Questions & Answers

19 Thursday Feb 2015

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Tuesday 17th February 2015 ko 19.45

Portsmouth Senior Cup Semi-Final

PETERSFIELD TOWN 3 (McEnery 19 Read 42 Howes 50)

UNITED SERVICES PORTSMOUTH 0

Att c80

Entry £5

Programme £1

For a town a mere 12 miles north of Portsmouth, Petersfield isn’t half tucked away. Perhaps its the twisting A272 from Winchester that gives that impression, clearly the A3 would have been a better idea! It’s a genteel place, with an internal ring road, and a level crossing serving to slow the pace of life down as the traffic stops to let Portsmouth Harbour-bound trains in to the town station. Continue reading →

Local Intrigue

15 Sunday Feb 2015

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Saturday 14th February 2015 ko 13.30

Oxfordshire FA Intermediate Cup Semi-Final

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS RESERVES 3 (Bicknell 43 58 Clarke 87)

BERINSFIELD 5 (Palmer 22 Ingram 54 62 Saunders 97 D Murphy 108) Hammond sent off 72 (2nd booking)

Att 25 at Oxford Spires Academy, Glanville Road, Oxford

Entry FREE

No Programme

I should start by declaring a vested interest in this game. Berinsfield play in the North Berkshire League, I organise that league’s annual groundhop, and I have a lot of friends both at the league, and at Lay Avenue. If you are looking for an unbiased view for this game I fear you’ve stumbled on to the wrong blog! Apart from anything else Berinsfield seem rather proud of the fact the hop game they staged still holds the record for the highest attendance in North Berks’ hop history- 251. I would point out though that ever since I’ve been trying to beat it!

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Ticking almost every box

15 Sunday Feb 2015

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Friday 13th February 2015 ko 20.06

Women’s International Friendly

ENGLAND 0

UNITED STATES 1 (Morgan 25)

Att 14,369 at StadiumMK, Bletchley (MK Dons FC)

Entry- Comp’

Programme £3

The groundhopping purist tends to have a long list of what they won’t go to see. Amongst that list is friendlies, women’s fixtures, games at a stadium that aren’t the home club’s home fixture, and of course there’s always the vexed question of the MK Dons. There’s few who would try to defend the uprooting of the old Wimbledon to Buckinghamshire, but the club that built StadiumMK is certainly flourishing, and the stadium is by anyone’s standards a fantastic edifice, designed as it is by HOK, who also were behind Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium. Nevertheless, there are still plenty who would fall into the “Never forgive, never forget,” camp so short of there being no programme, the teams being reserves, and the game finishing goalless this was a close as you can get to the ultimate “Irk the purist” game!

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Without Prejudice

14 Saturday Feb 2015

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Wednesday 11th February 2015 ko 19.30

Welsh League Division Two

ABERBARGOED BUDS 1 (McCarthy 50)

CWMBRAN CELTIC 1 (Thomas 7)

Att c60

Entry £5

Programme £1

I wish there were more teams with lights in the Welsh League, I could enjoy mid-week fixtures here a lot more often. It takes my mind back to happy days when the Welsh Groundhop dealt in the cards of the Welsh League and the South Wales Amateur league. We tried to pronounce the likes of Ynysddu, and Blaenrhondda, and quaffed pint after pint in the Otley Arms in Trefforest. As one half of GroundhopUK, we will return to the Valleys one day, and the imminent merger of the Amateur and Senior Leagues will help that process.

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Opportunities

12 Thursday Feb 2015

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Tuesday 10th February 2015 ko 19.30

Western League Division One

HENGROVE ATHLETIC 1 (E Saunders 42)

WARMINSTER TOWN 2 (Lapham 25 54)

Att c40

Entry £5

No Programme

Tea-in-a-mug £1

I have spent far too much of my life sitting in traffic in that dead zone of Bristol that sits between the end of the M32 and Bristol Temple Meads station. The latter, Brunel’s great monument to the Industrial Revolution in general and the Great Western Railway specifically, marks the point where the Central Business District starts to give way to housing then off towards suburbia. Once suburbia ends, that’s where you’ll find Hengrove Athletic.

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Turkish Delight

06 Friday Feb 2015

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Saturday 29th May 2010 ko 18.45

London Turkish League Invitation Cup Semi-Final

GONYELI 2 (Cagin 64 Yagas 86)
AKINCILAR 2 (Turkman 45 McKenzie 70)

Att 155

@ Coles Park, Tottenham (Haringey Borough FC)

Entry FREE
Tournament Brochure FREE
Raffle £2

For this look back into the archives sees one of the more bizarre games I’ve ever seen, and roots of it all lie in a traffic jam.

I’d had a day watching Bethnal Green A, followed by a shoot-out for the Essex Olympian League title at Buckhurst Hill, but then groundhopping sage Brian Buck let me know there was the possibility of a third game, at Haringey Borough. With Swindon Town having just lost a play-off final at Wembley, I reasoned that the traffic on the North Circular would be dreadful, so the only reasonable course of action was to go and watch a game of football. Haringey’s ground has the distinction of being in White Hart Lane, while their more famous neighbours Tottenham Hotspur do not, their stadium being in Tottenham High Road.
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The Longest Mile

05 Thursday Feb 2015

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Saturday 8th May 2010 ko 15.00

Midland Combination Division One
MILE OAK ROVERS & YOUTH 0
LITTLETON 3 (Baird 57 McKeon 81 Harris 90)

Att 4

Entry FREE
Prog NO
Raffle £1

When you delve into football’s lower reaches, and you take the time to understand a club and what it stands for, the vast majority of the time it boils down to local pride, often against all good logic. Sometimes you see a club on the up, some are on the way down, but only once have I ever seen a club playing its last ever game. That horrible experience I witnessed at Mile Oak Rovers and Youth.

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Hushed Tones

04 Wednesday Feb 2015

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Saturday 24th April 2010 ko 14.30

Welsh League Division Three

GARW SENIORS BOYS & GIRLS CLUB 2 (Williams 11 S Misbah 64)

CORUS STEEL 3 (Piper 20 Johnson 31 Hislop 50)

Att 31

Entry £3

Prog £1

Badge £3

Tea in a mug 50p

There are grounds that the discerning football enthusiast should visit, the real theatres of the sport, the likes of Wembley, and Old Trafford, and then there are the places with real history such as Hallam and Sheffield FC. Then you start to find the tucked away places that don’t get much publicity, but have a life all of their own. These are the grounds you hear about when groundhoppers congregate over a beer (or two), and you hear names such as Benburb and Beesands, but believe me Blandy Park, Pontycymmer is high on the list of anyone who’s visited.

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The Tapestry Of Life

01 Sunday Feb 2015

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Saturday 31st January 2015 ko 14.00

Sussex County League Division 3

BOSHAM 3 (Lafferty 21 Wilson 75p Storey 90)

BILLINGSHURST 1 (N Stepney 53)

Att 22

Entry & Programme £2

Tea 80p

These days the village of Bosham is easily by-passed. The A27 from Havant to Chichester does exactly that, you head close to back on yourself from the roundabout at the Chichester end. There’s far more to the village than just being halfway along a by-way, this is the village named on the Bayeux Tapestry after all!

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Home Made

28 Wednesday Jan 2015

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Tuesday 27th January 2015 ko 19.45

Southern Counties East League Cup First Road

HOLMESDALE 1 (Coleman 23) Prescott sent off (violent conduct) 84

ERITH TOWN 3 (Weston 3 Cassius 63 70) Craddock sent off (violent conduct) 84

Att 25

Entry £7

No Programme

If you’re thinking,

“Holmesdale- isn’t that the name of the stand with the curved roof at Crystal Palace?”

you’d be thinking along the right lines. The club was formed on Holmesdale Road, South Norwood as Holmesdale Baptists in the 1920’s, before Crystal Palace moved to Selhurst Park in 1924. They moved to Oakley Road, Bromley Green in 2000 in order to progress out of the Surrey South-Eastern Combination. The result is the reason the vast majority of groundhoppers visit.

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