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Football: Wherever it may be

~ Laurence's football travels

Football: Wherever it may be

Tag Archives: groundhoppers

Marley

29 Tuesday Mar 2022

Posted by laurencereade in S

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Ashton Town, Football, groundhop, groundhoppers, groundhopping, GroundhopUK, Marley Stadium, Non League, North West Counties League, Steeton

Sunday 6th March 2022 ko 11:30

North West Counties Counties League- Division One North

STEETON 2 (Jeffrey 33 Townend 88)

Briggs sent off 90 (2nd booking)

ASHTON TOWN 1 (D Hill 15)

Van-Aston sent off 81 (violent conduct)

Att 479

Entry £5

Programme £2

If Saturday on the North West Counties Hop had been about 4 old-style grounds, then Sunday was about visiting two of the newest in the league. We headed to Keighley and oddly two clubs playing locally- Steeton and Silsden do have something else in common than West Yorkshire. Continue reading →

The John Noakes Hop

11 Friday Mar 2022

Posted by laurencereade in G

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Campion FC, Chris Berezai, Football, Golcar United, groundhoppers, groundhopping, GroundhopUK, Joe Skarz, League, Longfield Avenue, Non League, North West Counties League, NWCL

Friday 4th March 2022 ko 19.45

North West Counties League Division One North

GOLCAR UNITED 3 (Cox 14 Barrett 27 Naidole 52)

CAMPION 2 (Maltby 59 Boshell 85)

Att 467

Entry £5

Programme £2

If you are roughly my age then the most famous person to have been born in Halifax was unquestionably John Noakes. The Blue Peter presenter was, in a age of two channel tv and received pronunciation a revelation to this small boy from the shires; who could forget his climbing of Nelson’s Column without any kind of safety equipment? Continue reading →

The End Of The World As We Know It

04 Saturday Apr 2020

Posted by laurencereade in W

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

1874 Northwich, Barton Stadium, Football, groundhoppers, GroundhopUK, Non League, North West Counties League, NWCL, Winsford United

Sunday 8th March 2020 ko 14.45

North West Counties League Premier Division

WINSFORD UNITED 0

1874 NORTHWICH 2 (Woolley 25 Knight 31)

Att 627

Entry £6

Programme £2

Delaying the kick-off 15 minutes looked like a good idea as the Groundhop coach inched it’s way into an already-full car park at the Barton Stadium. It took all of a second to work out that the club had thought long and hard about how they were going to cope with a huge crowd. Those who’d bought advance tickets were directed to a separate entrance, that took well over 100 away from the cash turnstiles speeding up the process of getting over 600 people in. Continue reading →

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A Rush and a Push and the Land Is Ours

26 Thursday Mar 2020

Posted by laurencereade in C

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Cheadle Heath Nomads, Cheadle Heath Sports Club, Football, groundhoppers, GroundhopUK, Non League, North West Counties League, NWCL, Proseal Stadium, Stockport Town

Saturday 7th March 2020 ko 16.20

North West Counties League Division One South

CHEADLE HEATH NOMADS 1 (Foley 58)

STOCKPORT TOWN 5 (Depieaza 2 20 70 Furguson 12 Middleton 19) 

Att 343

Entry £5

Programme £2

Teamsheet 20p

Saturday’s 3rd game on the North West Counties Hop saw a change of locale, from Wythenshawe to the leafy Manchester suburbia of Cheadle. Or if you’re the unfortunate type that thinks along the same lines as me, then the start of second pair of the day’s clubs. While I’d greatly enjoyed Wythenshawe Amateurs’ company, I’d found their rivals Wythenshawe Town’s attempts at one-upmanship grating and their staging frankly poor. That last fact had a massive impact on our next hosts. Continue reading →

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William, It Was Really Nothing

24 Tuesday Mar 2020

Posted by laurencereade in W

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Abbey Hey, Ericstan Park, groundhoppers, GroundhopUK, North West Counties League, NWCL, Wythenshawe, Wythenshawe Town

Saturday 7th March 2020 ko 13.30

North West Counties League Division One South

WYTHENSHAWE TOWN 3 (Bryan 14 Byrne 49 Crellin-Myers 56)

ABBEY HEY 2 (Lazenbury 7 Spencer 23p)

Att 434

Entry £5 (concessions £3)

Programme £2

These days its not exactly surprising to hear that on a Saturday afternoon it was chaos at Tesco’s , but on this particular day the issue wasn’t folks trying to buy a year’s supply of loo roll in one hit, rather a larger than average crowd at Ericstan Park situated adjacent to the supermarket. Continue reading →

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Service

20 Friday Mar 2020

Posted by laurencereade in S

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Alsager Town, community football centre, Football, groundhoppers, GroundhopUK, North West Counties League, NWCL, Sandbach United

Friday 6th March 2020 ko 19.45

North West Counties League- Division One South

SANDBACH UNITED 3 (Saxon 30 Schoesboe 69 Bartle 89)

Bartle missed penalty 89

ALSAGER TOWN 1 (Jones 20p)

Att 455

Entry £5

Programme £2

Sat hear as I am with all football in the UK cancelled due to Covid-19 it seems like a lifetime ago that we were all more concerned with the state of 7 football pitches in and around Cheshire. All the best to everyone affected by the crisis and let’s hope normality returns soon.

Last year’s North West Counties League Hop had a troubled inception but by the time we reached Rylands the problems had been smoothed over and save for the postponement at Irlam the feedback meeting talked of the future, and on a highly successful event. That was reinforced when the league sent us their choice of line-up for this year’s hop and that ended up being the line-up we went with with one enforced change to the running order.

We picked Crewe as hop base, with our hotel being a short walk from the station and so while we sold every single coach seat and hotel room available the car park at the Holiday Inn remained virtually empty! The week before had been spent keeping a close eye on the weather, and the clubs pulled out all the stops to get their pitches fit for play. That said, I’m certainly that the dry week before the hop saved the event.

One notable change from previous North West Counties Hops was that Chris Berezai managed to hold a meeting with all of our host clubs. It always helps in both the planning and the on-the-day execution of those plans. It proved to be a convivial affair too.

So the event started at Sandbach, the Cheshire town suffering with the likes of Charnock Richard, Tibshelf and Tebay as being far more famous for the motorway service stations bearing there name than the anything within the towns themselves! But like the Sandbach Services it is straightforward to visit the town’s football ground without actually visiting the town itself!

The Sandbach Community Centre lies off of the south-western edge of the town, you actually cross over the remnants of the “Salt” railway line that ran from Sandbach to Middlewich, via the Salt mine; the suffix “Wich” is old English for salt after all.

On arrival we set up the stall to distribute programme packs for the advance ticket holders, and even an hour or so before kick off it was lovely to observe all the usual rituals of the start of a hop. That should always include Terry and Tav holding court at their badge stall, its got to a point that I can’t imagine an event without those two.

We’d expected a crowd of 250-300 so the 455 that turned up was a massive boost. Thanks therefore to all at Alsager Town, you playing at an odd time helped Sandbach, and in due course we’ll look forward to visiting you. It did mean that the club was stretched, but somehow still found enough hot pot to feed the masses, and cope with both wit and style. The programmes sold out early, and that is a source of regret, I hate seeing a club lose out on revenue, and I’d like to see the local supporters get everything they need; the unusual kick-off times, and different pricing does inconvenience them.

In the end I know a hopper won’t return, we’re a one-off financial injection, but I’d like to think a local might. But if you are a hopper and you want a programme then that is why we sell advance tickets, even for individual games. So if you’re a hopper the message hasn’t changed, if you want to guarantee a programme buy an advanced ticket! Is that really too much to ask?

We were royally entertained even though the pitch had fairly obviously been in the wars. Both sides set out to play football and unlike many opening games of hops folk actually watched the game and didn’t use the time simply as an excuse to catch up! That was the case from kick-off right through to Daniel Bartle following up his missed penalty to knock in the winner.

On arrival back at the hotel I’d expected to feel relieved, the rain of the previous weeks had meant simply getting the game played was a win of sorts. But as I enjoyed a hideously overpriced Punk IPA I and others reflected on what a fantastic job Sandbach had done. A week or two later I’m both thankful and proud of them in equal measure; they were superb hosts.


Photo by Robyn Reade

Photo by Robyn Reade

Photo by Robyn Reade

Photo by Robyn Reade



Photo by Robyn Reade


Photo by Robyn Reade

Photo by Robyn Reade
Photo by Robyn Reade

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Voice Of The Beehive

06 Friday Dec 2019

Posted by laurencereade in B

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Bridgwater, Bridport, Dorset, England, Field, Football, groundhoppers, St Mary's, Town, Western League

Sunday 6th October 2019 ko 10.45

Western League Premier Division

BRIDPORT 0

BRIDGWATER TOWN 6 (O’Hare 12 33 34 Duffy 27 Tower 83 84)

Att 347

Entry £6

Programme £1

I sat enjoying my Full English at the Almondsbury Interchange Hotel with mixed feelings. On one hand there was the relief in enough seats having been sold to hire our coach – I really didn’t fancy driving a minibus with the day’s itinerary! On another this was the last day of the last Western Hop, and I and so many still miss the man to came up with the idea- the late Mark Edmonds. But the reality was we had a long journey down to what one hopper described as the Fort William of the Western League.

Continue reading →

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Small Wheels

29 Friday Nov 2019

Posted by laurencereade in B

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Bradford, Bradford Town, Bradford-on-Avon, Clevedon Town, Football, groundhoppers, Non League, Western League

Saturday 5th October 2019 ko 12.30

Western League Premier Division

BRADFORD TOWN 2 (Pollard 38 69p)

CLEVEDON TOWN 0

Att 311

Entry £6

Programme £1

The coach slowed down as we reached the outskirts of Bradford-On-Avon, the narrow streets in a well-to-do town aren’t ideal for such a large vehicle. I felt a tinge of irony in that, one of Bradford’s famous sons is Alex Moulton, the inventor of the Moulton bicycle and the suspension on Alec Issigonis “Mini” car. What do those inventions have in common? Small wheels, and those would have been handy here! Continue reading →

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The Straw Bear

09 Monday Sep 2019

Posted by laurencereade in W

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Coates Athletic, Feldale, Feldale Field, groundhoppers, GroundhopUK, Huntingdon Town, United Counties League, Whittlesey Athletic

Sunday 28th July 2019 ko 17.15

United Counties League Division One

WHITTLESEY ATHLETIC 1 (Ilsley 70)

HUNTINGDON TOWN 2 (Roberts 68 Jones 84)

Att 340

Entry £5

Programme £1

The final club on the UCL Hop was a team with that one way or another have stamped themselves on the event’s history. When we visited Coates Athletic for the finale of the 2014 hop we knew they were going to soon change both name and ground, and that new ground would allow a tilt at the United Counties League. What no one realised back then was just how convoluted that tilt would end up being! Continue reading →

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Roman Times

06 Friday Sep 2019

Posted by laurencereade in I

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Alfred Street, Football, groundhoppers, groundhopping, Irchester United, Non League, United Counties League, Wellingborough Whitworth, Whitworths

Sunday 28th July 2019 ko 13.45

United Counties League Division One

IRCHESTER UNITED 3 (Clark 7 Ball 70 79)

WELLINGBOROUGH WHITWORTH 3 (Brittain 8 Crawley 45 Hazell 90)

Att 328

Entry £5

Programme £1

It wasn’t far from Cogenhoe to Irchester- just enough time to get comfortable it seemed! When we first established the United Counties League Hop I’d imagined that we’d visit Irchester either before or after both Wellingborough Town and Wellingborough Whitworth, as Irchester is very close to the town. Now there were compelling reasons to visit Stilton when we did last year, but it did leave Irchester a little high and dry. In the end I was pleased we were able to fit them in quickly. Continue reading →

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