19 Thursday Sep 2013
Posted in M
Sunday 15th September 2013
Matlock Bath and The Heights of Abraham
Stood in the Derwent Valley you are aware of so many different sights and sounds. There’s the tree-lined sides, the shops, the bed and breakfasts, even the grumble of a motorbike’s exhaust. In many respects its a seaside resort a good 80 miles from the coast, but take a cable-car trip up and over the gorge and the secrets are revealed. Continue reading
16 Monday Sep 2013
Tags
Byron, Derbyshire, Illuminated Boats, Little Switzerland, Matlock Bath, Queen Victoria, River Derwent, Ruskin
Saturday 14th September 2013 20.00
Matlock Bath Parade of Illuminated and Decorated Boats
Entry £5
When I was asked to photograph Rowsley versus Newhall, it gave me a excuse to stay on and photograph a wonderful English tradition.
Matlock Bath lies just over a mile south of Matlock, in Derbyshire. It’s a spa town, sitting snugly in the Derwent valley, and Princess Victoria of Kent’s visit in 1832 made the village the place to visit for those attached to the social scene. The likes of Ruskin and Lord Byron took the waters and the latter nicknamed the place Little Switzerland, a name that has stuck! Continue reading
16 Monday Sep 2013
Posted in R
Tags
Andy Roome, chatsworth house, Dan Bishop, Derbyshire, derbyshire dales, hawfields, James Ward, junction railway, king edward vii, Midland Combination, midlands regional alliance, Newhall United, Rowsley 86, School Lane, Simon Baldwin, Tim Baker
Saturday 14th September 2013 ko 15.00
Midlands Regional Alliance Premier Division
ROWSLEY 86 2 (T Baker 29 Roome 85)
NEWHALL UNITED 1 (Ward 26p)
Att 8
Entry FREE
Tea FREE
No Programme
Head north on the A6 from Matlock and in around 6 miles you’ll reach the pretty village of Rowsley. It’s at the confluence of the rivers Derwent and Wye, and was the site of an extensive marshalling yard for the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway. The station was frequently used by King Edward VII when he visited nearby Chatsworth House. The station became a goods depot until 1968, when it was closed and converted to a contractor’s yard. It then became the centrepiece of a shopping development which is still open today. Perhaps it goes without saying I didn’t pay it a visit! Continue reading
12 Thursday Sep 2013
Posted in C
Tags
Bewdley Town, Cradley Heath, Cradley Town, Martin Hill, Scott Devlin, The Beeches, Tom Hunt, West Midlands Regional League
Wednesday 11th March 2013 ko 19.45
West Midlands (Regional) League Premier Division
CRADLEY TOWN 2 (Hill 85 Devlin 87)
BEWDLEY TOWN 0
Att 40
Entry £3
Programme £1
If like me you’re 40-plus and from Oxford, the Black Country town of Cradley equals Speedway. I remember watching the likes of Erik Gundersen, Lance King and Gert Handberg at Dudley Wood Stadium and being vaguely disturbed by a poster of former great Bruce Penhall in the bath, with far too few bubbles to preserve his modesty! Continue reading
08 Sunday Sep 2013
Posted in B
Tags
Andy Hammersley, Anglian Combination, Black, Brandon Town, Bungay Town, Callum Ling, Craig Winstone, Dan Andrews, Dan Wilby, Dog, Dom Mirner, James Barnes, Maltings Meadow, pay 5p, Shaun Cole, Shaun Flint, Shuck, The Darkness
Saturday 7th September 2013 ko 14.30
Anglian Combination Division Two
BUNGAY TOWN 11 (ELEVEN) (Flint 8 Barnes 19 27 Ling 20 87 Mirner 24 52 89 Wilby 32 Andrews 76 Hammersley 86)
BRANDON TOWN 0
Att 88
Entry -5p
Programme 50p
Burger £2.50
Once a year Football has, ” Non League Day,” when an international weekend means there’s no Premier League and Championship games scheduled. Fans are encouraged to support grass roots football, and the smaller clubs try their best to entice new supporters to come and visit them. Last year, I ended up at an iconic ground, Northern League Crook Town http://wp.me/p1PehW-1dV, but this year I wanted a fresh approach, so I decided to pick the club with what I thought was the best marketing gimmick. And Bungay won that battle by an absolute mile. Continue reading
08 Sunday Sep 2013
Posted in K
Tags
act of parliament, british midland, Danny Morris, East Midlands Airport, football traveller, Greenhill, Jarmain Nelson, kegworth air disaster, Kegworth disaster, Kegworth Imperial, King George V, Newhall United, North Leicestershire League, ratcliffe on soar power station, Ryan Mason
Tuesday 3rd September 2013 ko 18.15
North Leicestershire League Premier Division
KEGWORTH IMPERIAL 0
GREENHILL Y.C. 4 (Morris 3 Mason 49 Nelson 52 70)
Att 49
Entry FREE
Nothing for sale
Sometimes I can sit there with a copy of the Football Traveller and there isn’t a fixture that grabs me. Its daft, a weekly magazine with around a thousand fixtures in, a case perhaps of Bruce Springsteen’s “57 channels and nothing on..” In the end Newhall United secretary Dan Bishop suggested this one, after I asked for something low level. Dan never, ever lets you down….. Continue reading
08 Sunday Sep 2013
Posted in O
Tags
Dave Kitson, David Hunt, David Kitson, James Constable, Johnny Mullins, Matt Lund, nathan cooper, oxford mail, oxford united., Paul Moody, Rochdale
Saturday 31st August 2013 ko 15.00
League 2
OXFORD UNITED 1 (Constable 24)
ROCHDALE 1 (Lund 50)
Att 5,260 (203 away)
Entry – Season Ticket
Programme £3 (including free Oxford Mail)
With the plethora of organised groundhops (too many to tell the truth) this season, this was my first visit this season to Grenoble Road. A lot has changed since last season, especially on the playing side with over a team’s worth of players released, and replaced, some from the youth team. There’s been some high-profile recruits, Continue reading
06 Friday Sep 2013
Tags
Alfredian Park, Didcot Town, FA Cup, Jermaine Ferriera, Pablo Haysham, Richard Claydon, Sean Webb, Wantage Town
Friday 30th August 2013 ko 19.45
FA Cup Preliminary Round
WANTAGE TOWN 2 (Claydon 60 86)
DIDCOT TOWN 3 (Webb 3og Ferriera 37 Haysham 70)
Att 321
Entry £6
Programme £1 (poor, far too many adverts)
After the excesses of the weekend, I’d felt rather footballed-out. There were no lack of options on Tuesday and Wednesday, but save for a little writing the urge to jump in the car had been absent. But on Friday, a nice local game beckoned, and an FA Cup game too. It was time to get back in the swing of things, and on arrival I wasn’t the only one to have thought along the same lines. There were a good 20 hoppers, many of whom had been touring around North Wales with Chris and I. There was North Berkshire League representation too, with fixtures secretary Charlie East, and Treasurer Mike Panting casting an interested local eye on the proceedings.
However the reunion had a far more significant member, Continue reading
05 Thursday Sep 2013
Tags
coal extraction, coal mining, Darren Cassidy, Dean Moss, Lead, Meliden, Prestatyn Town, St Asaph, Welsh Alliance, Welsh Cuo, Welsh Groundhop
Monday 26th August 2013 ko 18.00
Welsh Alliance Division Two
MELIDEN 2 (Moss 34 Cassidy 84)
ST ASAPH 0
Att 323
Entry £3
Programme £1
Badge £3
It seems like the end of an era writing this, the last game of the Welsh hop marathon. A few things have happened since this game, the main one being that Chris attended a league meeting where a full debrief was held on the hop, the first in the league. The good news new that we’ll be back next season, and that the planning has already started.
Yet despite the magnum opus nature of the hop it didn’t feel like we were stretching the joy too far as we approached the mining village of Meliden. Yes, people’s feet still hurt, and there were tired bodies on show, but what we saw as the coaches reached the Mine lifted the soul. Continue reading
04 Wednesday Sep 2013
Monday 26th August 2013 ko 14.30
Welsh Alliance Division One
LLANDYRNOG UNITED 1 (J Davies 4)
PWLLHELI 1 (M Williams 40)
Att 232
Entry £4
Programme £1
Its only about 3 miles from Central Park to Cae Nant but in terms of the feel of the place, it felt a lot more. From the urbane Denbigh, Llandyrnog seemed….well asleep! The coaches and cars drove through the deserted village to what seemed the only place alive, the football ground Cae Nant! As we sorted out somewhere for the coaches to park, the club had earmarked the local Creamery, but that was too far from the ground, many hoppers had found the local pub The Golden Lion, and convinced the landlord it would be profitable for him to open. From what I’ve learned he made a fair bob, and we’re glad as organisers to have helped the local economy!
I was a little nervous about the fixture, Continue reading
Football: Wherever it may be 