Tag Archives: groundhop

Bert

23 Sunday Apr 2023

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Saturday 18th March 2023 ko 17:00

Lowland League

TRANENT JUNIORS 1 (Reid 90)

BO’NESS UNITED 1 (Walker 49)

Att 607

Entry £8

Programme £3

So half-way through the event and in so many ways a statement of where the Scottish Hop is at. It’s easy to forget that the hop started as an exclusively Lowland League event in 2014 and didn’t take in an East of Scotland League game until Eyemouth 3 years later. I remember shrugging my shoulders as one or two prejudiced types scuttled off elsewhere as they thought the level would be beneath them. I’ve always been an advocate of going weird early, so found their actions odd, and allowed myself a wry smile when they ended up watching the East of Scotland League a couple of years later. Continue reading →

The Mill

20 Thursday Apr 2023

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Saturday 18th March 2023 ko 14:00

East of Scotland League Premier Division

HADDINGTON ATHLETIC 1 (McGarry 75)

DUNDONALD BLUEBELL 3 (Hall 11 Cameron 32 Lumsden 86)

Lumsden sent off 90 (violent conduct)

Att 462

Entry £7

Programme £2

Can I admit to have being a little twitchy about the hop game at Haddington? I knew that the ground was going to be tucked away, and so getting people in and out on a 4-games-in-a-day schedule might be an issue. For no reason whatsoever I’d looked at my programme the night before, and it was an excellent publication. I’m not sure why I felt comforted, a car with a failing clutch, and wife Robyn struggling after her fall at Tynecastle was more than enough reason to worry after all. It was a case of judging a book by its cover, or more accurately a club by its magazine. Continue reading →

Evans

05 Wednesday Apr 2023

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Sunday 5th March 2023 ko 14:30

North West Counties League Division One South

STAFFORD TOWN 2 (Simcox 27 57)

ABBEY HEY 1 (Kirkman 90)

Att 489

Entry £6

Programme £1.50

The great mercy of this particular Sunday on the North West Counties Hop is that we didn’t get the chance to get cold, in fact and don’t say this too loudly, the day was actually a relaxing meander through two charming Stafford clubs. Robyn and I even managed to get home at a sensible time after it all- that will never do! Continue reading →

Silkmore

04 Tuesday Apr 2023

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Sunday 5th March 2023 ko 11:45

North West Counties League Division One South

BROCTON 1 (Smith 61)

STOCKPORT GEORGIANS 0

Curbishley sent off 76 (2nd booking)

Att 457

Entry £6

Programme £2

Sunday on the hop dawned, and as a coachload of hoppers kept a Stafford hotel’s staff busy replenishing the bacon at the breakfast bar. I contemplated the day’s football, two Stafford-based teams, or in purely personal terms two revisits! Brocton is a village to the south east of Stafford but the club bearing their game play at the former Staffordshire Police Ground in Silkmore Lane, in Stafford itself. Continue reading →

Pershall

31 Friday Mar 2023

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Saturday 4th March 2023 ko 19:45

North West Counties League Division One South

ECCLESHALL 2 (Pickup 82 Stanton 90)

Lewis sent off 86 (violent conduct)

BARNTON 1 (T Turkington 72)

T Turkington sent 86 (violent conduct)

Att 314

Entry £6

Programme £2

Memory is an oddity- I’d visited Eccleshall back in September 2008 and remembered it being far closer to the Stoke interchange on the M6 than this. Perhaps the difference was we were on our fourth game of the day… and that it was bitingly cold. In fact you’re a good deal closer to Stafford to Stoke, and you will pass by HMP Prison Drake Hall on the way there! Continue reading →

Hulton

29 Wednesday Mar 2023

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Saturday 4th March 2023 ko 16:45

North West Counties League Division One South

ABBEY HULTON UNITED 0

CHEADLE HEATH NOMADS 0

Att 367

Entry £5

Programme £2

As the sun set so the temperature fell. It didn’t take long for us to reach the car park at Birches Head Road from Foley Meir. That was a task made easier by some well thought out traffic marshalling by the Abbey Hulton volunteers . But I was aware the coach was struggling, picking its way along narrow lanes and we were getting concerned we might have to delay kick-off slightly. Craig and I dashed into the ground, expecting to have to make ourselves useful.  We didn’t, the club were completely in control and the coach arrived well before kick-off. Continue reading →

Saxon

17 Tuesday Jan 2023

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Saturday 26th November 2022 ko 15:00

Isthmian League Premier Division

HASTINGS UNITED 3 (Pope 9 McKenzie 13 Scott 72)

CORINTHIAN-CASUALS 0

Att 652

Entry £12

Programme £2.50

There are football grounds that do what they need to, there are some that I’d recommend you visit, but the list of football grounds I recommend you drop everything and go and see is extremely small, but top of that list is the Pilot Field. And a small part of the reason why, is that is in a fashion you get another ground thrown in too! Continue reading →

Making It Work

08 Thursday Dec 2022

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Sunday 9th October 2022 

11:00 Southern Counties East League- Premier Division

RUSTHALL 4 (Fares 9 Clark 16 Gitiba 60 Baldwin78)

K SPORTS 2 (Holliday 27 Lewins 48)

Att 344

Entry £8

Programme £2

14:00 Southern Counties East League- Premier Division

TUNBRIDGE WELLS 1 (McCreadie 58)

LORDSWOOD 1 (Reid 32)

Att 518

Entry £8

Programme £2

Without a massive amount of evidence I felt supremely confident about the SCEFL Hop’s Sunday schedule. Part of it was that I felt I knew the clubs a little, I’s seen what a go-ahead club Rusthall are when I’d visited 9 years ago, and my visit to Tunbridge Wells  a year later gave me the impression that they were an Isthmian League club in waiting. Normally my internalised challenge to clubs I revisit on hops is to change my perception of them., here I wanted them to reinforce my view. There were a couple of snags with that though. Continue reading →

The Farm

02 Wednesday Nov 2022

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Tuesday 6th September 2022 ko 18:30

Pre-Season Friendly

CHADLINGTON 1 (E Bennett 3)

CHARLBURY TOWN 3 (25, 55 63)

Att c20

Free Entry

As is so often the case I was sat in the pub on a Saturday night. Kev and I go back a long way, and the fact that he splits his time working here with time in the Netherlands and Australia means I don’t see as much of him as I used to. We were talking about how we’ve both ended up knowing places in other countries far better than we know places close to our homes. Kev mentioned north-west Oxfordshire and was heard to comment, “I know parts of Amsterdam better than I know Chadlington!” I allowed myself a wry smile. Continue reading →

Rejiggery

28 Friday Oct 2022

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Monday 29th August 2022 

11:00 South Wales Alliance Division One

MAESTEG PARK 2 (Kingdon 26 Evans 42)

VALE UNITED 2 (Hanson 40 Jefferies 70)

Gauci sent off (DOGSO) 55

Jefferies missed penalty 60

Att 302

Entry £3

Programme £2

14:00 South Wales Alliance Division One

CANTON RANGERS 3 (Injai 32 Tegeltha 62 Power 68)

AFC BUTETOWN 2 (Abdulkaliq Yusuf 6 24)

Att 223

Entry £3

Programme £1

16:15 South Wales Alliance Division One

CLWB CYMRIC 4 (Withers 18 Hughes 60 Roberts 77 90)

GRANGE ALBION 0

Att 226

Entry £3

Programme £1

With this being a South Wales Alliance reunion hop we’d always planned on the Monday being the traditional “Cardiff Day.” With Canton Liberal and Canton Rangers having moved into adjacent grounds as part of the development behind the Cardiff International Sports Stadium. So it was an obvious move to make the first game at Liberal then stroll over to Rangers. There was only one issue with that idea though…. Continue reading →