Tag Archives: London

Portmanteau

27 Sunday Dec 2020

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Monday 14th December 2020 ko 19.45

Eastern Counties League Division One South

FRENFORD 2 (Forbes 4 Fairhead 88)

Heatley penalty saved 52

ATHLETIC NEWHAM 2 (Idemudia 9 Kone 90p)

Kone sent off 90 (2nd booking)

Att 87

Entry £4

Programme £1

Monday night football will always attract the groundhoppers, and a club new to Step 6 will do so still further. Here though there was the added thought of exactly which league I was watching. In 2018 the Eastern Senior was created as a Step 6 league to feed the Essex Senior as a joint venture between that league and the Eastern Counties. It seemed to me that the league became rapidly swallowed up by the Eastern Counties League, and has become their Division One South. Now I’m not that worried by the nomenclature, but does anyone have a definitive answer? Continue reading →

Times Like These

10 Friday Jan 2020

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Saturday 2nd November 2019 ko 15.00

FA Premier League

ARSENAL 1 (Aubameyang 20)

WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 1 (Jiminez 76)

Att 60,383

Entry £56.50

Programme £3.50

For a while I’d known my future brother-in-law Scott wanted to visit the Emirates Stadium. Now on one hand I’ve seen enough of Arsenal over the years for there to be little or nothing to be achieved from another visit. It is a case of “Been there done that” but on the other hand, he’s family and I’ve got history. Continue reading →

Making plans for Nigel

21 Thursday Feb 2019

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Tuesday 19th February 2019 ko 19.30

Argonaut Trophy

ARTHURIAN LEAGUE 3 (Hiscox 74 Beddows 79p Hornby 80)

HERTFORDSHIRE SENIOR COUNTY LEAGUE 0

Att 12 at Club des Sports, East Acton Lane, London

Entry & Programme FREE

Parking £4.50

WhatsApp can be a wonderful thing, I’d drawn something of a blank as to where to head. On one hand Wick in Sussex were at home but the holdups on the M25 were beyond even the normal delays you’d expect. But then “The Itinerant Football Watcher” Peter Miles made a discovery…. 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 →

Game Of Floodlights

24 Wednesday Oct 2018

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Tuesday 11th September 2018 ko 17.30

Middlesex County League- Premier Division

SOUTH KILBURN 0

KENSINGTON DRAGONS 1 (Royes 83)

Att 21

Entry FREE

Programme £1

The hobby of groundhopping does lend itself to a little tactical planning. Take this Tuesday as an example. You know there are a finite number of grounds with floodlights so you’ve prioritised those on to midweeks when they’re in use. Then you look at which lights will get used less than others and prioritise those. The Step 7 Middlesex League schedules virtually no floodlit games; the league has few clubs with lights and so plans without taking them into account. But this one looked interesting. Continue reading →

Left or Right?

23 Sunday Sep 2018

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Tuesday 31st July 2018 ko 19.45

Pre-Season Friendly

POTTERS BAR TOWN 2 (36, 65)

HEYBRIDGE SWIFTS 3 (2og, 44, 82)

Att 26

at Pitch 2, Middlesex FA Ground, Ruislip Road, Northolt

Entry FREE

I do like a ground that doesn’t usually host a club’s games, and a county FA ground is always an interesting place to visit. Here the ground was brand spanking new, the Middlesex FA only moved in on 23rd July, but there is a groundhopper’s dilemma when you get there.  Continue reading →

Returns Policy

22 Wednesday Aug 2018

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Wednesday 4th July 2018 ko 19.30

Pre-Season Friendly

HADLEY 0

REDBRIDGE 3 (61 77 84)

Att c35 at Barnet Lane 3G

After my frankly life-changing tour of Sweden in June, save for the odd World Cup game on television I’d taken a break from all things football. I’ll admit it was unusual for me, I remember one close season lasting less than 24 hours! But I looked up the Football Traveller’s friendlies list and soon spotted a ground you can’t do during the regular season. A bonus was that it involved driving past the site of one of my favourite grounds of the past. Continue reading →

Cater Bank

20 Friday Oct 2017

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Tueaday 26th September 2017 ko 19.45

Combined Counties League Premier Challenge Cup 1st Round

CB HOUNSLOW UNITED 5 (Roberts 30 44 Ireland 55 Morris 71 G Bamford 82) J Watt missed pen 82

EVERSLEY & CALIFORNIA 2 (Robson 28 Brown 43)

Att c65

Entry £5

Programme £1

Around 10 years ago one of my earliest forays into the Combined Counties League saw me visit CB Hounslow’s former home at Osterley Sports & Social Club. It was an interesting place, if extremely run down and the lack of basic facilties made it obvious that the club would either have to move, or accept relegation back to the Middlesex County League. My only surprise is that the move took 10 years! Continue reading →

The Groundhoppers’ Gag

30 Wednesday Aug 2017

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Wednesday 16th August 2017 ko 19.45

Spartan South Midlands League Division Two

PARK VIEW 6 (Sanchez 46 Williams 67p Gyimah 70 77 Darkwa 79 84)

BERKHAMSTED RAIDERS CFC 1 (Boyd 40)

Att 30 at New River Stadium, White Hart Lane, London

Entry FREE

It is the old groundhoppers’ joke; find a Tottenham Hotspur fan and point out that they’ve never seen their side play at White Hart Lane. The joke of course only works with a dose of OCD, Spurs’ famous old ground was and will be on Tottenham High Road, and is named, like in part, West Ham’s old ground after the nearest underground or railway station. The hopper then completes the gag by pointing out they’ve been to Coles Park, home to Haringey Borough, which actually is in White Hart Lane! Well now the humour-challenged hopper now has two opportunities to complete the joke. Continue reading →

Old School

23 Wednesday Aug 2017

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Tuesday 15th August 2017 ko 19.45

Championship

BRENTFORD 2 (Watkins 56 Maupay 77)

BRISTOL CITY 2 (Brownhill 5 Reid 90)

Att 9,811 (1,650 away)

Entry £24

Programme £3.50

There aren’t many grounds like this left. Grounds tucked away in amongst the houses in the communities they represent with only the floodlights to beckon you in from afield. Grounds built to tessellate with the footprint of the land available, and grounds that positively ooze with history and tradition. Continue reading →