Tag Archives: Football

Uppaddus

14 Friday Jun 2019

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Tuesday 30th April 2019 ko 20.00

Gwent County League Division One

YNYSDDU WELFARE 4 (Price 47 53 62 Watkins 72)

WATTSVILLE 2 (Roch 24 79)

Att 43 at Pontllanfraith Leisure Centre

Entry FREE

Programme £1

As a groundhopper you find yourself questioning your sanity on a fairly regular basis. You take a psychological step back from what you’re doing and in this case wonder why you’re travelling from Oxford to South Wales, through evening rush hour traffic to watch a game on a plastic pitch in a cage at a leisure centre the local council are trying to close. But if there was one club I simply had to write about this season it was Ynysddu Welfare. Continue reading →

The Gas Man Cometh

13 Thursday Jun 2019

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Monday 22nd April 2019

11.00 Hellenic Premier

BISHOPS CLEEVE 5 (Watts 30 56 Iddles 48 Davidge 59 Johnstone 82)

SHRIVENHAM AFC 1 (Ballard 65)

Att 231

Entry £7

Programme £2

14.15 Hellenic Premier

TUFFLEY ROVERS 3 (Bloomfield 19 29 Alder 73)

FAIRFORD TOWN 0

Att 221

Entry £5

Programme £1

18.00 Hellenic League Division One West

THORNBURY TOWN 2 (Brock 52 Wormwell 90+8)

NEWENT TOWN 2 (Marquis 7 Jones 61og)

Att 295

Entry & Programme £5

So the Hellenic Hop reached it’s final day and we’d been fortunate in so many ways. Firstly the weather had been kinder than it had been to Phil Hiscox and the South West Peninsula League the previous Easter, and the clubs in the most part had covered themselves in glory with some excellent hosting. The coach inched its way out of the Almondsbury Interchange Hotel, and I relaxed as Robyn managed her usual trick of falling asleep as soon as the coach started moving… Continue reading →

The Cotswolds (and a little Wales)

31 Friday May 2019

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Sunday 21st April 2019

11.00 Hellenic League Division Two West

BOURTON ROVERS 3 (Nurse 19 Tyack 76 Way 90)

HEADINGTON AMATEURS 1 (Curtis 83)

Att 278

Entry £4

Programme £1

14.15 Hellenic League Division Two West

MORETON RANGERS 0

ADDERBURY PARK 1 (Northam 62)

Att 384

Entry £2

Programme £1

18.00 Hellenic League Premier

BRIMSCOMBE & THRUPP 4 (Blackie 5 Pitts 55 Campbell 70 J Pitt 90)

ABINGDON UNITED 0 Butler sent off 55 (2nd Booking)

Att 403

Entry £5

Programme £1

Easter Sunday dawned, and the compromise that is an organised hop was brought into sharp focus. On one hand we were always likely to see the most hoppers today when compared to the rest of the weekend, but then we were asking more of the clubs in asking them to play on Easter Sunday. You could argue that extra crowds mean extra revenue for our host clubs but that doesn’t help the visiting clubs taking part. I know there was some discomfiture amongst those involved at Headington Amateurs, Adderbury Park and Abingdon United in playing on this day so our sincere thanks to them for helping us, the league and the host clubs. Thanks also to Brian King and all at the league too, plenty of leagues wouldn’t have even countenanced trying!

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The Oxfordshire Day (That Wasn’t)

25 Saturday May 2019

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Saturday 20th April 2019

11.00 Hellenic League Division 2 East

STOKENCHURCH 0

CHALFONT WASPS 3 (Letterman 29 42 Williams 47)

Att 234

Entry & Programme £5

15.30

15.30 Hellenic League Division 1 East

CHINNOR 1 (Knowles 54)

HOLYPORT 4 (Raply 4 45 56 Driffill 16)

Att 196

Entry £4

Programme £1

19.00 Hellenic League Division 2 East

LONG CRENDON 0

YATELEY UNITED 0

Att 269

Entry £6

Programme £1

It was unusual to be in the middle of an organised hop and for me to wake up at home. But with the Hellenic Hop visiting 3 clubs all within 20 miles from home and with an elderly father to keep an eye on, it made sense to have a couple of nights back home, even if Robyn and I did miss the full English breakfasts back at the Almondsbury Interchange! I found myself harking back to the days of the North Berkshire League’s Hops too, and on arrival at Stokenchurch you could see why. Continue reading →

The Good

22 Wednesday May 2019

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Friday 19th April 2019

12.00 Hellenic League Premier Division

LONGLEVENS 2 (Welch 59 Malshanskij 62)

READING CITY 1 (Darboe 14)

Att 331

Entry £6

Programe £1

15.30 Hellenic League Premier Division

LYDNEY TOWN 2 (Thompson 59p Halford 83)

WINDSOR 0

Att 337

Entry £5

Programme £1

19.00 Hellenic League Division One West

NEWENT TOWN 0

CHELTENHAM SARACENS 1 (Barnard 54)

Att 369

Entry £5

Programme £1

Looking at it selfishly,  the Easter Hop moving from the North West Counties League to the Hellenic was a neat way of me swapping a probable 11 new ticks from 13 games to 11 re-visits. The Hellenic hinterland is my stamping ground, and so many of these clubs I know reasonably well, so for this weekend the pleasure was in the catching up rather than the process of accumulation. Look out for the click-throughs for the grounds as they were when I first visited them. In some cases the changes are remarkable.

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Botany Bay

17 Friday May 2019

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Tuesday 16th April 2019 ko 18.15

Aylesbury & District League Premier Division

TETSWORTH 5 (Gant 3 85 Jones 12 Riley 18 Nawaz 23og)

ELMHURST 2 (Haider 32 Jabar 66)

Att c20

Entry FREE

If you’ve ever driven on the M40 between Thame and Stokenchurch, then you’ve been within a couple of hundred yards of Tetsworth. You can see the lorries thundering along the embankment from the pretty Oxfordshire village around 4 miles south of Thame on the old A40. Or perhaps car boot sales are your thing? If they are and you’re from the South-East then you’re probably attended one of the mammoth Sunday car boot sales held here. All of that does the village something of a disservice. Continue reading →

The Old Paludians

15 Wednesday May 2019

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Tuesday 9th April 2019 ko 18.30

Hellenic League Division 2 East

TAPLOW UNITED 2 (Hill 23 Murtagh 27)

STOKENCHURCH 3 (Holgate 22 Blesson 69 C Baumohl 70)

Att 5

Free Entry

When I first started groundhopping 15-odd years ago the Step 6 Hellenic Division ONE east looked a lot like this. I remember visiting the likes of Englefield Green Rovers and Eton Wick and seeing grounds with little more than a pitchside rail. You can imagine my surprise when the Central Midlands League Hops started. That league was at Step 7 yet the grounds all seemed to have stands…. Continue reading →

Carry On Up the Ceiber

13 Monday May 2019

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Saturday 6th April 2019 ko 14.30

Welsh League Division 3

PENRHIWCEIBER RANGERS 3 (Carter 6 Davies 31 Morgan 39)

TREDEGAR TOWN 2 (Hillman 8 Cullinane 46)

Herring sent off 90 (dangerous play)

Att c50

Entry £3

Programme 50p

The drive up to the Mountain Ash area from just beyond Pontypridd is one of my favourites in the South Wales Valleys. Part of the reason why it is the sense of history about the area, and my own memories of so many games and clubs visited in the area. It’s got to a point where if I see a mining village I wonder why I haven’t seen a game there yet! Then there’s the switch-back narrow roads and the seeming endless rows of terraced cottages, this is a part of the world where you do have to concentrate when driving! Continue reading →

The Last Post

08 Wednesday May 2019

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Tuesday 2nd April 2019 ko 18.15

Banbury Charity Cup 2nd Round

BODICOTE SPORTS 3 (Reeves 37 81p Kiss 83)

CHASEWELL PARK 3 (Robertson 43p Beales 52 Harding 64)

Bodicote won 5-4 on penalties (No extra time)

Att c20

Entry FREE

In groundhopper parlance the last part of the season when the clocks go forward and clubs without floodlights can play evening fixtures is known as “Silly Season.” It sounds like a pejorative term, but isn’t meant to be, it refers to the ability to watch leagues you can’t do midweek in the winter. By reputation it evokes summer evenings, watching a game in pleasant rural surroundings in your shirtsleeves. I allowed myself a grim smile as the sleet lashed against my car’s windscreen as I headed the 20-or-so miles north.

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The West Lothian Question

29 Monday Apr 2019

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Saturday 30th March 2019 ko 17.15

East of Scotland League Conference C

BLACKBURN UNITED 4 (Downie 1p 4 65 Browne 81)

PRESTON ATHLETIC 1 (McFarlane 77)

Att 328

Entry £6

Programme £2

I smiled when I heard the groundhoppers’ joke, yes Blackburn vs Preston could so easily be an English Championship game in Lancashire rather than a Scottish non-league fixture in West Lothian. That Lancs/Lothians connection wasn’t lost on former MP Tam Dalyell who in 1977 used the two towns to illustrate a situation after Scottish devolution where Scottish MPs could vote on English affairs, but not vice versa. Continue reading →