Tag Archives: GroundhopUK

Purple Heys

25 Tuesday Mar 2025

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Sunday 2nd March 2025 ko 11:30

North West Counties League Premier Division

ABBEY HEY 0

PRESTWICH HEYS 0

Bardsley-Rowe penalty saved 81

Bardsley-Rowe sent off 90 (violent conduct)

Att 610

Entry £7

Programme £2.50

For Sunday’s fixtures on the North West Counties Hop we returned to suburban Manchester and a club who in my eyes we owed a game to. Abbey Hey had been the visitors at Stafford Town, Wythenshawe Town and even featured on the very first NWCL Hop at Maine Road. That was on 2017, so no withstanding the break due to Covid, Abbey Hey were certainly due!

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The History

23 Sunday Mar 2025

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Saturday 1st March 2025 ko 19:30

North West Counties League- Premier Division

GLOSSOP NORTH END 0

WEST DIDSBURY & CHORLTON 2 (Banister 60 Bass 81)

Lazenbury penalty saved 17

Att 830

Entry £10

Programme £2

If the North West Counties Hop was going to New Mills then it was close to inevitable that we’d pair them with Glossop North End as the “High Peak Twins.” But with all due respect to New Mills they were never a Football League club…

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The Shawcross Redemption

18 Tuesday Mar 2025

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Saturday 1st March 2025 ko 16:45

North West Counties League First Division South

NEW MILLS AFC 2 (Woods 13 Pavley 19)

Shawcross penalty saved 7

CHEADLE HEATH NOMADS 0

Att 558

Entry £6

Programme £2.50

We moved from Manchester’s environs for the last two games of Saturday’s North West Counties Hop. The scene moved from the urban to the countryside of the Derbyshire High Peak, as we approached New Mills.

The town was built around coal, spinning and calico printing, and was also a centre for Methodism. That fact partly explains why sweet manufacturer Swizzels Matlow are based here, taking over an old mill in 1940 and sweet treats such as Refreshers and Parma Violets are still produced in New Mills today. Confectionery and Methodism do seem to go hand in hand, Fry Club in Keynsham and Cadbury Athletic in Bourneville are other examples.

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The Alternate Revisit

17 Monday Mar 2025

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Saturday 1st March 2025 ko 13:45 (but delayed to 13:55)

North West Counties League Premier Division

STOCKPORT TOWN 0

Schofield sent off (DOGSO) 26

CHEADLE TOWN 1 (Delaney 15p)

Att 435

Entry £6

Programme £2

For me and a few others a trip to Stockport Sports Village represented something slightly unusual. Back in 2010 I’d paid the place a visit on a cold December day to watch the hosts play Cammel Laird. The catch is it wasn’t Stockport Town! Woodley Sports used the ground, later to be Stockport Sports, but they folded in 2015, in no small part to Stockport County’s own financial troubles.

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The Feast of George

12 Wednesday Mar 2025

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Saturday 1st March 2025 ko 11:00

North West Counties League-Division One

STOCKPORT GEORGIANS 3 (Wych 48 McFadyen 65 81p)

SANDBACH UNITED 1 (Greenop 52)

Att 532

Entry £5

Programme £2

Part of me wished we were in Wales, it was St David’s Day after all, and GroundhopUK owner Chris Berezai is Welsh after all. But it wasn’t Chris that was given daffodils over breakfast in Bolton, no that was Robyn my wife! She’s from Bristol and the joke started when she visited Tirana and our friend Ditmar commented, “Bristol, isn’t that nearly in Wales?” That was 2 years ago and the joke has well and truly stuck..

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Rammy

04 Tuesday Mar 2025

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Friday 28th February 2025 ko 19:45

North West Counties League Premier Division

RAMSBOTTOM UNITED 2 (Whyte 48 Hoyle 56)

FC ST HELENS 3 (Barker 59 Spiers 74 90+1)

Att 551

Entry £9

Programme £2

So back on GroundhopUK duty and despite this being, I believe, the only hop game ever to have taken place in February I was comfortable with what we were doing, and although noone mentioned it, the weather forecast looked kind.

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Diet Pies

24 Tuesday Dec 2024

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Sundy 27th October 2024 ko 11:00

Southern Combination Premier Division

PAGHAM 3 (Neighbour 45+2 63p Johnston 55)

LOXWOOD 2 (Brown 66 Martyn 76)

Att 259

Entry £7

Programme £2

GroundhopUK’s trip to Nyetimber Lane was a well over a year in the planning. It was their game that was lost to Storm Babet during last year’s hop, to the extent that it was wasn’t so much waterlogged off, more flooded to the extent that I’m not sure we could have got to the ground, much less see a game!

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The Crows Arms

16 Monday Dec 2024

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Saturday 26th October 2024 ko 17:45

Southern Combination Premier Division

CROWBOROUGH ATHLETIC 2 (Forster 6 18)

HASSOCKS 1 (Funnell 4)

Att 413

Entry £7

Programme £2

I must admit I treated the Saturday evening game on the Sussex Hop with a certain amount of trepidation. It wasn’t that Crowborough might do badly, rather it was me considering the antonym of the maxim “Smaller clubs tend to make more of an effort.”

Please don’t see this as a dig at any one club, more a comment that the vast majority of clubs with a history at Southern, Isthmian or Northern Premier League level can cope with hosting a hop game’s crowd. The catch is by scaling up and no more the club does miss out on additional revenue and the hopper gets to swerve the burgers…. again!

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Limekiln

11 Wednesday Dec 2024

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Saturday 26th October 2024 ko 14:30

Southern Combination Division Two

JARVIS BROOK 2 (Penfold 18 Adams 38)

Bateman sent off 57 (2nd booking)

SOUTHWATER 2 (Lewis 45+3 Packham 90+3)

Att 257

Entry & Programme £5

From the outskirts of Crawley to to the outskirts of Crowborough felt like travelling from one side of Sussex to the other. It was further than we’d normally like to travel between games on a hop day, and was the case because of the league wanting to reward clubs who’d featured as away clubs in last year’s rather wet event. That’ll happen again in next year’s hop, but will have to be discontinued at some point, we like to limit the driving where we can!

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Thirds

05 Thursday Dec 2024

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Saturday 26th October 2024 ko 11:00

Southern Combination Division One

OAKWOOD 1 (Morris 59)

ALFOLD 2 (Heath 84 Agbontean 89)

Att 187 (ground record)

Entry £7

Programme £2

God knows it can’t be easy being Oakwood. Being the second club in any town is difficult but try being the third club in Crawley with Crawley Town and Three Bridges in front of you in the pecking order. For the Saturday of the Sussex Hop Craig and I acted as an advance party, getting to each ground before the coach and helping out where where needed.

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