Tag Archives: groundhop

The Forge

26 Monday Jul 2021

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Tuesday 20th July 2021 ko 19.45

Pre-season Friendly

CATHOLIC UNITED 1 (Trialist 39)

WHITE ENSIGN 6 (Woodward 1 13 45 Locke 6 Reynolds-Blanche 28 71)

Att c60 at Len Forge Centre, Southend-on-Sea

Free Entry

There are some grounds that ought to be on every groundhopper’s bucket list, there are some that you’d barely count as a tick, and there are one or two that for little or no reason contrive to intrigue you. For me, Southend’s Len Forge Centre definitely fell into the latter. Continue reading →

The Stanks

01 Thursday Jul 2021

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Saturday 26th June 2021 ko 18.30

Berwick Charities Cup Quarter Final

NORTHUMBERLAND FC ( Brooks 49p Cravagan 86)

B.A.S.U. ADULTS 5 (Bell 16 90 Renton 52 Grey 37)

Att c108 at The Stanks, Berwick-upon-Tweed

Entry- By Donation

As you clock up the grounds you do tend to pigeonhole them a little. There’s the modern, and the classic, and yes, the ones that are little more than a pitch. At the very least there’s always another place to compare where you are against, but then you visit The Stanks!

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Dream Team

27 Sunday Jun 2021

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Thursday 24th June ko 19:30

Thames Valley Premier League- Division 4

HARCHESTER HAWKS 1 (Rowing 77)

BRAYBROOKE FC 6 (Pearson 10 15 60 Gregory 25 65 Clough 40 )

Att c20

at Arborfield Green Leisure Centre

I’m not sure what drew me towards this one, perhaps it was no more than the proverbial groundhopper moth to the flame of a game. I don’t think I’d ever seen a game in the Thames Valley/ Reading League’s bottom division but there were a couple of questions I needed to ask. Continue reading →

Glory Box

28 Thursday Nov 2019

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Saturday 5th October 2019 ko 10.45

Western League Division One

PORTISHEAD TOWN 3 (Osmond 53p 64p Eastwood 72)

LONGWELL GREEN SPORTS 5 (Carter 31p 54 Mafini 60 Crubb 68 Britton 84)

Att 262

Entry £6

Programme £1

Sat at breakfast at the Almondsbury Interchange Hotel it was time for a little reflection. It was lovely to be back in the Western league, and once again try and maintain what the late Mark Edmonds started, and what Jules French has carried on. There’s always been a real sense of responsibility in making this event work. But all good things do have to come to an end, this hop saw us visit all the remaining clubs that hadn’t previously hosted, and that hadn’t featured on another (Dorset, Devon or South West Peninsula) hop. I’ve often said that the first hop of the series is the most difficult to organise, but the last does come with its own challenges. Continue reading →

Borderville (again)

18 Sunday Aug 2019

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Friday 26th July 2019 ko 19.00

Peterborough & District League Premier Division

STAMFORD LIONS 1 (Duffy- Weekes 15) 

PETERBOROUGH POLONIA 1 (Bielskis 65p)

Vladnicka sent off 84 (2nd booking)

Att 204 at Borderville Sports Centre

Entry £5

Programme £1

To some extent GroundhopUK’s season opening event in the Peterborough & District and the United Counties Leagues has long been the most straightforward of our hops to run. Part of the reason for that has been the joint league approach, the sheer volume of clubs to visit is huge and so the in-house experience built up matches it. A good example was this game, both sides had seen a hop game before. The other reason was John Weekes of the UCL, and his loss hit us all hard. Continue reading →

Bert

04 Thursday Apr 2019

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Saturday 9th March 2019 ko 19.45

North-West Counties League Division One North

ST HELENS TOWN 1 (Diggle 49)

GARSTANG 3 (Coar 12 Sailor 60 Hothersall 75)

Att 292

Entry £5

Programme £2

One of the advantages of the day’s first 3 games all being so close together was that I still felt reasonably fresh as the coach pulled into the wide expanse of the Ruskin Drive Sports Ground. As with Lower Breck and Litherland Remyca earlier we’d be visiting a ground new to the league, but here was a club with a long history of membership. Continue reading →

The Disconnect

14 Thursday Mar 2019

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Friday 8th March 2019 ko 19.45

North West Counties League- Division One South

BARNTON 0 Cobley sent off FT (foul/abusive)

VAUXHALL MOTORS 2 (Webb 35p Hassall 70)

Att 272

Entry £5

Programme £1

I’d met the coach we at GroundhopUK were using at Ellesmere, in Shropshire, and from there we headed north to pick up a cohort of groundhoppers at Crewe station. It gave me rare time to think as Paul picked his way through a series of leafy Cheshire villages. The first North-West Counties League Hop was 6 games over the last 2 days of the 2017 Easter Hop but its roots lie in a phone conversation I’d had with then Atherton Collieries’ programme editor Joe Gibbons in 2013 that lead to the hop party diverting there when a game at AFC Emley on the Northern Counties East Hop had been postponed due to drifting snow. Continue reading →

Adur

30 Wednesday Jan 2019

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Tuesday 8th January 2019 ko 19.45

Southern Combination Division One

SOUTHWICK 0 

SELSEY 2 (Coates 55 Miller 77) Jefkins sent off 38 (2nd booking)

Att 35

Entry £5

Programme £1

I’m not sure how I managed to miss this place. 35 years ago I regularly used to visit my aunt in Hove (actually) and since she owned a beach hut in Shoreham we regularly took the train from Hove and given that the line runs behind Old Barn Way, I must have passed here many many times. Somehow I managed to contrive to miss Southwick’s home, but I can assure you, that wouldn’t happen on a train now! Continue reading →

The Pocket Borough

26 Wednesday Sep 2018

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Tuesday 14th August 2018 ko 19.45

Wessex League Division One

DOWNTON 2 (Hooper 67 Prentice 78)

TOTTON & ELING 1 (Gain 58)

Att 78

Entry & Programme £5

There are no end of settlements called Downton, in fact there are at least two in the Wessex League’s footprint. This Downton is a pretty as a picture village in South Wiltshire, the nearest city is Salisbury and you pass by several military bases, to get here, Porton Down being probably the most well-known. Downton is also remembered as being the village that managed to elect an MP without the candidate knowing! Continue reading →

Patterns

16 Wednesday May 2018

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Saturday 14th April 2018 ko 11.00

FA Premier U18 League

SWANSEA CITY 0

LEICESTER CITY 0

Att 113 @ Landore Training Centre

Entry FREE

Teamsheet FREE

With the Welsh Spring Hop almost completely rejigged we left our hotel at Carmarthen a little earlier than usual. With the loss of the Carmarthenshire League’s fixtures I found myself feeling a pang of regret as the coach turned left out of the hotel and headed towards Pont Abraham and the M4. I remembered our 4 year stint in the Ceredigion League where we turned right and headed north; I don’t remember a club on those hops who didn’t host beautifully. It’s a shame we’ve completed the league and there’s no new grounds to visit. But that’s in the past sadly, and there was a trip to Swansea City’s training ground to ponder. Continue reading →