Thirds

05 Thursday Dec 2024

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Saturday 26th October 2024 ko 11:00

Southern Combination Division One

OAKWOOD 1 (Morris 59)

ALFOLD 2 (Heath 84 Agbontean 89)

Att 187 (ground record)

Entry £7

Programme £2

God knows it can’t be easy being Oakwood. Being the second club in any town is difficult but try being the third club in Crawley with Crawley Town and Three Bridges in front of you in the pecking order. For the Saturday of the Sussex Hop Craig and I acted as an advance party, getting to each ground before the coach and helping out where where needed.

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Grotto

02 Monday Dec 2024

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Friday 25th October 2024 ko 19:30

Southern Combination Premier Division

ROFFEY 3 (Chedzey 20 Kyle 40 J Pearse 52)

AFC VARNDEANIANS 1 (Bukleb 19p)

Att 307

Entry £8

Programme £2

On reflection there aren’t many worse places to be jaded at than in the middle of a traffic jam on the M25 on a Friday night. I knew why I was; we’d come off the back of a Kent Hop 3 weeks earlier that had seen catering that with the exception of Sutton Athletic had failed to inspire. I’d spent most of that weekend metaphorically swerving burgers! Then there was the Sussex Hop to consider; I’d worried that at GroundhopUK we were promoting two hops in October at both a similar level, and part of the UK.

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Good Tucker

25 Monday Nov 2024

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Wednesday 16th October 2024 ko 19:45

Wiltshire League Premier Division

FARINGDON TOWN 0

SHRIVENHAM FC 1 (J Hirst 15)

Harrison sent off 90+1 (serious foul play)

Att c250

Free Entry

Programme by donation to the Jack Badger fundraiser

Football does ebb and flow in all its guises, and perhaps more than most in Faringdon’s corner of West Oxfordshire. Some may know the club as the hosts of the annual Faringdon Memorial Thursday Cup others may remember their hosting of a game on the 2012 North Berkshire Groundhop. I certainly got to know the club well in the preamble to that event! Hop or no hop though, I was always going to be at Faringdon’s first game under lights.

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The Fugitives

21 Thursday Nov 2024

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Saturday 12th October 2024 ko 14:00

Gwent Premier League, Premier Division

ROGERSTONE AFC 4 (Smith 30 56 Porter 59 Goodfellow 82p)

LUCAS CWMBRAN 0

Att 102 at Newport Fugitives Athletic Club

Entry & Programe £3

On occasion I’ve opined that I don’t pick my games they pick me; this was a classic example. After the glut of games that was the Kent Hop all I knew was that the last thing I wanted to watch was something English and at Steps 5 or 6. So when Rogerstone tweeted that they were opening their new ground, my mind was charmingly made up for me!

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Hextable

20 Wednesday Nov 2024

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Sunday 6th October 2024 ko 14:30

Southern Counties East League-Premier Division

SUTTON ATHLETIC 2 (Ahmed 89 Fisher 90+2)

TUNBRIDGE WELLS 0

Att 284

Entry £10

Programme £2

For those in the know, Sutton Athletic don’t actually play in Sutton at Hone, but rather at nearby Hextable, but even that isn’t completely accurate. Lower Road is a short distance east of the village, itself a few miles north of Swanley, and within hearing of Brands Hatch motor racing circuit. The club moved from the Roaches Recreation Ground in 2011 in order to find a ground they could develop.

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Another Dawn

19 Tuesday Nov 2024

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Sunday 6th October 2024 ko 11:00

Southern Counties East League Premier Division

CORINTHIAN 2 (Arnold 10 Fitzgerald 13)

ERITH & BELVEDERE 1 (Melconian 80)

Att 247

Entry £9

Programme £2

I’d long since changed my way of thinking once it became clear that in my terms the SCEFL Hop was going to be, in my terms, six revisits. Other than a social event, there was the idea of how 200 or so hoppers might react to each of the host clubs. However I knew everyone would love Corinthian…

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Crayford

13 Wednesday Nov 2024

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Saturday 5th October 2024 ko 19:00

Southern Counties East League Premier Division

V.C.D. ATHLETIC 2 (Freeman 45+5, 56)

Gboda sent off 39 (serious foul play)

LARKFIELD & NEW HYTHE 1 (Alaka 73)

Ibbertson sent off 29 (DOGSO)

Gordon sent off 90+4 (serious foul play)

Att 382

Entry £10

Programme £3

Over the years Vickers Crayford Dartford has been good to me. I’d first seen them play around 25 years ago when they were groundsharing at a dilapidated Harrow Meadow, the Eltham-based home of the now defunct Greenwich Borough. Borough and Harrow Meadow was where Ian Wright first played his football, the club giving him a chance when others wouldn’t.

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Blessed

11 Monday Nov 2024

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Saturday 5th October 2024 ko 15:00

Southern Counties East League Premier Division

FISHER FC 1 (Barrington 14)

FAVERSHAM TOWN 3 (Kwayie 43 90+6 Newman 75)

Att 423

Entry £8

Programme £2

It has to be said that over the years I’ve developed a soft spot for Fisher Athletic and when they folded in 2009; the phoenix club Fisher FC. There is no obvious reason for it, I first saw Athletic well after the loss of the Surrey Docks Stadium in Rotherhithe in 2004 during their stint sharing at Dulwich Hamlet, and even at Bacon’s College in pre-season in 2012 when I could still have a brief look at the old ground, now well and truly derelict.

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Perception

10 Sunday Nov 2024

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Saturday 5th October 2024 ko 11:00

Southern Counties East League Division One

MERIDIAN V.P. 1 (Sowah 26)

TOOTING BEC 2 (James 10 Robinson 90+4)

Att 160 (Club Record)

Entry £8

Programme £2.50

Perception in all things is everything. When you organise events at Steps 5 & 6, and let’s face it GroundhopUk has plenty of experience at this level, you do expect a certain level of uniformity, mainly due to FA ground gradings. What that doesn’t mean is the clubs, or their aspirations will be similar.

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The Transformation

07 Thursday Nov 2024

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Friday 4th October 2024 ko 19:45

Southern Counties East League Premier Division

SNODLAND TOWN 0

RUSTHALL 3 (Barton 5 Clover 60 Bissett 76)

Att 395

Entry £8

Programme £2

In GroundhopUK terms October added up to 12 games at 12 grounds in south-eastern England. The games were split over 2 weekends 3 weeks apart between the SCEFL and Southern Combination. In my terms that added up to 11 revisits, so I approached the two events as part organiser, part social event, and part seeing how some of the clubs and their facilities had changed. And nowhere across those twelve games saw more of a transformation than at Snodland’s Potyn’s Field.

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