Tag Archives: groundhop

Milestone

11 Friday May 2018

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Wednesday 11th April 2018 ko 18.00

Oxford City FA League

HEADINGTON BUTCHERS 1 (Rowbotham 80)

DORCHESTER 3 (Kay 18 Brown 46 J Lyne 58)

Att 5 at Sandy Lane Sports Ground, Oxford

Free Entry

By far the most common question about groundhopping I get asked is how many grounds I’ve done. It’s an obvious one, but it’s also one with little meaning, after all it’s a figure that is only really relevant to myself. There is no award, thank God, to the groundhopper with the most grounds visited.  I used to celebrate each hundredth  ground I visited, 900 was the Cardiff City Stadium, and the thousandth was Newbridge (on Wye) Town.

Since then those milestones have felt less and less important, but there was an unintended consequence of Honiton Town’s game on the Easter Hop being moved to Exwick Villa, a ground I’d visited before. Continue reading →

The Hammer of Tours

30 Monday Apr 2018

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Saturday 31st March 2018 ko 11.00

South West Peninsula League Division One East

ST MARTINS 4 (Watson 5 90 Davies 62 Richards 81)

ALPHINGTON 0

Att 383

Entry £4

Programme £1

Finally, an organised hop in the UK in 2018 saw a day with pleasant weather. It seemed an almost entirely different journey from Paignton to Exeter than it had been during the rain-soaked preceding two days. Robyn and I headed to Exeter’s southernmost suburbs, to the almost subsumed village of Exminster, with the austere-looking form of the former Devon Mental Hospital overlooking proceedings. The building was designed by Charles Fowler who also designed the main Covent Garden market building, and is converted to housing, but the feeling of unease still persists about the place.  Continue reading →

Head Above Water

23 Monday Apr 2018

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Friday 30th March 2018 ko 15.00

South West Peninsula League Division One East

HONITON TOWN 0

ILFRACOMBE TOWN 1 (Montague 55)

Att 227 at Exwick Villa FC

Hop Ticket £25 (no programmes included)

Entry £3

Programme £1

On any organised hop there’s always a “Highlight” game, it’s the game that as organiser you know that your patrons will look at the hop’s fixtures, and think “That’s the one I really want.” It doesn’t have to be the best appointed ground, just the one that grabs people’s attention, and for this hop it was Honiton’s Mountbatten Park, if for no other reason than it’s Honiton’s first season in the Peninsula League and so the fewest number of hoppers would have visited before. Continue reading →

Dengie Fever

22 Thursday Feb 2018

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Tuesday 21st February 2018 ko 19.55

Essex Senior League

BURNHAM RAMBLERS 1 (Hughes 10)

SAWBRIDGEWORTH TOWN 2 (Mays 52 Thomas 90)

Att 16

Entry £6

Programme £1

“Huh, because I’m happy
Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof
Because I’m happy
Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth”

Pharrell Williams “Happy” 2013

My car came to rest in the Leslie Field’s car park. It was a cold, dank evening; even the operatives in the “Hand Car Wash” operating here had gone home. But Pharrell Williams’ hit could be heard from within the football ground, and all felt well with the world, sadly the song served only to mask the club’s problems.  Continue reading →

Onwards & Upwards

10 Wednesday May 2017

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Sunday 16th April 2017 ko 14.30

North West Counties League Division One

ASHTON TOWN 0

STOCKPORT TOWN 2 (Hinchliffe 29p 57)

Att 315

Entry £5

Programme £1.50

If any future host club at a groundhop wants a piece of advice on how best to endear themselves to the organiser I suggest having someone waiting to guide in the coach when we arrive at the ground. It sets the tone for the visit, in confirming competence and in the case of Ashton Town I’m not sure we’d have found the parking spot without help. You couldn’t help but like Ashton Town, tucked away as they are between the houses in the middle of Ashton-in-Makerfield but we all knew they had their own problems over and above coping with a crowd up to 10 times normal. Continue reading →

The Compromise

06 Saturday May 2017

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Saturday 15th April 2017 ko 15.00

Northern Counties East League Premier Division

ARMTHORPE WELFARE 1 (Pearce 88)

HEMSWORTH MINERS WELFARE 6 (Connolly 4 Law 31 Collier 34 63 82 90)

Att 231

Entry £5

Programme £1.50

I’d started worrying the week before, and those worries were accentuated when counting the crowd at Rossington Main. We’d set this hop up on a “3 games in a day” basis, as we’d thought that 13 games in 4 and a bit days was enough football even for me! That format does come with a risk though and we’d just encountered the perfect storm as an organiser.

Continue reading →

Liking it Beside

23 Thursday Mar 2017

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Saturday 11th March 2017 ko 16.00

Carmarthenshire League Premier Division

SEASIDE 2 (Rogers 31 66)

CARMARTHEN STARS 0 Howells sent off (dangerous play) 86

Att 175

Entry & Programme £3

As any groundhop organiser will tell you the psychology is that you look to the clubs that have the best plans. Chris Berezai and I both knew that Evans & Williams our previous hosts simply hadn’t had the time to host as either they or we would have liked, so we looked to a club with absolutely rock-solid plans, and Seaside certainly came up trumps. Continue reading →

The Reason Why

03 Tuesday Jan 2017

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Tuesday 27th December 2016 ko 19.45

Southern Combination Division One

STEYNING TOWN 3 (Finney 14 Romain 51 63)

STORRINGTON 1 (Searle 83)

Att c90

Entry £5

Programme £1

Let me tell you a story. Almost exactly two years ago 3 of us travelled from Oxford for a Sussex County League game at the Shooting Field.  I’d phoned ahead as the weather had been wet, and the club were extremely keen to get the game on, as they’d put on a sponsors and players’ party in the clubhouse afterwards. We reached the pretty town, had Fish & Chips, and walked into the ground just as the referee called off the game due to a waterlogged pitch.  Continue reading →

Cards

20 Sunday Nov 2016

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Wednesday 16th November 2016 ko 19.45

Hellenic League Division One West

HOOK NORTON 0 Eyre sent off 53 (2nd booking) Watkin sent off 87 (2nd booking)

ABINGDON UNITED 3 (Wharton 18 Edney 64 Gila 68)

Att 35

Entry & Programme £5

On the face of it Hook Norton is rather isolated situated in Oxfordshire but only a mile or two from Warwickshire, at the end of a twisting B-class road from Chipping Norton. The village was originally founded on ironstone deposits in the area but is these days a well-to-do village with the Hook Norton Brewery still using steam traction and horse-drawn drays. But it’s well-to-do nature has made  life rather difficult for its football team. Continue reading →

Street Football

26 Wednesday Oct 2016

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Sunday 9th October 2016 ko 14.15

Western League Premier Division

STREET 4 (Herrod 27 Murray 42 62 90p)

CHIPPING SODBURY TOWN 2 (Guest 23 Sims 71) Criddle sent off 45 (Serious foul play)

Att 291

Entry £6

Programme £1

We headed back towards Bristol for the hop’s final game in the Somerset village of Street, named it seems because a Roman road ran through where the settlement built up. The Society of Friends, the Quakers established a base here in the 17th century and one Quaker family, the Clarks set up the eponymous shoe making business here. The factory closed in 1993 (although Clark’s still has its HQ in Street) and the factory was converted into an outlet shopping centre. The Clark family leased the firm’s former sanitorium to become, in 1931, Britain’s first Youth Hostel. Continue reading →