Western Star

29 Thursday Aug 2013

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Saturday 24th August 2013 ko 12.45

Welsh Alliance Division 2

GAERWEN 0

PENRHYNDEUDRAETH 5 (Roberts 33 Hughes 45p 79 S Jones 68 L Jones 88) Hughes missed penalty 30

Att 241

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

Lobscouse £2

We were a little tight for time in reaching Gaerwen after the groundhop’s opener at Llanfairpwll, but had enough time for a little coach tour round the local cattle market, before our drivers Colin and Neil decided to drop the passengers off at Maes Merddyn before returning to the market to park up.

The village of Gaerwen is best known as being the southern terminus of the Anglesey Central Railway which was in use between 1864 and 1993. The station was only the Holyhead to Bangor line until being closed to passenger traffic under the Beeching axe in 1963. The tiny village of Star is situated to the east of Gaerwen.

On arrival the ground was a hive of activity. Continue reading →

Speak in Welsh (but swear in English)

28 Wednesday Aug 2013

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Saturday 24th August 2013 ko 10.15

Welsh Alliance Division One

LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH  4 (Frazer 8 48 Smith 39 J Vousden 71)

PWLLHELI 0

Att 271

Entry £4

Programme £1

Of the 4 days on this groundhop, Saturday proved to be by far the most difficult to organise. We prefer to have 4 games on the Saturday, as with 3 games you tend to see attendances drop alarmingly for the middle game, as hoppers go off-piste and find alternate games. With 4 they have to give up two hop games which tends to see more stay with the hop.

With a day on Anglesey, the obvious last game would have been Llangefni, with a set of floodlights a relic of their one season in the Welsh Premier, but that idea was scotched as we soon discovered they no longer work. They were replaced by Glantraeth, but were to be the away team at Llanfairpwll. Sadly Llangefni then opted to drop down to the Anglesey League, so we were grateful to Pwllheli who offered to replace them and be an away side twice on the hop.

With all 4 clubs lacking floodlights, it meant an early start from the University Continue reading →

New Round Here

27 Tuesday Aug 2013

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Friday 23rd August 2013 ko 18.30

Welsh Alliance Division 2

GREENFIELD 3 (Robinson 36 Jones 70p Johnson 85)

HALKYN UNITED 0

Att 263

Entry & Programme £3

Badge £3

So back on GroundhopUK duty on what is, I suppose the spiritual home of the organisation, Wales. Chris Berezai’s first forays into organising groundhops started in South Wales, and as leagues have been completed, the offers have led us through the Mid-Wales League, to North Wales and our first groundhop game in the Welsh Alliance, which covers the 3rd and 4th tiers of football along the North Wales coast and Anglesey.

A new league means starting the planning from scratch, from attending League committee meetings, through the clubs voting on whether to go ahead with the venture, then attending groundhop planning meetings with participating clubs. There’s a lot of work that goes on in the background to ensure the days go without a hitch, the hoppers enjoy their weekend and the clubs make a lot of money for their efforts.

Part of that experience is the programme packs that are handed to hoppers with a pre-booked ticket before the first game. They’ve become a staple of the organised groundhop since Rob Hornby introduced them on a Central Midlands League hop many years ago. They do involve the clubs getting sufficient numbers of the publications to us the day before the event, so Chris spent Thursday afternoon collecting 155 programmes from each of the 11 participating club from 4 locations. Continue reading →

The Tyre Pyre

22 Thursday Aug 2013

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Wednesday 20th August 2013 ko 18.15

Hampshire Premier League Senior Division

COLDEN COMMON 2 (L Magee 35 Barrett 90)

OVERTON UNITED 5 (Bode 64 Englefield 78 81 Parry 90 90)

Att 37

Entry FREE

Programme £1

If you head down the M3 past Winchester then head east along the South Downs, passing through Twyford, you’ll reach the small village of Colden Common. You’re close to Marwell Zoological Park which houses 1,200 animals of 235 different species, and is a major attraction in the area. One their more unusual requests came on 22nd May 2011 when Hampshire Constabulary contacted them for advice on how to tranquilise a white tiger lurking in long grass near Hedge End. The tiger turned out to be Continue reading →

Pope’s Wood

21 Wednesday Aug 2013

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Monday 19th August 2013 ko 19.45

FA Cup Extra-Preliminary Round Replay

BINFIELD 3 (Rapley 15 Havermans 34 Davies 45)

FLACKWELL HEATH 2 (Dickens 9p 68) Brown sent off 90 (2nd booking)

Att 204

Entry £5

Programme £1

I think Binfield the village has an image problem. The trouble is that when you tell people where you’re heading you inevitably tell them its near to Bracknell, and Binfield is as far removed from the New Town modernity and roundabouts as is possible.

Painter John Constable spent his honeymoon at the Rectory in 1816 and sketched All Saints Church twice. The church said to have been a refuge for a number of Parliamentary soldiers during the Civil War. Poet Alexander Pope lived nearby and was a choirboy here.

From the late 19th century to the 1960s, brick-making was an important industry in the area, with the Binfield Brick and Tile works at Amen Corner being an important employer. Binfield bricks were partly used to create the Royal Albert Hall.

Hill Farm Lane is tucked away off the main road, the signs the club have provided are both welcome and necessary. You expect a small rustic ground, so what opens out in front of you is a real bonus. Continue reading →

A lift up

18 Sunday Aug 2013

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Saturday 17th August 2013 ko 15.00

Wessex League Division One

ANDOVER TOWN 3 (Yates 11 Foot 27 Dixon 37)

HYTHE & DIBDEN 0

Att 61

Entry £5

Programme £1

When I was growing up my Dad used to comment that Andover ought to be where the tax office is based ( ‘and over… ok I’ll get me coat!). The Hampshire town is most famous for its military connections,  RAF Andover was opened on Andover Airfield, to the south of the town, during the First World War and became the site of the RAF Staff College. Before then, in 1846, the town came to public attention after an enquiry exposed the conditions in its workhouse. The Andover workhouse scandal brought to light evidence of beatings, sexual abuse and general mistreatment of workhouse inmates by the overseers. Inmates were noted as being driven by hunger to eat the bones which they were supposed to crush to make fertilizer.

These days the town is a base for the likes of Twinings, and Stannah stairlifts. Being situated on the A303, the town has excellent links to the M3, M4 and M5.

To tell the truth, the footballing side to this story is rather convoluted to the uninitiated. The roots of it all lie Continue reading →

The Golden Ridge

18 Sunday Aug 2013

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Friday 16th August 2013

Golden Ridge, Faringdon

If you drive from Faringdon to Highworth via Coleshill on the B4019 you’ll trace the line of a limestone escarpment that runs more or less from Oxford to Swindon. Its unusual, in that its not white, the stone has a high coral content, giving it a honey-coloured effect. Traditionally many of the local buildings were built of this hardy, tough material, and that also has led to another benefit. Because the limestone is tougher than the surrounding clay, its remained while the surrounding material got eroded away by the waters of time, giving spectacular views of the surrounding countryside.

And regular readers of this blog will know I am a sucker for a good view too! This one looks north and west from the town, towards the likes of Burford, Carterton and Brize Norton, and yes, the famous Folly, that you now know all about!

The Double Cube

15 Thursday Aug 2013

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Wednesday 14th August 2013 ko 18.30

Hampshire Premier League Senior Division

WINCHESTER CASTLE 2 (L Nancholas 64 Anscombe 78)

OVERTON UNITED 4 (Houseman 24 31 Rudge 51 58)

Att 15

Entry FREE

No Programme

Tea FREE

Chocolate 50p

I do like these early season early kick-offs, a quick exit after work, and back home afterwards at a sensible hour. That of course is in complete contrast of course to what will follow until the clocks go forward next year!

It’s worth noting that Winchester Castle don’t play in Winchester, the Hampshire County Council Sports Ground is in fact in Chilcomb. Even that’s an approximation, the ground lies off the A31 and if you’ve visited Alresford chances are you’ve passed this place, although its easy enough to miss the entrance, I nearly did!

The view from the ground is spectacular Continue reading →

Thinking About The Lions

15 Thursday Aug 2013

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Tuesday 13th August 2013 ko 19.45

Spartan South Midlands League Division One

FC BROXBOURNE BOROUGH 1 (Hussey 6) Bashkal sent off 90 (2nd booking)

WELWYN GARDEN CITY 0

Att 76

Entry FREE

Programme £1

Whilst I enjoyed my Saturday in Cumbria, I’d found it slightly bruising. I like to see all of these events go off as flawlessly as possible, so after digesting the lessons learned, it was good to get back to simple, solo groundhopping, and a nice easy one at that.

The Borough of Broxbourne is probably best known as being where Tesco’s head office is based, in Cheshunt, but there’s News International’s Park Plaza, Waltham Cross to consider also. It’s the world’s largest printing plant, printing the English editions of The Sun and The Times amongst others. It can produce 86,000 newspapers per hour on each of its twelve printing presses. It cost £350 million and replaced the News International press in Wapping, the scene of a strike and civil disobedience when it closed in 1986.

The club play on the outskirts of Cheshunt, and that’s where the fun starts. Continue reading →

The Learning Curve

12 Monday Aug 2013

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Saturday 10th August 2013 ko 19.00

Northern League Division One

PENRITH AFC 2 (Rigg 35 71)

NEWTON AYCLIFFE 4 (Earl 19 21 Owens 59 86)

Att 380

Entry £5

Programme £1 (?)

Team Sheet 20p

The trip east from Whitehaven was memorable for the views of Bassenthwaite Lake, and given that I arrived at Penrith AFC a good hour before kick-off I wish I’d stopped for a few photos.

You are now in the Eden Valley, just north of the River Eamont, and since you’re less than 3 miles north of the boundary of the Lake District National Park, the view from the main stand at Frenchfield Park is spectacular! Even behind the goal, the cows took an agricultural, if slightly dismissive view of proceedings. Continue reading →