Plurality

17 Monday Oct 2016

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Friday 7th October 2016 ko 19.45

Western League Division One

BISHOP SUTTON 0

KEYNSHAM TOWN 1 (B Harris 90)

Att 247

Entry £6

Programme £1

For a league whose hop inevitably means I’ll be revisiting most of the grounds I’d found myself anticipating this weekend for quite some time. A lot of that was down to its friendly clubs, and the gentleman that is league General Secretary Mark Edmonds, and some that it is my Bristolian girlfriend Robyn’s “Home” hop. She made sure that at least 2 family members were at each and every game which was some going! That isn’t to say though that this hop was straightforward to organise…. Continue reading →

Testing

16 Sunday Oct 2016

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Tuesday 4th October 2016 ko 19.45

Southern League Cup 1st Round

AFC TOTTON 2 (Watts 64 Gosney 85)

WINCHESTER CITY 3 (Jenkinson 33 57 Wilson 89p)

Att 157

Entry £6

Programme £2

I think there’s a missing entry in the great groundhopping lexicon. There needs to be word or term for a ground you haven’t visited despite being it easy to get to, and you’ve visited plenty further away beforehand. For me, AFC Totton would be an extreme example, it’s easy enough to get to from Oxford, it’s been open since 2010 and to make things worse I actually managed to visit the adjacent Little Testwood Stadium, home to Totton & Eling four-and-half years ago!! Continue reading →

Comparatively Speaking

16 Sunday Oct 2016

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Saturday 1st October 2016

10.45 Bedfordshire County League – Division One

HENLOW 3 (Hills 11 Knight 45 Walker 50)

ICKLEFORD 3 (Miceli 48 Bussle 72 G Follano 83) G Follano sent off 87 (2nd booking)

Att 126

13.45 Bedfordshire County League – Division Two

KEMPSTON HAMMMERS SPORTS 2 (Grandidge 16 67)

WIXAMS 0

Att 93

16.30 Bedfordshire County League – Division Three

WOOTTON VILLAGE 2 (A Flynn 49 Churchill-Hall 80)

WHITE EAGLES 2 (Cygan 55 Ptak 87)

Att 131

Entry for all games was free with programmes available for £2, and badges for £3

It’s a point of some regret that the only organised hop on the calendar this season that I’m not involved in is this one. I like to attend other people’s hops, firstly because I’m under no pressure, and secondly because there’s always an opportunity to learn something. Here the organiser is Craig Dabbs and the beauty of his offering is that there’s a direct comparison possible with at least one GroundhopUK offering, and his his philosophy of offering the maximum opportunity for clubs, hoppers and league is the same as ours. Continue reading →

The Milton Derby

16 Sunday Oct 2016

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Tuesday 27th September 2016 ko 19.45

Wessex League Division One

NEW MILTON TOWN 0

BAFFINS MILTON ROVERS 4 (Dart 28 87 Pennery 49 Blandford 66og)

Att 28

Entry £6

Programme £1.50

You occasionally hear the term “Derby in name only” and it normally refers to a fixture where two clubs are nearby but no great rivalry exists, Oxford United and Oxford City being a good example. This though was a derby genuinely in name only, Baffins play in northern Portsmouth while Town play to the east of Bournemouth at the southern edge of the New Forest. Continue reading →

Target G

15 Saturday Oct 2016

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Sunday 25th September 2016 ko 14.00

FA Women’s Superleague 2

MILLWALL LIONESSES 2 (Gaylor 22 Giddings 28)

WATFORD LADIES 1 (Mason 47)

Att c200 at The Den

Entry £5

Programme £2

On the face of it a women’s game played at the parent club’s ground wouldn’t enter the consciousness to any great degree, save for being a good excuse for my girlfriend Robyn to tick off the ground when in the area. However, there were better reasons to pay to place another visit.  Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

Archie

13 Thursday Oct 2016

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Saturday 24th September 2016 ko 15.00

EFL Championship

FULHAM 0 McDonald sent off 80 (serious foul play)

BRISTOL CITY 4 (Abraham 19 Freeman 60 Reid 68 Flint 83)

Att 20,585

Entry (Putney End- away fans) £25

Programme £3.50

Few football grounds come with a greater sense of anticipation than Craven Cottage. From when you alight the District Line at Putney Bridge and trace the towpath of the Thames through frankly well-to-do parkland you expect something special at its end and the home of Fulham FC doesn’t let you down. Continue reading →

Happy Endings?

10 Monday Oct 2016

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Tuesday 20th September 2016 ko 19.45

Southern Counties East League- Premier Division

FISHER FC 0

CRAY VALLEY PAPER MILLS 3 (Jeffrey 43 Gayle 88 Bremner 90)

Att 189

Entry £7

Programme £1.50

In non-league there are all too few happy endings, so when the old Fisher Athletic lost the Surrey Quays Stadium in 2004 you wondered how long the club could last exiled 5 miles away at Dulwich Hamlet. The answer turned out to be 5 years, but their eventual demise proved to be more about financial wrongdoing than anything else. A fan owned club was quickly established to replace the old club and continued to play at Champion Hill but a return to Rotherhithe looked a distant dream. Continue reading →

Southbound

10 Monday Oct 2016

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Saturday 19th September 2016 ko 17.00

North Berkshire League Charity Cup Group A/ James Rennie Trophy

BURGHCLERE 2 (Lawrence 41 Matthews 53p)

WALLINGFORD TOWN 2 (Searle 70 73)

Att 169

Entry & Programme £4

Badge £3

No tour of the south of the North Berkshire League would be complete with a visit to the league’s southern outpost. The NBFL is famous for its rule that all clubs have to be less than 20 miles from Steventon Green, but who’d have thought that would mean we’d be visiting Hampshire? In fact the club have just been drawn to play away at Ventnor in the Hants Immediate Cup! Yes, I am tempted to go! Continue reading →

The Foinavon Kebab

05 Wednesday Oct 2016

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Saturday 17th September 2016 ko 13.30

North Berkshire League Division 3

COMPTON 1 (Fisher 26)

WATLINGTON TOWN 4 (MacCormick 18 C B’Layachi 53 Appleby 67 A B’Layachi 75)

Att 180

Entry & Programme £4

There were so many reasons to want to the hop to visit Compton. For one it would be the first time in it’s 5 year run that the North Berkshire League Hop had actually visited a club in Berkshire. Then there was the Pinfold family who run the club with humour and passion, and the name was good to sell the game with, you’d be amazed how many middle-aged white men are well-acquainted with the work of LA based rap act N.W.A! But the real clincher for me was the stand! Continue reading →