The Insurance Men

13 Tuesday Nov 2018

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Saturday 6th October 2018 ko 19.45

Western League Premier Division

CRIBBS 2 (Dowdell 4 Wanjah-Smith 83)

HENGROVE ATHLETIC 1 (Fear 74)

Att 227

Entry £6

Programme £1

I remember well my feeling of unease when I first visited Cribbs six years ago. Back then the ground and club were very much the works side of insurance company Friends Life, and as couple of years earlier that firm in its guise as AXA had turned me down for a job twice! It’s strange how things work out isn’t it, if on either occasion I’d have got the job, there would have been a fairly high chance that I’d have moved to Bristol. Now given my fiancee Robyn is from Bristol that would have been handy, but we didn’t meet for another 6 or so years… and if I’d moved then would we have ever met? Continue reading →

Planning Gain

08 Thursday Nov 2018

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Saturday 6th October 2018 ko 17.00

Western League Premier Division

HALLEN 0

SHEPTON MALLET 3 (Willmott 45 Pollard 59 Morgan 77)

Att 218

Entry £6

Programme £1

Given one or two groundhoppers’ predisposition for getting their geography in a twist I ought to make it clear that this in the Hallen, which is the other side of the M5 from Bristol and not the club playing at the World’s oldest football ground- that’s Hallam! And while we were never ever going to visit the Hallen Centre on the Northern Counties East Hop, we could have easily have visited back in the day on the Hellenic Hop, the club are based in, and affiliated to the Gloucestershire FA, and it took until 2000 to prise themselves away and into the more logical Western League. That isn’t the limit of the club’s adventures though! Continue reading →

Knee Deep In the Hoopla

05 Monday Nov 2018

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Saturday 6th October 2018 ko 14.15

Western League Premier Division

CLEVEDON TOWN 1 (Camm 12)

BUCKLAND ATHLETIC 3 (Johansen 30 Bush 72 Richards 85)

Att 213

Entry £6

Programme £1

Without wishing to be in any way disparaging to the good folk at Clevedon Town, the Western Hop’s visit to the Hand Stadium was the one I was anticipating the least. That was for two reasons, I’d visited twice before, during their Southern League days, and that the ground is still relatively new, being opened in 1992. Of course, life being as contrary as it is, it turned out to be one I’ll remember the most! Continue reading →

Titan

03 Saturday Nov 2018

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Saturday 6th October 2018 ko 11.00

Western League Division One

LONGWELL GREEN SPORTS 2 (Brittain 2 Keary 36)

WELTON ROVERS 3 (Hunt 28 Seviour 54 77)

Att 213

Entry £5

Programme £1

When we started the Western Hop back in 2015 we actually passed Longwell Green Sports on our way between Bitton and Oldland Abbotonians. Whilst amusing myself with the knowledge that we’d succeeded in convincing a hopper that the latter club was so named because comedian Russ Abbott was a secret benefactor (He actually recorded it in his blog before rapidly deleting it!) we passed the ground and I wondered why we weren’t visiting there and then? Continue reading →

Bris (tol)

01 Thursday Nov 2018

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Friday 5th October 2018 ko 19.45

Western League Premier Division

BRISLINGTON 2 (Taylor 40 Biggins 71)

ODD DOWN (BATH) 3 (Lloyd6 79 82)

Att 262 

Entry £6

Programme £1

For as long as I visit grounds of the Western League I will always think of the late Mark Edmonds, That goes double for the Western Hop, the idea he had, that every year Chris Berezai and try our best to make the most of his legacy for the clubs he set out to help.  It puts us under a good kind of pressure, and that goes for everyone involved that remembers Mark. This year it was lovely to see his widow Sarah joining us all for this hop, mainly based in and around Bristol, and I hope she feels we did Mark’s idea justice.  Continue reading →

The Nest

31 Wednesday Oct 2018

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Saturday 29th September 2018 ko 15.00

Eastern Counties League Division One North

LAKENHEATH 1 (McCabe 3)

MARCH TOWN UNITED 3 (Cooke 7 Gillies 45p Mattless 74)

Att c100

Entry £5

Programme £1

One of the most welcome additions to the Eastern Counties League roster this season has been Lakenheath. I’d had a fair few hoppers recommend, The Nest or The Pit, depending on who you talk to but for no good reason I’d not managed to visit. I’m glad I did go but I do wonder whether I caught the club at a real crossroads. Step 6 will alter just about everything for Lakenheath FC, both as a club, and a place to watch football.  Continue reading →

Down To The Waterline

29 Monday Oct 2018

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Tuesday 18th September 2018 ko 19.30

Sussex R.U.R. Charity Cup 2nd Round

SEAFORD TOWN 6 (Lee 8 Rainford 23 Storer 41 Anderson 50 Guillou 75 Zabadne 85)

SOUTHWICK 1 (Lester 6p)

Att 15

Entry & Programme £5

Roughly speaking Seaford lies on the other side of the River Ouse from Newhaven, or in my terms just about as far as it as possible to get from a 5.30pm start from Oxford and make a 7.45 kick off. In this day and age you tend to assume you’ll be delayed getting past the M3 turn on the M25! But on this occasion England’s motorways decided to cooperate and I arrived at 7.25, just in time to hear two sounds…. Continue reading →

The Miniature Railway

28 Sunday Oct 2018

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Saturday 15th September 2018 ko 14.00

North Berkshire League Division One

NORTH OXFORD 2 (T Mawema 22 T Mungai 65)

LONG WITTENHAM 4 (Bowler 12 36 Houseman 17 47)

Att 5 at Top Pavilion, Cutteslowe Park, Oxford

As a small boy growing up in Oxford I was fortunate to have a public park at the back of our house. You could say that park, and regular trips to the Manor Ground are the reason you’re reading this. But to the 5-year-old self the real treat was when Mum and I sat on a bus for the entire length of the “Number 2” bus route and spent the day at Cuttleslowe Park. Continue reading →

The Bucket List Ground

26 Friday Oct 2018

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Saturday 8th September 2018 ko 15.00

North Devon League- Division Intermediate 2

SOUTH MOLTON 3 (Motteram 39 M Latham 48 Jones 70)

BRIDGERULE 2NDS 2 (Parker 46 Barnwill 85)

Att 19

Free Entry

Unless you’re a groundhopper, the small Exmoor Town of South Molton is best known as being where the last stand of the Penruddock Uprising took place in 1655, or where in 1686 Lord of the Manor Hugh Squier’s philanthropy endowed the Grammar School that is now the South Molton United School. It’s a quiet place, but one to explore for a few hours, then have a pub lunch. But if you are a groundhopper South Molton, is an absolute bucket list ground.  Continue reading →

Game Of Floodlights

24 Wednesday Oct 2018

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Tuesday 11th September 2018 ko 17.30

Middlesex County League- Premier Division

SOUTH KILBURN 0

KENSINGTON DRAGONS 1 (Royes 83)

Att 21

Entry FREE

Programme £1

The hobby of groundhopping does lend itself to a little tactical planning. Take this Tuesday as an example. You know there are a finite number of grounds with floodlights so you’ve prioritised those on to midweeks when they’re in use. Then you look at which lights will get used less than others and prioritise those. The Step 7 Middlesex League schedules virtually no floodlit games; the league has few clubs with lights and so plans without taking them into account. But this one looked interesting. Continue reading →