Tag Archives: Essex Senior League

Learnings

26 Sunday Nov 2017

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Friday 10th November 2017 ko 19.45

Essex Senior League

BARKINGSIDE 2 (Toke 45 Ogborn 75)

CLAPTON 3 (Coblah 40 Reed 48 87)

Att 275

Entry & Programme £5

I’d first heard the Essex Senior League were looking at hosting a “Groundhoppers Event” a month or two ago on Peter Dudley’s excellent “Grassroots Footy Show” on East London Radio. There, league secretary Michelle Dorling outlined the idea, and made it clear that the idea needed fleshing out before they could commit to it fully. Very much with my GroundhopUK hat on I wondered how we could help. Continue reading →

Ghost Rail

31 Friday Mar 2017

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Tuesday 14th March 2017 ko 19.45

Essex Senior League

TAKELEY 4 (Cole 16 18 65 Das 90)

WALTHAM FOREST 1 (Baluaka 73)

Att 76

Entry & Programme £7

Takeley FC, other than being mighty close to Stansted Airport is one of only a few clubs, Copnor-based Moneyfields being another, where you navigate to the ground via a railway station that doesn’t exist! In Moneyfields’ case that’s due to the station being planned but never built, but in Takeley’s case you go over the hump-backed bridge glance to your left and there’s the station- with no trains, or indeed rails either! Continue reading →

Rule Breaking

22 Friday Apr 2016

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Thursday 14th April 2016 ko 19.45

Essex Senior League

BOWERS & PITSEA 3 (Hilton 45 Manor 55 Portway 86)

TAKELEY 0

Att 97

Entry £6

Programme £1

I’m not sure why I made a beeline for a floodlit game in Essex, when there was no lack of earlier unlit kick-offs a good deal closer to home. That’s a tactic I picked up from the groundhoppers with thousands of grounds ticked off. The theory is that there are around 1500 floodlit grounds in the UK, so use those winter midweek evenings making use of those lights. You then visit the unlit grounds during the light evenings and on Saturdays, allowing you to stretch the finite number of floodlit grounds as far as possible. Continue reading →

The Don

07 Saturday Nov 2015

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Tuesday 3rd November 2015 ko 19.45 (delayed to 20.05)

Essex Senior League Gordon Brasted Trophy 2nd Round

SOUTHEND MANOR 3 (Fatt 32secs 53 Nolan 51) Warner sent off 45 (foul & abusive language)

SPORTING BENGAL UNITED 3 (Adewunmi 43 56 Rivera 89)

No Extra Time Sporting Bengal won 4-3 on penalties

Official Attendance 90 (this has to be a typo- I counted 18!)

Entry £6

Programme £2

Southchurch Park is the kind of place that the casual visitor could call in at, watch a game and entirely fail to pick up its secrets. It doesn’t help if you visit for a night game, as the cricket pitch next door to the Arena Stadium isn’t visible. For that’s the start of the area’s appeal. Continue reading →

New Town Blues

01 Sunday Nov 2015

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Wednesday October 28th 2015 ko 19.45 (but actually kicked off at 20.15)

Essex Senior League

BASILDON UNITED 4 (Hunter 5 9 Nyanja 54 Clark 69) Sartain sent off 60 (2nd booking)

TOWER HAMLETS 0

Official attendance 84

Entry £6

Programme SOLD OUT

Groundtastic editor Vince Taylor summed up Basildon neatly.

“Other New Towns such as Crawley and Stevenage have produced Football League teams, why not Basildon?”

He has a point, and you can add Milton Keynes to that list albeit by rather nefarious means, but why is a town of 100,000 residents only supporting a club at the 9th tier of English football? Continue reading →

All Killer, No Filler

23 Sunday Aug 2015

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Friday 14th August 2015 ko 19.45

FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round

HODDESDON TOWN 4 (Summers 38 43 67 Wade 90)

SAWBRIDGEWORTH TOWN 0

Att 216

Entry £6

Programme £1

In groundhoppers’ circles football grounds and clubs get known for certain characteristics. For example there’s the stand at Treharris, the Chinese pagoda at the Olympic Stadium, Stockholm, but Hoddesdon Town gets talked about in hushed tones for one reason, the programme. Continue reading →

Essex Man

23 Sunday Mar 2014

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Thursday 20th March 2014 ko 19.45

Essex Senior League

HULLBRIDGE SPORTS 1 (Nash 23)

BASILDON UNITED 2 (Murphy 53 Pinto 70)

Att 51

Entry £6

Programme £1

Tea £1

Bacon Sarnie £2

It’s not often I risk turning up at the wrong ground, but this fixture could easily have ended up being one of a small group. A few weeks ago, with Hullbridge’s Lower Road ground waterlogged the clubs made the sensible move to swap their games against each other around as Basildon’s Gardiners Close was playable. The trouble is a few of the fixture websites didn’t keep up! That’s why a Twitter account can be a groundhopper’s best friend! Continue reading →

Wakering Stairs

10 Thursday Oct 2013

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Wednesday 9th October 2013 ko 19.45

Essex Senior League Gorden Brasted Memorial Trophy First Round

GREAT WAKERING ROVERS 10 (Skeels 7 18 Trenkel 24 43 82 85 Baldwin 40 62 Sparrow 56 Read 59 )

SPORTING BENGAL UNITED 2 (Ougbo 47 79) Riviera missed penalty 72

Att 71

Entry £6

Programme £1

Teamsheet FREE

When I used to follow Oxford United both home and away I used to dread the Southend arterial road. Time does dull the memory, and roadworks made the usual hold-ups still worse on what is, after all, a pretty much straight road. After passing by the almost perpetual suburbia of Southend itself, the scene changes rapidly. You become more aware of the flat land, this is I suppose the southernmost tip of East Anglia, and soon you reach the village of Great Wakering.

The village has links to the MOD island of Foulness, much of the land around Great Wakering is inaccessible due to their restrictions, the beach area is often used as a firing range.

The village’s most famous son is footballer Continue reading →