Tag Archives: GroundhopUK

Free Fallin’

11 Monday May 2026

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Sunday 1st March 2026 ko 11:30

North West Counties League Premier Division

ATHERTON LABURNUM ROVERS 2 (Bacon 5 Obasoto 73)

EUXTON VILLA 0

Att 593

Entry £6

Programme £2

Sunday dawned, or more interestly St David’s Day, and the groundhopping tradition of buying my wife Robyn Daffodils. Robyn is from Bristol, and since we visited Albania and our friend Ditmar famously said, “Bristol, isn’t that nearly in Wales?” she’s been teased about being “Welsh” ever since! It’s not often a girl from Bristol walks round Atherton with a bunch of daffs is it?

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Mechanics

05 Tuesday May 2026

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Saturday 28th February 2026 ko 19:30

North West Counties League First Division North

AFC BLACKPOOL 3 (Smith 1 Robinson 16 Bury 74)

HOLKER OLD BOYS 0

Att 405

Entry £6

Programme £2

Is it wrong that I still think of AFC Blackpool as their former selves at Blackpool Mechanics? The club started out in 1947 as Blackpool Metal Mechanics before changing their name to Blackpool Mechanics soon after. They initially played at part of Stanley Park in the town before moving to Jepson Way in 1949.

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The Tower

03 Sunday May 2026

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Saturday 2th February 2026 ko 11:00

North West Counties League First Division North

FULWOOD AMATEURS 2 (Lucas 6 7)

GARSTANG 2 (Carter 43 Bajiraliu 45+3)

Att 519

Entry £5

Programme £3

Saturday saw us head back to a familiar stomping ground for the North West Counties Hop- Blackpool, although you could easily include the West Lancashire League too. That proved to be prophetic for our day sad to say. Our first stop saw us in Preston’s environs, to Fulwood and a side spending their first seasonat Step 6 but there was a little intrigue to start with!

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Background

29 Wednesday Apr 2026

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Friday 27th February 2026 ko 19:45

North West Counties League – First Division North

DARWEN 0

COLNE 0

Att 895

Entry £7

Programme £2.50

So back on GroundhopUK duty, but the 4 of us have been doing it so long we just slip into our roles without any great effort, and that also goes for the North West Counties League too. That for us adds up mainly as Martin Fallon, who seems to become a groundhopper for the weekend! Robyn and I were particularly looking forward to visiting Darwen, with their background of Football League membership, but the evening was to straddle comedy and the bleakest of tragedy in the space of minutes.

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Stairway

04 Wednesday Mar 2026

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Saturday 15th November 2025 ko 14:00

Cymru South

TREOWEN STARS 3 (C Davies 24 Meachan 35 43)

YNYSHIR ALBIONS 0

Att 85

Entry £6

Programme £2

When you’ve spent most of the last 25 years groundhopping, it isn’t the simple statistics of how many and where that do it for me. When people ask I tell them, then add the tagline “Which shows I need to get out more” when the exact opposite is the case! These days, it’s the connections you make that drive me on, and Treowen was a classic case of this.

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Culver Road

22 Sunday Feb 2026

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Saturday 1st November 2025 ko 17:45

Southern Combination Premier Division

LANCING 1 (Collier 36)

NEWHAVEN 3 (Blunt 3 Roag 60p Oliver 87)

Att 293

Entry £8

Programme £2

If you are going to revisit a ground as a neutral, then I’d suggest leaving plenty of time between the visits, and go when the changes to the stadium are clear and manifest. I’d argue that Culver Road and I would be a case in point.

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The Swifts

18 Wednesday Feb 2026

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Saturday 1st November 2025 ko 14:00

Southern Combination Division 2

SOUTHWATER 4 (Bicknell 24 Beg 38 88p Blayney 58)

FERRING 2 (Lanigan 4 Sutton 90+3)

Att 162

Entry £3

Programme £3

We headed to Horsham’s environs for our second game of the day, and by tradition it seems, one from the County League’s bottom division. Southwater is known locally for its country park but it is also home to Southwater Royals FC who play in the West Sussex league and Southwater FC who’ve played in the Southern Combination since 2021.

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Sussex By The Sea

12 Thursday Feb 2026

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Saturday 1st November 2025 ko 10:45

Southern Combination Premier Division

AFC VARNDEANIANS 1 (Nandhra 77)

Durand sent off 36 (2nd Booking)

PEACEHAVEN & TELESCOMBE 4 (Wiltshire 34 Tighe 41 Downey-Powell 58 Agihotra 62)

Att 223 at Withdean Stadium, Brighton

Entry & Programme £8

If you take the groundhopping mantra “Everywhere once” literally, I’d have swerved the Withdean Stadium. I visited back in 2001 when Brighton & Hove Albion used here as a lifeboat between the Goldstone Ground, the Priestfield, and the Amex. I had to pretend to be a Darlington fan to get a ticket; all the home areas were sold out, and I perched on a bank of green temporary seats while Brighton won what’s now called League 2. How times change….

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Explosive

05 Thursday Feb 2026

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Friday 31st October 2025 ko 19:30

Southern Combination Division 2

ALFOLD 2 (Penalver 33 Massey 67)

RUSTINGTON 5 (Harris 7 90+3 De Gruchy 12 25 38)

Att 185

Entry £4

Programme £1.50

It was a little awkward. About a week before the Sussex Hop I was invited on to a podcast to talk about the forthcoming weekend. It turned out that my interviewers had also seen a few games on the Kent Hop too. They described it all as a little flat, which with a couple of exceptions wasn’t inaccurate, but I did have a lot of hope for the Sussex. Yes I am aware that Alfold is in fact in Surrey- such is county boundaries slightly uneasy relationship with English football!!

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La Grange

21 Wednesday Jan 2026

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Tuesday 21st October 2025 ko 19:45

Northern Premier League Division One Midlands

LONG EATON UNITED 1 (Taylor 11)

ANSTEY NOMADS 2 (Thomas 18 53)

Att 144

Entry £11

Programme £2

With Swedish Hop organiser Kim Hedwall still visiting us, I picked a game as much for who the host club’s media officer is than anything else. GroundhopUK’s Chris Berezai is originally from Bridgend but has lived in Long Eaton for well over 20 years. And other than organising more groundhops than anyone else, he’s also media team manager at Long Eaton United. Add Dan Bishop, the self-styled Poundland Peter Ustinov into the mix- he also is doing his “92” by rejection letter- he applies for every manager’s job going, and you have possibly the club least likely to ditch the printed programme!

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