Tag Archives: Cardiff

Church Going

08 Friday May 2020

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With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell.

Friday 24th April 2009 ko 19.30

Welsh League Division Two

ELY RANGERS 1 (Penikett 53)

U.W.I.C. 0

Att 88

Entry £3

Programme 50p

The more senior hoppers may look at this game and wonder with my GroundhopUK connections why I wasn’t at the visit here that proceeded the “Welsh Hop-Up” a year earlier? The answer was straightforward- I was in Newport Gwent Hospital’s maternity unit! I’d even travelled down for the game with the ex-wife, but half way down we’d got word that Bethan, our friend from Magor had given birth. Continue reading →

Returning The Favour

01 Monday Oct 2018

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Friday 24th August 2018 ko 18.30

South Wales Alliance – Premier Division

CANTON LIBERAL 2 (K Cotterill 4 49)

GRANGE ALBION 1 (Churchill 43)

Att 189

Entry £3

Programme £2

The Welsh Hop is an operation built on experience from top to bottom, and I do include the hill at our accommodation at the University of South Wales, in Trefforest! This year there seemed to be more to do, and at times it seemed that we were using more of our fail safes than usual. It started as early as Thursday when Caerphilly failed to deliver their programmes (they turned up Friday afternoon over 24 hours late!) and then after the driest summer since 1976 the rains came…
Continue reading →

Something

23 Wednesday May 2018

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Sunday 15th April 2018 ko 14.00

South Wales Alliance Division One

AFC BUTETOWN 1 (Farah 80p) Farah missed penalty 51

TONYREFAIL B.G.C. 1 (Cicigoi 49)

Att 120

Entry/Programme £2

The Welsh Spring hop ended as it has started, at a ground that we’d actually planned on visiting for quite some time! AFC Butetown’s Canal Park home is used for a carnival each August Bank Holiday making a visit on the normal Welsh Hop impossible. But this was a visit that was more than just a question of helping to complete a league, as Butetown’s colloquial name is far more evocative. Continue reading →

For Pricey

18 Friday May 2018

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Saturday 14th April 2018 ko 18.00

South Wales Alliance Division Two

CARDIFF HIBERNIAN 2 (James 30 C Reffell 90)

AFC BARGOED 2 (A Williams 12 J Thomas 27)

Att 197

Entry & Programme £3

Let’s start this piece with the situation we found ourselves in a couple of weeks before the hop. We had the first two games sorted out, but they’d been scheduled anyway, and we really needed a third game for the Saturday. Obviously the original plan would have been that game being in the Carmarthenshire League, but with that avenue closed to us, Chris Berezai turned to an old friend. Continue reading →

Finale

01 Sunday Oct 2017

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Monday 28th August 2017 ko 17.00

South Wales Alliance Division 2

LLANRUMNEY UNITED 3 (Cachia 19 Raymond 61 Beckley 76og)

CARDIFF COSMOPOLITAN 1 (Ramasut 51)

Att 215

Entry £3

Programme £1

So all good things must come to an end, and so two coaches slowly picked their way through Cardiff towards the city’s north-east. By repute the area is the birthplace of Sir Henry Morgan, privateer, governor of Jamaica, and inspiration for Captain Morgan rum. But I had plenty to think about.  Continue reading →

The Carpenter

28 Thursday Sep 2017

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Monday 28th August 2017 ko 13.45

South Wales Alliance Division 2

ST JOSEPH’S 0

CARDIFF AIRPORT 5 (Richards 7 Caton 35 73 90 Fallas 64)

Att 258

Entry £3

Programme £1

It didn’t take long for the coaches to get from Penarth to Cardiff, despite the usual bank holiday traffic. In fact the only issue was working out exactly where the ground was, tucked away as it is behind the suburban housing. The fact that this was for a hop game helped, after 9 games I could recognise many of the hoppers’ cars! Continue reading →

Grand Prix

24 Monday Jul 2017

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Saturday 22md July 2017 17.00

F.I.M. Speedway British Grand Prix

1st Maciej Janowski (Pol)

2nd Jason Doyle (Aus)

3rd Matej Zagar (Slo)

4th Bartosz Zmarzlik (Pol)

Att 40,234 at Principality Stadium, Cardiff

Entry £25

Programme £10

It had been roughly 10 years since my last speedway GP at the now rebranded Millenium Stadium, in Cardiff. I found myself using the old routine, parking in the side streets of Newport, then using a group saver to get a return the one stop to Cardiff Central for around £3.45. It still works well, apart from the bloke who’d had a beer in Bridgewater, tried to get to Taunton, and woke up in Newport. At least he amused the carriage-full of Poles! Continue reading →

Reputations

30 Thursday Mar 2017

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Sunday 12th March 2017 ko 15.00

South Wales Alliance Premier Division

CARDIFF CORINTHIANS 1 (Canley 52)

PONTYCLUN 2 (Moss 49p Woodington 71)

Att 189

Entry £3

Programme £1

It’s worth remembering that the roots of the Welsh Spring Hop lie with GroundhopUK organising a “Hop Up” in March for clubs in the South Wales Amateur League, who due to cricket couldn’t host during August Bank Holiday.

The idea was transferred along with the August Hop to the Mid-Wales League, but then one year we were approached by the Ceredigion League who offered us a games in Lampeter, and New Quay to pad out trips to UWA and Aberaeron and we enjoyed their company so much we completed the league before moving the event to the Carmarthenshire League last season. This return to both the roots of the Spring Hop, and the now merged Alliance League was a good chance to compare past and present. Continue reading →

The Sign And The Goat

19 Monday Sep 2016

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Monday 29th August 2016 ko 11.00

South Wales Alliance Division 2

CARDIFF HIBERNIAN 2 (Harris-Reffel 5 Inyang 53)

CARDIFF AIRPORT 4 (Davies 1 Martyn 25 67 Hall 79)

Att 261

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

The final day of the hop saw a change of environ as we headed for Cardiff, and for our first game the suburb of Ely. The area has something of a troubled reputation, the area around the North Ely Rec’ saw bread riots here in 1993, but the groundhop has visited no end of supposedly problem areas and found nothing more than a warm welcome, and so it was to be here.  Continue reading →

Blind Melon

11 Monday Jan 2016

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Saturday 9th January 2016 ko 14.00

Welsh League Division 3

STM SPORTS 4 (Worsley M Nessbert 48 Davenport 63 83)

ELY RANGERS 1 (K Johnson 65)

Att 80

Entry & Programme £3

It has to be said that I’m a lucky boy. I have a girlfriend Robyn who loves football, and she asked to come to one of my non-league jaunts. Now that gave me one of those problems you love to have, which ground and game to show her? I settled on an icon of the Welsh game for her first Welsh non-league game, the frankly stunning Blandy Park, home to Garw, on the basis that if she didn’t like it there, she wouldn’t like non-league full stop. Of course life never quite works out how you plan it does it? Continue reading →