Blue

10 Tuesday Jan 2023

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Tuesday 15th November 2022 ko 19:45

National League South

CHIPPENHAM TOWN 0

HAVANT & WATERLOOVILLE 3 (Faal 12 Roberts 22 28p)

Att 503

Entry £14

Programme £3

It is a fact of life that in your 50’s you tend to go to more funerals than weddings. I find saying goodbye to someone who’s led a long and happy life a bearable, and sometimes cathartic process, but when it involves a life cut short well, that’s a different matter entirely. Robyn and I had spent the day attending such a funeral in Bristol and we ended up in Chippenham in no small part wanting to clear our minds of the day’s sorrow. Continue reading →

Spiegerhalter

05 Thursday Jan 2023

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Tuesday 8th November 2022 ko 19:45

London Senior Trophy 1st Round

WIMBLEDON CASUALS 6 (Wren 10 Marshall 55 90 Lane 61 67 Parsons 90)

SPORTING BENGAL UNITED 0

Att c20 at Stepney Green Asto

Free Entry

Sometimes you stumble across a game that seems so far removed from your normal experience that you simply feel compelled to give it a go. For one thing having only a shade over two hours to get from Oxford to East London after work made driving out of the question and that was without thinking about Congestion charges, ULEZ charges and the like. I knew of the ground, some British Somali Champions League games get played there, but the time and location I thought would make me arriving there in time impossible, but then I had a brainwave. Continue reading →

Deer

03 Tuesday Jan 2023

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Saturday 5th November 2022 ko 14:00

North Berkshire League Division One

FRILSHAM & YATTENDON 1 (Johnson 61)

STEVENTON 4 (D Burgess 27 33 McKenzie 80 Craft 90)

Att c10

Free Entry

Over the years since the last North Berkshire Hop I’ve made the effort to visit the clubs that for one reason or another the event didn’t get to visit. There was Cholsey whose ground wasn’t in use, and Grove, on their normal ground, but the game proved to be their last. With Frilsham & Yattendon, the reason for the hop not visiting, was that they weren’t in the league. That’s a source of regret to me, as what a wonderful ground it is.  Continue reading →

Crabtree

22 Thursday Dec 2022

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Tuesday 25th October 2022 ko 19:45

Sussex R.U.R. Cup First Round

WICK 0

BROADBRIDGE HEATH 5 (Croal 27 59 Parminter 47 Carvalho 88 Barbary 90)

Att c50

Entry £8

Programme £2

It’s in the makeup of any groundhopper to collect. For some it’s programmes, badges and the like. Others like completing leagues, but I like completing clubs with something in common. Here I found myself thinking back to Wick Academy, Hackney Wick, Eton Wick and the other Wick FC who hail from Bristol’s suburbs. Oddly enough given Bristol is Robyn’s home town, the only Wick that’s now left for me to visit is the Gloucestershire County League outfit! Continue reading →

Stag

19 Monday Dec 2022

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Tuesday 18th October 2022 ko 19:45

Combined Counties League Premier Division North

WINDSOR 2 (Mirtahmasabi 24og Debayo 80)

Appleton sent off 90 (DOGSO)

EGHAM TOWN 4 (Campion 20 48 64 Lopes 90)

Att 122

Entry £7.50

Programme FREE

I’m fairly certain this year’s Royal Funeral is what triggered this revisit to Stag Meadow. The committal was after all, in Windsor Castle and on the trip south from the M4 you do see the signage for the oh-so familiar sites such as the Great Park, and the Long Walk. Of course the football club are the Royalists, not least because they’ve had the likes of George V, George VI, and Philip Duke of Edinburgh as patrons. Continue reading →

Shelter

13 Tuesday Dec 2022

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Saturday 15th October 2022 ko 15:00

Central Midlands League Cup 1st Round

TEVERSAL 1 (Fletcher 23)

Fletcher sent off 45 (2nd booking)

DERBY SINGH BROTHERS 1 (Lawrence 43p)

No extra time, Teversal won 5-4 on penalties

Att 33

Entry £3

Programme £1

As a groundhopper there are always occasional grounds that seem to pass you by. In the case of Teversal, I always imagined the Northern Counties East Hop would visit Carnarvon Street, but two things happened, first the club seemed sufficiently unhappy at the whole procedure neither league nor organisers dared to ask them, and then they got relegated back to the Central Midlands League, where ironically we could actually feature them now. I wonder; they’ve certainly got the ground! Continue reading →

Nickleby

11 Sunday Dec 2022

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Tuesday 11th October 2022 ko 19:45

Hinchingbrooke Cup 1st Round

EATON SOCON  3 (R Baxter 25 Reece-Brown 57 B Roberts 90)

NETHERTON UNITED 1 (Mead 4)

Att 74

Entry and Programme £5

I have a nasty feeling I’ve passed Eaton Socon by no end of times without every really considering the place. You’re just off the A1 here, one roundabout north of the Black Cat, in what is traditionally Huntingdonshire, administeratively in Cambridgeshire, but the club played in the Bedfordshire League until this season. Yes, you are in border country, and very much in St Neots’ environs, and that location means the town grew up as Stage Coach overnight stopping  point, even earning a mention in Charles Dickens’ novel “Nicholas Nickelby” as Eton Slocomb! Continue reading →

Making It Work

08 Thursday Dec 2022

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Sunday 9th October 2022 

11:00 Southern Counties East League- Premier Division

RUSTHALL 4 (Fares 9 Clark 16 Gitiba 60 Baldwin78)

K SPORTS 2 (Holliday 27 Lewins 48)

Att 344

Entry £8

Programme £2

14:00 Southern Counties East League- Premier Division

TUNBRIDGE WELLS 1 (McCreadie 58)

LORDSWOOD 1 (Reid 32)

Att 518

Entry £8

Programme £2

Without a massive amount of evidence I felt supremely confident about the SCEFL Hop’s Sunday schedule. Part of it was that I felt I knew the clubs a little, I’s seen what a go-ahead club Rusthall are when I’d visited 9 years ago, and my visit to Tunbridge Wells  a year later gave me the impression that they were an Isthmian League club in waiting. Normally my internalised challenge to clubs I revisit on hops is to change my perception of them., here I wanted them to reinforce my view. There were a couple of snags with that though. Continue reading →

Men of Kent

01 Thursday Dec 2022

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Saturday 8th October 2022

11:00 Southern Counties East League Division One

STAPLEHURST MONARCHS 1 (Osagie 74)

ROCHESTER UNITED 0

Att 331

Entry £6

Programme £2

15:00 Southern Counties East League Premier Division

BEARSTED 2 (Freeman 18 52)

FISHER 1 (Kationa 52)

Att 229

Entry/ Parking/ Programme £8

17.45 Southern Counties East League Division One

LARKFIELD & NEW HYTHE 2 (Burdon 13 West 30)

GREENWAYS 1 (Saxton 49)

Att 243

Entry £5

Programme £1

There could be no doubt as to how important the SCEFL saw the groundhop; they did as the South Wales Alliance did and placed an official on the coach, mainly to help with directions but to troubleshoot where needed. Having Barry Fenn around was a godsend, not just for what he was mandated to do, but for the little nuggets of knowledge he imparted on the way. Continue reading →

Kentish Man

23 Wednesday Nov 2022

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Friday 7th October 2022 ko 19:45

Southern Counties East League- Premier Division

PUNJAB UNITED 1 (Vines 70)

STANSFELD 1 (Friend 68)

Att 347

Entry £8

Programme £2

If you drill down to the roots of every hop GroundhopUK organises they all have a conversation with a league official with either Chris Berezai or I at their genesis. Scotland is one of mine, as was the Western Hop while Chris’ include Wales, and the Northern Counties East. But the SCEFL is different, because the conversation wasn’t Chris’ or mine, it was between league chairman Andy Short and my wife Robyn! Continue reading →