Tag Archives: Hop

The Field Of Cheese

19 Wednesday Oct 2016

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Saturday 8th October 2016 ko 10.15

Western League Division One

CHEDDAR 2 (Ham 5 Vaughan 17)

PORTISHEAD TOWN 1 (Mortimer 51)

Att 222

Entry £5

Programme £1

The morning started cool, with overnight rain; I quietly celebrated that this was the last English hop of 2016. Four games in a day is one thing when the weather’s good, it’s rather different when it’s cold and wet. I headed down a surprisingly quiet M5 and made for Bowden’s Park. Continue reading →

Comparatively Speaking

16 Sunday Oct 2016

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Saturday 1st October 2016

10.45 Bedfordshire County League – Division One

HENLOW 3 (Hills 11 Knight 45 Walker 50)

ICKLEFORD 3 (Miceli 48 Bussle 72 G Follano 83) G Follano sent off 87 (2nd booking)

Att 126

13.45 Bedfordshire County League – Division Two

KEMPSTON HAMMMERS SPORTS 2 (Grandidge 16 67)

WIXAMS 0

Att 93

16.30 Bedfordshire County League – Division Three

WOOTTON VILLAGE 2 (A Flynn 49 Churchill-Hall 80)

WHITE EAGLES 2 (Cygan 55 Ptak 87)

Att 131

Entry for all games was free with programmes available for £2, and badges for £3

It’s a point of some regret that the only organised hop on the calendar this season that I’m not involved in is this one. I like to attend other people’s hops, firstly because I’m under no pressure, and secondly because there’s always an opportunity to learn something. Here the organiser is Craig Dabbs and the beauty of his offering is that there’s a direct comparison possible with at least one GroundhopUK offering, and his his philosophy of offering the maximum opportunity for clubs, hoppers and league is the same as ours. Continue reading →

Aftermath

20 Saturday Aug 2016

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Sunday 31st July 2016 ko 17.30

Peterborough & District League Division One

WITTERING HARRIERS 5 (Lockwood 23secs Middleton 27 Braint 37 Cayley 56 Tippett 90)

LONG SUTTON ATHLETIC 2 (W Oliver 3 Cawthorn 59)

Att 250

Entry £4

Programme £1

The throng finally managed to escape Sawtry’s car park and headed off for the last game of the hop. We were bound for the RAF town of Wittering, and in the planning stage this did throw up an unusual decision or two. The club do play some of their games on the air base, beyond security so there was a decision on where to play this one. At GroundhopUK we’ve held games with a security check, who could forget Benson Lions at the Defence Academy in Shrivenham? In this case though the base don’t seem to like Wittering holding all their games there, so we decided to stick with the straightforward, for this time anyway! Continue reading →

Loads Here Already

18 Thursday Aug 2016

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Sunday 31st July 2016 ko 14.00

Peterborough & District League Premier Division

SAWTRY 0

STILTON UNITED 2 (West 77 Denning 81)

Att 534

Entry £4

Programme £1

I remember last time “The Itinerant Football Watcher” Peter Miles sent me the “There’s loads here already” message. That was at the final game of the 2015 Welsh hop at Penmaenmawr Phoenix and the gate turned out to be a Welsh hop record! Our coach pulled off the A1, that message arrived again, and I hoped for something similar. Continue reading →

Incroyable

03 Wednesday Aug 2016

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Saturday 30th July 2016 ko 10.30

Peterborough & District League Premier Division

CROWLAND TOWN 2 (Hunt 2 Ellis 29)

AFC STANGROUND 7 (West 51 62 Mahoney 60 J Staggs 83 87 Rankin 85 Brown 89)

Att 240

Entry £4

Programme £1

Badge £3

One of the things I love about this hop is the variety of grounds we get to visit, as as organiser the challenge is understanding those clubs’ highly varied needs. You saw it in a nutshell between our first game at Long Buckby and at Snowdon Fields in Crowland. In terms of facilities they are chalk and cheese. Continue reading →

Building Blocks

01 Sunday May 2016

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Sunday 17th April 2016 ko 15.00

Carmarthenshire League Division One

CARMARTHEN STARS 7 (Foschi 17 Thomas 20 61 Harvey 63 73
Rees 65 Deadman 72)

PONTHENRI 1 (A Williams 80og)

Att 214

Entry £3

Programme £1

Carl’s coach arrived back in Carmarthen, and like every hopper I craned my neck so I could see what our final destination was like. Maybe the others there checked to see what facilities were but I know Chris Berezai and I saw exactly the same thing, we saw that we weren’t having to provide all the crowd! Continue reading →

Beginnings

23 Saturday Apr 2016

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Saturday 16th April 2016 ko 11.00

Carmarthenshire League Division One

ABERGWILI 4 (Callegai 50 Binding 57 78 79)

LLANSTEFFAN 1 (Soames 90p)

Att 140

Entry £3

Programme £1

When the previous Welsh Spring Hop finished its run in Ceredigion we thought it would be relatively simple to find a replacement league. After all there hadn’t been a Ceredigion League club that hadn’t enjoyed hosting, so you would have thought that word of mouth would have ensured a speedy set of negotiations wouldn’t you? Continue reading →

Bullseye

26 Monday Oct 2015

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Sunday 18th October 2015 KO 14.30

Western League Premier Division

MELKSHAM TOWN 2 (Higdon 15 82)

GILLINGHAM TOWN 1 (Smith 88)

Att 357

Entry £5

Programme £1

So all too soon it was over, our 7 game Western League jaunt that months earlier Chris Berezai and I wouldn’t have thought possible, and certainly not taking in the Melksham’s iconic Conigre Ground, staging football for a final unexpected year, due to would you believe a colony of newts. While Chris and I knew that the hoppers would love the ground, we were far less certain about how the club would enjoy their day. Continue reading →

I Was Wrong

25 Sunday Oct 2015

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Sunday 18th October 2015 ko 11.00

Western League First Division

CHIPPING SODBURY 8 (Bishop 1 Barrett 17p Downes 24og Beecham 30 Mackie 39 Taylor 46 Simms 58 60)

BISHOP SUTTON 1 (Keet 68og)

Att 261

Entry £5

Programme £1

For Chris Berezai and I one game loomed large on the Western Hop, our visit to Chipping Sodbury. Part of it was that it would be the only new ground for Chris and I, and that because this is the club’s first season back in the Western League since 1952. That last fact, and the unusual kick-off time would mean that they would see hoppers that perhaps the other host clubs wouldn’t. They attended the host clubs’ meeting, asked all the right questions, and I drove home content that we’d given them the best chance to making the best of their day. But a few days before the day I received an email.
Continue reading →

Jules/Jewels

25 Sunday Oct 2015

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Saturday 17th October 2015 ko 19.45

Western League First Division

KEYNSHAM TOWN 2 (Abang 74 Harris 86)

WESTBURY UNITED 2 (Matthews 7 Adams 90og)

Att 224

Entry £5

Programme £1

The coach pulled into the Crown Field’s car park, and Chris Berezai, Dave the driver, and I strained our eyes trying to find where we were to park. Nothing usual about that, and we quickly spotted club secretary Julian “Jules” French pointing out a coned off area for us. I was beginning to flag a little, and I’m sure I wasn’t only one, so it was good to know that with Jules in charge I could mentally slow down a little. I had after all, had a preview… Continue reading →