Tag Archives: London

Beyond Categorisation

13 Friday May 2022

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Wednesday 30th March 2022 ko 20:00

Barnet Sunday League Richard Martin Memorial Cup Group B

NORTH LONDON ATHLETIC 1 ( Inyama 30)

BROTHERHOOD COSSIE 1 ( Ierotheou 75p)

Att 34 at A.I.M. North London

Entry Free

As a groundhopper there’s two things that really make me prick up my ears. The first is any new-to-me floodlit game midweek I can get to, and the second is anything that feels like a one-off. As you can imagine a floodlit Sunday League game played on a Wednesday at a one-off floodlit ground had me making a beeline to Enfield! Continue reading →

Harry & Maurice

18 Friday Feb 2022

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Tuesday 15th February 2022 ko 19.45

Isthmian League Premier Division

WINGATE & FINCHLEY 4 (Ofori 7 Vasilou 18 45 Kearney 79)

ENFIELD TOWN 1 (Bray 51)

Faal penalty saved 68

Att 247

Entry £12

Programme (online, downloadable) £1

These days a trip to suburban London does have a new consideration, the ULEZ. The Ultra Low Emission Zone has recently been expanded to include everything inside (and not including) of the North and South Circular roads, with the exception of the M4/A4 to the Hogarth Roundabout. What it means is if you drive a petrol car that isn’t up to Euro 4 standards or Euro 6 for diesels there’s a £12.50 daily charge. And for the avoidance of doubt if you enter the ULEZ zone at 23.59 and leave 2 minutes later, that’s 2 days charge and £25.00. There’s a vehicle checking tool on the TfL website. Continue reading →

Triangles

06 Wednesday Oct 2021

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Tuesday 21st September 2021 ko 19:45

EFL Cup 3rd Round

BRENTFORD 7 (Forss 3p 16 44 60 Wissa 38 87 Diarra 43og)

OLDHAM ATHLETIC 0

Att 12,819

Entry (Railway Lounge Hospitality) £35

Programme – Included (£2)

I think my wife Robyn calls this “92 Hopping,” but my running total of EFL and Premier League grounds was below 90 for the first time in years, mainly due to the pandemic. I think just about everyone loved Brentford’s former home at Griffin Park and I’m so glad I managed to show Robyn the place before it closed. There is absolutely no way you can replace a ground of 100-plus years with a pub at each corner, but that’s precisely what Brentford managed to do. Continue reading →

Modern Life

10 Friday Sep 2021

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Tuesday 24th August 2021 ko 19.45

EFL Cup 2nd Round

QUEENS PARK RANGERS 2 (Dickie 26 Chair 40)

OXFORD UNITED 0

Att 8,154 (2,058 away)

Entry £10 (Away End) – As OUFC season ticket holder, £15 otherwise

Programme £2.50

I’d just about found my seat in the School End Lower when I heard “Laurence!” from behind. Now there aren’t too many blokes with my name so I turned round. It was one of the many volunteers I’ve met organising groundhops and he said with a laugh, “This isn’t your normal territory” and I could see his point. I am known for non league, this blog has, after all, documented visits to hundreds of non league grounds. But the bit you often don’t see is the League stuff, I am after all still a season ticket holder at Oxford United. Continue reading →

Henry

04 Friday Jun 2021

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Tuesday 1st June ko 19:00*

Hertford & District League Centenary Trophy Quarter Final

KULTURE KLUB ATHLETIC 3 (35, 83p 85)

ALLENBURYS SPORTS 3 (J Armes 16 Barton 35 Colbourne 90)

Att c35 at Henry Barrass Stadium, Edmonton, London

Free Entry

It had been an eventful trip to North London. I knew I was likely to be tight for time, and the M25 behaved as the M25 usually does at rush hour- at one point I watched the police shut down the road, thankfully from my rear view mirror! I suspected the game might not kick-off right on time, grassroots football does tend to involve a little time slippage! The game kicked off roughly 15 minutes late, handy at the time for me, but all there were to have mixed feelings about that slippage later on. Continue reading →

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 →