2 Jacks & A Bobby

18 Saturday Apr 2020

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With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell.

Saturday 27th January 2007 ko 15.00

Northern League Division One

ASHINGTON A.F.C. 0

SHILDON 2 (Emson 5 Ord 8)

Att c150

Entry £4

Programme £1

“Northern Ventures, Northern Gains” 30p

Quite often you hear football referred to as a religion. I’m not religious in the slightest but it isn’t a phrase I’m comfortable with, football is a sport after all. But in the Northumberland colliery town of Ashington I’d argue that football comes as close to being a religion as it can, and the evidence is there for all to see. Continue reading →

Friendship

17 Friday Apr 2020

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With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell.

Saturday 18th June 2011 ko 10.15

Division 6A Stockholm

ÅKERSBERGA 2 (Marcus 2 (Marcus Eriksson 56 66)

Dennis Wik sent off (2nd booking)

F.C.PLAVI TEAM 2 (Todorov 27 Makoimovic 88)

Att 52

In the 4 years that had passed since the Swedish Hop had made its debut in Nyköping so much had changed. For a start we’d more or less made a base for ourselves in Stockholm and had started picking out the unexplored gems in Stockholms Lan – Stockholm County. Organiser Kim Hedwall had realised that Interbus, who supplied the coach and Thomas the driver also did the coaches for many of Stockholm’s professional sports clubs. So with ice hockey being out of season we spent this weekend being ferried around in the Djurgården’s ice hockey team coach. Continue reading →

New Ground

14 Tuesday Apr 2020

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With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell.

Friday 15th June 2007 ko 19.30

Division 2 Östra Svealand

NYKÖPINGS B.I.S. 5 (Holmström 39 53 Stensson 64 M Funes 71 Lundgren 85)

AKROPOLIS I.F. 3 (Allyn 64 88 Birras 90)

Att 226

These days there are no lack of “Foreign Hops” aimed primarily at UK-based groundhoppers. Off the top of my head, there’s been ones in Germany, Switzerland, Romania and the Covid-19 pandemic saw one scheduled in Denmark cancelled. The attraction is clear, see football in a new country but have the logistics organised by someone with local expertise. Continue reading →

Serendipity

12 Sunday Apr 2020

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With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell.

Saturday 9th September 2006 ko 14.30

Westmorland League Division One

LUNESDALE UNITED 0

KESWICK 3 (Hilton 50 P Frampton 52 Loan 64)

Att 20

Free Entry

If I was going to tell the tale of Penrith and the unfortunate Dennis Pinkney then Lunesdale United should be the companion piece to it. The Penrith game was on the first Saturday of my holiday near Appleby, this was to be on the next weekend. But the original idea was to go to watch Morecambe vs my team Oxford United, so what happened? Continue reading →

The Alhambra

10 Friday Apr 2020

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With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell. And there certainly is a story behind today’s entry!

Saturday 2nd September 2006 ko 15.00

Northern League Division Two

PENRITH 10 (Douglas 7 9 29p 39 54 82 Rooke 25 Reed 49 64 68)

CROOK TOWN 1 (Bailes 73) 

Att 78

Entry £4

So let’s set the scene. It was 14 years ago and I was on the first full day of a holiday with my now ex-wife between Appleby and Tebay, near the Lake District. It was a typical day of a holiday of the time, in that I’d been told I wasn’t finding a game, and it was hammering down with rain. All things considered it wasn’t the most promising looking day.. Continue reading →

Coda

08 Wednesday Apr 2020

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Saturday 14th March 2020 ko 13.30

Oxfordshire FA Intermediate Cup Semi-Final

HEYFORD ATHLETIC 1 (Roberts 78)

BERINSFIELD 0

Att 52

Free Entry

You could sense that the walls were closing in. The Coronavirus pandemic had seen the Premier League, EFL and all three Step 3 leagues shut down to allow for social distancing. The National League had fudged making a decision and it seemed that the FA had yet to make a decision on local football. They’d left it to individual leagues to make up their minds what to do, and that produced the odd situation that the North Berkshire League had cancelled their games, but ended up seeing one of their clubs, Berinsfield still end up playing! Continue reading →

The End Of The World As We Know It

04 Saturday Apr 2020

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Sunday 8th March 2020 ko 14.45

North West Counties League Premier Division

WINSFORD UNITED 0

1874 NORTHWICH 2 (Woolley 25 Knight 31)

Att 627

Entry £6

Programme £2

Delaying the kick-off 15 minutes looked like a good idea as the Groundhop coach inched it’s way into an already-full car park at the Barton Stadium. It took all of a second to work out that the club had thought long and hard about how they were going to cope with a huge crowd. Those who’d bought advance tickets were directed to a separate entrance, that took well over 100 away from the cash turnstiles speeding up the process of getting over 600 people in. Continue reading →

The Friendly Bear

02 Thursday Apr 2020

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Sunday 8th March 2020 ko 11.30

North West Counties League Premier Division

CONGLETON TOWN 2 (Jones 7 79)

NORTHWICH VICTORIA 4 (Barski 11 22 Lynch 52 65)

Att 495

Entry £5

Programme £2

It was all change at Crewe on the last day of the hop, and although we weren’t to know, the last day of organised groundhops this season. We’d spent the previous 5 games watching the North West Counties League Division One South and the previous 4 in Greater Manchester. Sat at the hotel in Crewe it was time to step up a division and aim for south of Manchester, and at least at our first destination, the foothills of the Peak District. Continue reading →

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

30 Monday Mar 2020

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Saturday 7th March 2020 ko 19.30

North West Counties League Division One South

CHEADLE TOWN 2 (Davin 17 47)

MAINE ROAD 1 (Mooney 86)

Att 380

Entry £5

Programme £2

The coach pulled into Park Road, and we got precisely what we expected- chaos! One massive advantage of having the clubs’ meetings a month or two before the North West Counties Hop. We knew we’d be trying to get 300-plus supporters to a ground with a small car park at the end of a cul-de-sac. It meant anyone driving there would either park close by and risk being blocked in, or park further away and walk the last few hundred yards. We in the coach could drop the party off then driver Ian could park up elsewhere. Continue reading →

A Rush and a Push and the Land Is Ours

26 Thursday Mar 2020

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Saturday 7th March 2020 ko 16.20

North West Counties League Division One South

CHEADLE HEATH NOMADS 1 (Foley 58)

STOCKPORT TOWN 5 (Depieaza 2 20 70 Furguson 12 Middleton 19) 

Att 343

Entry £5

Programme £2

Teamsheet 20p

Saturday’s 3rd game on the North West Counties Hop saw a change of locale, from Wythenshawe to the leafy Manchester suburbia of Cheadle. Or if you’re the unfortunate type that thinks along the same lines as me, then the start of second pair of the day’s clubs. While I’d greatly enjoyed Wythenshawe Amateurs’ company, I’d found their rivals Wythenshawe Town’s attempts at one-upmanship grating and their staging frankly poor. That last fact had a massive impact on our next hosts. Continue reading →