Tag Archives: Eastern Counties League

Beeston Bump

05 Friday Dec 2025

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Tuesday 9th September 2025 ko 19:45

Anglian Combination Premier Division

SHERINGHAM 0

SPROWSTON 2 (Rose 3 Bowen 58)

Att c50

Entry £5

With work placing me in Norfolk, well Wymondham to be exact I knew that once my working day was done, I’d have plenty of footballing options in the area. I was surprised to find that in terms of new ticks, it was only two, and one of those shocked me.

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The Rockets

26 Friday Sep 2025

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Saturday 19th July 2025 ko 15:00

Friendly

RAYLEIGH TOWN 2 (Acheampong 44 Philbrick 70)

missed penalty 10

FRENFORD 1 (13)

Att 58 at Rayleigh Sports & Social Club, London Road

Free Entry

To a groundhopper, one benefit of pre-season is that clubs who groundshare during the regular season tend to play “at home”. You may recall me visiting Benfleet well before they got Woodside up to Step 6 standards and you hope Rayleigh can do the same for their London Road home.

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Holland (on sea)

26 Wednesday Feb 2025

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Saturday 22nd February 2025 ko 15:00

Eastern Counties League Division One North

HOLLAND FC 2 (Blackwell 22 Sargent 26)

AFC SUDBURY RESERVES 0

Att c50

Entry £7

No Programme (“Editor on holiday”)

Now I know Robyn and I are known for our cavalier attitude towards geography and distance but this may have taken the biscuit! We’d left Oxford towards on a game on the England/Wales border but that got called off, thankfully early. So it was a good excuse to revive an old project, “Operation Eastern Counties League” Yes it does take a certain level of adaptability to aim for one side of the country but end up at another!

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Leisure

18 Monday Sep 2023

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Tuesday 12th September 2023 ko 19:45

Eastern Counties League Division One North

STANWAY PEGASUS 5 (Booth 6 Kabongu 14 Griffith 35 81 Ager 73)

CORNARD UNITED 0

Att 156

Entry & Programme £7

Roughly speaking I reckon there are three reasons why a groundhopper visits a new ground. One is simply because it’s there, another its because it’s known to be superb, and the third is you need it to complete a league. There can be little doubt the reason I was at Stanway School was the third reason….

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New (ish!)

30 Wednesday Aug 2023

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Tuesday 8th August 2023 ko 19:45

Eastern Counties League Division One North

HAVERHILL ROVERS 2 (Greenslade-Cross 18 42)

WHITTON UNITED 1 (Thrower 30)

Att 111

Entry £7

No programme

Ever had one of those grounds that irks you? Not in the sense that the place itself annoys you, rather that your failure to get the place visited irks you. I’d visited Rovers old ground Hamlet Croft back in 2007, they moved to the New Croft in 2010, and somehow I contrived to fail to visit the new ground.

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Mission

29 Tuesday Aug 2023

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Saturday 5th August 2023 ko 15:00

Eastern Counties League Division One North

NEEDHAM MARKET U23 1 (Barker 41p)

GREAT YARMOUTH TOWN 5 (Akpo 7 Couzens 34 Duffield 59 Halliday 63 90)

Att 45

Entry £5

No programme

It always pays to have a Plan B. Chris Garner and I were on one of our Saturday trips east and were aiming for an FA Cup game at Little Oakley. There were only two issues with our choice. The first was the weather, it hadn’t stopped raining all day, and the other was Little Oakley’s location.

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Station

21 Tuesday Feb 2023

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Monday 2nd January 2023 ko 14:00

Eastern Counties League Division One North

HEACHAM 1 (L Mitchell 42)

NORWICH C.B.S. 0

Att 131

Entry £5

Programme £2

There has been a running theme in my groundhopping for the last few years and that has been the Eastern Counties League. A lot of it is that there is no organised groundhop in that league, so I’m not likely to be helping guide a coachload of hoppers into these clubs any time soon. There’s also the fact that the ECL does seem to have a healthy intake of new clubs each season, to the extent that that without that process I’m certain I’d have finished the league years ago! Continue reading →

The Golden Triangle

28 Friday Jan 2022

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Tuesday 25th January 2022 ko 19:45

Eastern Counties League Division One South

BUCKHURST HILL 9 (N. Sollosi 1 10 34 Falola 32 79 90 Zuhdu 43 75 S Sollosi 87)

WORMLEY ROVERS 1 (Clark 24)

Allen sent off (DOGSO) 70

Att 151

Entry & Programme £6

The very mention of Essex does run the risk of painting pejorative thoughts in your head. You might think of girls in white stilettos dancing round their handbags, shows of conspicuous consumption, and the TV show that enforced the cliche, “The Only Way Is Essex.”  Of course all of that is just a cliché, and Buckhurst Hill certainly doesn’t fit the image. Continue reading →

No Rose Garden

12 Friday Nov 2021

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Saturday 23rd October 2021 ko 15:00

Eastern Counties League- Premier Division

WOODBRIDGE TOWN 1 (Sinclair 29)

MULBARTON WANDERERS 2 (Henerley 64p Thompson 78)

Att 134

Entry £8

Programme £1

Badge £3.50

I’m sure my regular reader has spotted a trend here. The modus operandi is to leave Oxford, pick Chris Garner up in Wavendon, then visit an Eastern Counties League game. We’ve been doing it a while now, and its been handy that the league has expanded to three divisions and there’s been a fair turnover of both clubs and grounds in the league in the last few years. And so when Robyn, Chris and I planned this trip to Notcutts Park, I had absolutely no reason to think this would be anymore than another enjoyable tick in this league.  Continue reading →

Barley Town

06 Monday Sep 2021

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Saturday 21st August 2021 ko 15:00

FA Cup Preliminary Round

MULBARTON WANDERERS 1 (Eagleton 2)

HADLEIGH UNITED 0

Att 156

Entry £7

Programme £1

I suppose you could look at this as yet another foray into the Eastern Counties League, it is a fairly regular destination for me. You could look at it as yet another long drive along the A11 towards Norwich and its hinterland, but oddly enough it really didn’t feel that way. I’m sure the return from watching the likes of Loch Ness had something to do with it, I was well and truly back in my footballing comfort zone, but more than anything else what made it feel different was that it was an FA Cup game.  Continue reading →