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Football: Wherever it may be

~ Laurence's football travels

Football: Wherever it may be

Tag Archives: Friendly

Meaning

10 Wednesday Aug 2022

Posted by laurencereade in L

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Croydon, Edenbridge RUFC, Football, Friendly, groundhop, groundhopping, Lingfield, Non League, Sussex

Saturday 25th June 2022 ko 15:00

Pre-Season Friendly

LINGFIELD 2 (Redfern 20 83)

CROYDON 1 (Peacock 46)

Att 81, at Coombe Field, Edenbridge (Edenbridge RUFC)

Free Entry

Football watching takes several forms, even when you break away from the “I follow my team only” principle. Some groundhoppers will only deal in competitive games, others only within certain levels of the the footballing pyramid, and others will look at what the ground looks like before committing. Others, like me will think “Here’s a game on an unusual ground, ” and that will be enough. This was one of those occasions. Continue reading →

Westland

20 Thursday Jul 2017

Posted by laurencereade in Y

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Bristol City, Championship, Football, Friendly, groundhopping, Huish Park, League 2, Martin McConachie, Yeovil Town

Saturday 15th July 2017 ko 15.00

Preseason Friendly

YEOVIL TOWN 1 (Olomola 75)

BRISTOL CITY 3 (Reid 22 28 Magnusson 25)

Att 2,636 (883 away)

Entry £8

Programme £1

On occasion I get asked how I pick my games, and people are often surprised when I say that often they pick me! This one was a case in point, I was due to be in Minehead in the evening and my girlfriend Robyn is a Bristol City fan. Then there was the Martin McConachie factor to consider…

Continue reading →

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Train Time

28 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by laurencereade in D, R

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Corwen, Corwen East, Cymru Alliance, Denbigh Town, Football, Friendly, Llandyrnog and District Summer League, Llangollen Railway, Llanuwchllyn, Rhewl, Welsh Alliance, Wrexham Area League

Saturday 24th June 2017 ko 14.30

Pre-season Friendly

DENBIGH TOWN 4 (13p 73 77 86og)

C.P.D. LLANUWCHLLYN 2 (82 90)

Att 45 @ Ty Isa, Rhewl. (Rhewl FC)

Free Entry

And Llangollen Railway

Return ticket from Corwen East to Llangollen £15

It was a day of coincidences, another chance to watch a Welsh pre-season friendly in June, and another chance to double it up with a heritage steam train ride. This time the railway was full-sized, although the Llangollen Railway runs on tracks once part of the Ruabon to Barmouth line axed under Beeching. That route included the now Bala Lake Railway which we’d travelled on the previous week! Continue reading →

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Added Value

26 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by laurencereade in B

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Bala Town, Europa League, Friendly, Linfield, Maes Tegid, Wales, welsh premier league

Saturday 17th June 2017 ko 14.00

Pre-season Friendly

BALA TOWN 1 (Connolly 72)

LINFIELD 3 (Waterworth 22 Burns 39p C Stewart 86)

Att c400

and

Bala Lake Steam Railway 

return ticket from Llanuwchllyn to Bala £11

Entry £6

Programme 50p

If there was one thought that I took home from the Swedish Hop it was the idea of adding value. Event organiser Kim Hedwall managed to do that with every single game we attended and that principle certainly influenced my approach to this game. It was a confluence of ideas, my girlfriend Robyn fancied a trip to a steam railway, and needless to say I fancied a football match! I looked at Bala, remembered my visit around 10 years previously, and quickly put “Steam railways Bala” into Google. Continue reading →

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Templar

28 Thursday Jul 2016

Posted by laurencereade in B, M

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Alfred Davis Memorial Ground, Ascot United, bisham abbey, Football, Friendly, groundhopping, hellenic league, Marlow, Southern League

Saturday 23rd July 2016 ko 15.30

Pre-season Friendly

MARLOW FC 0

ASCOT UNITED 0

Att 23 at Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre

Entry FREE

No Programme

When you look at it Bisham Abbey isn’t an obvious place to stage football. It was built in 1260 for two Knights Templar, before becoming a priory. It was used to imprison Robert the Bruce’s wife Queen Elizabeth of the Scots before being given to Anne of Cleves by Henry VIII as part of his divorce settlement in 1540. Continue reading →

51.557735 -0.779822

The Doyen of Dulwich

26 Friday Jul 2013

Posted by laurencereade in D

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Catford, Football, Friendly, Guildford City, Jerome Walker, Mishi Morath. Dulwich Hamlet, Rutland Walk, Ryan Blake

Wednesday 24yh July 2013 ko 19.00

Pre-Season Friendly

DULWICH HAMLET 1 (Walker 33)

GUILDFORD CITY 1 (Blake 41)

Att 22 at Rutland Walk Sportsfield, Catford

Entry FREE

Programme No

One of the downsides of the “Do everywhere but once,” culture is that you don’t get to spend nearly enough time with the stalwarts who both run, and are devoted to a particular club. There’s Splodge at Fareham, who these days dreads my presence at his club’s games, http://wp.me/s1PehW-banned but another is Continue reading →

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Football At The Belmont

01 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by laurencereade in W

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

ban, Bochum, Dagenham and Redbridge, Everton, Friendly, Heysel, isthmian league, League 2, martin bamforth, Wayne Burnett, Whitstable Town

Saturday 29th June 2013 ko 15.00

Pre-Season Friendly

WHITSTABLE TOWN 0

DAGENHAM & REDBRIDGE 4 (Dennis 21 Elito 40p Goldburg 75 Gale 85)

Att 301

Entry £8

Programme £2

With a mere 15 minutes to drive the six or so miles from Faversham to Whitstable I was pleased and thankful to have Martin Bamforth behind the wheel. We were fortunate, the roads were kind to us, but I was grateful to Whitstable programme editor Andy Short for reserving me a programme; they’d sold out just before I’d got there.

I’ve owed Andy a visit for some time; he uses some of the material on here in his excellent publication, but every time I’ve tried to visit the Belmont Stadium I’ve been thwarted, last time it was by the M25, so I ended up watching an eventful game at Sevenoaks Town. http://wp.me/p1PehW-18S

What Andy hadn’t told me is what a gem the Belmont is. The stand is a wonderful example of an Isthmian League stand, dating from the 1950’s. What makes that remarkable is that the club have only played in the Isthmian League for 7 years! It’s beautifully maintained, a classic of its kind and a must-visit for fans of the Isthmian League.

Of course there’s more to Whitstable than just the Belmont. It’s famous for its oysters, which have been collected in the area since at least Roman times, and in 1830 one of the earliest passenger railway services was opened by the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway Company.  In 1832 the company opened Whitstable Harbour and extended the line to enable passage to London from the port. The railway has since closed but the harbour still plays an important role in the town’s economy.

Perhaps the town’s most interesting quirk involves the football club itself, and I reckon it’s a wonderful pub quiz question too. On 29th May 1985 escaping fans were crushed against a wall in the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, before the start of the European Cup Final between Juventus and Liverpool. Thirty-nine Juventus fans died and the backlash saw English clubs banned from playing European football for 5 years, but what was the first club to be affected? The record books show it was Everton, the league winners in 1995 but in fact it was Whitstable Town, playing in the more humble Kent League! The reason was that Whitstable is twinned with Bochum in Germany and the two sides were due to meet for a pre-season friendly in Germany, but the ban made the game impossible.

Andy also managed to answer a question that really needed an answer. Normally only internationals and organised summer leagues are allowed to play football in June according to FA rules. It transpired that both Faversham and Whitstable contacted the FA at Wembley Stadium for permission, and the blazer-wearers simply delegated the decision to the local Kent FA. They had no objections so our two games went ahead, but I do wonder what would have happened if a host club outside of Kent had have asked.

The game proved to be a one-sided affair as the Daggers passing was too slick for their hosts, who defended manfully to keep the score respectable. The visitors stayed in League 2 by the skin of their teeth last season, and they looked a proven goalscorer short of being a good team. That person manager Wayne Burnett will find difficult to recruit, the club has one of the lowest wage bills in the Football League, the Daggers teams I’ve seen over the years have often seemed like an Isthmian League Dream Team. I suspect it will be another season of struggle for them, fighting as they always are against almost impossible odds.

Those are odd well-known to Whitstable and almost every small club, trying to squeeze a pint from a half pint pot each and every season. I’d been greatly looking forward to my trip to Whitstable and both the club and ground managed to greatly exceed my expectations. That’s another club whose results I’ll be looking out for, as a hopper you do tend to have a list of clubs to follow!






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  • Football Club History Database Want to know where a club finished in what league and in what year? Richard Rundle’s site is a veritable goldmine! 0
  • Football Hopper “Fast” Eddie McGeown’s erudite perambulations around the nation’s football grounds 0
  • Gibbo's 92 As Atherton Colleries’ programme editor puts it, ” The best trips are random, unplanned and spontaneous.” 0
  • Groundhopping.se Per-Gunnar Nilsson’s trips around his native Sweden, and into Europe 0
  • Grounds for concern The late Mishi Morath’s picture blog. Obviously no longer updated but still a wonderful archive. 0
  • Kate Shrewsday. A thousand thousand stories Not about football, but beautiful writing, Kate can make words dance. 0
  • Modus Hopper Random Graham Yapp’s travels 0
  • Swedish Football History & Statistics Mats Nyström’s curates this site, which does exactly what you’d expect 0
  • The 100 Grounds Club Shaun Smith’s groundhopping football blog. The original internet ground logging website. 0
  • The Football Traveller The bible for every groundhopper. Non-League fixtures magazine delivered weekly. Published and edited by Chris Bedford 0
  • The Intinerant Football Watcher Peter finds the grounds other hoppers cannot reach. Top bloke too! 0
  • The66POW Rob Waite’s travels 0

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