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Football: Wherever it may be

~ Laurence's football travels

Football: Wherever it may be

Tag Archives: Bradford

Small Wheels

29 Friday Nov 2019

Posted by laurencereade in B

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Bradford, Bradford Town, Bradford-on-Avon, Clevedon Town, Football, groundhoppers, Non League, Western League

Saturday 5th October 2019 ko 12.30

Western League Premier Division

BRADFORD TOWN 2 (Pollard 38 69p)

CLEVEDON TOWN 0

Att 311

Entry £6

Programme £1

The coach slowed down as we reached the outskirts of Bradford-On-Avon, the narrow streets in a well-to-do town aren’t ideal for such a large vehicle. I felt a tinge of irony in that, one of Bradford’s famous sons is Alex Moulton, the inventor of the Moulton bicycle and the suspension on Alec Issigonis “Mini” car. What do those inventions have in common? Small wheels, and those would have been handy here! Continue reading →

51.339010 -2.244166

The First Lap

27 Thursday Apr 2017

Posted by laurencereade in C

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Bradford, Bradford Park Avenue, Campion FC, Chris Berezai, Dronfield Town, Easter Hop, groundhopping, GroundhopUK, League, Manningham, northern counties east

Thursday 13th April 2017 ko 19.45

Northern Counties East League Division One

CAMPION 4 (Davis 47p Cunningham 70 Kendall 77 Hey 87)

DRONFIELD TOWN 1 (Wood 46)

Att 268

Entry £5

Programme £1.50

With last year’s Easter Hop being based in Cornwall and organised by Phil Hiscox, it had seemed ages since we’d enjoyed the company of the Northern Counties East. A lot had changed, not least that we at GroundhopUK had been approached by the North West Counties League to run a hop there. We’d immediately thought that would end up replacing the NCEL as this hop saw us reach a point where there are insufficient clubs to run a full hop here. However next season the Easter Hop reverts to the South West Peninsula League for it’s final event, so we looked at ways of squaring the circle.  Continue reading →

53.809271 -1.784840

The Idle Working Men’s Club

08 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by laurencereade in T

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Bradford, Dennyfields, Football, groundhop, groundhopping, Long Eaton United, northern counties east, northern counties east league, Thackley

Friday 6th April 2012 ko 1.45pm

Northern Counties East League Premier Division

THACKLEY 1 (Mallinson 84)

LONG EATON UNITED 1 (Chambers 26)

Att 327

Entry & Programme Hop Ticket

Badge £3

Copy of Jack Charlton’s autobiography £3

Team Sheet 20p

It really was a very shot drive across Bradford to Thackley, in fact we had enough time to call in at the Idle Working Men’s Club! The name is a simple pun as the club is in the district of, yes Idle!

Despite the Bradford address Dennyfield has a rural feel to it, it even has a stables at one end! The club once again had read their notes, and were ready for the descending hoppers! This time the food of choice was a delicious chilli-con-carne with rice which seemed to be very popular. The club ran a bookstall in aid of “Help for Heroes” which I thought was a nice touch, and again the club’s big day went like clockwork.

I took a few minutes to have a look around. I soon found well-loved hopper Derek Coope having a doze in the clubhouse. No hop is quite the same without Deadly, a retired professor of mathematics. He’s not in the best of health these days, and I doubt his doctor would approve of him going groundhopping but its obvious what a lift these weekends give him. What he probably doesn’t know if how much his presence lifts everyone else!

The ground would grace a much higher level. There’s hard standing behind both goals and a large stand at the half way line. On the other side there’s a open terrace which the club are fundraising to convert to a second stand. Beyond the near goal there’s an intriguing tower structure. It turned out we were actually standing on top of a railway and the “Tower” is in fact a ventilation shaft!

The game for all the world looked a home banker as Long Eaton are struggling to maintain Premier Division status so when Danny Chambers fired United into the lead from a corner, and the visitors looked strong in defence a minor upset looked on the cards. I had my cup of tea with the officials at half time, none of which seemed unduly worried, apart from the vexed issue of consuming the delicious but hot soup and be out for the second half!

That seemed to be following a similar path to the first. Thackley attacked and Long Eaton defended, it wasn’t a wonderful spectacle but I found it gripping in a “Will they, won’t they” way. Thackley did equalise, Matt Morgan’s through ball into the box was seized on by John Mallinson, who from the tightest of angles on the right managed to find the net. That was the very least Thackley deserved, but it did leave one person slightly disappointed, Long Eaton resident Chris Berezai! Not sure the accent is quite Derbyshire though!

I bought the Jack Charlton book



Derek

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