Tag Archives: GroundhopUK

The Delay

08 Friday Oct 2021

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Friday 1st October 2021 ko 19.45

Lowland League

BO’NESS UNITED 3 (Flynn 31 Jacobs 42 Locke 68)

CIVIL SERVICE STROLLERS 1 (Cole 43)

Att 507

Entry £7

Programme £1

Pie – Steak & Kidney or Macaroni

It is a historical point that the first hop to be cancelled due to the pandemic was the Scottish Hop and the first one back could so easily have been this one, delayed for 18 months!  While I loved what we did and will do in the Witney & District League this is altogether a different animal. But you would have thought that simply taking the same event, with the same host clubs (albeit with the Friday and Sunday games transposed) and restaging it after the break would be easy enough to do wouldn’t you? And you’d be wrong! Continue reading →

The Mouse That Roared

05 Tuesday Oct 2021

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Sunday 19th September 2021 ko 14:00

Witney & District League Division One

KINGHAM ALL BLACKS 1 (Lay 89)

CHADLINGTON 2 (Morley 5 Burton 15)

Att 177

Entry by programme £4

I reached Kingham in a state of nervous exhaustion; I think the stress of getting this hop set up, then running to a standard I’d regard as acceptable had caught up with me.  I’ll never regret these Sunday games, both host clubs’ success was proof that gambit worked, but on Saturday evening sat in the pub I did find myself thinking that if I hadn’t asked for those games my stress would have been over. Continue reading →

Pigs Do Fly

30 Thursday Sep 2021

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Sunday 19th September 2021 ko 11:00

Witney & District League Division Four

SHERBORNE HARRIERS 3 (Cullen 19 82 Goodwin 26)

HATHEROP RESERVES 2 (Head 42p Hathaway 75)

Saunders penalty saved 12

Att 136

Entry by programme £4

There were so many leaps of faith to make this happen. The first and most important was from the Witney & District League who agreed for us to schedule the two Sunday games I asked for and agreed that Sherborne Harriers would be one of the host clubs. But dear reader, I can hear you ask the obvious question- why Sherborne Harriers? Continue reading →

The Square Deal

28 Tuesday Sep 2021

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Saturday 18th September 2021 ko 17:00

Witney & District League- Premier Division

HANBOROUGH 2 (Molton 40 55)

HAILEY 3 (Buckingham 70 Kimber 73 Foster 83)

Wood penalty saved 27

Att 161

Entry by programme £4

For me half the fun of a return to Roosevelt Way was revisiting an old stamping ground. In the mid-1990’s I was an Insurance Agent round this parts, so was well used to all the Blenheim references, Churchill Way is just the other side of Church Road (the route to Church Hanborough) from Roosevelt Way. Come to think of it there’s whole new estate been built along Church Road since I was in my late twenties! Continue reading →

Wroslyn

25 Saturday Sep 2021

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Saturday 18th September 2021 ko 14:00

Witney & District League Division One

FREELAND 4 (Simlett 17 52 White 24 Burgess 83)

WITNEY ROYALS 1 (Harris 86)

Att 116

Entry by programme £4

Our coach turned out of Cassington Rangers’ car park, and almost immediately into a traffic jam. I nervously glanced at my watch, and ruefully thought about another decision I’d made. From the moment when the Witney & District League’s officials and I started talking about how we’d like to do this event one topic of conversation was how Saturday was going to look. We initially thought about a 4 game day- so many of the grounds in this area are less than 2 miles from each other so we could have loaded up the day with football. In the end I’m so glad we didn’t, as what happened here proved. Continue reading →

The Key Stone

23 Thursday Sep 2021

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Saturday 18th September 2021 ko 11.00

Witney & District League Division Two

CASSINGTON RANGERS 0

DUCKLINGTON 0

Att 133

Entry/Programme £4

It was probably no bad thing that the first post-lockdown hop was this one. It is all too easy to think that Covid is over, but the daily statistics tell a very different story. From a groundhopper’s perspective we are able to watch pretty much any domestic game without let or hindrance, but an organised groundhop involves breaking every (former) social distancing rule you can think of! In the end the United Counties League decided to postpone for a year, and Wales simply hadn’t opened up enough at August Bank Holiday to consider trying there. But the great advantage of Witney was that the grounds would be open  and we’d be unlikely to be seeing crowds of over 200. That would make organising it easier I thought…. Continue reading →

Fishing

18 Wednesday Aug 2021

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Saturday 7th August 2021 ko 15:00

Highland League

FRASERBURGH 6 (Young 24 P Campbell 28 Butcher 64 Beagrie 72 Meekings 75og Barbour 82)

BRORA RANGERS 2 (Gillespie 3 J Macrae 13)

A Macrae sent off 87 (2nd booking)

Att c300 at Bellslea Park

Entry £10

Teamsheet – Free (I asked a committee member)

It was Saturday morning and the M90 was misbehaving. The satnav was telling me my margin for error was shrinking alarmingly and I was tired. Some folks go on holiday to relax, while I use that map exclusive to groundhoppers, that somehow makes Fraserburgh on the way from Hamilton to Inverness! There were no end of games we could have watched that really were on the A9 north but I’d seen photos of Bellslea Park….. Continue reading →

The Sales Pitch

28 Monday Jun 2021

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Saturday 26th June 2021 ko 14:00

Pre-Season Friendly

TWEEDMOUTH RANGERS 10 (11, 17, 22, 32, 35, 46, Friere 49 60 80, 82)

BERWICK COLTS 0

Att c80 at Old Shielfield, Berwick-upon-Tweed

Free Entry

Pies £2

The fun of these next two games is the way they do make a mockery of attempts to pigeonhole them. This Saturday out was built around taking in a Berwick Charities Cup game at the Stanks, a competition that I’d argue fits in the 2020/21 season, but its 18.30 kickoff allowed for this pre-season friendly beforehand. That presumably would be precursor to the 2021/22 season, so if you took that train of thought far enough you’d think we started next season before we finished the last! Continue reading →

Harry Hill

16 Tuesday Jun 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.

Sunday 27th August 2006 ko 11.00

Hellenic League- Premier Division

HARROW HILL 0

SLIMBRIDGE 1 (C Cole)

Att 268

Entry £4

Programme £1

As (hopefully) the UK slowly emerges from lockdown I’ve started to think about how football will restart. I don’t include the monstrosity that is the beautiful game played behind closed doors with cardboard cut-out crowds and piped in noise. I’ll leave that to the hellish future it deserves. One thing that is clear is that the bigger the potential crowd a league can generally attract the longer it’ll take to get the crowds back, so let’s extrapolate a little. Continue reading →

The Chains

26 Tuesday May 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 6th April 2007 ko 10.30
Central Midlands League- Premier Division

YORKSHIRE MAIN 1 (Hawthorne 84)

THORNE COLLIERY 1 (Bitton-Price 27p)

Att 347

Entry £3

Programme £1

I don’t think it’s any secret that the the hop I’ve enjoyed the most was the Ceredigion, but without question the one I learned the most from was the Central Midlands League’s. It certainly wasn’t as a result of being involved in the organisation, of the original GroundhopUK/ Rob Hornby events I was only involved in 2010, the final one. No, my absorption of facts at the CMFL was cultural.

Continue reading →