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 →

Dream Days

03 Monday Oct 2016

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Saturday 17th September 2016 ko 10.30

North Berkshire League Division 4

BLEWBURY 4 (Crickmore 6 45p Kent 53og Jamieson 71)

DRAYTON 0

Att 123

Entry & Programme £4

Badge £3

I’d wanted the North Berkshire Hop to head to the south of the league’s footprint for some time. That meant Burghclere had to be included as the league’s southern outpost, and I soon found an excuse to pay Compton and Turnpike Sports visits. It was obvious that Compton would make good hosts, but Thatcham-based Turnpike would find hosting impossible due to lack of volunteers and the open nature of their Henwick Worthy Recreation Ground home. When Turnpike then opted to merge into Newbury FC to, in effect become their reserves it served only to reinforce that decision! Continue reading →

Those Lights

02 Sunday Oct 2016

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Friday 16th September 2016 ko 19.45

North Berkshire League Division 3

UFFINGTON UNITED 1 (Larman 49og)

MARCHAM 2 (Yallop 65 Larman 68)

Att 99

Entry & Programme £4

The North Berkshire League Hop has managed to produce plenty of memorable moments since we first visited Steventon back in 2011. Since then we’ve introduced minibuses called Rod, Jane & Freddy, been on two military bases, and seen off a Step 5 league who presumably thought that since we’re off-pyramid we don’t matter. Continue reading →

Far Away On The Other Side

02 Sunday Oct 2016

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Tuesday 13th September 2016 ko 19.45

Eastern Counties League – Division One

HAVERHILL BOROUGH 3 (Robson 37 69 Phillips 90) Forshaw missed penalty 17

COGGESHALL TOWN 0

Att 135

Entry £5

Programme £1

In so my ways this was a real oddity, a club born out of the much older Haverhill Rovers, but who’ve split away and moved out of a groundshare to the New Croft’s 3G pitch next door to the main stadium. But the two clubs can’t play simultaneously, Borough use the changing rooms at the main New Croft and walk across, which should make for some interesting kick-off times! But on this evening that wasn’t the half of it! Continue reading →

The Chocolate Quarter

29 Thursday Sep 2016

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Tuesday 6th September 2016 ko 19.30

Somerset County League- Premier Division

FRY CLUB 0

WELLS CITY RESERVES 1 (Andrews 40)

Att 48

Entry & Programme £2

At the end of the season before last many hoppers made a beeline for Fry Club as their ground was due to be demolished, with the club moving around 200 yards away. The old Somerdale was quite a ground with the “Cadbury’s” logo in the background, but as we all left we saw the new ground in progress and thought we’d seen the start of a happy ending, so I headed back expecting to find the club happily ensconced in their new ground. Of course life couldn’t be that straightforward could it? Continue reading →

Out Of The Shadows

28 Wednesday Sep 2016

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Monday 29th August ko 17.00

South Wales Alliance- Division One

CADOXTON BARRY 5 (Morgan 5 79 Weekley 8 Oaten 15 Dawson 32)

COGAN CORONATION 3 (Walsh 33og Fitzgerald 45 Jones 75)

Att 301

Entry £3

Programme £1

As is usually the case with these mega-hops it felt like the end of an era as the coaches pulled into the ground at Parc Bryn-y-Don. But once again tired legs headed for the pitch and clubhouse, but in this case there was the chequered history of the club to consider. Continue reading →

Penultimate

22 Thursday Sep 2016

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Monday 29th August 2016 ko 14.55

South Wales Alliance Premier Division

GRANGE ALBION 3 (Beattie 26 Cotterill 28 Daly 43)

CARDIFF CORINTHIANS 0

Att 225

Entry £3

Programme £1

I remember my first encounter with Coronation Park. I’d parked up to visit Cardiff City’s Ninian Park, spotted the little ground with the name picked out in the brickwork and wondered what league Grange Albion played in. By the time I parked in roughly the same place in Sloper Road a few years’ later, beyond the Bus Garage to tick off Cardiff City Stadium I knew they played in the South Wales Senior League. As I alighted Coach 2 it felt like the aligning of the groundhopping planets! As if to accentuate the feeling, the tips of the Millenium Stadium’s cantilevering are visible too. Continue reading →

The Sign And The Goat

19 Monday Sep 2016

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Monday 29th August 2016 ko 11.00

South Wales Alliance Division 2

CARDIFF HIBERNIAN 2 (Harris-Reffel 5 Inyang 53)

CARDIFF AIRPORT 4 (Davies 1 Martyn 25 67 Hall 79)

Att 261

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

The final day of the hop saw a change of environ as we headed for Cardiff, and for our first game the suburb of Ely. The area has something of a troubled reputation, the area around the North Ely Rec’ saw bread riots here in 1993, but the groundhop has visited no end of supposedly problem areas and found nothing more than a warm welcome, and so it was to be here.  Continue reading →

Gareth

14 Wednesday Sep 2016

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Sunday 28th August 2016 ko 18.00

South Wales Alliance Division One

CORNELLY UNITED 2 (Richards 19 Roche 81)

PORTHCAWL TOWN ATHLETIC 1 (Fisher 12)

Att 351

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

The final game of the day was just what I fancied, a thoroughly working class local derby with the 150-or-so hoppers augmented by as many locals as possible. Cornelly managed all that and more, but the fact that they even took a hop game, let alone made a success of it was all the more remarkable. Continue reading →