Tag Archives: groundhop

The Forty Bridges

23 Tuesday Apr 2013

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Saturday 20th April 2013 ko 15.30

Notts Senior League Senior Division

AWSWORTH VILLA 3 (Saxton 20 90 Board 57)

COTGRAVE FC 0

Att 266

Entry £3

Programme £1

You really don’t need to look too hard to find evidence of coal mining in this part of the world, although in this part of east Nottinghamshire there was no pit wheel, the mine was open-cast.

Coal mining started here in the 16th century and Huckerby’s Pit seemed to be staffed by 90 or so children with a predictably high level of deaths and injuries. The pit closed in 1899 but the site was re-opened in the 1970’s, again for open cast mining. When that finished for good, the site became the Shilo recreation ground, where the village’s football team now play.

The area was also a centre for glassmaking, and the area behind what’s now the clubhouse was where the factory once stood, suitably close to the coal mine for fuel. Passing both factory and mine was the railway following the route of what’s now the path on top of the grass bank by the pitch side. That branch line curved away northwards to Pinxton. It crossed the Awsworth Viaduct, almost half a mile in length across the Giltbrook valley, but in the local area the span was known as the “Forty Bridges,” though the actual combined number of arches and girder spans was 43!  This viaduct is no more being demolished to make way for the by-pass, but the smaller Bennerley Viaduct is still in place. Unusually the line closed first to freight traffic, in 1943, and to passenger traffic in 1964.

The ground has a peaceful vista over the Erewash valley. One visitor, Kim Hedwall, from Sweden enjoyed in particular enjoyed it in particular, if only because of the huge IKEA superstore in his sights. ” The Swedish Embassy,” he explained.

The grass bank was a popular place for the crowd to sit, eat the delicious stew and dumplings, and watch the game. Awsworth were my choice for best hospitality, the catering was excellent, they had enough merchandise, which Rob Hornby helped sell, and their team sheet was accurate. It set the tone for an excellent home performance against a Cotgrave side who lacked punch up front. In fact it was only the excellence of Jonathan Garton in the visitor’s goal that prevented a rout.

Eventually the Cotgrave defence had to crumble and a reverse pass found Kieran Saxton who fired home from the edge of the box. The goal of game, if not the entire hop doubled the lead, Josh Board’s curling effort finding the top corner in spectacular fashion. That would have been more than enough for Awsworth to win the game but they added a third in stoppage time, Saxton getting his brace from 12 yards out.

As the game wound down I spotted the hoppers quietly checking their phones, and it took a second or two to work out why. You do tend to lose track of what time it is on these events. They were checking their teams’ results, but for those of us on the hop, we’d already had 3 to ponder, and there was another to go!

 

Under Notts Wood

21 Sunday Apr 2013

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Saturday 20th April 2013 ko 12.45

Notts Senior League Division One

UNDERWOOD VILLA 2 (Townsend 45 Tring 45)

WEST BRIDGFORD 2 (S Prince 5 Charlesworth 10)

Att 341

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge (last one!) £3

Thanks for the excellence of Selston’s traffic operation we were in the village of Underwood in plenty of time. Like our previous location this is a hilltop village with views over the Erewash valley, towards the southern outcrops of the Pennines. It’s a former colliery village, but seemingly has escaped from the deprivation often seen in former mining towns.

The mining heritage is reflected in the club badge with a mine headstock together with a football, bracken, St Michaels church & the crest of the Chaworth-Musters family. Bracken Park is on land owned by the Chaworth-Musters, and they have allowed the club to expand their operations to an area of 5 acres! The current project is a new pavilion which sadly wasn’t quite completed for our visit, but the kitchen part was, so the club made a good profit selling that Midlands footballing staple- Pie and Peas, except that on this occasion there was a choice of 3 types of pie!

Once again the team sheets were inaccurate, and I’m indebted to ace-blogger Peter Miles for giving me the correct line-ups. There wasn’t a moment to be wasted either as the visitors made a flying start. A poor clearance from a corner fell to Sam Prince who volleyed home in spectacular fashion.

Now there is one sure fire way of guaranteeing a goal in a groundhop game is to get Chris Berezai to either visit the toilet or go and buy some food. I’d wondered whether it only worked at events we’re organising, but many thanks Underwood, you proved that his talent is without restriction. Off he went to buy Pie and Peas, and that’s when Jurgen Charlesworth’s stunning, curling volley rocketed into the top right corner!

It set a pattern for the half, with the visitors dominating but all that changed in the final, mad minute of first half stoppage time. Firstly captain Ian Townsend blasted home from more or less the half-way line, then a few seconds later some appalling defending allowed him to round the on-rushing keeper Liam Johnson and slide the ball towards the goal. Did the ball cross the line before Sam Tring applied the final touch? Hard to tell, but if I was Townsend I wouldn’t be very impressed with his team-mate!

The second half couldn’t possibly have lived up to the standards of the first. The sides huffed and puffed but little of note happened. But then Chris didn’t need feeding or anything else. For that I take full responsibility.

 

The Naked Brewer

21 Sunday Apr 2013

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Saturday 20th April 2013 ko 10.10

Notts Senior League Senior Division

SELSTON 2 (Barnes 4 Moore 90)

WOLLATON 2 (Ranson 47  Ranshaw 82)

Att 358

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

I’d stayed overnight in Long Eaton, so a 10.10am kick-off held no fears for me, particularly as my responsibilities added up to nothing more than turning up and watching the game!

The Ashfield-based village of Selston lies to the east of Nottinghamshire, and its leafy hilltop location was in contrast to our urban environs the previous evening. The local St Helen’s Church dates back to 1150 AD. An older Saxon church is thought to have occupied the site, the monolith in the church yard is evidence of this, and that may well have been of ceremonial importance for pre-Christian pagans in the area.

The football club play behind the Parish Hall, and I was impressed at the way the parking was organised as the street outside is narrow and the potential for a bottleneck both before and after the game was massive. Nevertheless the traffic management was excellent, and there were no delays even when leaving the ground.

The club clearly had decided on a tilt for organiser Rob Hornby’s hospitality award; a marquee had been erected and a local brewery had been invited to sell their wares. That proved to be interesting as the brewer Sarah Webster aka The Naked Brewer uses 13.5-tog duvets to warm her containers in her 5-barrel custom-insulated plant attached to her pub, the Corner Pin in Westwood.

Merchandise was sold and the bacon rolls were fantastic! Where the club fell down slightly was the vexed question of line-ups. Many hoppers, me included, like to jot down the line-ups before the game and the normal method of dealing with this is to get the club to use a flip-chart to record the information. For this hop the modus operandi was team sheets, but Selston printed theirs the night before, and they were inaccurate, negating the whole point of producing them. Still I found referee Andy Rolph enjoying a big cigar, and recorded the line-ups direct from the official paperwork and passed the information on to those interested.

It didn’t detract from a superb morning’s entertainment, with Wollaton hitting the bar after a mere 20 seconds! It didn’t take long for Selston to take command, and Richard Barnes slotted home from a good cross from the left. The trouble was that Selston failed to capitalise and the game got rather mired in ugly tackles and still uglier back-chat. In the final analysis Mr Rolph did well to keep 22 men on the field.

Of course if you don’t take your chances you end up paying, and Dave Ranson’s low finish after a good passing move was a real shock to Selston’s system. It got worse for them as Rich Ranshaw’s superb strike gave Wollaton a lead that looked barely credible 45 minutes earlier. And if Wollaton had carried on pressing, they surely would have won the game. Instead they tried to defend the last few minutes, and paid the price.

The Selston keeper Luke Wigley went up for a free kick from the right, and it was his scuffed header that Tim Moore managed to back-heel in to equalise. It was the last kick of the game. A choker for Wollaton, and a game that the hosts could have won, but fantastic entertainment for the bumper crowd.

 

The Mission

21 Sunday Apr 2013

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Friday 17th April 2013 ko 18.30

Notts Senior League Senior Division

MAGDALA AMATEURS 2 (Sutton 10 48)

BILBOROUGH TOWN 1 (Lucas 22og)

Att 245

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badges sold out

If there’s one thing I like more than a groundhop weekend, its a groundhop I’m not involved in organising! Rob Hornby, apart from being a good friend, is a wizard of organising events in and around his home in Mansfield. He organised the sadly finished Central Midlands League Groundhops, but has now switched to the parallel status Notts Senior League for his annual Bonanza. The format was one game on the Friday, followed by 4 on the Saturday, and with none of the clubs having floodlights it was set to be a busy weekend!

My mistake, in retrospect was not taking half a day off work; Friday night traffic meant I missed the first few minutes of the game, that apparently kicked off a touch early. Never mind, that’s my fault, especially as the Stuart Clarke influence in me likes to get to a ground early and soak the place up.

The club play behind the ROKO Health Club, in West Bridgford, in South Nottingham, and their unusual name takes a little explanation! They were formed in 1895 by the Rev. Gwynne as the side of the St Emmanuel Sunday School based on Magdala Road nearby. They took the name as Notts Magdala, but when a reserve side was added they promptly broke away and became the Magdala Amateurs of today! The first XI carried on, and eventually changed their name to Nottinghamshire FC and also play in the Notts Senior League, just north of the city.

For a club less than 2 miles from a major city’s centre, the ROKO centre’s pitch is quite arboreal in location! It made for an attractive meeting point, in the setting sun, although I did feel sorry for the owner of the car wash in the car park, who must have thought his Christmases had come at once as 10 times Magdala’s attendance arrived only to drive straight past him!

Rob had clearly got the club working along the correct lines, as everyone looked busy. The catering was contracted out to a local sandwich bar, and the merchandise stall did a roaring trade. I found Rob, and donated a bag of programmes towards his charity stall. Then I actually managed to relax and watch the game!

It didn’t take long to work out that Magdala were clearly the stronger team, and they took the lead through Lee Sutton. Only poor finishing and the woodwork stopped them adding to the score and the profligacy was punished when Bilborough equalised when a cross spun off Magdala defender Richard Lucas for a bizarre own goal.

Sutton doubled his tally just after the break and that was to be the end of the scoring, although both sides had chances, the majority falling to Magdala. I watched Rob as the final whistle blew. The first game is always the most nerve-wracking as organiser but his smile spoke volumes. I gave another hopper a lift into the centre of Nottingham, then disappeared into the night.

Calan Hen

17 Sunday Mar 2013

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Sunday 10th March 2013 ko 13.30

Ceredigion League Division Two

LLANDYSUL 4 (S Davies 39 51 D Jones 71 83p)

SARON 3 (G Davies 17 77 85)

Att 206

Entry & Programme by Hop Ticket

Badge £3

Even as organiser groundhops always seem to fly by, and I felt slightly melancholy as the coach pulled into the public car park by Llandysul Memorial Park. The club gave an immediate good impression as they’d placed a steward by the “Pay and display,” machine to make such the coach didn’t have to pay the £1.20 to park there. It was unnecessary, but appreciated, and was a good indication of how much thought the club had put into their day. Like St Dogmaels the previous day, the club got the local populace involved making a bumper crowd. Continue reading →

A Fish Called Rhondda

11 Monday Mar 2013

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Friday 8th March 2013 ko 19.30

Welsh League Division One

TON PENTRE 4 (Leahy 33p 34 Wearne 35 Edwards 78)

TAFFS WELL 3 (L Williams 8 66 Roberts 22)

Att 112

Entry £4

Programme £1

Tea in a mug 60p

When you see me in the GroundhopUK burgundy jacket it can only mean its groundhop time again! Last year we put together a mopping up exercise to visit some of the Mid-Wales League grounds we couldn’t do in August Bank Holiday. That process is ongoing, but we filled two game slots with the kind help of the Ceredigion League, and everyone enjoyed themselves at Lampeter and New Quay so much we decided to base a hop around the League.

With a good hotel found in Carmarthen we tried to find a suitable Friday night game for those who didn’t want to drive to West Wales early on Saturday. With the coach picking up in Cardiff, any game in The Valleys would work for us, and Ton Pentre were happy to see an extra fifty people on the gate, even though the game wasn’t part of the hop.

Ynys Park lies across two metal bridges, although one is now out of use, condemned as unsafe tucked away in the back streets of the Rhondda near Treorchy. This is former mining territory, and more obviously on a night before the Six Nations Rugby, the territory of the oval ball, as many clubs opted to play in the evening to let the fans and players watch the internationals in the clubhouse the next day. Sat at the front of the coach I heard the occasional, “Here it is,” as a member of the party saw a lit set of floodlights. We found the ground and collected the reserved programmes for us on the coach. With an hour to kill, I found the local chip shop appropriately named, “A Fish Called Rhondda” and enjoyed a chicken curry accompanied by that staple of South Wales cuisine, half rice half chips.

Ynys Park has staged Welsh Premier Football and although the stand on the far side as been lost, a victim of the need to widen the pitch, the terrace behind the goal with the tea bar at one end gives more than a hint of former glories. But look closely at its fabric, and that of its sister, the small seated stand at the halfway line. The stanchions are made from rails from the coal mine, the ground is literally made out of the history of the Rhondda. The atmosphere under the lights as palpable as it was when I first visited around 10 years ago.

And for once the game lived up to the surroundings. Taffs Well are the leaders of the league, and for half an hour looked utterly irresistable. Liamar Williams’ 25 yard blast opened the scoring, and James Roberts’ header across keeper Marty Ellacot for the second made you wonder how many Well would get.  All that changed when Jamie Wearne was played clean though and was brought down by Taffs Well keeper Rhys Wilson who was luck to escape with just a booking from UEFA referee Wayne Tregonning. Joe Leahy’s successful spot kick was the catalyst for an amazing 3 minute spell. Leahy’s long range strike was the equal of Williams’ earlier effort, and when Wearne lobbed Wilson for the third, most present either grinned, or just shook their heads in disbelief.

Tregonning didn’t reappear for the second half, a victim of injury, and the game calmed down, no two teams could have kept up that frantic pace. Williams equalised for Well, heading in former Newport midfielder Tyrone Topper’s left-footed free kick, but subsitute Josh Edwards won the game for Ton Pentre, pouncing on a poor clearance to fire home from the edge of the six yard box.

It was a fanastic start to the weekend, and a great advert for the Welsh League. Its just a shame more people didn’t take advantage of a cheap evening’s entertainment, at a wonderful ground, and a cracking game.

 

 

 

Steamed Up!

29 Wednesday Aug 2012

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Friday 24th August 2012 ko 6.30pm

Mid-Wales League Division 2

LLANFAIR UNITED 4 (G Jones 13 80 Gethin 24 74)

ABERMULE 1 (Anthony 31)

Att 261

I should start by declaring an interest in the next 11 articles. The Welsh Hop is organised by GroundhopUK and I am Chris Berezai’s deputy. So what you read will be very much from the perspective of the organiser!

In this case it meant being at the hop base, The Dolforwyn Hall Hotel, near Newtown, around 11am. That’s been the hop’s home for the last 3 years, this year sadly being the last, as we’ve run out of clubs in the Mid-Wales League! Still this year’s event was a good chance to go out with a bang, and with a record number of pre-booked tickets sold, and a second coach in operation for the first time, we were good to go. Continue reading →

A Preview

22 Sunday Apr 2012

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Saturday 21st April 2012 ko 2.30pm

North Berkshire League Division 3

STANFORD IN THE VALE 1 (Gregory 76)

WANTAGE TOWN A 6 (Stevens 11 28 75 Bowsher 37 Hummel 40 Goodchild 54)

Att 36 (h/c)

Entry FREE

No Programme

Tea-in-a-mug 40p

The West Oxfordshire village of Stanford-in-the-vale is best known as the birthplace of poet Pam Ayers. I drove in via Pusey and what a beautiful part of the world it is, with the stone cottages set against a backdrop of the White Horse Hills in the background. I think its part of human nature that we tend to marvel at places we’ve travelled long distances to see, and ignore what’s on our doorstep.

Apart from the obvious attractions of a game of football, I wanted to visit Stanford as its the only ground provisionally on the 2012 NBFL hop I knew nothing about. With the hop visiting divisions at a level never featured on an organised hop, I wanted to be available to help the clubs make the most of next September 22nd.

I met club secretary Simon Jackson, and he told me all about the club. They’ve no qualms about accomodating 200 or so hoppers. The ground is enclosed, so they’ll have someone on each gate with a box of programmes, they’ve got a huge barbeque set so that’ll be handy, and since the White Horse Brewery is in Stanford, there’ll be real ales to try. It should be a great day out for everyone.

What a charming ground Cottage Road is too. The clubhouse is good enough to attract drinkers who aren’t there to watch Stanford, and the pitch is railed on the near side. There’s trees on two side, which proved to be helpful in the midst of a hail storm! I was struck by how well this Oxford United fan was well-treated by what appeared to be a club of Swindon Town fans, although I’m bound to point out that Stanford play in OUFC yellow and blue!

Simon had told me that Stanford were going into this game with 6 players missing due to injury and suspension, and that Wantage’s A team is very strong. Incidentally they play at the Wantage Leisure Centre, and not at Alfredian Park, so there’s somewhere else so me to visit! Simon’s fears were justified as Wantage ran out easy winners. Centre half James Stevens collected a hat-trick as Stanford failed to convince when defending any form of cross. James Bowsher, Ben Hummel and Andy Goodchild piled on the misery as the visitors were first to everything and had the better ideas.

But let’s not dwell too much on the game. I drove away afterwards, thinking “What a lovely little club” and “That’s club I don’t have to worry about next September.”

I took a little detour to visit Uffington United, as its only around 4 miles away. That’s set to be the finale of the hop under their lights. Forget their league position, they’re just as ready for the crowds as Stanford, and you’ll be amazed at the ground.

 

The Barnsley Chop

10 Tuesday Apr 2012

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Saturday 7th April 2012 ko 7.45pm

Northern Counties East League Division One

WORSBROUGH BRIDGE ATHLETIC 4 (Goff 52 Copping 67 Ruthven 72 Young 76)

ROSSINGTON MAIN 0

Att 273

Entry & Programme Hop Ticket

Badge £3

So, 8 games in, one to go, and quite honestly I was frazzled. Yes, I know I devised this year’s format, and I’ve no regrets, it helped generate good attendances for all the clubs and that makes for a good pay-day for them. But as the coach pulled into the outskirts of Barnsley I needed a lift. That I got as soon as I saw the Park Road ground. We parked at the other side of the bridge on the A61 and walked across, and …..wow! What a ground, with the stand with a girder cross beam, and the floodlights either side close together, to accommodate the cricket pitch beyond the far goal.

The club did a roaring trade in the kitchen, so much so that after the game the cook told me she’d had to despatch someone off to Asda to buy more chips, when they discovered that was closed, they had to go to the Tesco in Barnsley itself to get the much-needed supplies! Godfrey the bus driver by this stage had long since worked out that his ticket allowed him hospitality. I found him with a piece of cake and a cup of tea well before I got mine at half time. The club were mighty proud of the pork pie on offer, which reminded me of a visit to another local club, Stocksbridge Park Steels where I encountered exactly the same thing. Perhaps its a South Yorkshire tradition!

There was a huge array of programmes on sale and the club seemed to do well with a raffle, and once the crowd count was completed I was able to watch the second half from a raised point above the near goal. With Chris and I, were the two club’s officials and the NCEL committee. It was most gratifying that many hoppers came up to all of us and thanked us for our efforts. It was appreciated by all of us, and its was fun when the German contingent came for a chat and the Worsbrough secretary found it hard to believe that someone would travel all that way to visit his club!

His footballers didn’t let him down either, running in four second half goals to put their visitors to the sword. My only issue was that the goals were in the far goal and the numbers of the Worsbrough shirts were difficult to read. So if your scorers differ to mine then I apologise, but these do come from the League website!

With the game drawing to a close we thanked the clubs for their efforts. We also thanked Dave Morrall, Karl Blackburn and Brian Gould of the NCEL. I hope we gave you the hop you were looking for. After returning to the hotel I gave two hoppers a lift to another hotel, then set off back for Oxford on the M1, in utter silence, contemplating what had been achieved.

Brassed Off

09 Monday Apr 2012

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Friday 6th April 2012 ko 7.45pm

Northern Counties East League Premier Division

BRIGHOUSE TOWN 5 (Matthews 27 28 Naidole 50 55 60)

BARTON TOWN OLD BOYS 1 (Metcalf 63) Lee sent off 71 (2nd booking)

Att 288

Entry & Programme Hop Ticket

Badge £3

Our last game saw a visit to the Dual Seal Stadium, or of you’d prefer St Giles Road, in the Calderdale town of Brighouse. I didn’t realise at the time we were only 4 miles east of Halifax!

Brighouse is best known for the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band, founded in 1881. The band won the National Brass Band Contest in 1946 and in 1968 they won the first Brass Band World Championship. In 1977 they recorded “The Floral Dance” which reached Number 2 in the UK Top 40 and stayed there for 6 weeks, inspiring  Terry Wogan to release his own version some time later. There’s a small monument to them in the middle of a roundabout near the bus station. High praise indeed!

If dear reader, you’re looking for asthetically appealing stadia, then I’m afraid Brighouse isn’t for you. There’s 3 Portacabins which serve as clubhouse toilets and a hospitality area. There’s a terrace along one side which has a cover along half of it. It’s an odd arrangement as the roof seems to be attached to the fence separating the ground from the bus yard next door. The impression is that someones got a load of materials from a builders yard and cobbled together what they could. At one end the support is via suspension wires!!

The clubhouse was packed as merchandise was purchased, lineups obtained, and food (notably more expensive here) consumed. Being last game of the day, with little or competition, people were seen here that I hadn’t seen at some of the other games.

Brighouse had a point to prove having lost to Barton 5-0 earlier in the season, and what a point they made! From the moment that Danny Naidole went down in the box for a fortuitous penalty and Tom Matthews rolled in the penalty, there was no doubt as to the destination of the points. Matthews took precisely a minute to notch again, beating Town keeper Liam Taylor to a through ball.  With the goal wide open. Matthews met him, one-on-one, came off the better of a  50-50 challenge, picked himself up, and rolled the ball in from 18 yards out.

The second half was the Danny Naidole show, and Barton had no answers to his dash and touch. Five minutes, four chances and three goals put the game way beyond Barton, who in the middle of Naidole’s purple patch had Tom Lee booked for a particularly stupid bit of mouthing off at the referee. That was to prove costly to him if not to his club, the points were gone, in the 71st minute as his foul on Danny Hull was easily worth a card, and off he went.

By that time Barton had their consolation, substitute Richard Medcalf pulling one back, getting the final touch to Ryan Cooper’s goal-bound effort. All hoppers like a goal-feast and this certainly fitted the bill! As the final whistle went I noticed referee Tom Nield have to remind Naidole to take the match ball!

Drop-offs completed I went for a very quiet pint with Chris, Lee and Derek, so tired but happy on a good day’s hopping, and looking forward to what Saturday’s 4 games would bring.