Tag Archives: Football

Double F

07 Monday Oct 2019

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Sunday 25th August 2019 ko 15.00

Gwent Premier League Division 2

CEFN FFOREST 4 (J Price 33 Bowen 77 90 N Williams 84)

GILWERN & DISTRICT  1 (McCarthy 86)

Att 247

Entry £3

Programme £1

As fun as the dip into the Bridgend Sunday League was, it was good to return to Gwent. We headed to the environs of Caerphilly to the tiny village of Cefn Fforest, and for the record that extra “F” is important, you wouldn’t want to pronounce the place as “Vorest” now would you? Continue reading →

Do. Or do not. There is no try.

02 Wednesday Oct 2019

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Sunday 25th August 2019 ko 11.00

Bridgend & District Sunday League – Premier Division

EWENNY RANGERS 3 (Paget 17 Cirotto 43 Taylor 78)

GARTH VADER 4 (Dickinson 40 Bellamy 60og Rogers 73 88)

Att 88

Entry FREE

Programme & Donation £2

With all due to respect to the good folk of the Bridgend & District Sunday League, the intention never was to pay them a visit, even if we do seem to be visited the football pitches of Bridgend, one at a time, once a year! When the Gwent Premier League finally gave Chris Berezai the finalised fixtures for the Welsh Hop we were scheduled to watch Ynysddu play Pilcs at Nine Mile Point. There was unfortunately an issue with that. Continue reading →

Hearts

23 Monday Sep 2019

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Friday 23rd August 2019 ko 19.30

Gwent County League Division 2

OAK 2 (Mantle 16 Watkins 80)

USK TOWN 2 (Rodden 25 Cullinane 31)

R Hancock sent off 88 (2nd booking)

Att 178

Entry £3

Programme £1

This Welsh Hop should have been so easy to organise. We’d got the accommodation, the coach company and the league all sorted, and we’d even given the league a day’s preview last year. Even the Otley Arms in Treforest were holding a beer festival! So at the end of last season GroundhopUK owner Chris Berezai had sent the Gwent League a wish-list of clubs we wanted to visit, and we waited, and when that didn’t work, we coaxed and cajoled. In the end we got the fixtures 3 weeks before the event. Continue reading →

Matchstick Man

22 Sunday Sep 2019

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Saturday 17th August 2019 ko 15.00
Cornwall Combination League

LIZARD ARGYLE 1 (Vaughan-Spruce 10)

ROSUDGEON 0 Fletcher missed penalty 90

Att 30

Entry by donation

Programme £1

“So there he was then, Penzance to play….

..And you, you would-be vagabond
No one invited you, you know
Matchstick man, up in the dawn
You’ve got five hundred miles to go.”

excerpt of Matchstick Man by Mark Knopfler 2018

Remember my comment that all too often I don’t pick my games, they pick me? Well this was a classic case of that happening. Robyn and I were in Bristol wedding planning and I knew that I’d be picking up an easel in Clifton but I’d be finished around 10.30am so could go anywhere within reason before heading back to Oxford afterwards. My initial idea was something in the Peninsula League but then something popped up on Facebook!

Continue reading →

So Near…

19 Thursday Sep 2019

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Tuesday 13th August 2019 ko 19.45

FA Cup Extra-Preliminary Round Replay

WEMBLEY FC 3 (Sabti 15 81 Walker 50)

AFC HAYES 2 (Dennis 17secs Musaka 16)

Att 71

Entry £7

Programme £1

When you think about it Wembley FC and their home at Vale Farm is the perfect place for a spectator to follow the world’s best cup competition from its start. You can of course see the competition’s final destination in the background, but when it was all over I did wonder whether the national stadium’s presence serves to madden rather than inspire? Continue reading →

A Home… Finally

17 Tuesday Sep 2019

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Tuesday 6th August 2019 ko 19.45

Combined Counties League Premier Division

BADSHOT LEA 5 (Medcraft 19 55 89 Cardini 63 Cadette 77)

FRIMLEY GREEN 0

Att 194

Entry £7

Programme £1

Teamsheet FREE

God knows football needs a good news story and a ground for Badshot Lea is certainly one! It seems an age ago (well 2003) I saw the side freshly promoted in to the Hellenic League from the Surrey Premier League at their original Recreation Ground home. Now home may well be where the heart is but the ground was little or more than a roped off pitch in a park and with ground gradings beginning to bite it was obvious that a club so obviously on the up would have to move. Continue reading →

The United Swifts

12 Thursday Sep 2019

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Saturday 3rd August 2019

12.00 Central Midlands League Invitational Cup Final

NETHERSEAL ST PETERS 1 (Coates 7)

RENISHAW RANGERS 3 (Manlove 4 75 Purcell 72)

Att 189

15.00 Central Midlands League Chairman’s Cup Final

PINXTON 5 (Smith 20 Green 32 33 87 Riley 57)

BAKEWELL TOWN 1 (Rach 57)

Att 269

Both games at Peel Croft, (Burton RUFC), Burton-on-Trent

Entry £5

Programme £2

Just occasionally the hopper fraternity gets an opportunity so good, you drop everything and go. Normally it takes the form of a one-off game at an iconic stadium that isn’t often used to football such as Llanelli playing at Stradey Park, the re-staging of the 1872 FA Cup Final at the Oval or Hull City playing a friendly at Hull Kingston Rovers’ Craven Park. Those were all mid-week fixures, and 2 were at rugby grounds, but this game was at a rugby ground, on a Saturday making it so much easier for people to get to, but Peel Croft’s history made this a must-visit. Continue reading →

Roman Times

06 Friday Sep 2019

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Sunday 28th July 2019 ko 13.45

United Counties League Division One

IRCHESTER UNITED 3 (Clark 7 Ball 70 79)

WELLINGBOROUGH WHITWORTH 3 (Brittain 8 Crawley 45 Hazell 90)

Att 328

Entry £5

Programme £1

It wasn’t far from Cogenhoe to Irchester- just enough time to get comfortable it seemed! When we first established the United Counties League Hop I’d imagined that we’d visit Irchester either before or after both Wellingborough Town and Wellingborough Whitworth, as Irchester is very close to the town. Now there were compelling reasons to visit Stilton when we did last year, but it did leave Irchester a little high and dry. In the end I was pleased we were able to fit them in quickly. Continue reading →

Compton

05 Thursday Sep 2019

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Sunday 28th July 2019 ko 11.00

United Counties League Premier Division

COGENHOE UNITED 0

LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY 1 (Akpobire 32)

Att 262

Entry £6

Programme £1

As the hop coach climbed up into the hills above Northampton there seemed to be a symmetry between the UCL/PDFL hop’s visit to Compton Park and my visit 15 years-or so earlier. Then I’d watched a game in the wind and rain and returned to my car soaked. It had been a good thing that I was living in Banbury back then, less than an an hour’s drive away. Continue reading →

The Rules

04 Wednesday Sep 2019

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Saturday 27th July 2019 ko 19.45

United Counties League Division One

BURTON PARK WANDERERS 4 (Allen 8 Thomson 15 20 Dalby 49)

Dalby missed penalty 45

LUTTERWORTH ATHLETIC 0

Att 284

Entry £5

Programme £1

The rains returned as the hop reached the fourth game in Burton Latimer, near Kettering. If football isn’t your thing then the town is where Weetabix is made but if non-league football is your passion then it also is where Latimer Park is. The ground is home to perennial UCL strugglers Burton Park Wanderers, or is it? Continue reading →