The Ships

06 Wednesday Nov 2024

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Sunday 22nd September 2024 ko 14:15

West Wales Premier League

GIANTS GRAVE 4 (Wayman 39 D Williams 75 Sofiu 78 Palla 81)

CWM WANDERERS 1 (Shaw 49)

Att 204

Entry & Programme £5

The final stop of this year’s West Wales Hop saw our first visit of the weekend to a former Neath League side. Giants Grave is in the environs of Briton Ferry and the unusual name is usually seen as referencing the TW Ward’s Shipbreaking Yard, but the inconvenient truth is the name pre-dates shipbreaking or even heavy industry. I suspect the derivation probably comes from folk tales with the exact stories lost in the mists of time, and perhaps the mystery adds to the legend?

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The Former

31 Thursday Oct 2024

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Sunday 22nd September 2024 ko 11:00

West Wales Premier League

AFC GLAIS 1 (Lewis Pritchard 55)

PONTARDDULAIS TOWN 3 (Jones 39secs 2 Williams 90+4)

Att 191

Entry & Programme £5

The final day of the West Wales Hop saw us move slowly towards its terminus at Cardiff station. We left Carmarthen and headed for Pontardawe, and once again a Cymric portmanteau – this time of Bridge on the River Tawe. Other than the production of tin plate the town as being the birthplace of singer Mary Hopkin and former Pop Idol starlet Rosie Ribbons. You’ve not heard of Rosie Ribbons? Well try asking my wife Robyn; her former workmates back in Bristol still nickname her “Ribbons!” I don’t see the resemblance myself!

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Home From Home

29 Tuesday Oct 2024

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Saturday 21st September 2024 ko 17:30

West Wales Premier League

MUMBLES RANGERS 7 (Jenkins 22 Evans 24 Spring 42 Amphlett 50 69 James 57 Williams 88)

Amphlett missed penalty 45

BRYN ROVERS 0

Att 160

Entry £3

Programme £2

You may recall that Chris Garner and I paid Mumbles Rangers a visit back in 2021 when Covid restrictions were starting to ease. We picked Underhill Park purely as it was a public park so the Welsh Senedd’s dictat that crowds of over 100 for an event were still banned couldn’t possibly be breached (!)

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The Estate

24 Thursday Oct 2024

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Saturday 21st September 2024 ko 14:00

West Wales Premier League

PENLAN AFC 0

L Edwards sent off 86 (serious foul play)

T Waters sent off 88 (2nd booking)

Hudson sent off 90+3 (2nd booking)

ROCKSPUR 1 (M. Davies 40)

Jones sent off 22 (serious foul play)

Davies sent off 86 (2nd booking)

Att 332

Entry £3

Programme £2 (!)

The final two games of our Saturday in the West Wales Premier League saw us in Swansea and its environs. The first was a trip to Penlan, by reputation the roughest estate in the area. You may find this surprising but I was far less concerned than one or two others.

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The River Island

21 Monday Oct 2024

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Saturday 21st September 2024 ko 11:00

West Wales Premier League

YNYSTAWE ATHLETIC 2 (Brooks 34p Green 57)

DAFEN WELFARE 2 (Jones 16 54)

Att 194

Entry & Programme £5

Between the ill-fated Carmarthenshire Hop and this West Wales Premier League Hop we do seem to be seeing a lot of Pont Abraham. Most will know the place as being the western end of the M4 but if you’ve done enough of these events you’ll see it as being the gateway to places like Llandeilo , Pontarddulais and now Ynystawe.

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Seaside

18 Friday Oct 2024

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Friday 20th September 2024 ko 19:00

West Wales Premier League

SEASIDE 0

GARDEN VILLAGE 1 (Jewell 56)

Att 207

Entry £3

Programme £2

For an organised hop that’d been so successful there was a tinge of regret about this season’s visit to West Wales. That was mainly due to the loss for the August Bank Holiday Welsh Hop; the FAW Trophy made it difficult to organise, and the Gwent League’s inability to supply fixtures- impossible. But if this was to be GroundHopUK’s only visit to Wales this season, there was the overarching feeling that we should make it a good one.

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Donna

15 Tuesday Oct 2024

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Saturday 7th September 2024 ko 20:45

Serie C Girone (Group) B

RIMINI FC 0

DELFINO PESCARA 1 (Ferraris 85)

Att 3,981 (2,005 season tickets, 1,976 match tickets) at Stadio Romeo Neri

Entry €22

Programme/ Team sheet online only

We’d flown in to Rimini-San Marino airport the previous Wednesday evening and together with the other passengers on the flight were faced with something unusual. There was absolutely no onward transport, the buses had finished for the day, and there wasn’t a taxi to be seen. I found the number of a local taxi firm and eventually a stream of cabs arrived to take the flight to various hotels in the Rimini, Riccione, and Cattolica area. We finally got to our hotel, dumped our bags and had just enough time in the end to grab a Piadina, it’s a good job restaurants in Italy tend to close late!

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Forza Titani

03 Thursday Oct 2024

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Thursday 5th September 2024 ko 20:45

UEFA Nations League League D Group 1

SAN MARINO 1 (Sensoli 53)

LIECHTENSTEIN 0

Att 914 at Stadio San Marino, Serravalle

Entry €12

Programme €2

Teamsheet FREE

The roots of Robyn and I being at a game involving Europe’s third smallest country lie in an unlikely place- Stockholm! You may remember our friends Per and Bettan; each year they like to have a week in Rimini so when we decided to have some time away during Robyn’s birthday week, we decided to follow their example!

For those in the know, Rimini is the gateway to the tiny country of San Marino so with us in the area it was straightforward to factor in a San Marino Nations League fixture. I’ll be completely candid at this point; I didn’t pay too much attention as to who they were playing!

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The Gap

02 Wednesday Oct 2024

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Saturday 26th August 2024 ko 14:30

Cymru North

GUILSFIELD UNITED 3 (Haycock 17 59 Matthews 69)

RUTHIN TOWN 1 (Owen 69p)

Att 160

Entry £7

Programme £1

Back in the days when the Welsh Hop visited the Mid-Wales League we visited this part of the world a lot. The unscientific way of explaining the geography is to say flop over the border at Welshpool, then head towards the mountains. Over three years we visited a series of quite wonderful grounds, but why did Guilsfield somehow evade us?

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Foresters

26 Thursday Sep 2024

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Saturday 24th August 2024 ko 15:00

Gloucestershire County League

BROADWELL AMATEURS 1 (Locke 90+4p)

BROMLEY HEATH UNITED 0

Att 65

Entry & Programme £2.50

Being married to a Bristol girl you’d have thought I’d have finished the Gloucestershire County League years ago, and if they’d hadn’t turned down an approach from GroundhopUK around 20 years ago I’d have completed it well before Robyn and I had ever met. Perhaps it’s a sign of the strength of the league that they’re managed to remove the reserve sides (who kyboshed the groundhop plan) and keep up the refreshing of its membership over the years.

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