Tag Archives: England

The Ghost Train

23 Friday Nov 2018

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Tuesday 16th October 2018 ko 19.45

Southern Combination Peter Bentley Cup 3rd Round

NEWHAVEN 2 (Robinson 31 76) Robinson missed penalty 16

Jallou sent off 79 (2nd booking)

CRAWLEY DOWN GATWICK 1 (Leslie 69)

Att 72

Entry £6

Programme £1

Here’s a riddle for you. I’ve been to Newhaven hundreds of times but never visited, how is this possible? The answer is via my late Grandmother Rose, who was from the East Sussex town. She moved to Oxford to get married, but her nod back to her home town was to name the family home in Valentia Road, “Newhaven.” The house was a 5 minute walk from the Manor Ground, so I visited the place hundreds times in my youth! Rose has long since gone, but the stencilled “Newhaven” above the front door is still there! Continue reading →

Titan

03 Saturday Nov 2018

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Saturday 6th October 2018 ko 11.00

Western League Division One

LONGWELL GREEN SPORTS 2 (Brittain 2 Keary 36)

WELTON ROVERS 3 (Hunt 28 Seviour 54 77)

Att 213

Entry £5

Programme £1

When we started the Western Hop back in 2015 we actually passed Longwell Green Sports on our way between Bitton and Oldland Abbotonians. Whilst amusing myself with the knowledge that we’d succeeded in convincing a hopper that the latter club was so named because comedian Russ Abbott was a secret benefactor (He actually recorded it in his blog before rapidly deleting it!) we passed the ground and I wondered why we weren’t visiting there and then? Continue reading →

Down To The Waterline

29 Monday Oct 2018

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Tuesday 18th September 2018 ko 19.30

Sussex R.U.R. Charity Cup 2nd Round

SEAFORD TOWN 6 (Lee 8 Rainford 23 Storer 41 Anderson 50 Guillou 75 Zabadne 85)

SOUTHWICK 1 (Lester 6p)

Att 15

Entry & Programme £5

Roughly speaking Seaford lies on the other side of the River Ouse from Newhaven, or in my terms just about as far as it as possible to get from a 5.30pm start from Oxford and make a 7.45 kick off. In this day and age you tend to assume you’ll be delayed getting past the M3 turn on the M25! But on this occasion England’s motorways decided to cooperate and I arrived at 7.25, just in time to hear two sounds…. Continue reading →

The Lakes

28 Friday Sep 2018

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Saturday 18th August 2018 ko 14.30

Westmorland League- Division One

KESWICK 2 (Atkinson 32 Hindmarsh 40)

KIRKOSWALD 0

Att 50

Free Entry

I suspect that in the end this blog will be about places like this. I could document all those grounds from the Premier League to Step 6 and while there are some amazing places amongst those, I’d hit the publish button without ever feeling I’d shared something new. But trips to the Westmorland League are by definition off the beaten track, and after all, you can’t go wrong with a trip to the Lake District can you?  Continue reading →

Timbers

03 Monday Sep 2018

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Tuesday 22nd July 2018 ko 19.15

Pre-season Friendly

VIRGINIA WATER 1 (Griffiths 25)

BANSTEAD ATHLETIC 3 (Holden 11 38 Evered 88og)

Att 40 at The Timbers

15 years ago, when I started groundhopping this is what Step 6 in the South-East looked like. For the most part, a railed off pitch with a clubhouse was all you needed, and it was only when you started heading north that the difference in facilities became obvious. I remember a group of London-based hoppers not coming on one of the early Central Midlands Hops, because they’d decided there’d be all fields. The depressing thought is that I still hear these bleats even now. Remember the Notts-based hopper who told everyone 2-3 years ago that the South Peninsula League Hop would be “All fields”. What? St Austell? Wendron? Continue reading →

Returns Policy

22 Wednesday Aug 2018

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Wednesday 4th July 2018 ko 19.30

Pre-Season Friendly

HADLEY 0

REDBRIDGE 3 (61 77 84)

Att c35 at Barnet Lane 3G

After my frankly life-changing tour of Sweden in June, save for the odd World Cup game on television I’d taken a break from all things football. I’ll admit it was unusual for me, I remember one close season lasting less than 24 hours! But I looked up the Football Traveller’s friendlies list and soon spotted a ground you can’t do during the regular season. A bonus was that it involved driving past the site of one of my favourite grounds of the past. Continue reading →

Serenity

13 Friday Jul 2018

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Tuesday 22nd May 2018 ko 18.30

Coventry Alliance Division 2

CRICK ATHLETIC 3 (Pritchard 39 54 Hull 40)

AMBLESIDE SPORTS RESERVES 2 (Vaughan 4 Morris 35)

Att 15

FREE Entry

When I read about some hoppers self-imposed rules and regulations I usually allow myself a wry smile. There’s the one who won’t go to a game unless its on the Groundhopper App and then there’s the ones who won’t go to a game below the 6th step of non-league “Because its all fields.” Each to their own of course, but for me the beauty of the hobby is digging up the little gems, and you’ll never be able to do that with an App- you are inevitably using someone else’s research. To find a little gem like Crick you have to dig that little known seam of football that is (nominally) Step 11. Continue reading →

The Hammer of Tours

30 Monday Apr 2018

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Saturday 31st March 2018 ko 11.00

South West Peninsula League Division One East

ST MARTINS 4 (Watson 5 90 Davies 62 Richards 81)

ALPHINGTON 0

Att 383

Entry £4

Programme £1

Finally, an organised hop in the UK in 2018 saw a day with pleasant weather. It seemed an almost entirely different journey from Paignton to Exeter than it had been during the rain-soaked preceding two days. Robyn and I headed to Exeter’s southernmost suburbs, to the almost subsumed village of Exminster, with the austere-looking form of the former Devon Mental Hospital overlooking proceedings. The building was designed by Charles Fowler who also designed the main Covent Garden market building, and is converted to housing, but the feeling of unease still persists about the place.  Continue reading →

Reputations

22 Sunday Apr 2018

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Friday 30th March 2018 ko 11.30

South West Peninsula League Division One East

SIDMOUTH TOWN 3 (Davies 32 Knight 74 83)

BUDLEIGH SALTERTON 4 (Taylor 37 Antat 49 A Boere 54 White 78_

Att 336

Hop Ticket (programmes not included) £25

Entry £3

Programme £1.50

The alarm sounded at Robyn and I’s bed and breakfast, and I didn’t need to open the curtains to check the weather, I could hear the torrents hammering the cars parked outside. Whilst the Full English breakfast was superlative, we ate in near silence knowing that the weather was at best going make watching 3 matches in a day difficult and at worst curtail the fun early. It was a day to trust Phil Hiscox the event organiser, and take what was coming. Little did we know that their would be a whole series of problems beyond the organiser’s control.  Continue reading →

Six Ex

14 Wednesday Mar 2018

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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 →