Hicks’ Law

24 Wednesday Sep 2014

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Saturday 20th September 2014 ko 16.00

North Berkshire League Division Two

MARCHAM 1 (Armstrong 82)

EAST HENDRED AFC 7 (Moss 18 29p Sutton 26 Hummel 32 Doig 42 Wise 56 Hicks 86)

Att 201

Entry & Programme £4

Badge £3

Catering: Baked Potatoes with various fillings. Cakes

Beer: Loose Cannon

When we put together these hops one of the many things we co-ordinate is catering. On reflection we should have added another item to the menu, on top of the baked potatoes with a myriad of fillings, curry included, and that was celery soup. Why, I hear you ask, well the March in Marcham is derived from the old English word, merece meaning a place where celery grows! Ham means settlement so we visited the village where celery grows! Continue reading →

The Abbey

24 Wednesday Sep 2014

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Saturday 20th September 2014 ko 13.00

North Berkshire League Division One

DORCHESTER 3 (J Nicholls 6 J Fleet 6 Patterson 16)

ARDINGTON & LOCKINGE 0 Fairclough sent off 73 (dangerous play)

Att 204

Entry & Programme £4

Badge £3

Food: Meat or veggie pasta

Beer: Rebellion Brewery

It was only a 4 mile journey from Crowmarsh Gifford to Dorchester-on-Thames, and for some of the trip I followed the reverse of the signs put up by Crowmarsh to guide people in to their game. I’d relaxed a little, we’d just set the second highest ever attendance for the North Berkshire Hop, and the hop’s history shows an event where few go to one game then disappear elsewhere. We’d also seen the event being backed by local people as we’d planned, and I had confidence that Dorchester had taken steps to ensure that too. Continue reading →

Jethro

22 Monday Sep 2014

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Saturday 20th September 2014 ko 10.00

North Berkshire League Division One

CROWMARSH GIFFORD 0

WALLINGFORD TOWN 1 (Searle 54)

Att 215

Entry & Programme £4

Beer; Loddon Brewery

Food: Breakfast baps, pizza

Off the top of my head this was the earliest time we at GroundhopUK have ever asked a club to kick-off, due entirely to getting 4 games on in a day, and giving people enough time to get through security at the MOD base later on.

I rather took to the town where Jethro Tull invented the seed drill when I visited them over a year ago report here, then again when they were the opponents at Long Wittenham in the final game of last year’s hop. Whilst the Recreation Ground isn’t the easiest to find, tucked as is behind a new housing development, there was plenty of space to work with. Continue reading →

Precursor

21 Sunday Sep 2014

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Friday 19th September 2014 ko 19.30

North Berkshire League Division One

ABINGDON TOWN 3 (Barroso 28 Lightfoot 83 Sutton 90og)

SAXTON ROVERS 0

Att 192

Entry & Programme £4

The North Berkshire League has held 3 annual groundhops, but for this year’s event I was handed a couple of dilemnas that weren’t of my own making. Firstly, I’ve spent each of the last 3 years bemoaning the lack of floodlights in the league, so I ought to have been pleased when Abingdon Town dropped into the league. That was due to a landlord charging a rent the club could ill-afford when they’d been flooded for 3 months at a time for each of the last 2 years. The trouble was that the club had been on a Hellenic hop back in the day, which normally would mean that they wouldn’t get another game. However I wanted to help the club and chairman Tom Larman, so we decided to stage the game as a Friday night precursor to the main event. The other problem though, had the potential to be altogether more serious. Continue reading →

Completionism

21 Sunday Sep 2014

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Wednesday 17th September 2014 ko 19.45

Spartan South Midlands League Division One

WODSON PARK 0

BEDFORD FC 2 (Johnson 14p Rocco 87)

Att c35

Entry £4

Programme £1

 

In an odd way Wodson Park FC very nearly passed me by. On being promoted from the Hertfordshire County Senior League in 2009 the club arranged a groundshare at Ware FC’s Wodson Park home, adjacent to the Wodson Park Leisure Centre that was home.

That was too many Wodsons for my addled mind, and I didn’t spot that the club moved back to the leisure centre for the start of last season! Continue reading →

The World Champions

18 Thursday Sep 2014

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On the way back from Tow Law Town I decided to pause my trip home and stop to visit something than hadn’t been in situ when I paid West Auckland Town FC many moons ago.

West Auckland play in the Northern League Division One and in recent times have made a couple of appearances in the FA Vase final here and here, but they have a far more illustrious past than that. Continue reading →

Hill Farmer’s Blues

14 Sunday Sep 2014

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Saturday 15th September 2014 k0 15.00

Northern League Division Two

TOW LAW TOWN 1 (Lee 85)

THORNABY 1 (Clarke 27)

Att 40

Entry £5

Programme £1

Badge £3.50

Such is the reputation of Tow Law’s Ironworks Road Ground I had no difficulty in filling a car to pay it a visit. In fact, the only issue I had was my presence each Saturday in the Masons Arms pub quiz. So to the rest of team “Hoof Hearted,” you have my apologies, but have a look at what follows and I sure you’ll understand my tardiness! Continue reading →

The Frogmill

14 Sunday Sep 2014

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Tuesday 9th September 2014 ko 18.15

Cheltenham League Division Two

ANDOVERSFORD 5 (R Cleal 41 57 Frewin 61 77 84)

PRESTBURY ROVERS 0

Att 16

Entry FREE

Programme NO

I suspect if you live to the east of Cheltenham, as I do, Andoversford is where you turn off of the A40 to head down to the Air Balloon Pub, then on towards Gloucester and the M5. Apart from passing the Marco Pierre White-owned Frogmill Inn, you do tend to by-pass the pretty village, which really is quintessentially Cotswolds in character. Continue reading →

Redoubt

11 Thursday Sep 2014

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Saturday 6th September 2014 ko 15.00

Essex & Suffolk Border League Cup First Round

HARWICH & PARKESTON 0

HATFIELD PEVEREL 2 (Muresan 66og Hale 90)

Att 84

Entry FREE

Programme NO

We got to Harwich early, around 11am, and normally you’d expect a port town to have little or nothing to do to pass the time away. But Harwich is no ordinary port town, and the Royal Oak is no ordinary football ground. Continue reading →

Scratching at it

10 Wednesday Sep 2014

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Wednesday 3rd September ko 18.00

Hampshire Premier League Senior Division

COLDEN COMMON 3 (Chester 17 Reed 45 90)

HEDGE END RANGERS 2 (Cross 39 Turner 42p)

Att 60

Entry FREE

Programme £1

The great beauty of writing about an endless supply of football grounds is that the process of putting together these articles makes you think a little deeper than, “I like this place,” and let’s face it there are no lack of football bloggers out there whose description of what they’ve experienced is often little more than, “Decent” or “Nice,” God I hate those two words. Continue reading →