Tag Archives: League

Personal

29 Monday May 2023

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Sunday 9th April 2023

11:00 Hellenic League Division Two East

WATLINGTON TOWN 0

NEWBURY 10 (Frank 24 35 Allen 45 84 90  Armstrong 55 82 90p Goddard 59 Pattern 87)

Att 271

Entry & Programme £4

14:00 Hellenic League Division One

ABINGDON UNITED 3 (Mills 27 Bartlett 30 Downie 82)

SHORTWOOD UNITED 1 (Barrett 77)

Att 358

Entry £5

Programme £2

15:45 Hellenic League Division One

CLANFIELD 85 3 (Dickinson 46 Seacole 49 Fullarton 76)

MALMESBURY VICTORIA 1 (Patey 55)

Att 279

Entry £6

Programme £2

You could say it was personal. Easter Sunday on the Hellenic Hop may have been revisits to grounds I’d visited many times, but I had a personal connection to every host club. I always want our host clubs to do well but never more than on this day. Continue reading →

Timing

09 Tuesday May 2023

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Saturday April 2023 ko 14:30

Spartan South Midlands League Division Two

BUCKINGHAM UNITED 3 (King 30p Urquhart 35 68)

RISBOROUGH RANGERS DEVELOPMENT 1 (Martins 30)

Att c15 at Lace Hill

After my adventures in Scotland, I needed something straightforward, as did the car. The clutch had spent the weekend slowly dying, and while the car was booked in to get it replaced, I was still limping it around for short journeys. So a trip to Buckingham was handy and there was a bus service home if the car really let go. But car or no car, or even bus or no bus, there was good reasons for me to be at Lace Hill, serendipity is a wonderful thing! Continue reading →

Pullman

17 Monday Apr 2023

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Saturday 18th March 2023 ko 11:15

East of Scotland League Division One

DUNBAR UNITED 0

McFarlane sent off 22 (dangerous play)

Walker penalty saved 80

Hare sent off 90 (violent conduct)

COLDSTREAM 1 (Briggs 77)

Att 553

Entry £7

Programme £2

We limped into Saturday both literally and figuratively. Robyn was rather sore after her fall down the stand at Tynecastle and the car’s clutch was clearly on its way out, sticking in the down position when I really didn’t want it to. I headed along the M8 towards Hermiston Gait, and hoped.  Continue reading →

Station

21 Tuesday Feb 2023

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Monday 2nd January 2023 ko 14:00

Eastern Counties League Division One North

HEACHAM 1 (L Mitchell 42)

NORWICH C.B.S. 0

Att 131

Entry £5

Programme £2

There has been a running theme in my groundhopping for the last few years and that has been the Eastern Counties League. A lot of it is that there is no organised groundhop in that league, so I’m not likely to be helping guide a coachload of hoppers into these clubs any time soon. There’s also the fact that the ECL does seem to have a healthy intake of new clubs each season, to the extent that that without that process I’m certain I’d have finished the league years ago! Continue reading →

Blue

10 Tuesday Jan 2023

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Tuesday 15th November 2022 ko 19:45

National League South

CHIPPENHAM TOWN 0

HAVANT & WATERLOOVILLE 3 (Faal 12 Roberts 22 28p)

Att 503

Entry £14

Programme £3

It is a fact of life that in your 50’s you tend to go to more funerals than weddings. I find saying goodbye to someone who’s led a long and happy life a bearable, and sometimes cathartic process, but when it involves a life cut short well, that’s a different matter entirely. Robyn and I had spent the day attending such a funeral in Bristol and we ended up in Chippenham in no small part wanting to clear our minds of the day’s sorrow. Continue reading →

Nickleby

11 Sunday Dec 2022

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Tuesday 11th October 2022 ko 19:45

Hinchingbrooke Cup 1st Round

EATON SOCON  3 (R Baxter 25 Reece-Brown 57 B Roberts 90)

NETHERTON UNITED 1 (Mead 4)

Att 74

Entry and Programme £5

I have a nasty feeling I’ve passed Eaton Socon by no end of times without every really considering the place. You’re just off the A1 here, one roundabout north of the Black Cat, in what is traditionally Huntingdonshire, administeratively in Cambridgeshire, but the club played in the Bedfordshire League until this season. Yes, you are in border country, and very much in St Neots’ environs, and that location means the town grew up as Stage Coach overnight stopping  point, even earning a mention in Charles Dickens’ novel “Nicholas Nickelby” as Eton Slocomb! Continue reading →

Sunday’s Revisits

23 Friday Sep 2022

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Sunday 31st July 2022

ko 12:00 United Counties League Premier Division North

LEICESTER NIRVANA 1 (Nelson 87p)

Nelson missed penalty 66

BELPER UNITED 0

Smyth penalty saved 78

Att 285

Entry £5

Programme £2

Ko 15:00 United Counties League Division One

ST ANDREWS 2 (Law 50 87)

WEST BRIDGFORD 1 (Stevens 67)

Att 290

Entry £5

Programme £1

After breakfast at the University of Nottingham we headed south to Leicester. I opted to take my car, with my wife Robyn helping Chris Berezai and Craig Dabbs it meant a quicker trip after the final game. I took quieter country roads, rather than the motorway and with crowds yesterday and crowds to come it was a treat to have a little time for reflection. Continue reading →

Pandy

18 Wednesday May 2022

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Saturday 2nd April 2022 ko 14:00

Bridgend & District League Open Cup 2nd Round

TONDU ROBINS 0

LLANHARRY 6 (Peete 3 Doughty 9 T Hamilton 12 Richards 50 Watts 67 Williams 79)

Att 27 at Pandy Park, Aberkenfig

Free Entry

It seems to me that if you want to find an interesting football match, all you really need to do is head to South Wales- there’s no end of them. The previous Saturday on the way back from Denaby Main we’d had a look at my options and this one rather jumped out, not least due to Tondu Robins’ long stint in the Welsh League. In the end it all added up to a lot more than that.

Continue reading →

Tickhill

12 Thursday May 2022

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Saturday 26th March 2022 ko 15:00

Sheffield & Hallamshire League Division One

DENABY MAIN 4 (Landsborough 33og Green 68 74p 79)

SHEFFIELD MEDICS 0

Simmons penalty saved 44

Att 57

Entry FREE

Programme £1

It is a fact of life that regret is part of the makeup of the groundhopper. You spend your existence thinking of the grounds you missed out on, one of mine for example was Enfield’s Southbury Avenue, despite my University tutor being a season ticket holder there. I missed out and I’m sure everyone reading this has a short list of similar missed grounds. Another of mine was Tickhill Square, which was lost when Denaby United folded at the end of the 2001-2002 season due to the Miners Welfare evicting them from their land. But every so often there is a little redemption….. Continue reading →

The John Noakes Hop

11 Friday Mar 2022

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Friday 4th March 2022 ko 19.45

North West Counties League Division One North

GOLCAR UNITED 3 (Cox 14 Barrett 27 Naidole 52)

CAMPION 2 (Maltby 59 Boshell 85)

Att 467

Entry £5

Programme £2

If you are roughly my age then the most famous person to have been born in Halifax was unquestionably John Noakes. The Blue Peter presenter was, in a age of two channel tv and received pronunciation a revelation to this small boy from the shires; who could forget his climbing of Nelson’s Column without any kind of safety equipment? Continue reading →