Tag Archives: GroundhopUK

Kilbourne

26 Tuesday Jun 2018

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Saturday 5th May 2018 ko 13.45

Central Midlands League South Division

AFC KILBURN 1 (McCready 84)

SHERWOOD COLLIERY 3 (Wiesztort 26 Sawter 56 Beardsey 80)

Att 207

Entry £3

Programme £1.50

Maybe it’s because I’m a southerner but when you mention Kilburn, I tend to think of the suburb in north-west London near Maida Vale. In fact I think we took the Hellenic Hop there a couple of times back in the day!  The Kilburn in Derbyshire is in the Amber (river) Valley, which made the “Jade” Garden choice of name for the local Chinese takeaway seem rather inappropriate!  To confuse things further until roughly a century ago the village was known as Kilbourne! The area was the setting for ITV tv drama “Peak Practice.” Continue reading →

Fergie Time

24 Sunday Jun 2018

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Saturday 5th May 2018 ko 11.00

Central Midlands League-South Division

HOLBROOK ST MICHAELS 5 (Sanders 19 65 Kirl 30 Collingwood 47og Hayes 80)

LINBY COLLIERY WELFARE 2 (Gill 50 Butler 90)

Att 212

Entry £3

Programme £1

One of the advantages of being involved in organising these events is knowing you’ll be at each and every game come what may. Because as you ground count gets higher and higher you run the risk of forgetting exactly where you’ve been! The Derbyshire village of Holbrook I knew to have 2 football teams, and I remembered seeing Holbrook Miners Welfare for ground #500 back in the day. Time blurs memories so when I saw Holbrook Sports and Holbrook St Michaels I wondered which one I’d visited! Continue reading →

The Flock

20 Wednesday Jun 2018

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Friday 4th May 2018 ko 19.00

Central Midlands League -South Division

SWANWICK PENTRICH ROAD 3 (G Wilding 52 Brooks 77 83)

ASLOCKTON & ORSTON 0

Att 194

Entry £3

Programme £1

If there was ever a league with a history with the organised groundhop it was the Central Midlands League. It reached the national consciousness in 2004 when the league hosted the first and so far only 5-in-a-day hop with the Times in tow to cover it! The hop also managed to be the first to feature 8 games in 48 hours in a freezing March in 2008. Who could forget the snow in Calverton? Of course at the centre of the hops were Chris Berezai at GroundhopUK and the league’s Rob Hornby. Continue reading →

Everything Changes, Everything The Same

15 Tuesday May 2018

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Friday 13th April 2018 ko 19.30

Welsh League Division One

GOYTRE 1 (Leek 17)

LLANELLI TOWN 4 (Loveridge 15 45 90 C Jones 39) Vickers sent off 50 (dangerous play)

Att 151

Entry & Programme £5

For the last few years the Welsh Spring Hop has been based in West Wales, firstly in Ceredigion then for the last 2 events in Carmarthenshire. We’d had a few issues organising last year’s hop and this proved to even worse! In the end only the first and last games of the hop remained the same, visits to Goytre and Butetown and significantly neither of those clubs are in the Carmarthenshire League! The problems Chris Berezai faced were many and varied but can be neatly summed up as follows. Continue reading →

Flower of Scotland

05 Thursday Apr 2018

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Saturday 17th March 2018 ko 17.00

East of Scotland League

HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY 2 (Ward 11 34)

Dows sent off 77 (dangerous play)

Lane sent off 90 (2nd booking)

LEITH ATHLETIC 3 (Robertson 40 67 Mein 87)

Att 207 at Oriam Indoors, Riccarton, Edinburgh

It was with some regret that we crossed over the new Forth Bridge and left Fife, the county, or is that kingdom (?) had been good to us, despite the biting cold. We headed back towards Edinburgh and Riccarton, and aimed for the game that was virtually guaranteed to be on, whatever the weather! Continue reading →

The Stalking Horses

28 Wednesday Mar 2018

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Saturday 17th March 2018 ko 13.30

East of Scotland League

KELTY HEARTS 11 (Ritchie 10 Dalziel 27 51 McCabe 42 Douglas 45 75 84 Husband 55 79 Cargill 60 Greig 81)

TWEEDMOUTH RANGERS 1 (McKenna 21)

Att 278

Entry £5

Programme £2

Climbing up to the former pit village of Kelty involved a lot more than a further drop in temperature and a steady increase in the snow flurries. Kelty Hearts switched from the East Region Juniors to the Senior ranks for this season, and their reasoning was abundantly clear. 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 →

Whether

22 Thursday Mar 2018

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Friday 16th March 2018 ko 19.00

South of Scotland League

MID-ANNANDALE 6 (Gibson 9 D Smith 11 36 Neill 34 53 Thom 47)

LOCHMABEN 3 (Milligan 33 G Smith 38p Howat 89)

Att 235

Entry £5

Programme £2

Over 4 years the Scottish Hop has developed a method all of its own. That’s a coach running from Hillingdon via Birmingham up the M6 via the first game to our base, usually in East Kilbride. I normally run the coach from Hillingdon to Birmingham when Chris Berezai takes over and I take a fast car to the first ground to make up the programme packs using the time taken for the coach driver’s mandatory 45 minute break half way up. However this time round it didn’t quite work out as we’d planned. 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!

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 →