Tag Archives: groundhop

Grasshoppers!

26 Wednesday Oct 2022

Posted by in A, M, N

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Sunday 28th August 2022 ko

11:15 South Wales Alliance Premier Division

MERTHYR SAINTS 1 (Maia 37p)

ABER VALLEY 5 (Razimielski 6 45 65 James 22 Neville 83)

Att 302

Entry & Programme £5

14:00 South Wales Alliance Division One

ABERDARE TOWN 6 (Johnson 12p Jones 14 64 Olson 18 Thomas 22 Welsh 70)

AFC PENRHIWCEIBER 0

Turner missed penalty 90

Att 305

Entry £3

Programme £1

17:00 South Wales Alliance Division Two

NELSON CAVALIERS 0

CWMBACH ROYAL STARS 3 (Jones 19 J Price 43 L Price 66)

Att 254

Entry & Programme £4

In some ways Sunday was when the South Wales Alliance Hop really hit its stride. For one thing we had 3 superb grounds to visit this time, with all respect to Cardiff Cosmopolitan their 3G cage was unlikely to excite many! The other factor was having league chairman Phil Sweet on the coach, he’s a man of Merthyr so hearing his memories and knowledge of his home town put where were were and what we were watching right in perspective. Of course the hop and later myself had visited the Saints before, the hop seeing it as the very first club visited on the very first Welsh hop in August 2002. But there was a move to consider… Continue reading →

A Mixture

19 Wednesday Oct 2022

Posted by in B, C, F

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Saturday 27th August 2022

11.15 South Wales Alliance Division Two

FAIRWATER 2 (Coles 30 Jefferies 69)

PENYGRAIG UNITED 3 (Tann 13 63 Langford 24)

Att 201

Entry £3

Programme £1

14:00 South Wales Alliance Division Two

CARDIFF COSMOPOLITAN 0

ST ALBANS 0

Att 109

Entry £3

Programme £2

17:00 South Wales Alliance Premier Division

BRIDGEND STREET 1 (Taylor 90+ 4)

CARDIFF CORINTHIANS 1 (Davies 78)

Att 264

Entry £4

Programme £1

Saturday on the Welsh Hop was a little unusual. For a start we normally make Bank Holiday Monday “Cardiff Day” but here we ended up having two days in the capital.  Now while a lot of that was due to the slightly unusual set of circumstances that saw us hopping the South Wales Alliance for a one-off reunion year. Like Tongwynlais the evening before Fairwater were one of the winners of the series of last season’s play-offs of the district leagues’ champions to get into the SWAL. Continue reading →

The Alliance

14 Friday Oct 2022

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Friday 26th August 2022 ko 18:30

South Wales Alliance Division 2

TONGWYNLAIS 1 (Older 59)

COGAN CORONATION 3 (Vilis 8 Preston 19 Taylor 72)

Att 234

Entry £3

Programme £2

I’m sure there are better analogies but for me the re-emergence of the Welsh Hop was my sign that the we were some way of putting the troubles of the pandemic behind us. With my many and varied connections to Wales I knew just how hard Coronavirus hit here, to the extent I knew the hop coach would be driven by someone new this time round. I thought of Steve Pitt who was lost to the virus during lockdown as the coach headed down the A470 from Treforest. Continue reading →

Sunday’s Revisits

23 Friday Sep 2022

Posted by in L, S

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Sunday 31st July 2022

ko 12:00 United Counties League Premier Division North

LEICESTER NIRVANA 1 (Nelson 87p)

Nelson missed penalty 66

BELPER UNITED 0

Smyth penalty saved 78

Att 285

Entry £5

Programme £2

Ko 15:00 United Counties League Division One

ST ANDREWS 2 (Law 50 87)

WEST BRIDGFORD 1 (Stevens 67)

Att 290

Entry £5

Programme £1

After breakfast at the University of Nottingham we headed south to Leicester. I opted to take my car, with my wife Robyn helping Chris Berezai and Craig Dabbs it meant a quicker trip after the final game. I took quieter country roads, rather than the motorway and with crowds yesterday and crowds to come it was a treat to have a little time for reflection. Continue reading →

Daze

22 Monday Aug 2022

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Saturday 2nd July 2022 ko 14:00

Pre-Season Friendly

WOKINGHAM & EMMBROOK 1 (17)

KNAPHILL 1 (56)

Att c50 at Emmbrook School

Free Entry

Just recently I read a thread on Twitter about what constitutes a new ground. Its fair to say that none of the participants had particularly high ground counts- the low hundreds being typical, and with the tendency to include that count in their Twitter “Bio” too. The conversation was around what constitutes a new ground- and that certainly didn’t include 3G cages. Continue reading →

Meaning

10 Wednesday Aug 2022

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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 →

Steve & Pete

05 Tuesday Jul 2022

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Saturday 14th May 2022 ko 14:30

North Berkshire Cup Final

DRAYTON 3 (Jacks 7 Dennis 16 25)

EAST HENDRED 0

Att 489 at Abingdon United FC

Entry & Programme £5

So from the Witney League’s  league finale, it was the chance to head east for the North Berkshire League’s own final bow. I am, of course still on the NBFL’s committee, and will be while they think I can add something as their token “Outsider!” As with any league’s major final it’s all hands to the pump so I found myself manning a gate in the warm sunshine with plenty to look forward to. Continue reading →

The Pig & The Pitchfork

01 Wednesday Jun 2022

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Friday 15th April 2022 ko 18:30

Austria Erste-Liga

WACKER INNSBRUCK 1 (Ronivaldo 67p)

GRAZER AK 1 (Perchtold 26)

Att 2,211 at Neu Tivoli Stadion Tirol

Entry €19 (£16.14)

I do like a holiday where once we’ve returned home, I can describe what Robyn and I have done in two ways. Our groundhopping friends get a description of the football matches we watched, and those poor souls who don’t like football get a description of all the touristy places we visited. The trick is to work hard at both! On that basis a Friday night televised game in Innsbruck was a godsend for us, as much as I’m sure it wasn’t for the away fans who would have had a 5 hour drive from Graz to get there. Continue reading →

Beyond Categorisation

13 Friday May 2022

Posted by in N

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Wednesday 30th March 2022 ko 20:00

Barnet Sunday League Richard Martin Memorial Cup Group B

NORTH LONDON ATHLETIC 1 ( Inyama 30)

BROTHERHOOD COSSIE 1 ( Ierotheou 75p)

Att 34 at A.I.M. North London

Entry Free

As a groundhopper there’s two things that really make me prick up my ears. The first is any new-to-me floodlit game midweek I can get to, and the second is anything that feels like a one-off. As you can imagine a floodlit Sunday League game played on a Wednesday at a one-off floodlit ground had me making a beeline to Enfield! Continue reading →

Fields Of Fire

06 Friday May 2022

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Sunday 20th March 2022 ko 12:15

East of Scotland League- Division One Conference B

OAKLEY UNITED 2 (Love 20 40)

EASTHOUSES LILY MINERS WELFARE 1 (Goodlad 37og)

Inglis penalty saved 44

Att 365

Entry £6

Programme £2

The final game of the Scottish Hop is an odd one. Part of me would like a second game on the Sunday but coach drivers’ hours make that impossible and I do tend to change my mind about it when I type “Oxford” into the satnav as I leave the final game; I certainly did here! Continue reading →