Tag Archives: groundhopping

The Jam Factory

29 Wednesday Apr 2020

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With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell.

Tuesday 17th April 2007 ko 19.45

Eastern Counties League Division One

TIPTREE UNITED 5 (Hill 11 31 Robinson 43 Bryan 45 Defoe 55)

Emery sent off 45 (violent conduct)

CORNARD UNITED 0

Att 52

Entry £5

Programme £1

This is a curious tale in so many ways, but I really couldn’t have predicted just how bizarre it was going to be when I drove to the Essex town 13 years ago. The village is to the south-west of Colchester and is unquestionably most famous for jam, the Wilkin & Sons factory is here, and the labels on the jars still have Tiptree on them. In fact there’s even a Tiptree Jam Museum. I’ll claim it was closed when I visited!

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Day Tripper

27 Monday Apr 2020

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With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell.

Thursday 13th July 2006 ko 19.30

UEFA Cup First Qualifying Round, First Leg

RHYL FC 0

FK SŪDOVA 0

Att 1,475

Entry £10

Programme £1.50

I write this with Rhyl FC looking like being an early victim of the Coronavirus crisis. The 141-year-old club currently playing in Wales’ second tier, the Cymru North stated that with all football suspended, and no funds forthcoming for the foreseeable future, they have had little option but to initiate the winding-up of the company. Now a rather unhelpful landlord has clearly not helped, and the resignation is clearly aimed at producing a phoenix club, but the sadness of the piece is obvious. Continue reading →

The Gem Of The Valleys

25 Saturday Apr 2020

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With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell.

Saturday 25th August 2007  ko 18.45

South Wales Amateur League Division Two

BLAENRHONDDA 0 Thomas (gk) sent off 30 (violent conduct)

TON & GELLI BOYS & GIRLS CLUB 2 (R. Jones 63,81)

Att 268

Entry £4

Programme £1

Every so often someone asks me for some suggestions as to some wonderful football grounds in South Wales. I think most would start with Garw and the sadly now-demolished Treharris and I’d add the likes of Penrhiwfer and Ynyshir Albions too, and that is far from being an exhaustive list. I’d also point out that all but Treharris have been on Welsh Hops, and so was my visit to the another ground that really ought to be on any self-respecting groundhopper’s bucket list- Blaenrhondda Park.

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Half A Pig

24 Friday Apr 2020

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With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell.

Tuesday 11th March 2008 ko 19.45

Northern Premier League- Division One South

STOCKSBRIDGE PARK STEELS 3 (Riley 7 84 Ring 81)

SHEPSHED DYNAMO 0

Att 77

Entry £6

Programme £1

Back in 2008 I worked for a major bank, and found myself on the second and last day of a meeting in Sheffield. Now the one advantage of my banking career was those nights away in paid-for hotels. Other middle-management types used to sit in the bar and drink the evenings away, but I’d go and find a game anywhere local. Hotel beer never seemed up to much anyway!

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Bunschoten

22 Wednesday Apr 2020

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With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell.

Saturday 12th February 2011 ko 15.00

Topklasse Zaterdag

SV SPAKENBURG 3 (van der Meiracker 45 81 Houwing 53)

KATWIJK 2 (van Ommerton 29 Ten Heuvel 54)

Att 2,300

Entry €8

Programme Free

Press Pack Free

After the previous evening’s visit to Cambuur the night was spent in Edam, before skirting anti-clockwise around Ijsselmeer Lake before reaching the small town of Bunschoten. The town is a merger of two villages, Spakenburg and slightly confusingly Bunschoten. It isn’t a large town, only roughly 20,000 live here, but for reasons unfathomable it supports two reasonably large clubs Spakenburg and Ijsselmeervogels (Lake Ijssel Birds) , and they play at right-angles to each other! Continue reading →

Wheatsheaf

19 Sunday Apr 2020

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With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell.

Saturday 28th April 2007 ko 15.00

Northern League Division One

NEWCASTLE BLUE STAR 0

WEST AUCKLAND TOWN 3 (Bromley 15 Fairhurst 57p Middleton 87)

Att 42

Entry £4

Programme £1

“Northern Ventures, Northern Gains” 30p

It’s fair to say the Northern League has become good at keeping clubs within its ranks. Few clubs leave upwards, and the league was never an enthusiastic supporter of the footballing “Pyramid” to the extent that it turned down repeated invitations from 1979 and during the 1980’s to become a feeder league for the Alliance Premier League, now the National League. They could have been a Step 2 league, but when they finally entered the pyramid in 1991, it was at Step 5, but even the best part of 30 years later the Northern League is, for my money the strongest league at its level. Continue reading →

New Ground

14 Tuesday Apr 2020

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With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell.

Friday 15th June 2007 ko 19.30

Division 2 Östra Svealand

NYKÖPINGS B.I.S. 5 (Holmström 39 53 Stensson 64 M Funes 71 Lundgren 85)

AKROPOLIS I.F. 3 (Allyn 64 88 Birras 90)

Att 226

These days there are no lack of “Foreign Hops” aimed primarily at UK-based groundhoppers. Off the top of my head, there’s been ones in Germany, Switzerland, Romania and the Covid-19 pandemic saw one scheduled in Denmark cancelled. The attraction is clear, see football in a new country but have the logistics organised by someone with local expertise. Continue reading →

The Alhambra

10 Friday Apr 2020

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With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell. And there certainly is a story behind today’s entry!

Saturday 2nd September 2006 ko 15.00

Northern League Division Two

PENRITH 10 (Douglas 7 9 29p 39 54 82 Rooke 25 Reed 49 64 68)

CROOK TOWN 1 (Bailes 73) 

Att 78

Entry £4

So let’s set the scene. It was 14 years ago and I was on the first full day of a holiday with my now ex-wife between Appleby and Tebay, near the Lake District. It was a typical day of a holiday of the time, in that I’d been told I wasn’t finding a game, and it was hammering down with rain. All things considered it wasn’t the most promising looking day.. Continue reading →

The Friendly Bear

02 Thursday Apr 2020

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Sunday 8th March 2020 ko 11.30

North West Counties League Premier Division

CONGLETON TOWN 2 (Jones 7 79)

NORTHWICH VICTORIA 4 (Barski 11 22 Lynch 52 65)

Att 495

Entry £5

Programme £2

It was all change at Crewe on the last day of the hop, and although we weren’t to know, the last day of organised groundhops this season. We’d spent the previous 5 games watching the North West Counties League Division One South and the previous 4 in Greater Manchester. Sat at the hotel in Crewe it was time to step up a division and aim for south of Manchester, and at least at our first destination, the foothills of the Peak District. Continue reading →

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

30 Monday Mar 2020

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Saturday 7th March 2020 ko 19.30

North West Counties League Division One South

CHEADLE TOWN 2 (Davin 17 47)

MAINE ROAD 1 (Mooney 86)

Att 380

Entry £5

Programme £2

The coach pulled into Park Road, and we got precisely what we expected- chaos! One massive advantage of having the clubs’ meetings a month or two before the North West Counties Hop. We knew we’d be trying to get 300-plus supporters to a ground with a small car park at the end of a cul-de-sac. It meant anyone driving there would either park close by and risk being blocked in, or park further away and walk the last few hundred yards. We in the coach could drop the party off then driver Ian could park up elsewhere. Continue reading →