Wakering Stairs

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Wednesday 9th October 2013 ko 19.45

Essex Senior League Gorden Brasted Memorial Trophy First Round

GREAT WAKERING ROVERS 10 (Skeels 7 18 Trenkel 24 43 82 85 Baldwin 40 62 Sparrow 56 Read 59 )

SPORTING BENGAL UNITED 2 (Ougbo 47 79) Riviera missed penalty 72

Att 71

Entry £6

Programme £1

Teamsheet FREE

When I used to follow Oxford United both home and away I used to dread the Southend arterial road. Time does dull the memory, and roadworks made the usual hold-ups still worse on what is, after all, a pretty much straight road. After passing by the almost perpetual suburbia of Southend itself, the scene changes rapidly. You become more aware of the flat land, this is I suppose the southernmost tip of East Anglia, and soon you reach the village of Great Wakering.

The village has links to the MOD island of Foulness, much of the land around Great Wakering is inaccessible due to their restrictions, the beach area is often used as a firing range.

The village’s most famous son is footballer Continue reading

Rope-a-Dope

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Tuesday 8th October 2013 ko 19.45

Football League Trophy Southern Section 2nd Round

OXFORD UNITED 1 (Constable 89)

PORTSMOUTH 2 (Agyemang 66 Marquis 82)

Att 3,697 (1,132 away)

Entry £10

Programme £2 (reduced size, fold out) inc’ Oxford Mail

It has to be said that the Portsmouth support for this fixture was astounding, I did start to worry that the away fans would outnumber the home support! I remember Oxford United doing that to St Albans City during OUFC’s first season in the Conference.

The Football League’s competition for the bottom two divisions does at times Continue reading

Refiner

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Saturday 5th October 2013 ko 15.00

Scottish Championship

FALKIRK 2 (Loy 33p 84)

QUEEN OF THE SOUTH 1 (Russell 84)

Att 3,189

Entry £18

Programme £2

Badge £3

Macaroni Pie £1.80

This is another in the occasional series “Travels with Iain,” the last being the trip to Irvine Meadow last year http://wp.me/p1PehW-1lY. For Iain and I a ten month gap from seeing each other is pretty good for us! His son Ross loves his football too and I enjoyed seeing him return from football training with his Månkarbo shirt on, and I’m not sure his teammates will have seen a Swedish Division 5 shirt before! So Ross, here’s what the place is like! http://wp.me/p1PehW-1KD

We’d decided to watch Iain’s local team Queen of the South’s away game at Falkirk. It’s around a 90 minute drive up the M74 and M73 from Dumfries to the Falkirk Stadium, but let’s be honest here, a 3-sided stadium in an out-of-town location isn’t what I’d normally choose to visit as I get enough of that following Oxford United! So you have to work just that little bit harder to make it interesting. Fortunately Falkirk allows you to do that with just a little research. Continue reading

Transformer

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Wednesday 2nd October 2013 ko 19.45

Hinchingbrooke Cup First Round

PETERBOROUGH SPORTS 2 (Brader 82 90)

BOURNE TOWN 1 (Robinson 30)

Att 85

Entry & Programme £3

It’s the lot of the groundhopper that you expand your circle of comfort time after time. Consider that idea for a moment, its that point on a journey when you can’t find your way home off the top of your head. When I was a child Dad would drive the family Mini to a resort somewhere in England or Wales, and initially it was a case of wondering whether at the end of the road we’d turn left for south or right for north.

As the years went by you learned more roads, the ring road around Oxford, the route to my Aunt and Uncle in Reading, and I saw a lot of the A34 south (I still do!). But as a groundhopper you gradually learn a taxi drivers knowledge of the motorways, and trunk roads of the country, but then, as you complete the football grounds of a particular area or league, that knowledge falls into abeyance.

It was the case to a large extent for Peterborough, up the A43, with the one junction stint along the M1 before heading past Northampton, Rushden and Raunds, before crossing under the A11. It was for a good reason, as Peterborough Sports are new to the United Counties League, and this was their first game under their new floodlights. However what I and the handful of other hoppers saw on arrival surprised each and every one of us.

The ground, in Lincoln Road used to be Continue reading

The Sweetener

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Tuesday 1st October 2013 ko 19.45

Isthmian League Premier Division

BURY TOWN 0

DULWICH HAMLET 4 (Oztumer 35 75p Walker 35 57)

Att 273

Entry £10

Programme £2

Badge £3

On the way home from Bungay I’d actually stopped for petrol in Bury-St-Edmunds without realising I was less than a mile from Ram Meadow. Nevertheless, regular readers will know that if I pass by a town, the chances of me returning to watch their football team increase dramatically!

Continue reading

Milk & Alcohol

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Saturday 28th September 2013 ko 15.00

FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round

CANVEY ISLAND 2 (Dumas 19 Belotti 83)

ST NEOTS TOWN 2 (Hilliard 5 Adjei 74)

Att 256

Entry £10

Programme £2

It would be all-too-easy to write off Canvey as a Chav Town, full of takeaways and amusement arcades, bereft of any history and culture. I’ve yet to visit a place that fits that description, and Canvey is no different!

Continue reading

Doing it Right

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Saturday 21st September 2013 ko 17.00

North Berkshire League Division One

LONG WITTENHAM ATHLETIC 4 (Murphy 27 Saunders 35 Bowler 55 Barton 64)

CROWMARSH GIFFORD 0

Att 193

Entry & Programme £4

Badge £3

Didcot Power Station Beer £3 a bottle

I like Bodkins Field, as its looks like the kind of place that ought to host village football. There’s a clubhouse, a pitch and a tarmacked road, and not much else. And you know what, what more do you need? Its beautiful, its historic, and the hoppers loved the place as much as I do. In fact its views of the Wittenham clumps and the peaceful village setting convinced me to ask local author Kate Shrewsday to write a piece for the programme. It was typically thought provoking, and here’s her site. Continue reading

The Charm Offensive

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Saturday 21st September 2013 ko 14.00

North Berkshire League Division One

BERINSFIELD 4 (D Murphy 34 45 46 Curtis 80)

FARINGDON TOWN 0 Quegan sent off (2nd Booking)

Att 251

Entry & Programme £4

Badge £3

Chicken Curry & Baked Potato £3

All the way back on the very first North Berkshire League groundhop, we’d reached Sutton Courtenay and the game was just about to kick off. Me being me, I’d gone for an extra cup of tea so was a little late in walking over from the clubhouse. I was rushing over, when someone tapped me on the shoulder. It was a young lady, and she half asked, and half demanded, Continue reading

Cooperation

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Saturday 21st September 2013 ko 11am

North Berkshire League Division Three

BENSON LIONS 1 (Keightly 83)

WESTMINSTER 4 (McMahon 17 59 Bourton 30 69)

Att 153

Entry & Programme £4

Badge £3

Bottle of Real Ale £2.50

Full English RAF breakfast including tea £5

The North Berkshire League Groundhop is very much my baby, so much so it’s the only time that at GroundhopUK Chris Berezai and I swap places, with me leading, and him acting as deputy. It makes sense, when I live a mere 10 miles from Steventon, the village that provides the centre-point of the league. Continue reading

Shine On

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Wednesday 18th September 2013 ko 19.45

Central Midlands League South Division

SOUTH NORMANTON ATHLETIC 2 (Mottershead 35 Fretwell 62)

HUCKNALL TOWN 0

Att 82

Entry £3

Programme £1

Lees Lane is one of those grounds that circumstances have led me to fail to visit. I like many others visited much of the CMFL during the years of their organised groundhops, but I found myself watching Newry City during their groundhop game. That was something that needed rectifying, I’d heard good things about the club and the ground. Continue reading