Tag Archives: groundhopping

Fulfilment

09 Monday Apr 2018

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Tuesday 20th March 2018 ko 19.45

Hertfordshire Senior County League Premier Division

WORMLEY ROVERS 3 (Linger 26p 56 90)

SANDRIDGE ROVERS 2 (Jarvis 43 Chanhunduza 72)

Att 35

Entry FREE

At Step 7 in the south you can spot the ambitious clubs a mile off. In Wormley’s case that’s almost literally the case, you see the floodlights as you turn into Church Lane. You’re in Hertfordshire suburbia here, and there are no end of potential rivals for Wormley, by means of an example I passed Cheshunt’s ground on my way here.  Continue reading →

Shippy

27 Tuesday Mar 2018

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Saturday 17th March 2018 ko 11.00

East of Scotland League

BURNTISLAND SHIPYARD 1 (Graham 44) 

Kinnaird sent off (violent conduct 77)

Galloway missed penalty 84

PRESTON ATHLETIC 2 (Binnie 38 Grotlin 62) 

Att 166

Entry £5

Programme £2

Brave ancient isle, thy praise if I should sing,
The habitation of a Pictish King,
Dreftus, who made against the Roman strokes,
Forth’s snakie arms thee to enclose with rocks,
They often pressed to vanquish thee with fire,
As Macedon did the sea embordering Tyre,
But thou didst scorn Rome’s captive for to be,
And kept thyself from Roman legions free. Traditional

I was sat at breakfast at the hop hotel in East Kilbride contemplating a Lorne Sausage. All was right with the world, the coffee was warm, and the world outside looked frost-free and bright, but then a flurry of snowflakes blew across, shattering my illusions. 5 minutes later I aimed for the hotel’s revolving door, and once outside the cold stopped me and others in our tracks.  Continue reading →

Billings

21 Wednesday Mar 2018

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Tuesday 13th March 2018 ko 19.45

Southern Counties East League Premier Division

CORINTHIAN FC 3 (Jones 25 31 Hurcomb 65)

SHEPPEY UNITED 0

Att 72

Entry £7

Programme £1

One look at the name “Corinthian” will have the reasonably well-informed football watcher evoking the famous amateur club, now one half of the Corinthian-Casuals club in Tolworth. And while the amateur, football for football’s sake is similar the story of the Kentish Corinthian is rather different. You could say the whole story evokes “Field of Dreams.” Continue reading →

Griffin

19 Monday Mar 2018

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Sunday 11th March 2018 ko 10.30

Blackmore Vale Sunday League

TEAM GRYPHON 1 (Wilton 57)

SOUTH CHERITON UNITED 3 (Farrant 52 74 Patterson 90) Taylor sent off 90 (dangerous play)

Att 5

Entry FREE

Twitter is a wonderful tool for the groundhopper. It’s immediacy makes it so useful; a website, forum or Facebook page is unlikely to be updated quickly but a club secretary with a mobile phone can put a postponement, pitch inspection or team selection into the public domain in seconds. And Twitter is why I happened to be at the Gryphon School in Sherborne.  Continue reading →

The Forum

15 Thursday Mar 2018

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Saturday 10th March 2018 ko 15.00

Dorset Premier League

BLANDFORD UNITED 4 (Culliford 12 Linford 50 Ford 80 90)

WAREHAM RANGERS 1 (Collings 10)

Att c30

Entry- By Donation

Blandford Forum really is the quintessential market town. Even the suffix “Forum” is derived from the Latin word for market. Even in these busier, more connected times, you feel that if you’re visiting Weymouth, Dorchester or Blackmore Vale, you’ll pass through here. Continue reading →

Six Ex

14 Wednesday Mar 2018

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Tuesday 6th March 2018 ko 19.45

Western League Division One

DEVIZES TOWN 4 (R Mitchell 25 28 Russell 27 Enderby 80)

BRISTOL TELEPHONES 1 (Britton 75p)

Att 65

Entry & Programme £5

Growing up I suspect I was older than my years. These days one thing I have in common with my younger self was a liking for country pubs, with log fires and wing-back chairs. There was one I used to frequent regularly, the Star (now the Talk House) at Stanton-St-John. I’d sit there, talk complete rubbish with friends and the whole experience was washed down with pint after pint of Devizes’ own Wadworth’s 6X. It seems to me the whole pub had been created in Devizes’ own image, a rural town, based around tradition, a stone castle, and the beer still delivered by horse-drawn dray. You can therefore imagine my surprise when I opened the door to the clubhouse at Nursteed Road, and saw a chap defending himself from being stabbed! Continue reading →

Sea Salt

09 Friday Mar 2018

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Sunday 25th February 2018 ko 14.30

Welsh Premier League

PRESTATYN TOWN 0

NEWTOWN 1 (Goodwin 4)

Att 201

Entry £7

Programme £2

We’d had a bit of an adventure after returning back to our hotel after the Bala game. We were walking in the main entrance when an ambulance on blues and twos screamed into the car park. There’d been a wedding at the hotel and a guest had thought it would be a jolly jape to drop a Viagra pill into someone’s champagne… In the end no harm was done, I hope the victim wasn’t the groom (he spent the night in hospital) and it did serve to empty the bar for the hop party!

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Sunset Over Snowdonia

05 Monday Mar 2018

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Saturday 24th February 2018 ko 17.30

Welsh Premier League

BALA TOWN 1 (Davies 15)

CARDIFF METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY 0

Att 303

Entry £6

Programme £1

Teamsheet FREE

We headed south-west through the foothills over Snowdonia, and although the journey was only 40 or so miles it took us over a hour, such is the realities of travel in rural North Wales. We arrived at Maes Tegid and it became clear that the late kick off had attracted hoppers that we hadn’t seen for the rest of the day. It was a pleasure to grab a tea and catch up, well apart from the one hopper that went through the turnstiles with his hood pulled up then scuttled off to the far end without such as an acknowledgment to anyone else. Different strokes for different folks I suppose… Continue reading →

Life On The Periphery

05 Monday Mar 2018

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Saturday 24th February 2018 ko 14.00

Welsh Premier League

CONNAH’S QUAY NOMADS 0

THE NEW SAINTS 1 (Routledge 45) Harrison sent off (offensive/insulting language and/or gestures)

Att 222

Entry £7

Programme £2

Teamsheet FREE

You’d think the Flintshire Suspension Bridge marks the border between Wales and England; it doesn’t but it comes pretty close! It’s Britain’s only assymetrical suspension bridge, but suffers by being nicknamed, “The bridge to nowhere,” that’s rather disparaging to the good people of Connah’s Quay and Shotton but the feeling of being on the periphery persisted. Continue reading →

Resource

02 Friday Mar 2018

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Saturday 24th February 2018 ko 11.00

EFL Youth Alliance North-Western Division

WREXHAM AFC 4 (Freeman 45 Bulkeley 65 75 82p)

ACCRINGTON STANLEY 0

Att 64

Entry & Teamsheet FREE

We’d have liked a 3rd Welsh Premier League game on the Saturday’s itinerary. You could see why that wasn’t made available to us, it would have been virtually impossible to have got a visiting team to travel (potentially) the length of Wales for an 11am kick-off. We tried to get the second tier Cymru Alliance involved but as in the past were rebuffed, so it was time to get creative.  Continue reading →