Tag Archives: hellenic league

Lads

09 Thursday Feb 2023

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Monday 27th December 2022 ko 15:00

Hellenic League Premier Division

HEREFORD LADS CLUB 0

WESTFIELDS 6 (Pitman 15 Hunt 23 McDonald 34 Muirhead 41 Edwards 65 Newbury 82p)

Att 460

Entry £7

Programme £1

I remember the phone calls last Easter all too well, with Lads Club being on the previous Hellenic Hop why as GroundhopUK’s deputy organiser wasn’t I there ? After all, I hadn’t missed an organised hop in years! The truth was that finally Robyn and I managed to get on the honeymoon in Austria that the pandemic had delayed by 2 years. That said, it didn’t stop me taking calls asking what was going on with the Worcester Raiders game? The catch was that I was watching FC Balzers of Liechtenstein at the time! Continue reading →

Furlong

26 Thursday Jan 2023

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Saturday 10th December 2022 ko 15:00

Combined Counties League- Premier Division North

ASCOT UNITED 2 (Matthew 32p A Grant 74)

Bouwers sent off 27 (dangerous play)

EGHAM TOWN 0

Att 161

Entry £7

Programme online only 

In my groundhopping life I’m used to having a backup plan. In simple terms it means having an alternate game to go and watch if something happens at my intended destination. I’m far less used however, to having to find another game when I’m on season ticket duty at Oxford United. That said, I did have notice, the frost was bitter and the game was called off early. All I had to do was pick an interesting ground to show my wife Robyn. Continue reading →

A Tale of Ian & Nicky

24 Thursday Feb 2022

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Tuesday 22nd February 2022 ko 19.45

Hellenic League Division One

STUDLEY 3 (Brain 11 46 Donnelly 18)

FC STRATFORD 0

Att 87

Entry £6

Programme £1

There were a couple of reasons why I was a little hesitant about attending this one. Firstly I’d visited Studley Sports & Social Club a number of times, and wasn’t aware they’d moved, albeit the shortest distance possible. Then there was the fact GroundhopUK are organising this year’s Easter Hop with Studley scheduled to host on Bank Holiday 11am. Robyn and I won’t be on the event, we’re finally going to have our honeymoon, just the two years after our wedding- and while we have had to wait, if Covid had arrived a few weeks earlier, we’d have had real problems! But Studley and I go back to 2002, and its all to do with a footballing friendship. Continue reading →

University

23 Thursday Dec 2021

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Tuesday 14th December 2021 ko 19:45

Gloucestershire FA Challenge Trophy 2nd Round

HARTPURY UNIVERSITY 6 (Baidoo 22 48 66 Bam 38 63 72)

BOURTON ROVERS 0

Moore sent off 68 (2nd booking)

Att 81

Free Entry

At my stage of my groundhopping “Career” I’ve got to a point where a floodlit new ground midweek has to be worked on. The limiting factor is my two-hour window opportunity from finishing work at 5:30 at Oxford, and in planning the week in question I was quietly contemplating a mad dash to Selsey.  If everything that needed to behaved I’d have arrived a couple of minutes before kick-off. It wasn’t ideal, but there was nothing else new that I could get to, but then this popped up. Continue reading →

The Secret Santa

29 Tuesday Dec 2020

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Saturday 19th December 2020 ko 15.00

Hellenic League Division One East

LONG CRENDON 1 (Warwick 54)

WALLINGFORD TOWN 2 (Dean 43 Silkstone 85)

Att 36 at Oxford City FC

Entry £5

No Programme

You could say I was at this game because of Santa Claus! As you may know I’m part of a pub quiz team based at the Masons Arms in Oxford. Each Christmas we have a meal out at a local gastro-pub and exchange gifts in a “Secret Santa” arrangement. Covid of course had meant that meal out was impossible, but we decided to do the Secret Santa gift exchange, and I offered to play Santa for the afternoon and do the collections and deliveries from the doorsteps of our homes. The idea was afterwards to go and watch either of two Oxfordshire Senior League games. The first was Bicester-based Bure Park with Oxford Irish (based at Rose Hill Community Centre) as back-up. Both were 2pm kickoffs. 

Continue reading →

Karma Police

16 Friday Oct 2020

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Wednesday 15th October 2020 ko. 20.00 (ish)

Hellenic League Veterans Division One

JET VETERANS 3 (Lynch 4og Parry 5 Jackson 35)

RG VETERANS 2 (Lucas 24 Webster 48og)

Att 5 at Tilsley Park, Abingdon

Free Entry

Karma police
Arrest this man
He talks in maths
He buzzes like a fridge
He’s like a detuned radio

Radiohead, “Karma Police” 1997

I can hear the howls from the traditonalist hoppers as I type this.

A veteran’s game? You can’t count that!

Well here’s another adage; “My hobby, my blog and my rules”, so I can and I will. Besides, I’d wanted to visit Tilsley Park for a while. Continue reading →

Fighting For It

16 Wednesday Sep 2020

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Friday 11th September 2020 ko 19.45

Hellenic League Division One East

WOKINGHAM & EMMBROOK 5 (White 5 14 45 Eagle 26 E Day 27)

Clarke missed penalty 90

AFC ALDERMASTON 0 

Barna sent off 74

Att 150

Entry £5

Programme (by Aldermaston) £1

You could say I have history with Wokingham. I first encountered Wokingham Town in 1996 when my side Oxford United played a pre-season friendly at their ground Finchampstead Road. Friendly was the right term too, the Isthmian League club were notably friendly even though they lost the game 5-0. It is  worth mentioning that the visitors were able to name a back 3 of Matt Elliott, Darren Purse and Phil Gilchrist who all went on to play Premier League football so there was no disgrace in that scoreline ! The sadness came 3 years later when the club were forced to sell the ground for housing and moved into a groundshare with Windsor & Eton. Continue reading →

After The Break

03 Thursday Sep 2020

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Tuesday 25th August 2020 ko 19.45

Friendly

SOUTHAM UNITED 1 (Coombes 25)

ATHERSTONE TOWN 4 (Naughton 45 61 80p Quinn 67)

Att c80 at Bobby Hancocks’ Park

Free Entry

It was a year late, and delayed by over a week more by Coronavirus restrictions, but finally Southam United’s new home has seen a game in front of an audience. I fully imagined visiting this time last year, and ended up seeing a game on Southam Juniors’ ground as the new ground wasn’t quite ready. Do have a read of that article before carrying on with this one; the background to the return of Southam United, and the building and delay to the new ground is there.

Continue reading →

Station’s End

20 Thursday Aug 2020

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Tuesday 11th August 2020 ko 19.00

Friendly

WATLINGTON TOWN 0

ARDLEY UNITED DEVELOPMENT 2 (Casbierd 15 Hollister 84)

Att c20

Free Entry

When the North Berkshire League Hops ended at Appleton in 2017, there was one club that unquestionably missed out, and that was Watlington Town. When I tried to put together the 2018 edition all the other clubs that were left for us to visit either couldn’t host, didn’t want to, or in one instance complained that neither Phil Annets nor I hadn’t asked them to be on the very first hop! 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 →