Tag Archives: isthmian league

Velocity

02 Thursday Dec 2021

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Tuesday 16th November 2021 ko 19:45

Isthmian League Cup 1st Round

PHOENIX SPORTS 1 (Evans 40)

GREAT WAKERING ROVERS 3 (Jeremiah 14p Fuma 29 Gordon 87p)

Att 56

Entry £9

Programme -online

Teamsheet FREE

I’d just arrived at the Mayplace Ground, and was contemplating my first Bovril when my wife Robyn phoned. She asked where I was, and for once I swerved the opportunity to play the Smart Alec. It would have been oh-so-easy to have just said “Phoenix Sports” but chose to actually describe where I was. I said, “Barnehurst- or another way, that bit of South-East London that’s in Kent.” I hope that was sufficient an explanation! Continue reading →

The Main Line

07 Wednesday Oct 2020

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Saturday 3rd October 2020 ko 15.00

Isthmian League South/East Division

HYTHE TOWN 0

PHOENIX SPORTS 4 (Ansah 53 Fitchett 57 Bryon 77 Chin 82)

Att 212

Entry £10

Programme £2

Now I’m sure one of two groundhoppers will see an article on Hythe Town and think, “Surely he’s been there before?” After all my friend Andy Short is media officer there, you may remember he was at Whitstable Town too, he’s also secretary at the Southern Counties East League (now that’s interesting!) so why my tardiness? It’s because I wanted to travel to see Hythe Town by train! Continue reading →

Claremont

13 Thursday Feb 2020

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Tuesday 26th November 2019 ko 19.45

Middlesex Senior Cup 2nd Round

HENDON 1 (Mitchell 58)

WINGATE & FINCHLEY 3 ( Ruff 17p Ochineng 32 Fleming 68)

Att 110

Entry £6

Programmes sold out

Teamsheet 50p

When Hendon left their crumbling, yet atmospheric home of Claremont Road in 2008 few could have envisioned their search for a new home would lead them to a place the width of Silver Jubilee Park from Hendon, even if the stadium itself is on the western edge of the park, and Hendon itself on the eastern! Continue reading →

Goin’ Home

18 Monday Nov 2019

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Tuesday 17th September 2019 ko 19.45

Isthmian League- Premier Division

HORSHAM 2 (Harris 3 Smith 27)

WINGATE & FINCHLEY 1 (Kennedy 70)

Att 412

Entry £11

Programme £2

A new home for Horsham at Hop Oast has been one of this season’s good news stories. So much so that not only was my journey round the M25 straightforward, but I even had time to try to remember when it was I’d visited their former home at Queen Street? Continue reading →

Velocity

01 Friday Nov 2019

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Tuesday 10th September 2019 ko 19.45

Isthmian League Cup – Group 10

CHERTSEY TOWN 2 (Baxter 80 Cozens 84)

Bennell sent off (serious foul play) 41

CHIPSTEAD 3 (Hudson 26 55 Miller 63)

Att 110

Entry £9

Programme £1

The dichotomy of having visited well over 2000 football grounds is that although my options for a midweek tick are fairly limited these days, I have built up a huge database of wonderful grounds for me to take Robyn to see. A distinct advantage is also a trip to Surrey commuter belt from Oxford is a lot easier than some of my more far-flung destinations! Continue reading →

Southbound Again

23 Wednesday Jan 2019

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Tuesday 1st January 2019 ko 15.00

Isthmian League Premier Division

FOLKESTONE INVICTA 1 (ter Horst 9)

MARGATE 0

Att 629

Entry £11

Programme £1.50

Remember my assertion that every hopper has their own point of pain? Or putting it another way the ground that despite their best attempts remains stubbornly unticked? For years mine was the most northerly senior club in the UK, Wick Academy that took 3 cars, 2 hotels and 3 visits to see a game there. But another club, almost as far south as you can get from Wick took nearly as much pain to visit there. Here’s the story of Folkestone Invicta and I.  Continue reading →

Roxonian

09 Wednesday Jan 2019

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Tuesday 18th December 2018 ko 19.45

Southern League- Premier Division South

HARROW BOROUGH 2 (Kearney 11 87)

BEACONSFIELD TOWN 1 (Morgan 4)

Att 127

Entry £10

Programme £2

In the great unwritten book of groundhopping tactics, the idea of using 3G pitches as insurance against bad weather is fairly well entrenched. It seems, unfortunately, to have replaced the rule of having a knowledge of well-draining pitches for those times. I was navigating my way around a rain-lashed M25, when I got notification that my intended destination- Sittingbourne, was postponed. It was time to consider my options, and simply going home wasn’t one of them! Continue reading →

East Heading West

31 Friday Aug 2018

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Saturday 21st July 2018 ko 15.00

Pre-season Friendly

GORLESTON 3 (Gilfedder 13 45 Ramm 21)

LOWESTOFT TOWN 4 (Brown 9 12 Overy 46 Folkes 54)

Att 193

Entry £3

No Programme

My regular reader my have spotted a running theme of me gradually ticking off the grounds of the Eastern Counties League. Part of the reason is prioritising those Leagues not being visited by an organised hop, and another is regular trips with Wavendon- based Chris. His location near Milton Keynes makes heading east sensible, but there is the vexed question of what to do about the grounds he’s done that I haven’t. One was Gorleston, and with him being unavailable I simply picked the furthest one east! Continue reading →

Re-Visitor

30 Thursday Aug 2018

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Monday 16th July 2018 ko 19.15

Surrey FA Meadowbank Launch Event/ Pre-season Friendly

CHELSEA U18 4 (Ballo 23 38 Wiggett 49 Clark 84)

OXFORD UNITED U18 0

Att 600

Entry FREE (by advance ticket)

Programme FREE

Teamsheet FREE

If the visit to Bath City’s Twerton Park was visiting one of the grounds you simply have to see before you die, then back in the day Dorking FC’s Meadowbank Ground was another on that list. Dorking were already struggling following relegation from the Isthmian League and when I visited in 2013 it was to be the club’s last season here. When the ground’s owners, Mole Valley District Council closed Meadowbank down on health and safety grounds, their exile at local rivals Dorking Wanderers’ Westhumble home was to be the death knell for the club. Continue reading →

Newton

09 Tuesday Jan 2018

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Friday 5th January 2018 ko 19.45

Isthmian League Division One

AVELEY 0

AFC HORNCHURCH 2 (Fanimo 45 Fairweather-Johnson 85)

Att 398

Entry £10

Programme £2

Robyn and I zoomed round the M25, almost unbelievably clear on a Friday evening, the fact that we were both wearing our work clothes testament to how little time the satnav thought we had. It is of course the law of such things that we arrived half-an-hour early.

If any town could say to be in the shadow of the Dartford Crossing, it’s Aveley to the extent that that just about everywhere you stand you can see the red-lit tops  of the QE2 bridge’s towers. Continue reading →