Delight

18 Monday Sep 2017

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Saturday 26th August 2017 ko 18.30

South Wales Alliance Premier Division

YNYSHIR ALBIONS 2 (Williams 6 Evans 10) Rewbury missed pen 44

TON & GELLI B.G.C. 1 (Davies 41)

Att 260

Entry £3

Programme £1

There were a few tired legs as we headed down the hill from the car park to the Ynyshir Oval. Mind you if you wanted someone with reason to be tired a call to the game’s referee Peter Small would be in order. The 70-year-old was about to take the whistle for his 4th game of the day after running the line in the 3 other hop games today. Peter and the Welsh Hop go back a long way, and thanks to him, a genuine legend of Valleys football. Continue reading →

Westland

20 Thursday Jul 2017

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Saturday 15th July 2017 ko 15.00

Preseason Friendly

YEOVIL TOWN 1 (Olomola 75)

BRISTOL CITY 3 (Reid 22 28 Magnusson 25)

Att 2,636 (883 away)

Entry £8

Programme £1

On occasion I get asked how I pick my games, and people are often surprised when I say that often they pick me! This one was a case in point, I was due to be in Minehead in the evening and my girlfriend Robyn is a Bristol City fan. Then there was the Martin McConachie factor to consider…

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The Strawberry Line

30 Friday Dec 2016

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Saturday 24th December 2016 ko 14.00

Somerset County League Premier Division

YATTON ATHLETIC 3 (Copeland 8 Morris 42p Walters 65)

MIDDLEZOY ROVERS 4 (Conway 9p Temlett 10 Wright 16 Williams 48) Turner sent off 42

Att 42

Entry FREE

No Programme

From Banwell I struck north and traced the route of the embankments of a long abandoned railway. The Cheddar Valley Line ran from Yatton to Cheddar and Wells until its closure in 1963, and became known as the “The Strawberry Line” due to the large quantities of the fruit it carried, bound for markets in London.  Continue reading →

Cuckoo

05 Tuesday Aug 2014

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Saturday 2nd August 2014 ko 11.00

United Counties League Premier Division

YAXLEY 3 (Coleman 31 Cotton 43p 76)

LONG BUCKBY 1 (Hailstone 90og)

Att 206

Entry £6

Programme £1

Badge £3

The coach, expertly coaxed by Rick at the wheel made the tight left turn into Leading Drove, and down the narrow drive to the football ground on the left. There’s a pitch to the right, used by Stilton FC, and since they play in the Peterborough & District League the original idea was to have a game there straight after this one, but they turned us at GroundhopUK down for reasons unknown, and with league official Daniel Leggett being an expert on the geography of the PDFL, he approached Riverside in their place, but that is another article!

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Train Tracks

20 Sunday Apr 2014

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Wednesday 16th April 2014 ko 18.30

Oxon Senior League Division One

YARNTON 2 (Bunce 39 Marsh 44)

EYNSHAM 3 (McCudden 58p Glossop 63 69)

Att 28

Entry FREE

Programme No

Given that this pretty village is only about 4 miles from Oxford, on the A44 towards Woodstock it was high time I ticked this one off. In fact as I arrived committeeman Gary spotted me and laughed, “About time too!” I’d seen Yarnton twice last season, once at Chalgrove and once at Northway, and let’s face it, on a warm evening why wouldn’t you want to be in an English village with over 4,000 years of history?

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