Real Ales, Real Owls, Real Football

21 Monday Sep 2015

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Saturday 19th September 2015 ko 16.30

North Berkshire League Division One/ James Rennie Memorial Trophy

EAST HENDRED AFC 1 (Rowe 48)

LONG WITTENHAM ATHLETIC 1 (Cheong 24)

Att 204

Entry & Programme £4

Badge £3

“They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
    Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
    They danced by the light of the moon,
          The moon,
          The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.”

Except from “The Owl and the Pussycat” by Edward Lear

For someone who had only ever seen one game previously at Mill Lane, I seem to have visited this place a lot! The most abiding memory is the the series of meetings I attended in 2010 to get the North Berkshire Hop up and running. I met a third of the clubs across three meetings, and one of those was here. I remember one comment especially,  Continue reading →

Aim For The Plane

21 Monday Sep 2015

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Saturday 19th September 2015 ko 13.30

North Berkshire League Division 3

GROVE RANGERS 4 (Pickering 2 Vaux 18 Cramp 21 22)

BENSON LIONS 1 (Radcliffe 88)

Att 154

Entry & Programme £4

Badge £3

The first clubs on my wish list for this hop were Grove and the Lions. They’d kept us royally entertained at the Defence Academy last time round, so it seemed entirely logical that we’d simply reverse the fixture this time. What I entirely forgot about was the full sized model of the De Havilland Venom nearby, marking the site of RAF Grove which closed in 1974, but also I felt also marking the visitors’ links to the RAF. Continue reading →

Can I Call You?

20 Sunday Sep 2015

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Saturday 19th September 2015 ko 10.30

North Berkshire League Division Two

HANNEY UNITED 4 (Bishop 16p 41 Woodside 75 Woodside 88)

MARCHAM 2 (Larman 7 Dobbs 24)

Att 171

Entry & Programme £4

Badge £3

You have to be an enthusiast to organise a groundhop. I mean you wouldn’t subject themselves to the kind of day I had unless you enjoy it. Its not often that you find yourself at Radio Oxford at 7.40 in the morning to publicise the hop one last time, then get a lift to the other side of town to collect the last of our 3 minibuses before pick-ups at Steventon and Didcot Parkway station. Continue reading →

All Aboard

20 Sunday Sep 2015

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Friday 18th September 2015 ko 19.45

North Berkshire League Division One

WALLINGFORD TOWN 0

ABINGDON TOWN 1 (Pitson 59)

Att 125

Entry & Programme £4

There are so many tales I could tell of the North Berkshire League. The most important one for me personally is that they invited me on to their/our management committee a few weeks ago. It’s a massive honour, and validation for what Media Officer Phil Annets, GroundhopUK’s Chris Berezai and I have done together for the last 4 years’ worth of hops. What it did do too was imply more pressure on this year’s event, and true to form we ended up having to work far harder for our success than in previous years. Continue reading →

For Old Times’ Sake

17 Thursday Sep 2015

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Saturday 12th September 2015 ko 14.30

Welsh Cup 2nd Qualifying Round

PENRHIWCEIBER CONSTITUTIONAL ATHLETIC 2 (J Evans 18 S Thomas 64) Bennett missed penalty 34

LLANDRINDOD WELLS 4 (A Jones 44 Layton 38 B Jones 54)

Att 23

Entry FREE

Programme £1

You climb to get to Penrhiwceiber, up past Pontypridd then up again through Abercynon. Not for nothing is a nearby village called Mountain Ash! It’s just about superfluous to say that the South Wales Valleys villages were built on coal, with just about every settlement having its pit. Except here the pit was called Penrikyber, a piece of Anglicization which at least give the outsider an idea of how to pronounce the place! Continue reading →

The Newbies

16 Wednesday Sep 2015

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Wednesday 9th September 2015 ko 18.00

Cheltenham League Division 5

WINDYRIDGE ROVERS 5 (May 15 33 48 Brady 18p 60)

REGENCY TOWN 3 (Jones 17 Pullen 66 Lee 79)

Att 39

Entry FREE

No Programme

As a child I remember when I discovered the real joy of the FA Cup. It was and still is at that point where the last amateur clubs meet the professional ranks, and the latter’s fans indulge in the same question,” What League do they play in?”

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Roger, Steve & Gary

16 Wednesday Sep 2015

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Tuesday 8th September 2015 ko 18.15

Cheltenham League Division One

R.S.G. 0

KINGS AFC 1 (Newgil 75)

Att 26

Entry FREE

No Programme

I’ll miss the early evening kick-offs without lights, although I’m fairly certain that the players won’t! It can’t be easy finishing work, then heading over to the ground, getting changed and warmed up, and be ready to kick-off at 6.15. But I’m grateful the players are, and once again the Cheltenham League gave me plenty to ponder. Continue reading →

Our Former Selves

14 Monday Sep 2015

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Saturday 5th September 2015 ko 15.00

Southern Combination “Peter Bentley” League Challenge Cup 2nd Round

LANGNEY WANDERERS 1 (Buckett 9) Byrne sent off 88 (2nd booking)

EASTBOURNE UNITED ASSOCIATION 2 (Clarke 28 Baitup 80)

Att c100

Entry £5

Programme £1

Once upon a time there was a team in Eastboune called Shinewater Association. They played on a pitch behind the village hall, but found their progress hamped by a poor pitch, vandalism, and the near impossibility of getting permission to erect floodlights. In 2003 they opted to merge with Eastbourne United and the new club was rather inelegantly renamed Eastbourne United Association. Since then they’ve played their home games at United’s ground, The Oval. But that is only half the story.

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What it’s about

13 Sunday Sep 2015

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Wednesday 2nd September 2015 ko 18.30

Cirencester & District League Division Two

SHERBORNE HARRIERS 0

THE BEECHES 5 (McKenna 1 14 Walters 68 75 Stratford 77)

Att 11

Entry FREE

No Programme

If you take the A40 west from Burford in around 5 miles you’ll see a set of ornamental gates on the right. They’re the entrance to Sherborne House’s Lodge and Estate, built by John “Crump” Dutton in the 17th century to indulge his liking for hunting, banqueting and gambling. These days the house is privately owned, the rest by the National Trust but there’s no restriction on what’s just beyond the gates. Continue reading →

The Pressure Cooker

13 Sunday Sep 2015

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Monday 31st August 2015 ko 18.15

Welsh Alliance Divsion Two

PENMAENMAWR PHOENIX 3 (S Williams 21 Z Davies 44 Paddock 90)

GREENFIELD 4 (Pritchard 38 Beck 56 Henley 58 80)

Att 431 (Welsh Hop record)

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

Recently I attended a funeral of a mutual friend of my ex-wife and I. Since we split up 5 years ago we’ve only spoken a handful of times and never met. We both knew the other would be present, so the nervous tension built up in the days before. Fortunately we found time for a brief chat before the service, and whilst we’ll never be friends I stood at the back of the chapel and felt the tension slowly dissipate, rather like the valve on a pressure cooker. It wasn’t the first time I’d felt like that in the last few weeks. Continue reading →