21 Thursday Nov 2019
Tags
City of Stoke, Football, Keele University, Non League, Sneyd, Staffordshire County Senior League, Staffs
Monday 30th September 2019 ko 20.00
Staffordshire County Senior League Division One
KEELE UNIVERSITY 1 (Gaisford 10)
CITY OF STOKE 4 (Sargeant 65 White 68 Johnson 71 79)
Att 8
Free Entry
When you see Keele what do you picture in your mind? I suspect most see the Services on the M6, and some would see the university. For me it’s definitely the latter. Continue reading
18 Monday Nov 2019
Tuesday 17th September 2019 ko 19.45
Isthmian League- Premier Division
HORSHAM 2 (Harris 3 Smith 27)
WINGATE & FINCHLEY 1 (Kennedy 70)
Att 412
Entry £11
Programme £2
A new home for Horsham at Hop Oast has been one of this season’s good news stories. So much so that not only was my journey round the M25 straightforward, but I even had time to try to remember when it was I’d visited their former home at Queen Street? Continue reading
13 Wednesday Nov 2019
Posted in D
Tags
Ducklington, England, Football, groundhopping, Tommy Caton, Witney and District League, witney hop, Wootton Sports
Saturday 14th September 2019 ko 16.30
Witney & District League- Division Two
DUCKLINGTON 2 (Duthie 33 90)
WOOTTON SPORTS 3 (Spencer 51 78 88)
Att 178
Entry & Programme £4
Ducklington Sports Ground is the kind of place you can drive right past without knowing its there. I should know I spent 3 years as a sales rep in the Witney area and drive along the road from the A40 to Standlake and never once spotted the place. To make things worse I used to visit my friend Matt who once lived in Ducklington and still managed not to spot the place! Continue reading
10 Sunday Nov 2019
Tags
Carterton, England, Football, Minster Lovell, Non League, Wash Meadow, Witney and District League, witney hop
Saturday 14th September 2019 ko 13.30
Witney & District League – Premier Division
MINSTER LOVELL 2 (Fletcher 30 Wright 39)
CARTERTON 3 (Threlfall 46 85p Rogers 61)
Att 126
Entry & Programme £4
I’d actually managed to relax on the journey from Milton-under-Wychwood as we slowly made our way south. We bumped our way down on Britain’s byways passing by Leafield; it seemed barely plausible that F1’s Arrows team used to be based here, and the plant is still a Formula 1 research facility. Continue reading
07 Thursday Nov 2019
Posted in M
Tags
Football, Milton, milton under wychwood, Non League, Spartan Rangers, Village Green, Witney and District League, witney hop
Saturday 14th September 2019 ko 11.00
Witney & District League- Premier Division
MILTON-UNDER-WYCHWOOD 1 (Dady 3)
SPARTAN RANGERS 2 (Thompson 47 Murphy 85)
Att 166
Entry & Programme £4
One advantage of the Witney & District Hop taking in one of the league’s outposts was the excuse to take the minibuses from Oxford out west along the A40 then heading north via Burford. You drive through the most wonderfully scenic Cotswolds countryside as you head north to what’s left of the medieval Wychwood forest. Continue reading
05 Tuesday Nov 2019
Posted in H
Friday 13th September 2019 ko 19.30
Witney & District League- Division Two
HOOK NORTON 5 (Street 11 Ingham 28 Babbage 34 Hemmings 37 Mair 65)
EYNSHAM SSC 0
Att 142
Entry & Programme £4
When the North Berkshire League Hop finished two years ago, I was in no doubt where I wanted to head next. Other than wanting to take the hop to Watlington Town the one remaining North Berks club that hadn’t hosted (but were willing and able to) it had been clear for many years that the North Berks slot was the Witney & District League’s to turn down. Continue reading
31 Thursday Oct 2019
Tags
Bridgend Street, Deeds not words, Football, groundhopping, Non League, Pontardawe Town, Splott, The Willows, Tremorfa, Wales, Welsh League
Saturday 7th September 2019 ko 14.30
Welsh League Division One
BRIDGEND STREET 4 (White 23 62 Fowler 40 65p)
PONTARDAWE TOWN 2 (Silcox 42 Aylward 50)
Att c40
Entry £3
Programme £1
The trip from Caerau Ely to Tremorfa surprised me. A drive through the middle of a capital city isn’t meant to be this easy, I parked up at my second game less than 20 minutes after I’d left the first! Continue reading
29 Tuesday Oct 2019
Posted in C
Tags
Caerau Ely, Cwrt-yr-Ala, Cymru, Cymru South, Football, groundhopping, Llanelli Town, Non League, online programmes, Wales, welsh football
Saturday 7th September 2019 ko 12.00
Cymru South
CAERAU (ELY) 2 (Lyon 33 Outlaw 49)
Lyon sent off 69 (Serious foul play)
LLANELLI TOWN 3 (Parker 28 Hurlford 57 90)
Att c50
Entry £5
Programme, online only
Many years ago it was the Thursday before the Welsh Hop and a few of us had congregated at the event’s base in Treforest. A South Wales Amateur League game at Caerau near Maesteg was our destination and we’d lined up programmes and a meal in the clubhouse after the game. But know-it-all Jim was impatient and wanted to leave early, so we checked he knew where he was going. “Yes, near Cardiff” he replied as he made to drive away. To this day I wonder if we hadn’t yelled at him to stop when he would have realised? Continue reading
24 Thursday Oct 2019
Tags
Debdale Park, East Midlands Counties League, England, FA Cup, Football, groundhopping, Loughborough Dynamo, Mansfield Woodhouse, Non League, SHERWOOD COLLIERY
Tuesday 3rd September 2019 ko 19.45
FA CUP Preliminary Round Replay
SHERWOOD COLLIERY 0
LOUGHBOROUGH DYNAMO 1 (Robbins 29)
Att 341
Entry £5
Programmme £1
It’s strange how some clubs and grounds seem to pass you by. Mansfield Woodhouse-based Sherwood Colliery managed to time their rise through the ranks so as to avoid the Central Midlands League’s groundhops, and when they won promotion from that league went into the East Midlands Counties League, avoiding the Northern Counties East Hops too! I ended up driving past no end of places I’d travelled to on a hop coach to Debdale Park!
23 Wednesday Oct 2019
Posted in N
Tags
Abercarn United, Football, groundhopping, Gwent County League, Gwent Premier League, Newport Civil Service, Non League, Wales
Monday 26th August 2019 ko 17.00
Gwent Premier League Premier Division
NEWPORT CIVIL SERVICE 2 (Edwards 9 86)
ABERCARN UNITED 0
Att 252
Entry £3
Programme £1
If you stick to the basics of it, this year’s Welsh Hop finished at the Play Football Centre in the Bettws district of Newport, but that wasn’t the half of it! Now as organisers we’ve long since used groundhoppers’ liking of matchday programmes as a device to drive ticket sales which in turn give us a steer of numbers, which allows our host clubs plan for crowds far in excess of what they see normally. The modus operandi sees the ticket holders pick up their programmes in a pack at the first game they attend, and with 3 days since the Oak game one of two of the “Big Numbers” hoppers who hadn’t bought tickets had seen the front cover of the Newport Civil Service programme. Continue reading
Football: Wherever it may be 