Tag Archives: GroundhopUK

The Welsh Lourdes

04 Thursday Sep 2014

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Monday 25th August 2014 ko 11.00

Welsh Alliance Division One

HOLYWELL TOWN 3 (Lloyd 4 Tyson 40 G Williams 69)

LLANDYRNOG UNITED 0

Att 377

Entry £4

Programme £1

Badge £3

Back at the University of Chester my alarm sounded, and I dashed over to the window and peeked through the curtains. My heart sank as I watched the rivulets chase each other down the pane. 3 games left, including one we were worried about, but as I stepped into a shower (the portent of things to come?) I consoled myself that at least there would be nothing to worry about at Holywell, there is, after all, plenty of cover at Halkyn Road. Continue reading →

Slate

31 Sunday Aug 2014

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Sunday 24th August 2014 ko 11.00 am

Welsh Alliance Division Two

BLAENAU AMATEURS 4 (Roberts 24 Williams 51p Copsley 90 Bradley 90p)

PENMAENMAWR PHOENIX 2 (S Williams 32 Prince 38)

Att 320

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

We’d shaved a few minutes off the start time to Blaenau Ffestiniog from Chester University. After the difficulties of the previous day, a little time less in our beds was a fair price for breakfast! Of course on the action-reaction principle we got to Blaenau ahead of time. That was no bad thing, as the town is the sort of place you’d want to linger in, even if for one or two that added up to a frantic search for a newsagent that had the “Non League Paper” in stock!

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Memories

28 Thursday Aug 2014

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Saturday 23rd August 2014 ko 18.30

Welsh Alliance Division One

BARMOUTH & DYFFRYN 6 (Lewis 20 22 59 Harrison 27 S Jones 32 Ap Gwyndwr 63og)

LLANRWST UNITED 2 (Griffiths 43 45p)

Att 294

Entry £4

Programme £1

Two years ago when we at GroundhopUK and the Welsh Alliance agreed that a groundhop should take place, one club loomed large, purely down to its location. In Welsh Alliance terms Barmouth is rather out-on-a-limb, a southern outpost of the league to the extent that on arrival I was struck at how much the scenery reminded me of Aberdyfi which we’d visited on the MID-Wales hop! Continue reading →

Time

27 Wednesday Aug 2014

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Saturday 23rd August 2014 ko 11.00

Welsh Alliance Division One

PWLLHELI 5 (C Jones 7 82 Scott 45 49 68)

LLANRUG UNITED 4 (Lloyd 8 Owen 24p DN Williams 56 Sadler 80)

Att 328

Entry £4

Programme £1

Badge £3

When you’re organising a groundhop time is everything. You sit for hours with lists of clubs grouped by geography then use Google maps to calculate distance and from that, time. It’s a precious commodity and a simple error on the part of the coach company, a lost set of keys to one of our coaches, threatened to derail us. Continue reading →

Back to the start of it all

08 Friday Aug 2014

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Saturday 2nd August 2014 ko 19.45

United Counties League Division One

PETERBOROUGH SPORTS 1 (Simpson 50)

BUGBROOKE ST MICHAELS 1 (Ansell 25)

Att 283

Entry £4

Programme £1

Badge £3

Mug £5

I do like to see a hop visit its genesis. I deliberately started the very first North Berkshire hop at the geographical centre of the league, Steventon Green, and since my first meeting with the United Counties League was here at the start of last season, report and club history here, it seemed only fitting that they feature on the first UCL/PDFL hop.

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La Grange

07 Thursday Aug 2014

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Saturday 2nd August 2014 ko 17.00

Peterborough & District League Premier Division

NETHERTON UNTED 2 (Patton 42 Mastin 69)

THORNEY 1 (Baldwin 89)

Att 281

Entry £4

Programme £1

Badge £3

It has to be said The Grange turned into one of the more difficult places to find. That’s no reflection on the club, more a reflection on the speed of development in this part of Peterborough. I mean, how many clubs change entrances without moving grounds? I visited the ground back in 2012, and used one entrance, report here and the stream of traffic, not least Rick and the coach caused more than a few surprised looks as the best part of 300 people drove through the new estate.

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Cool

07 Thursday Aug 2014

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Saturday 2nd August 2014 ko 13.45

Peterborough & District League Premier Division

RIVERSIDE 3 (Dello Russo 4 Lancaster 40 Donohoe 90p)

UPPINGHAM TOWN 1 (Binley 62)

Att 257

Entry £5

Programme £1

Badge £3

 

I was a little nervous as the coach left Leading Drove, for the mile-or-so journey to Daimler Avenue also in Yaxley. Its not as though GroundhopUk hadn’t organised games at lower levels of the game, will we ever visit a club of lower status than say Uffington United? It wasn’t as if the people at Riverside weren’t obviously up for the challenge, I’d enjoyed their company and admired their ideas at the club meetings, but I was very aware that we were at least in part taking some people out of their comfort zones.

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Cuckoo

05 Tuesday Aug 2014

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Saturday 2nd August 2014 ko 11.00

United Counties League Premier Division

YAXLEY 3 (Coleman 31 Cotton 43p 76)

LONG BUCKBY 1 (Hailstone 90og)

Att 206

Entry £6

Programme £1

Badge £3

The coach, expertly coaxed by Rick at the wheel made the tight left turn into Leading Drove, and down the narrow drive to the football ground on the left. There’s a pitch to the right, used by Stilton FC, and since they play in the Peterborough & District League the original idea was to have a game there straight after this one, but they turned us at GroundhopUK down for reasons unknown, and with league official Daniel Leggett being an expert on the geography of the PDFL, he approached Riverside in their place, but that is another article!

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In the Deep end

05 Tuesday Aug 2014

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Friday 1st August 2014 ko 19.45

United Counties League Premier Division

DEEPING RANGERS 3 (Lewis 38 Oliver 78 Flack 85) Lewis sent off 43 (dangerous play)

HARBOROUGH TOWN 0

Att 307

Entry £6

Programme £1

Badge £3

So back on GroundhopUK duty and the fruition of something that started with a tweet from league official Daniel Leggett to Notts hop organiser Rob Hornby. That found me visiting Peterborough Sports to meet Daniel, only to find most of the committee there wanting a chat, and things moved fairly quickly from there. The next move was a first for us, involving a new league, the Peterborough & District League, a feeder to the UCL. We’d visited other league’s clubs where geographically convenient, Penybont and Radnor Valley for example on the Mid-Wales hops but a dual hop would be something new for us to plan. Continue reading →

Here, There & Everywhere

11 Friday Jul 2014

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Saturday 5th July 20145 ko 19.45

League of Ireland Division One

LONGFORD TOWN 3 (O’Sullivan 65 81 Shaw 79) G. O’Connor sent off 62 (dangerous play)

SHELBOURNE 0 McDonagh sent off 62 (violent conduct)

Att 780

Entry €10

Programme €3

Badge €5

NB. The Irish tour’s cost of £285 included entry into all the 3 games, and programmes, all transport, all excursions, and 3 nights bed and breakfast at Dublin City University

The great advantage of a day with just the one match to see is that the rest of your time is a blank canvas. There was time for a leisurely, if large breakfast before the coach headed north to the pretty seaside town of Skerries, In fact you could trace the coast north and see over the border to Northern Ireland. Continue reading →