An F Please Bob

05 Thursday Jan 2017

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Friday 30th December 2016 ko 19.46

Hellenic League Premier Division

FLACKWELL HEATH 7 (Rapley 3 37 71p Bayliss 33 Thompson-Wheeler 55 Blount 60 72)

HENLEY TOWN 1 (Gardner 12) Griffiths sent off 72 (2nd booking)

Att 98

Entry £6

Programme £1

It had been years since my last visit to Wilks Park, in fact I think the last visit was during a Hellenic Hop game vs Oxford City Nomads. The league had spent our entire stint on its patch telling everyone that the Nomads weren’t Oxford City’s reserves, but City manager Mike Ford was at the game so a hopper sidled over and asked him. “These guys?” he replied, “Well basically they’re our reserves!” You can fool some of the people… Continue reading →

Ghost Train

04 Wednesday Jan 2017

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Wednesday 28th December 2016 ko 19.45

Eastern Counties League Premier Division

FAKENHAM TOWN 3 (Glover 21 Cary 24 Jarvis 52)

KIRKLEY & PAKEFIELD 4 (Eagleton 42 King 51 Lopez 66p Stone 79)

Att 45

Entry £5

Programme £1

It has to be said that the Norfolk town does have an intriguing nickname, there can’t be many, if any places who answer to, “The Ghosts!” The name references a poem by Robert Bloomfield, “The Fakenham Ghost,” but this was no ordinary apparition, it was the ghost of a donkey! Talk about “Drop the dead donkey!” Continue reading →

The Reason Why

03 Tuesday Jan 2017

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Tuesday 27th December 2016 ko 19.45

Southern Combination Division One

STEYNING TOWN 3 (Finney 14 Romain 51 63)

STORRINGTON 1 (Searle 83)

Att c90

Entry £5

Programme £1

Let me tell you a story. Almost exactly two years ago 3 of us travelled from Oxford for a Sussex County League game at the Shooting Field.  I’d phoned ahead as the weather had been wet, and the club were extremely keen to get the game on, as they’d put on a sponsors and players’ party in the clubhouse afterwards. We reached the pretty town, had Fish & Chips, and walked into the ground just as the referee called off the game due to a waterlogged pitch.  Continue reading →

Lordship

01 Sunday Jan 2017

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Tuesday 27th December 2016 ko 14.00

Southern Combination Division Two

WORTHING TOWN LEISURE 0

LANCING UNITED 3 (Page 45 Meason 57 61)

Att 60

Entry FREE

Programme £2

I must admit when planning this day I saw Worthing Town Leisure’s fixture and assumed the club was another quasi-reserve team and looked elsewhere for my middle game. As is always the case a little more research reaped rewards. Continue reading →

Understanding

01 Sunday Jan 2017

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Tuesday 27th December 2016 ko 11.00

Southern Combination Division One

BILLINGSHURST 3 (Hawkes 25 O’Sullivan 74 Barber 90)

MIDHURST & EASEBOURNE 0

Att 83

Entry £5

Programme £1

The nature of groundhopping can be inherently selfish, it is your own count of grounds visited after all, but just occasionally you see an opportunity where you can help. The more grounds you clock up you realise that other people will read a set of fixtures the same way. Here there were no end of opportunities to clock up 3 games in day, but when you looked at it a little closer you could see that the majority would start their day at Billingshurst. Continue reading →

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 →

Camp Banwell

29 Thursday Dec 2016

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Saturday 24th December 2016 ko 11.30

Somerset County League Division Two West

BANWELL 6 (Evans 2 M White 20 53 57 61 Bobruk 37)

1610 TAUNTON UNITED 1 (Barrance 6) Elsley sent off (Foul & Abusive Language) 87

Att 32

Entry FREE

No Programme

Free Coffee!!

Yes, I know it was Christmas Eve, but it was also Saturday, and there weren’t anywhere enough football matches on. There was Stokenchurch in the Hellenic but I was promised to Bristol in the morning, so my attentions turned to the Somerset County League. Continue reading →

Incentiviser

29 Thursday Dec 2016

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Tuesday 21st December 2016 ko 19.45

FA Trophy 2nd Round Replay

NORTH LEIGH 1 (Cook 89p)

SOUTH PARK 3 (Lavery 29p Quartey 62 O’Sullivan 81)

Att 157

Entry £8

Programme £1

Back in the day I used to regularly drive along the A4095 between Witney and Woodstock. With psyche like mine that added up to finding out whether each village I passed through had a football club, and where they played. It didn’t take long to pay the grounds a visit. There was Witney Town who played in the Southern League, then as you headed towards Woodstock, there were no end of grounds to visit. Continue reading →

Aqueduct

19 Monday Dec 2016

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Satursday 17th December 2016 k0 14.00

Welsh National League (Wrexham Area) Division One

ACREFAIR YOUTH 1 (O Evans 5)

LLANGOLLEN TOWN 6 (Williams 8 19 45 Prosser 32 83 Jay 80)

Att 32

Entry FREE

No Programme

If you’re one of those football fans that likes to turn up at the ground 30 seconds before kick-off, then the Bont playing field, on the outskirts of Froncysyllte is definitely the the ground to break that habit. The ground sits with the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct as  is it’s backdrop so it makes sense to park up in either Froncysyllte or Trevor, and walk the towpath over the bridge for a quite wonderful view of the valley and the ground.  Continue reading →

Rebuilder

12 Monday Dec 2016

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Tuesday 5th December 2016 ko 19.45

Hellenic League- Premier Division

BRACKNELL TOWN 3 (Grant 9 Bowerman 59p Maloney 90)

BINFIELD 2 (Rodrigues 49og White 63)

Att 476

Entry & Programme £5

One of the more intriguing stories in the Hellenic this season has been Bracknell Town’s new ground. Now in groundhopping terms it’s a rebuild, the pitch at Larges Lane hasn’t moved, but save for the bar area everything is new, including a jazzy new 3G pitch.  Continue reading →