Everyone

17 Thursday Aug 2023

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Saturday 29th July 2023 ko 17:00

United Counties League Premier Division North

HUCKNALL TOWN 1 (Kelly 76)

WISBECH TOWN 1 (Conyard 22p)

Att 688

Entry £8

Programme £1

When in January this year Hucknall moved roughly 500 yards from the now demolished Watnall Road to Aerial Way, Chris Berezai and I raised an inward smile. We knew we wanted the new ground on the UCL Hop, and advertised as such, and then watched a whole cohort of groundhoppers make a beeline for the place!

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Mapperley

16 Wednesday Aug 2023

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Saturday 29th July 2023 ko 14:00

United Counties League Division One

GEDLING MINERS WELFARE 0

BLACKSTONES 1 (Duffy-Weekes 90)

Att 364

Entry £5

Programme £1.50

I must admit I wasn’t particularly looking forward to revisiting Mapperley Plains. It was nothing to do with the club or the ground, it was because I’d visited early in 2011 in the throes of a failed marriage. I was watching games solely to not be sat in an empty house. I visited, I saw the game, and I did little more than exist back then.

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Hyson

14 Monday Aug 2023

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Saturday 29th July 2023 ko 11:00

United Counties League Division One

RADFORD 0

Moore sent off 83 (2nd booking)

HARROWBY UNITED 0

Att 385

Entry £6

Programme £2

A Saturday, based in Nottingham, on an organised hop will, for me, always evoke memories of the Central Midlands Hops of the early 2000’s. I wasn’t involved back then, those events were organised by Chris Berezai and Rob Hornby and to this day I still see Nottingham and its hinterland as Rob Hornby country. Rob retired from the organising lark after the 2016 Notts Senior League Hop, and it’s a shame that ill health stopped him attending this event. Get well soon Rob!

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Dynamic

10 Thursday Aug 2023

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Friday 28th July 2023 ko 19:45

United Counties League Division One

SAFFRON DYNAMO 1 (Scott 68)

BIRSTALL UNITED 5 (Burton 4 16 Crossley 13 30 45)

Att 400

Entry £6

Programme £1

Such is the dynamic of the United Counties League Hop, and the expanded GroundhopUK meant that Robyn and I could do a normal Friday day at work and Chris had Craig and Paul to make up the programme packs and set up the stall outside the first gate. Next time round it’ll be Robyn and I with Chris. Many hands and all that!

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Flexibility

07 Monday Aug 2023

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Saturday 22nd July 2023 ko 14:00

Pre-season friendly

YATELEY UNITED 3 (Westell 49 57p 61)

ROMSEY TOWN 3 (Moreno 36 A Trialist 60 B Trialist 83)

Andy Samuels (manager) sent off 38 (foul & abusive)

Att 32 at Sandhurst School 3G, Greenfinch Road

Free Entry

Online Programme

It does pay to have a back-up plan. I’d woken up expecting to watch Glyncorrwg AFC, but they were kind enough to let me know their game had been lost to overnight rain, so I changed plans and headed to Wiltshire League club Ludgershall Sports. But the A34 was blocked at Abingdon; I waited an hour before being slowly shepherded off the main carriageway on to a diversion where a working knowledge of the North Berkshire League was handy.

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Down On the Farm

03 Thursday Aug 2023

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Tuesday 18th July 2023 ko 19:45

Pre-season friendly

CORINTHIAN 5 (Glover 6 A Trialist 8 Billings 20 B Trialist 81 90)

GREENWAYS 1 (Lovell 75)

Att 50 at Pitch 2, Gay Dawn Farm, Longfield, Kent

Entry £5

Perhaps I’m not as observant as I thought. I’d seen Corinthian at Gay Dawn Farm 5 years ago, and completely failed to spot there was a second pitch there. My only excuse is that it was dark, and I didn’t see the schematic on the clubhouse wall. But then I spotted Peter Miles had found a game here, I just had to find another.

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The Popular Front

02 Wednesday Aug 2023

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Saturday 15th July 2023 ko 15:00

Pre-season friendly

TOOTING & MITCHAM UNITED 3 (A Trialist 23 Siklawi 25 B Trialist 75)

CORINTHIAN-CASUALS 1 (Trialist 34)

Att 118 at Back Pitch, Imperial Fields

Entry £3

This one started with a comment that was unlikely to be endearing to a Tooting fan. My wife Robyn has been slowly trying to complete her “92” and suggested she go to Sutton United vs Reading if I could find a game at a new ground for me nearby. However much Tooting’s fans might hate Sutton United, their existence got me to this game!

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Easy

27 Thursday Jul 2023

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Saturday 8th July 2023 ko 15:00

Pre-Season Friendly

HOLMER GREEN 0

RISBOROUGH RANGERS 8 (5 22 24 27 32p 38 41p 57)

Att 35 at Kingsbrook School 3G, Bierton

Free Entry

It should have been so easy. From the morning’s game in Leatherhead, a quick blast round the M25 and up the A41 to the outskirts of Aylesbury. Of course I didn’t work out that way, the M25 was a slow dirge, and the humidity made it difficult to stay awake. I made it in one piece, but it was a horrible few miles.

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Youth

26 Wednesday Jul 2023

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Saturday 8th July 2023 ko 11:00

Pre-Season Friendly

METROPOLITAN POLICE 2 (Body 4 Akinbibi 33)

YATELEY UNITED 0

Att c75

Free Entry

With my pre-season running a rough theme, of old, or third party grounds, this one definitely was one of the latter, but it was one that I’d been after for a while. Many will have been to Leatherhead FC’s Fetcham Grove, and if you haven’t visited there, it’s one to put on your bucket list. But Leatherhead Youth play on the outskirts of town, and yes, the two clubs are linked.

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The Other Falmer

25 Tuesday Jul 2023

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Saturday 1st July 2023 ko 14:00

Pre-Season Friendly

MONTPELIER VILLA 2 (Sabino 42 Santos 70)

AFC UCKFIELD TOWN 0

Att 22 at University of Sussex, Falmer

Free Entry

If the trip to Neath was an example of using a friendly to tick off a ground unavailable during the regular season, this was using a friendly to visit a club’s former ground. Montpelier Villa these days are based at Lancing FC’s Culver Road, to fulfil ground grading but prior to elevation into the Southern Combination Division One in 2021 were based at the University of Sussex in Falmer.

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