Billings

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Tuesday 13th March 2018 ko 19.45

Southern Counties East League Premier Division

CORINTHIAN FC 3 (Jones 25 31 Hurcomb 65)

SHEPPEY UNITED 0

Att 72

Entry £7

Programme £1

One look at the name “Corinthian” will have the reasonably well-informed football watcher evoking the famous amateur club, now one half of the Corinthian-Casuals club in Tolworth. And while the amateur, football for football’s sake is similar the story of the Kentish Corinthian is rather different. You could say the whole story evokes “Field of Dreams.” Continue reading

Griffin

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Sunday 11th March 2018 ko 10.30

Blackmore Vale Sunday League

TEAM GRYPHON 1 (Wilton 57)

SOUTH CHERITON UNITED 3 (Farrant 52 74 Patterson 90) Taylor sent off 90 (dangerous play)

Att 5

Entry FREE

Twitter is a wonderful tool for the groundhopper. It’s immediacy makes it so useful; a website, forum or Facebook page is unlikely to be updated quickly but a club secretary with a mobile phone can put a postponement, pitch inspection or team selection into the public domain in seconds. And Twitter is why I happened to be at the Gryphon School in Sherborne.  Continue reading

The Forum

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Saturday 10th March 2018 ko 15.00

Dorset Premier League

BLANDFORD UNITED 4 (Culliford 12 Linford 50 Ford 80 90)

WAREHAM RANGERS 1 (Collings 10)

Att c30

Entry- By Donation

Blandford Forum really is the quintessential market town. Even the suffix “Forum” is derived from the Latin word for market. Even in these busier, more connected times, you feel that if you’re visiting Weymouth, Dorchester or Blackmore Vale, you’ll pass through here. Continue reading

Six Ex

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Tuesday 6th March 2018 ko 19.45

Western League Division One

DEVIZES TOWN 4 (R Mitchell 25 28 Russell 27 Enderby 80)

BRISTOL TELEPHONES 1 (Britton 75p)

Att 65

Entry & Programme £5

Growing up I suspect I was older than my years. These days one thing I have in common with my younger self was a liking for country pubs, with log fires and wing-back chairs. There was one I used to frequent regularly, the Star (now the Talk House) at Stanton-St-John. I’d sit there, talk complete rubbish with friends and the whole experience was washed down with pint after pint of Devizes’ own Wadworth’s 6X. It seems to me the whole pub had been created in Devizes’ own image, a rural town, based around tradition, a stone castle, and the beer still delivered by horse-drawn dray. You can therefore imagine my surprise when I opened the door to the clubhouse at Nursteed Road, and saw a chap defending himself from being stabbed! Continue reading

Sea Salt

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Sunday 25th February 2018 ko 14.30

Welsh Premier League

PRESTATYN TOWN 0

NEWTOWN 1 (Goodwin 4)

Att 201

Entry £7

Programme £2

We’d had a bit of an adventure after returning back to our hotel after the Bala game. We were walking in the main entrance when an ambulance on blues and twos screamed into the car park. There’d been a wedding at the hotel and a guest had thought it would be a jolly jape to drop a Viagra pill into someone’s champagne… In the end no harm was done, I hope the victim wasn’t the groom (he spent the night in hospital) and it did serve to empty the bar for the hop party!

Continue reading

Sunset Over Snowdonia

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Saturday 24th February 2018 ko 17.30

Welsh Premier League

BALA TOWN 1 (Davies 15)

CARDIFF METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY 0

Att 303

Entry £6

Programme £1

Teamsheet FREE

We headed south-west through the foothills over Snowdonia, and although the journey was only 40 or so miles it took us over a hour, such is the realities of travel in rural North Wales. We arrived at Maes Tegid and it became clear that the late kick off had attracted hoppers that we hadn’t seen for the rest of the day. It was a pleasure to grab a tea and catch up, well apart from the one hopper that went through the turnstiles with his hood pulled up then scuttled off to the far end without such as an acknowledgment to anyone else. Different strokes for different folks I suppose… Continue reading

Life On The Periphery

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Saturday 24th February 2018 ko 14.00

Welsh Premier League

CONNAH’S QUAY NOMADS 0

THE NEW SAINTS 1 (Routledge 45) Harrison sent off (offensive/insulting language and/or gestures)

Att 222

Entry £7

Programme £2

Teamsheet FREE

You’d think the Flintshire Suspension Bridge marks the border between Wales and England; it doesn’t but it comes pretty close! It’s Britain’s only assymetrical suspension bridge, but suffers by being nicknamed, “The bridge to nowhere,” that’s rather disparaging to the good people of Connah’s Quay and Shotton but the feeling of being on the periphery persisted. Continue reading

Resource

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Saturday 24th February 2018 ko 11.00

EFL Youth Alliance North-Western Division

WREXHAM AFC 4 (Freeman 45 Bulkeley 65 75 82p)

ACCRINGTON STANLEY 0

Att 64

Entry & Teamsheet FREE

We’d have liked a 3rd Welsh Premier League game on the Saturday’s itinerary. You could see why that wasn’t made available to us, it would have been virtually impossible to have got a visiting team to travel (potentially) the length of Wales for an 11am kick-off. We tried to get the second tier Cymru Alliance involved but as in the past were rebuffed, so it was time to get creative.  Continue reading

Rock Climbing

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Friday 23rd February 2018 ko 19.45

Welsh Premier League

CEFN DRUIDS 0

BANGOR CITY 2 (Hewitt 44 45p)

Att 426

Entry £7

Programme  & Teamsheet £2

There’s no question that it was highly flattering for GroundhopUK to to be approached to run a Welsh Premier League Hop. But when Chris Berezai mentioned it to me I found myself questioning whether the idea could be made to work? I looked back to the set of compromises that is a successful hop and wondered how we could adapt them for the needs of the Wales’ top domestic league? Continue reading

Dengie Fever

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Tuesday 21st February 2018 ko 19.55

Essex Senior League

BURNHAM RAMBLERS 1 (Hughes 10)

SAWBRIDGEWORTH TOWN 2 (Mays 52 Thomas 90)

Att 16

Entry £6

Programme £1

“Huh, because I’m happy
Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof
Because I’m happy
Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth”

Pharrell Williams “Happy” 2013

My car came to rest in the Leslie Field’s car park. It was a cold, dank evening; even the operatives in the “Hand Car Wash” operating here had gone home. But Pharrell Williams’ hit could be heard from within the football ground, and all felt well with the world, sadly the song served only to mask the club’s problems.  Continue reading