My Wembley

10 Sunday Apr 2016

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Sunday 3rd April 2016 ko 14.30

Football League Trophy Final

BARNSLEY 3 (Dunkley 50og Fletcher 68 Hammill 74)

OXFORD UNITED 2 (O’Dowda 29 Hylton 76)

Att 59,230 @ Wembley Stadium

Entry £60

Programme £5

Tea £2

I’m fortunate in that I get to visit Wembley reasonably frequently. It fulfills both sides of my divergent footballing personality. On one hand I’m a traditionalist, for me Wembley is English football’s spiritual home, so when the stadium was rebuilt in situ it was the correct decision. I admit it may well have been entirely logical to build the national stadium in Birmingham, but….. Wembley, is… home isn’t it? Continue reading →

Aitch-Kew

10 Sunday Apr 2016

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Saturday 2nd April 2016 ko 14.00

Birmingham FA Saturday Amateur Cup Final

CADBURY ATHLETIC RESERVES 1 (Ellett 90 )

PEUGEOT MILLPOOL 1 (Welland 80) Matthews sent off 70 (2nd Booking)

No extra time, Cadbury won 4-2 on penalties

Att c50 @ Birmingham FA Ground, Ray Hall Lane, Great Barr

Entry & Programme £3

 

This is one of those that fits the category of “Passed it hundred times, so needed to visit,” but there’s a real twist! On one hand I’d certainly never travelled along leafy Ray Hall Lane, in Great Barr, but if you’ve ever travelled southbound down the M5 just south of its intersection with the M6 you may well have spotted two football grounds. One is FC Premier who rather appropriately play in the Premier Division of the Birmingham and District League, the other is the Birmingham FA Ground. Continue reading →

The One-Off

10 Sunday Apr 2016

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Wednesday 30th March 2016 ko 19.30

West Hertfordshire Saturday League- Premier Division

KINGS SPORTS 1 (Gray 67)

CROXLEY COMMUNITY 2 (Martindale 20 McClyment 53)

Att 13 @Dacorum Athletics Track, Jarman Way, Hemel Hempstead

Entry FREE

No Programme

In the great unwritten book of groundhopping tactics the topic of floodlights looms large. The less experienced hopper tends to ignore the fact that the number of floodlit grounds is finite. They then find when they reach around 1,500 grounds ticked they’re rapidly running out of new grounds to visit midweek. But is the converse of that argument also correct? Continue reading →

When All The Pieces Fit

10 Sunday Apr 2016

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Monday 28th March 2016 ko 15.00

Gloucestershire County League

FRAMPTON UNITED 0

THORNBURY TOWN 0

Att 59

Entry & Programme £2

Tea 70p

In football, as in life, sometimes you just need to slow down. After 7 games in two-and-a-bit days in the South West Peninsula League, I’d had great plans of a madcap double. But I awoke looked out of the window and decided to take it easy… Continue reading →

Tennis (Nearly)

07 Thursday Apr 2016

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Saturday 26th March 2015 ko 16.45

South West Peninsula League Division One West

BUDE TOWN 5 (B Hopcroft 7 45 Stratton 27 Hill 55 Potter 82)

HOLSWORTHY 1 (Bonney 80) Chandler sent off (serious foul play) 37

Att 409

Entry £4

Programme 50p

The last game of the Peninsula League felt rather out on a limb. We’d had 2 games close to St Austell, but now we struck out north driving for an hour to the northern edge of Cornwall, to the extent that the game managed to be both a local derby, and feature the only non-Cornish club on the hop, the visitors being from just over the border into Devon. Continue reading →

Menace

06 Wednesday Apr 2016

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Saturday 26th March 2016 ko 13.15

South West Peninsula League Division One West

ST DENNIS 6 (Sleeman 6 Stone 10 Davies 46 53 Rickard 71 85) Friendship sent off 38 (violent conduct)

MILLBROOK 4 (Evans 21p 68 Chitey 36 46)

Att 306

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

The cavalcade left Sticker and snaked its way the 6-or-so miles north to St Dennis’ home Boscawen Park, or so it seemed. The difficulty of the vast majority of any 3 game-a-day hop day is the middle game tends to see drift, where hoppers go “Off Piste” to an alternate game. Now the South West Peninsula Hop in Cornwall doesn’t tend to have this issue, due to there being only one club of a higher status in the county. But on this given Saturday they, Truro City, were at home…. Continue reading →

Great Hewas

04 Monday Apr 2016

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Saturday 26th March 2016 ko 10.30

South West Peninsula League Division One West

STICKER 6 (Kenny 9 24 33 Dingle 16p Body 36 73)

WADEBRIDGE TOWN 1 (Marks 71)

Att 372

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

Hop organiser Phil Hiscox summed the final day’s action neatly, “You’ll be blown away at Sticker, soaked at St Dennis, but you’ll be okay at Bude.” He proved to be completely accurate!  Continue reading →

Bright Lights

04 Monday Apr 2016

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Friday 25th March ko 19.00

South West Peninsula League Premier Division

HELSTON ATHLETIC 1 (Roberts 70)

FALMOUTH TOWN 0

Att 514

Entry £5

Programme FREE

Badge £3

I suspect that Helston isn’t used to be described as the “Bright Lights” but as the cavalcade of hoppers headed for Kellaway Park, from the rural isolation of Wendron that’s how it felt. We arrived to a queue, and at its head were 4 nervous looking gatemen trying to issue an entry ticket to every single patron as a means of counting the crowd. I felt like pointing out, “That’s (hop organiser) Phil Hiscox’s job” but desisted and was told rather precisely where to park, by another rather nervous volunteer.  Continue reading →

The One That (Nearly) Got Away

01 Friday Apr 2016

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Friday 25th March 2016 ko 15.00

South West Peninsula League Division One

WENDRON UNITED 1 (Mulroy 90)

PORTHLEVEN 1 (Best 23)

Att 427

Entry £3

Programme £1

When hop organiser Phil Hiscox announced the line-up for this hop was I the only one whose eyes immediately zoomed in on one name- Wendron’s? The SWPL hop had been due to visit them on the 2010 hop but Wendron folded prior to the event, so the event was rejigged with the Friday ending at a revisit to Penzance. I’m sad to note that another club on that hop, Hayle are no longer in the SWPL and are now plying their trade in the Cornwall Combination. Continue reading →

Tin Men

29 Tuesday Mar 2016

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Friday 25th March 2016 ko 11am

South West Peninsula League Division One West

ILLOGAN R.B.L. 3 (Boone 43 Carlyon 64 Abbott-Smith 69)

PENRYN ATHLETIC 1 (Disano 57)

Att 369

Entry £3

Programme £1

I can imagine what a few may have thought when they saw Illogan’s name on the schedule of the Peninsula League Hop. A team only in its second season in the league after winning the Cornwall Combination multiple times after only a brief flirtation with the old South Western in the late 1970’s. A ground, Oxland Parc (Cornish, not English spellings here!) neatly tucked away in a residential village in the heart of Cornish tin mining country. On paper the idea doesn’t inspire, but football isn’t played on paper, and Cornish football isn’t like any other kind of football either. Continue reading →