Do. Or do not. There is no try.

02 Wednesday Oct 2019

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Sunday 25th August 2019 ko 11.00

Bridgend & District Sunday League – Premier Division

EWENNY RANGERS 3 (Paget 17 Cirotto 43 Taylor 78)

GARTH VADER 4 (Dickinson 40 Bellamy 60og Rogers 73 88)

Att 88

Entry FREE

Programme & Donation £2

With all due to respect to the good folk of the Bridgend & District Sunday League, the intention never was to pay them a visit, even if we do seem to be visited the football pitches of Bridgend, one at a time, once a year! When the Gwent Premier League finally gave Chris Berezai the finalised fixtures for the Welsh Hop we were scheduled to watch Ynysddu play Pilcs at Nine Mile Point. There was unfortunately an issue with that. Continue reading →

Jasper

30 Monday Sep 2019

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Saturday 24th August 2019 ko 17.00

Gwent Premier League- Premier Division

NEWPORT CORINTHIANS 2 (Morgan 32 Brooks 78)

A.C. PONTYMISTER 3 (Clarke 11og Cooper 34 Baston 47)

Att 211

Entry £4

Programme £1

Whoever at the Gwent League that came up with the Welsh Hop’s itinerary clearly didn’t have me in mind! 3 revisits in 4 games on this event is unusual for me, and I’d seen Newport Corries 5 years ago mainly on the advice of Welsh Football publisher Dave Collins. A lot of the reason for going was the backdrop of the transporter bridge. It had been closed back then, so the coach pulled up at Coronation Park this time round with the bridge open, so what did I do? Continue reading →

The Day of the Mad Dog

29 Sunday Sep 2019

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Saturday 24th August 2019 ko 14.00

Gwent Premier League Division One

NEW INN FC 2 (Buncroft 30 James 56og)

RHYMNEY 2 (James 2 Elias 45)

Att 170

Entry £3

Programme £1

If there was one club I really wanted to do well out of the Welsh Hop it was New Inn. Robyn, her nephew Kai and I had visited Woodfield Road 3 years’ ago, we remembered what a lovely hospitable club they were, they thought that they hadn’t looked after us at all well, and I spent the intervening time really wanting them on a hop. So when they popped up on the itinerary the league sent us 3 weeks before the event I was pleased, and then immediately worried. Continue reading →

Just Doing It

26 Thursday Sep 2019

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Saturday 24th August 2019 ko 11.00

Gwent Premier League- Division 1

COED EVA ATHLETIC 4 (Davies 8 62 63 Bream 37)

NEWPORT SAINTS 3 (Roberts 3 50 Bourne 11)

Att 227

Entry £3

Programme £1

After the trials and tribulations in getting this edition of the Welsh Hop up and running it felt good to do the simple things again. That included strolling down the hill at the university in Trefforest to meet Steve and the coach, then travelling for the breakfast that was billed as “Eat as much as you like” but plenty read as “Treat this as a challenge!” It is always a convivial start to the day, a chance to catch up with people and for those who’d spent the previous evening in the Otley Arms- a chance to compare hangovers! Continue reading →

Hearts

23 Monday Sep 2019

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Friday 23rd August 2019 ko 19.30

Gwent County League Division 2

OAK 2 (Mantle 16 Watkins 80)

USK TOWN 2 (Rodden 25 Cullinane 31)

R Hancock sent off 88 (2nd booking)

Att 178

Entry £3

Programme £1

This Welsh Hop should have been so easy to organise. We’d got the accommodation, the coach company and the league all sorted, and we’d even given the league a day’s preview last year. Even the Otley Arms in Treforest were holding a beer festival! So at the end of last season GroundhopUK owner Chris Berezai had sent the Gwent League a wish-list of clubs we wanted to visit, and we waited, and when that didn’t work, we coaxed and cajoled. In the end we got the fixtures 3 weeks before the event. Continue reading →

Matchstick Man

22 Sunday Sep 2019

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Saturday 17th August 2019 ko 15.00
Cornwall Combination League

LIZARD ARGYLE 1 (Vaughan-Spruce 10)

ROSUDGEON 0 Fletcher missed penalty 90

Att 30

Entry by donation

Programme £1

“So there he was then, Penzance to play….

..And you, you would-be vagabond
No one invited you, you know
Matchstick man, up in the dawn
You’ve got five hundred miles to go.”

excerpt of Matchstick Man by Mark Knopfler 2018

Remember my comment that all too often I don’t pick my games, they pick me? Well this was a classic case of that happening. Robyn and I were in Bristol wedding planning and I knew that I’d be picking up an easel in Clifton but I’d be finished around 10.30am so could go anywhere within reason before heading back to Oxford afterwards. My initial idea was something in the Peninsula League but then something popped up on Facebook!

Continue reading →

So Near…

19 Thursday Sep 2019

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Tuesday 13th August 2019 ko 19.45

FA Cup Extra-Preliminary Round Replay

WEMBLEY FC 3 (Sabti 15 81 Walker 50)

AFC HAYES 2 (Dennis 17secs Musaka 16)

Att 71

Entry £7

Programme £1

When you think about it Wembley FC and their home at Vale Farm is the perfect place for a spectator to follow the world’s best cup competition from its start. You can of course see the competition’s final destination in the background, but when it was all over I did wonder whether the national stadium’s presence serves to madden rather than inspire? Continue reading →

A Home… Finally

17 Tuesday Sep 2019

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Tuesday 6th August 2019 ko 19.45

Combined Counties League Premier Division

BADSHOT LEA 5 (Medcraft 19 55 89 Cardini 63 Cadette 77)

FRIMLEY GREEN 0

Att 194

Entry £7

Programme £1

Teamsheet FREE

God knows football needs a good news story and a ground for Badshot Lea is certainly one! It seems an age ago (well 2003) I saw the side freshly promoted in to the Hellenic League from the Surrey Premier League at their original Recreation Ground home. Now home may well be where the heart is but the ground was little or more than a roped off pitch in a park and with ground gradings beginning to bite it was obvious that a club so obviously on the up would have to move. Continue reading →

The United Swifts

12 Thursday Sep 2019

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Saturday 3rd August 2019

12.00 Central Midlands League Invitational Cup Final

NETHERSEAL ST PETERS 1 (Coates 7)

RENISHAW RANGERS 3 (Manlove 4 75 Purcell 72)

Att 189

15.00 Central Midlands League Chairman’s Cup Final

PINXTON 5 (Smith 20 Green 32 33 87 Riley 57)

BAKEWELL TOWN 1 (Rach 57)

Att 269

Both games at Peel Croft, (Burton RUFC), Burton-on-Trent

Entry £5

Programme £2

Just occasionally the hopper fraternity gets an opportunity so good, you drop everything and go. Normally it takes the form of a one-off game at an iconic stadium that isn’t often used to football such as Llanelli playing at Stradey Park, the re-staging of the 1872 FA Cup Final at the Oval or Hull City playing a friendly at Hull Kingston Rovers’ Craven Park. Those were all mid-week fixures, and 2 were at rugby grounds, but this game was at a rugby ground, on a Saturday making it so much easier for people to get to, but Peel Croft’s history made this a must-visit. Continue reading →

The Straw Bear

09 Monday Sep 2019

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Sunday 28th July 2019 ko 17.15

United Counties League Division One

WHITTLESEY ATHLETIC 1 (Ilsley 70)

HUNTINGDON TOWN 2 (Roberts 68 Jones 84)

Att 340

Entry £5

Programme £1

The final club on the UCL Hop was a team with that one way or another have stamped themselves on the event’s history. When we visited Coates Athletic for the finale of the 2014 hop we knew they were going to soon change both name and ground, and that new ground would allow a tilt at the United Counties League. What no one realised back then was just how convoluted that tilt would end up being! Continue reading →