Tag Archives: groundhop

Great Hewas

04 Monday Apr 2016

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Saturday 26th March 2016 ko 10.30

South West Peninsula League Division One West

STICKER 6 (Kenny 9 24 33 Dingle 16p Body 36 73)

WADEBRIDGE TOWN 1 (Marks 71)

Att 372

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

Hop organiser Phil Hiscox summed the final day’s action neatly, “You’ll be blown away at Sticker, soaked at St Dennis, but you’ll be okay at Bude.” He proved to be completely accurate!  Continue reading →

Bright Lights

04 Monday Apr 2016

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Friday 25th March ko 19.00

South West Peninsula League Premier Division

HELSTON ATHLETIC 1 (Roberts 70)

FALMOUTH TOWN 0

Att 514

Entry £5

Programme FREE

Badge £3

I suspect that Helston isn’t used to be described as the “Bright Lights” but as the cavalcade of hoppers headed for Kellaway Park, from the rural isolation of Wendron that’s how it felt. We arrived to a queue, and at its head were 4 nervous looking gatemen trying to issue an entry ticket to every single patron as a means of counting the crowd. I felt like pointing out, “That’s (hop organiser) Phil Hiscox’s job” but desisted and was told rather precisely where to park, by another rather nervous volunteer.  Continue reading →

Tin Men

29 Tuesday Mar 2016

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Friday 25th March 2016 ko 11am

South West Peninsula League Division One West

ILLOGAN R.B.L. 3 (Boone 43 Carlyon 64 Abbott-Smith 69)

PENRYN ATHLETIC 1 (Disano 57)

Att 369

Entry £3

Programme £1

I can imagine what a few may have thought when they saw Illogan’s name on the schedule of the Peninsula League Hop. A team only in its second season in the league after winning the Cornwall Combination multiple times after only a brief flirtation with the old South Western in the late 1970’s. A ground, Oxland Parc (Cornish, not English spellings here!) neatly tucked away in a residential village in the heart of Cornish tin mining country. On paper the idea doesn’t inspire, but football isn’t played on paper, and Cornish football isn’t like any other kind of football either. Continue reading →

Electric Avenue

29 Tuesday Mar 2016

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Thursday 24th March 2016 ko 19.45

South West Peninsula League Premier Division

AFC ST AUSTELL 4 (Grant 4 60 Eddy 32 Watts 90)

ST BLAZEY 0

Att 451

Entry £5

Programme £1

Badge £3

I’ve probably said this before but I love attending groundhops I’m not organising. Other than the pleasure of not being on duty it’s wonderful opportunity to watch and learn. That tends to add up to two thoughts, either finding a great idea to introduce to a GroundhopUK event, or seeing something that serves to reinforce our current practice. And with the SWPL Hop being organised by Phil Hiscox, that feeling of watching and learning was heightened. Continue reading →

The Zone Of Opportunity

27 Friday Nov 2015

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Wednesday 25th November 2015 ko 19.30

Western League Premier Division

WILLAND ROVERS 5 (Wilson 36 Shepherd 53 75 Tasker 68 Blake 81)

LONGWELL GREEN SPORTS 1 (A Summers 83)

Att 54

Entry & Programme £6.50

Let’s face it, you really do have to love the road to be a serious groundhopper. The hold-ups, the roadworks and the faceless service stations all add up to a high price for visiting a football ground that the vast majority of your friends won’t have even heard of.

Then there’s the planning, especially for midweek games. Everyone has what I’ll call the “Zone of opportunity,” which translates to how far you can travel. For some it’s how far you can travel starting from what time you leave work, or how late you are prepared to arrive back home. For some it’s how long they’re prepared to be cooped up in a car or on public transport, and for some it’s on economic terms. But as you start clocking up the grounds, you start running out of floodlit grounds, and you start stretching that zone of opportunity. For me travelling from Oxford to Willand was doing precisely that. Continue reading →

Bullseye

26 Monday Oct 2015

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Sunday 18th October 2015 KO 14.30

Western League Premier Division

MELKSHAM TOWN 2 (Higdon 15 82)

GILLINGHAM TOWN 1 (Smith 88)

Att 357

Entry £5

Programme £1

So all too soon it was over, our 7 game Western League jaunt that months earlier Chris Berezai and I wouldn’t have thought possible, and certainly not taking in the Melksham’s iconic Conigre Ground, staging football for a final unexpected year, due to would you believe a colony of newts. While Chris and I knew that the hoppers would love the ground, we were far less certain about how the club would enjoy their day. Continue reading →

Popular

30 Thursday Apr 2015

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Saturday 25th April 2015 ko 15.20

Notts Senior League- Senior Division

BURTON JOYCE 3 (Buckle 5 Ryan Easom 67 Smith 82) 

Clements missed penalty 4

Roscoe Easom sent off 85 (DOGSO)

ATTENBOROUGH 3 (Nice 9 Elliker 30 61)

Att 279

Entry £3

Programme £1

Was I the only one who thought the hop needed a boost when we parked up at the Poplars? Certainly one goal in two games wasn’t what four clubs, the league and one organiser would have wanted, but even if the game here hadn’t had served up a 6-goal thriller, the boost Burton Joyce gave the event was based on far more than just football. Continue reading →

Circumstances

09 Thursday Apr 2015

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Friday 3rd April 2015 ko 18.30

Northern Counties East Division One

GRIMSBY BOROUGH 3 (Fuller 21 70 Hall 81)

HALL ROAD RANGERS 1 (Walker 5)

Att 284

Entry £4

Programme £1

When Chris Berezai and I started working on this hop, Grimsby Borough were the first club on our wish-list. That’s mainly because the club have only recently moved into the Bradley Football Development Centre, but it was a decision that created a few headaches. The first was which side to watch, Cleethorpes Town use the facility too, and the idea of watching a Cleethorpes side playing in Grimsby appealed (Grimsby Town famously play in Cleethorpes!), but the fact that the ground is council-owned caused a bigger headache.

Continue reading →

The Hoppers

09 Thursday Apr 2015

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Friday 3rd April 2015 ko 14.30

Northern Counties East Premier Division

WINTERTON RANGERS 1 (Start 41)

YORKSHIRE AMATEUR 1 (J Hughes 15)

Att 303

Entry £5

Programme £1.50

As large as the attendance was at Barton, I was a little worried about how well it would hold up at Winterton next up. The geography of the league meant that we couldn’t schedule our normal 4 games in a day so “Drift” could come into play. That’s where the middle game sees a fall-off in attendance as hoppers decide to head “Off piste” and attend the wide variety of simultaneous games. I was, therefore rather relieved when I saw the “Car Park Full” sign outside West Street, it wasn’t a large car park, but the message it conveyed was a good one! Continue reading →

Sea Change

31 Tuesday Mar 2015

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Friday 27th March 2015 ko 19.30

Isle of Wight DFA Senior (Gold) Cup Quarter-Final

EAST COWES VICTORIA AFC 2 (Gregory 59 Craig 90) Thompson sent off 78 (2nd booking)

EAST COWES SPORTS 2 (Tyler 11 Robjoint 76)

AET East Cowes Sports won 6-5 on penalties

Att 82

Entry £3

Programme 50p

It’s probably now common knowledge that we tried to get a Wessex League groundhop up and running, but a few weeks ago I had to end the project. While there was support from many quarters a final meeting in Totton convinced me that there wasn’t enough enthusiasm where it mattered to make it work. A real shame, as many people put a lot of effort into the project, and I was very taken by the carload of officials from the 3 Wessex League clubs Newport (IW), Cowes Sports, and East Cowes Vics who took the time and expense to take the ferry over to hear what I had to say. When it was all over I felt rather bruised by the encounter, so was heartened when several clubs contacted me to commiserate and invite me to their grounds.

Continue reading →