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Football: Wherever it may be

~ Laurence's football travels

Football: Wherever it may be

Tag Archives: 3G

Uppaddus

14 Friday Jun 2019

Posted by laurencereade in Y

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

3G, 9 Mile Point, closure, Football, groundhopping, Leisure Centre, Pontllanfraith, Wales, Ynysddu Crusaders, Ynysddu Welfare, Youth team

Tuesday 30th April 2019 ko 20.00

Gwent County League Division One

YNYSDDU WELFARE 4 (Price 47 53 62 Watkins 72)

WATTSVILLE 2 (Roch 24 79)

Att 43 at Pontllanfraith Leisure Centre

Entry FREE

Programme £1

As a groundhopper you find yourself questioning your sanity on a fairly regular basis. You take a psychological step back from what you’re doing and in this case wonder why you’re travelling from Oxford to South Wales, through evening rush hour traffic to watch a game on a plastic pitch in a cage at a leisure centre the local council are trying to close. But if there was one club I simply had to write about this season it was Ynysddu Welfare. Continue reading →

51.655816 -3.194258

The Centre of Things

26 Thursday Jan 2017

Posted by laurencereade in D

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

3G, cage, Dudley, Priory Road, St Martins, Team Dudley, West Midlands Regional League

Wednesday 18th January 2017 ko 19.45

West Midlands (Regional) League – Division One

TEAM DUDLEY 2 (Pinches 11 Knight 90)

ST MARTINS 2 (Passmore 52 Melusio 54)

Att 115

Entry & Programme £2

I live in Oxford, a city that in parts hasn’t changed much in the last two hundred years, even down to the 17th Century burial route that’s now an alleyway. That certainly is in contrast to much of the Black Country where the soot of heavy industry has gradually given way to the service economy. Nevertheless places such as Dudley, Coseley and Wolverhampton still evoke the past even if their raisons d’etre have long since gone. Continue reading →

52.519569 -2.087804

Far Away On The Other Side

02 Sunday Oct 2016

Posted by laurencereade in H

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

3G, Coggeshall, Eastern Counties League, Football, groundhopping, Haverhill Borough, New Croft, Olly Murs

Tuesday 13th September 2016 ko 19.45

Eastern Counties League – Division One

HAVERHILL BOROUGH 3 (Robson 37 69 Phillips 90) Forshaw missed penalty 17

COGGESHALL TOWN 0

Att 135

Entry £5

Programme £1

In so my ways this was a real oddity, a club born out of the much older Haverhill Rovers, but who’ve split away and moved out of a groundshare to the New Croft’s 3G pitch next door to the main stadium. But the two clubs can’t play simultaneously, Borough use the changing rooms at the main New Croft and walk across, which should make for some interesting kick-off times! But on this evening that wasn’t the half of it! Continue reading →

Trouble Over Bridgwater

21 Sunday Feb 2016

Posted by laurencereade in B

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

3G, Bridgwater, Charity, College, Cup, Morganians, Rowbarton, Saturday, Taunton League, Westonzoyland

Wednesday February 2016 ko 20.00

Taunton & District Saturday League, Rowbarton Charity Knock Out Cup Quarter Final

WESTONZOYLAND 1 (J Millard 42p)

MORGANIANS 2 (White 35 Barnard 54)

Att 36 at Bridgewater Academy 3G

Entry FREE

No Programme

There are plenty of groundhoppers out there who wouldn’t be interested in a game like this. Some would say the level is too low, the Taunton League feeds the Somerset League which in turn feeds the Western League at Step 6. Others would hate the idea of a plastic pitch in a cage in a school’s grounds, but needless to say I take a slightly contrary view. Continue reading →

51.131303 -2.982387

Travels with Iain

21 Thursday Jan 2016

Posted by laurencereade in L

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

3G, Barrfields, Euromillions, Juniors, Largs Thistle, Scotland, sjfa, stadium, Superleague, Weir, West Region

Saturday 16th January 2016 ko 13.45

Scottish Junior FA West Region Superleague First Division

LARGS THISTLE 0

MAYBOLE JUNIORS 1 (Riley 7)

Att c200

Entry £6

Programme £1.50

I’m fortunate that I have friends dotted all over the place, but the downside is the gargantuan driving stints to visit them all! Regular readers will recognise Iain’s name from us visiting a  steady succession of Scots football grounds such as Irvine Meadow and Falkirk. It’s fair to say that whilst the 6 hour drives between our two towns mean we don’t spend as much time as we’d like together, but we’re fortunate that it’s the kind of friendship that we can pick up where we left off.  Continue reading →

55.799619 -4.865199

Old For New, or New For Old?

22 Tuesday Dec 2015

Posted by laurencereade in A

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

3G, Alton Town, Anstey Park, Bass, Cams Alders, Coors, Fareham Town, New Ground

Tuesday 15th December 2015 ko 19.45

Wessex League Cup 2nd Round

ALTON TOWN 4 (Fox 3 Gray 7 Peck 73 Latimer 81)

FAREHAM TOWN 2 (Jackson 11 Laycock 85)

Att 96

Entry £6

Teamsheet FREE

I suspect when Coors started procedures to move Alton Town from their historic Bass Ground noone, least of all the club would have expected an outcome this good. Let’s face it, non-league football is littered with tales of homeless clubs groundsharing for a while, then slowly dying. What makes this all the more interesting is that the club have moved less than 400 yards, just across and along the main road, and in the process have gone home. Continue reading →

51.156666 -0.963135

The Commitments

11 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by laurencereade in O

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

3G, Catherine Beaver, Community Arena, Hannah Cox, ladies, Natasha Caswell, Newquay, Oxford City, oxford united., soccer, South West Womens Combination, Victoria Taylor

Sunday 10th February 2013 ko 14.00

South-West Women’s Combination

OXFORD UNITED 2 (Beaver 26secs Caswell 53)

NEWQUAY 1 (Taylor 23)

Att 10 (h/c)

Entry FREE

Programme None

Normally speaking Oxford United’s women’s team play their fixtures at the former Rover Cowley Ground, on Romanway, but with the pitch waterlogged the tie was switched to to Oxford City’s new 3G pitch at Court Place Farm.

The Community Arena incorporates a pavilion and 6 netball courts together with the full-sized, caged 3G pitch. It opened in January 2012 at a cost of £2.1 million, but there are two flaws if you’re a spectator, there is no cover, and you have to watch from the outside of the cage. The latter isn’t too bad, I’m old enough to remember fences at football grounds, but it’s difficult to track the ball from left to right as the fence gets more dense. That I won’t remember, what I will, was the freezing cold, and the driving rain that slowly turned into sleet.

Oxford are top of the division, 4 points ahead of Keynsham Town, who have 2 games in hand. That is because Oxford have had a run in the Women’s FA Cup, in fact they play Premier League Newcastle United at Grenoble Road on Sunday 24th, their first appearance at the main stadium. With the Cornish Peppermints down in eighth place I expected a straightforward home win, even if, sensibly the visitors had stayed in Oxford the night before. That would be in marked contrast to their male counterparts!

It started so well,  Lauren Allison outpacing her marker; her shot was saved but Catherine Beaver was sharp enough to bury the rebound. I waited for the goals to come with a metronomic efficiency but despite Oxford having the vast majority of the possession, the goals didn’t come. Chances were spurned, and the inevitable happened. A Newquay free-kick was tipped on to the bar by keeper Hannah Cox, a follow-up shot hit the post, but Victoria Taylor was on hand to bundle home the equaliser.

The second half followed a similar patten, albeit with Natasha Caswell coming more to the fore, pushing the side forward from the centre. Eventually the pressure paid off, a clumsy challenge allowing Caswell to convert from the penalty spot. It’s a win that maintains United’s lead, and you can see how they’ve progressed so well in the cup, they maintain pressure on the opposition so well. Whether that run can be continued will be fascinating to watch.



Freeze Frame

28 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by laurencereade in S

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

3G, Biggleswade Town, Craig Daniels, Luke Knight, Rowley Park, Southern League, St Neots Town

Wednesday 23rd January 2013 ko 19.15

Friendly

ST NEOTS TOWN 0

BIGGLESWADE TOWN 3 (Knight 27 73 Daniels 58)

Att 32 (h/c)

Played on 2nd (3G) pitch, Rowley Park, St Neots

Entry FREE

No Programme

When the temperature is sub-zero and the snow piled high, you have to be creative in finding your football. I was fortunate in quite a few respects last Wednesday, firstly that when St Neots sold their old Rowley Park home, and gained their new Rowley Park stadium, no only did they get a fine replacement, they also gained a floodlit artificial pitch too! Continue reading →

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Blogroll

  • Damage In The Box Chris Powell’s travels across the UK and Europe. The artist must frequently seen in the pub 0
  • FA Cup Factfile Phil Annets on all things to do with the World’s greatest cup competition 10
  • Football Club History Database Want to know where a club finished in what league and in what year? Richard Rundle’s site is a veritable goldmine! 0
  • Football Hopper “Fast” Eddie McGeown’s erudite perambulations around the nation’s football grounds 0
  • Gibbo's 92 As Atherton Colleries’ programme editor puts it, ” The best trips are random, unplanned and spontaneous.” 0
  • Groundhopping.se Per-Gunnar Nilsson’s trips around his native Sweden, and into Europe 0
  • Grounds for concern The late Mishi Morath’s picture blog. Obviously no longer updated but still a wonderful archive. 0
  • Kate Shrewsday. A thousand thousand stories Not about football, but beautiful writing, Kate can make words dance. 0
  • Los Boyos Matt is Welsh, a teacher, and lives in Malaga. His old “Lost Boyos” blog was essential reading. Here’s the Spanish Sequel!! 0
  • Modus Hopper Random Graham Yapp’s travels 0
  • The 100 Grounds Club Shaun Smith’s groundhopping football blog. The original internet ground logging website. 0
  • The Football Traveller The bible for every groundhopper. Non-League fixtures magazine delivered weekly. Published and edited by Chris Bedford 0
  • The Intinerant Football Watcher Peter finds the grounds other hoppers cannot reach. Top bloke too! 0
  • The66POW Rob Waite’s travels 0

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