Rest

06 Tuesday Jun 2023

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Tuesday 11th April 2023 ko 18:30

Banbury, District and Lord Jersey League- Premier Division

CHESTERTON 0

GRAVEN HILL 5 (Watts 45 Quarterman 48 Smith 52 Munday 60 Edwards 78)

Att 30

Free Entry

Groundhoppers do tend to love that last part of the football season when the clocks of gone forward, and the clubs with no floodlights can play midweek fixtures. It tends to evoke thoughts of warm evenings, watching games in a t-shirt and shorts as the sun slowly sets. Well, in theory at least! Continue reading →

Rains

05 Monday Jun 2023

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Monday 10th April 2023 ko 11:30

Hellenic League Division Two West

SHIPSTON EXCELSIOR 4 (Fetherston 43 secs Gill 21 Cardwell 36 Clarke 53)

FECKENHAM 2 (Davies 46 Skelton 85)

Att 193

Entry £3.50

Programme £1.50

I drove past Chipping Norton, then headed still further north heading over from Oxfordshire to Warwickshire. There always seemed to be a sense of crossing the Rubicon at that County boundary- from Hellenic Country to Midland League territory. Just to add to the sense of change, the rains came. We drove through Long Compton with the wipers barely able to keep the windscreen clear. Continue reading →

Personal

29 Monday May 2023

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Sunday 9th April 2023

11:00 Hellenic League Division Two East

WATLINGTON TOWN 0

NEWBURY 10 (Frank 24 35 Allen 45 84 90  Armstrong 55 82 90p Goddard 59 Pattern 87)

Att 271

Entry & Programme £4

14:00 Hellenic League Division One

ABINGDON UNITED 3 (Mills 27 Bartlett 30 Downie 82)

SHORTWOOD UNITED 1 (Barrett 77)

Att 358

Entry £5

Programme £2

15:45 Hellenic League Division One

CLANFIELD 85 3 (Dickinson 46 Seacole 49 Fullarton 76)

MALMESBURY VICTORIA 1 (Patey 55)

Att 279

Entry £6

Programme £2

You could say it was personal. Easter Sunday on the Hellenic Hop may have been revisits to grounds I’d visited many times, but I had a personal connection to every host club. I always want our host clubs to do well but never more than on this day. Continue reading →

The Day Off

24 Wednesday May 2023

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Saturday 8th April 2023

11:00 Hellenic League Division 2 East

MORTIMER 2 (Gorman 22 Parfitt-Bowes 57)

CHINNOR 0

Att 209

14:30 Hellenic League Division 2 East

TAPLOW UNITED 2 (Eaves 35 Umbewa 38)

CHALFONT WASPS 2 (Drummond 45 Sava 76)

Pereira penalty saved 90

Att 140

17:30 Hellenic League Division 2 East

WOODCOTE FC 4 (Allen 19og Webber 28 Nowell 45 Downes 84)

FC BEACONSFIELD 0

Att 243

Entry & Programme for each game – £4

I suppose it had to happen at some point, I actually took a day off- from GroundhopUK at least! It had certainly been a while, to the point that I’d actually got married, separated, divorced, engaged, and married again during all those hops we’ve organised over the last 15-plus years. But the great beauty of GroundHopUK these days is that it isn’t just about Chris Berezai and I. Since the Bedfordshire League decided to spurn Craig Dabbs’ skills, kindness and hard work, he’s come on board- your loss Mr Francis, and now my wife Robyn deals with the social media too. There are also no end of folks that help us out, and there’s the various league officials to do some of the leg work too. Continue reading →

Flypast

19 Friday May 2023

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Tuesday 3rd April 2023 ko 18:30

Spartan South Midlands League Division Two

AFC CADDINGTON 1 (Moore 6)

SARRATT 2 (Ormsby 31 Vercesi 77)

Att 48

Free Entry

I know I’ve said it before but when it comes to groundhopping unlike the majority, I’m not target driven. Many will concentrate on a league or level, but I tend to see a set of fixtures a week or two in advance and either I get an invite, or someone suggests somewhere, or I just go where my nose takes me. Continue reading →

Featherly Hills

18 Thursday May 2023

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Saturday 1st April 2023 ko 15:00

Northern Counties East League- Division One

WAKEFIELD AFC 3 (Morrison 14 45p Mole 62)

ROSSINGTON MAIN 3 (Wilson 22 Kianga 43 Harrison 90)

Att 408

Entry £5 (but pay what you like for this game)

Programme £2

I’d very nearly left it too late; this iteration of football for Wakefield had announced they were leaving Featherstone Rovers RLFC’s Post Office Road, to “return” to Belle Vue, home to Wakefield Trinity RLFC. In footballing terms, they hadn’t been around for long, being formed in 2019 initially playing at the Dorothy Hyman Stadium, in Barnsley. They moved to Post Office Road for the start of the 20/21 season, but this was to be their final game in Featherstone, so Robyn and I made a beeline for it while we still could. But the history of Wakefield and the round ball goes back a lot further than 2019. Continue reading →

Warboys!!

11 Thursday May 2023

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Tuesday 28th March 2023 ko 19:30

Peterborough & District League Premier Division

WARBOYS TOWN 2 (Brown 35 Thornton 50)

STAMFORD BELVEDERE 0

Att 62

Free Entry

It’s an odd one. If you are of a certain age, say around 45 plus, then the temptation is, on hearing the name of the village to immediately think of the Duran Duran song “Wild Boys!” Now the song evokes William Burroughs, which in turn predicts the fall of civilization, and that is mighty hard to imagine when you drive past the village green here. Clearly it’s a quasi-homonym only!

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Timing

09 Tuesday May 2023

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Saturday April 2023 ko 14:30

Spartan South Midlands League Division Two

BUCKINGHAM UNITED 3 (King 30p Urquhart 35 68)

RISBOROUGH RANGERS DEVELOPMENT 1 (Martins 30)

Att c15 at Lace Hill

After my adventures in Scotland, I needed something straightforward, as did the car. The clutch had spent the weekend slowly dying, and while the car was booked in to get it replaced, I was still limping it around for short journeys. So a trip to Buckingham was handy and there was a bus service home if the car really let go. But car or no car, or even bus or no bus, there was good reasons for me to be at Lace Hill, serendipity is a wonderful thing! Continue reading →

Cuik

04 Thursday May 2023

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Sunday 19th March 2023 ko 12:15

East of Scotland League – Premier Division

PENICUIK ATHLETIC 0

Mair sent off (2nd booking) 38

LOTHIAN THISTLE HUTCHINSON VALE 1 (J Viola 77)

Att 398

Entry £8

Programme £2

It was in a couple of ways a bruising Scottish Hop. Obviously my wife Robyn’s tumble down the stand at Tynecastle made that statement literal, but the fact that I was driving the advance party around with a dying clutch made it figurative too. I parked up by Penicuik Park, and exhaled. At least on the way home I could to a large extent, stick the car in sixth gear, and forget about the clutch. Continue reading →

Jim

27 Thursday Apr 2023

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Saturday 15th March 2023 ko 19:45

East of Scotland League Premier Division

MUSSELBURGH ATHLETIC 0

BROXBURN ATHLETIC 4 (Wright 18 Douglas 45 65 Brass 70p)

Att 557

Entry £8

Programme £2

In so many ways Olivebank Stadium was the pivot point of Robyn and I’s 2023 Scottish Hop. After Robyn’s fall at Tynecastle the previous day it was the point where the hoppers realised that my wife may have been sore but had sustained no long-term damage, so they switched from asking whether she was okay to taking the mickey. I must admit we found the latter more comforting.

Continue reading →