Tag Archives: England

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 →

Melksham Without

15 Thursday Feb 2018

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Monday 12th February 2018 ko 19.30

Western League Premier Division

MELKSHAM TOWN 4 (Higdon 14p 42 Sibbick 28 47)

LONGWELL GREEN SPORTS 1 (Pruett 90)

Att 349

Entry £6

Programme £1

It was an evening of mistakes. Missing our turn-off from the M4 saw us arrived uncomfortably close to kick off, and on a day when parts of the country had seen snow, ice and heavy rain I’d consoled myself that since Melksham’s new ground featured a 3G pitch the game was more likely to be on. You can imagine my mixed emotions when I saw the grass pitch… Continue reading →

Ambivalence

06 Wednesday Dec 2017

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Wednesday 29th November 2017 ko 19.45

United Counties League Division One

BUCKINGHAM TOWN 3 (Osei-Addo 26p Wreh 67 79)

POTTON UNITED 2 (Murrell 38 Webb 74)

Att 77

Entry £4

Programme £1

It’s been over 4 years since Buckingham Town moved into the Irish Centre in Bletchley and over 6 since they were evicted from their spiritual home, Ford Meadow back in Buckingham a rather distant 14 miles away. My reader might remember my surprise when I visited here 2 years ago at just how much the place had been improved since the club had taken on the pitch following the demise of Bletchley Town. Home in Buckingham Town’s case though, isn’t necessarily where the heart is. Continue reading →

Micawber

30 Thursday Nov 2017

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Wednesday 22nd November 2017 ko 19.45

Southern Counties East League Premier Division

ROCHESTER UNITED 1 (McGeeham 88)

DEAL TOWN 4 (Miller 39 Coyne 42 Smith 68 Paxman 78)

Att 52

Entry £7

Programme £1.50

Committee commitments had seen be unavailable since the Forgeside game and Wednesday is seldom a good day to find a game at a ground that I haven’t previously visited, and can get to after work. But in the spirit of Wilkins Micawber, something did turn up, and in Charles Dickens’ home town too! We’ll artfully ignore the fact that Rochester actually play in Strood… Continue reading →

Old School

23 Wednesday Aug 2017

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Tuesday 15th August 2017 ko 19.45

Championship

BRENTFORD 2 (Watkins 56 Maupay 77)

BRISTOL CITY 2 (Brownhill 5 Reid 90)

Att 9,811 (1,650 away)

Entry £24

Programme £3.50

There aren’t many grounds like this left. Grounds tucked away in amongst the houses in the communities they represent with only the floodlights to beckon you in from afield. Grounds built to tessellate with the footprint of the land available, and grounds that positively ooze with history and tradition. Continue reading →

Parallel Lives

03 Thursday Dec 2015

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Tuesday 1st December 2015 ko 17.45

Midland League Premier Division

LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY 2 (Webb 45 82)

HEANOR TOWN 2 (Debrouwer 39 del Genio 90)

Att 114

Entry FREE (Normally £5)

Programme FREE (Normally £1)

Every so often I see footage of collegiate football in the USA, and compare it to what happens here in the UK. Now I’ll ignore the obvious change of code, although there was an NFL-rules training session on a far pitch, but the differences between college sport in the US are still massive. Continue reading →

Ticking almost every box

15 Sunday Feb 2015

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Friday 13th February 2015 ko 20.06

Women’s International Friendly

ENGLAND 0

UNITED STATES 1 (Morgan 25)

Att 14,369 at StadiumMK, Bletchley (MK Dons FC)

Entry- Comp’

Programme £3

The groundhopping purist tends to have a long list of what they won’t go to see. Amongst that list is friendlies, women’s fixtures, games at a stadium that aren’t the home club’s home fixture, and of course there’s always the vexed question of the MK Dons. There’s few who would try to defend the uprooting of the old Wimbledon to Buckinghamshire, but the club that built StadiumMK is certainly flourishing, and the stadium is by anyone’s standards a fantastic edifice, designed as it is by HOK, who also were behind Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium. Nevertheless, there are still plenty who would fall into the “Never forgive, never forget,” camp so short of there being no programme, the teams being reserves, and the game finishing goalless this was a close as you can get to the ultimate “Irk the purist” game!

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Another Octave

24 Monday Nov 2014

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Sunday 23rd November 2014 ko 15.00

Women’s International Friendly

ENGLAND 0

GERMANY 3 (A Scott 6og Sasic 12 45)

Att 45,619 at Wembley Stadium

Entry- Complimentary

Programme £5

It’s a fact of my footballing life that I don’t watch nearly enough women’s football. My cause in that respect was aided when a league I work with offered two Club Wembley seats, and I pondered how to get to the national stadium with the Jubilee, and Metropolitan tube lines closed for planned engineering work.

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Which

17 Sunday Aug 2014

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Saturday 16th August 2014 ko 15.10

FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round

WINSFORD UNITED 0

ATHERSLEY RECREATION 1 (Bennett 56)

Att 107

Entry £6

Programme £1.50

 

There are two great motorways heading north in England, the M1 and M6 but it does pay to have a series of back-up plans if you decide to take either of them on! For that the best modus operandi is the The Football Traveller, in fact I’m sure there’s been many a hopper stuck in a tail-back on the M6 that, frustrated at it all, grabs the little magazine for somewhere to go.

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