The Auld Fem Derby

03 Thursday Apr 2014

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Sunday 30th March 2014 ko 12.00

Scottish Women’s Premier League

RANGERS 2 (Sneddon 20p Mulvey 55)

CELTIC 1 (Jones 11)

Att 79 at Petershill Park, Glasgow (Petershill JFC)

Entry £4

No Programme

To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure how to approach this game. On one hand it was a women’s game, not known for being high profile in the UK, but it did involve Celtic and Rangers with all the sectarian idiocy that fixtures between the two clubs attracts. I pondered my attire, would that red Neilston scarf bought the previous day attract unwanted attention, would my SLR camera be allowed in, and would there be a sizeable police presence?

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The Brightest Star

02 Wednesday Apr 2014

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Saturday 29th March 2014 ko 14.00

West of Scotland Junior Cup 3rd Round

NEILSTON JUNIORS 0 Digney sent off FT (2nd booking)

SHOTTS BON ACCORD 1 (McKenna 88p)

Att 121

Entry £5

Programme £1

Scarf £5

We had a guest on this mini-tour, Sim loves his football despite being an Oxford United fan, and with this fixture being the centrepiece of the weekend I wanted it to give him a true flavour of the Junior scene in Scotland. We drove south-west from Glasgow for around 11 miles to Neilston, just south of Paisley. Like the latter town the village grew massively during the Industrial Revolution due to the textile trade and the derelict Crofton Mill still stands, the only survivor of the seven mills than stood beside the River Levern between Neilston and Dovecothall.

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Brown Brogue Blues

31 Monday Mar 2014

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Saturday 29th March 2014 ko 9.30

Strathclyde Saturday Morning League Presidents Cup Semi-Final

TANTALLON VICTORIA 0

FIRHILL UNITED 1 (Thomson 8)

Att 18

Played on Pitch 1, Toryglen Regional Football Centre, Glasgow

Entry FREE

No Programme

I have a feeling if you’re in Mount Florida, Glasgow during the football season and you can’t find a game to watch, then you’re not putting enough effort in! There’s Hampden Park, the National Stadium (albeit closed to football for alterations for the forthcoming Commonwealth games) home to Queens Park, the quite wonderful Cathkin Park 200 yards away up Prospecthill Road, which acts as part council pitch, part mausoleum for poor old defunct Third Lanark who controversially went bankrupt in 1967. With a horde of groundhoppers making their way to the final ever game at Benburb’s iconic Tinto Park, they had the chance to tick off another icon beforehand. Having already had the pleasure a couple of years ago I visited the other point of the Mount Florida footballing triangle- Toryglen.

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The Third Way

31 Monday Mar 2014

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Friday 28th March 2014 ko 20.00

East of Scotland Amateur Cup Semi-Final

TOLCROSS THISTLE 1 (Perry 43)

STEINS THISTLE 2 (Lynn 46, M Kane 61)

Att 148 at Ainslie Park, Edinburgh

Entry £4

No Programme

North of the border the football is split 3 ways, Senior, Junior and Amateur, and there’s very little cross-over. You get some clubs in one section that could easily play in what is, in theory, the higher level, and especially the case of the Seniors, the converse also holds.

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Wherever Life Takes You

28 Friday Mar 2014

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A few days ago I was asked to write a piece for the United Counties League Facebook page. Given that we’re organising a groundhop for them in August I thought I’m delve a little into groundhopping culture. I  occasionally get asked what’s the most far-flung and unusual ground I’ve ever visited and I’ve got a good tale to tell on that… This isn’t my usual offering but I hope you enjoy it.

 

We took the groundhop to West Wales a few weeks ago, for 5 games in the Ceredigion League. We at GroundhopUK were really happy with how it went, attendances were 20% up on 2013, and the clubs did a marvellous job, making a tidy sum on varied catering, and newsy, interesting programmes.

But I’m not going to talk about that, you’ll all see how that’s done thing coming August, this is a tale from one of my more far-flung travels.

The first game on Sunday was at Bargod Rangers, in the pretty village of Drefach Velindre, near Newcastle Emlyn, and I got volunteered to speak to the local press. The cub reporter asked me what my most bizarre ground visited is, and I told them it was Zweigen Kanazawa in the Japanese 3rd Division.

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Leisure Pursuits

27 Thursday Mar 2014

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Wednesday 26th March 2014 ko 19.45

Eastern Counties League Division One

DEBENHAM LEISURE CENTRE 0

TEAM BURY 1 (Thompson 72)

Att 63

Entry £5

Programme 50p

Raffle £1

Tea £1

Burger £1.50

I suppose the first point to make is that this Suffolk village near Bury St Edmunds has absolutely nothing to be with the department store of the same name! Apparently the pronunciation is different, the village sounds more like Dee- ben- am, but that could be local inflection! The village takes its name from the River Deben who runs through the village in what is claimed to be Britain’s third longest ford, eventually reaching its estuary at Felixstowe Ferry with two Martello Towers marking the mouth.

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Floodlight Fancy

27 Thursday Mar 2014

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Tuesday 25th March 2014 ko 19.45

Sussex County League Division One

CHICHESTER CITY 1 (Groom 7)

RINGMER 0

Att c50

Entry £5

Programme £1

Chichester and I go back a long way. My ex-wife loved Butlins so regularly we’d spend weekends at the nearby Bognor Regis stockade, to watch the likes of Coghlan’s Quo, and a version of Bucks Fizz with only one original member. We even saw Limahl in support of The Wurzels once, which looked less like entertainment and more like a gentle nudge towards alternative employment for the former Kajagoogoo man.

There was one massive advantage to the place, and that was on Saturday afternoons I could escape the high fences and security patrols, and find a game locally. Even now, a look at the grounds I’ve visited in this part of the south coast show a marked slant to Bognor Regis. Nice town Bognor, if nothing else for the annual Birdman of Bognor competition, and the heroic David Purley, but as for Butlins, well I’m rather with King George V on that one!

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Roytown

23 Sunday Mar 2014

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Saturday 22nd March 2014 ko 14.30

Anglian Combination Division Two

HOVETON WHERRYMEN 1 (King 67p)

BUNGAY TOWN 2 (Flint 43 Andrews 52)

Att 19

Entry FREE

Nothing for sale

In the Norfolk Broads, the village of Hoveton has reason to feel downtrodden. On the south side of the River Bure is Wroxham, and you cross the narrow swing-bridge to get to Hoveton. You cross to by far the larger settlement, but what did they call the railway station built on the Hoveton side? That’s right, Wroxham with the suffix, “and Hoveton,” was only added in 1966. To add insult to injury the narrow gauge Bure Valley Railway terminates at a station a hundred-or-so yards from the main station. What’s that station called? That’s right…Wroxham!

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The Nightwatchman

23 Sunday Mar 2014

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Friday 21st March 2014 ko 19.45

League 2

OXFORD UNITED 1 (Connolly 77)

HARTLEPOOL UNITED 0

Att 4,954 (185 away)

Entry S/T

Programme £3 (inc Oxford Mail)

Sometimes its wonderful how things conspire to help you. With Oxford’s game away at Southend on Monday televised, this fixture was moved forward a day to allow the team a little time to recover and me to plan another destination for tomorrow. The move didn’t help the Hartlepool fans, and all credit to those who make the trip, and it didn’t help Ian Lenagan the Oxford United chairman either. Continue reading →

Essex Man

23 Sunday Mar 2014

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Thursday 20th March 2014 ko 19.45

Essex Senior League

HULLBRIDGE SPORTS 1 (Nash 23)

BASILDON UNITED 2 (Murphy 53 Pinto 70)

Att 51

Entry £6

Programme £1

Tea £1

Bacon Sarnie £2

It’s not often I risk turning up at the wrong ground, but this fixture could easily have ended up being one of a small group. A few weeks ago, with Hullbridge’s Lower Road ground waterlogged the clubs made the sensible move to swap their games against each other around as Basildon’s Gardiners Close was playable. The trouble is a few of the fixture websites didn’t keep up! That’s why a Twitter account can be a groundhopper’s best friend! Continue reading →