Tag Archives: Non League

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 →

The Flour of Wellingborough

19 Wednesday Sep 2018

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Sunday 29th July 2018 ko 13.15

United Counties League Premier Division

WELLINGBOROUGH WHITWORTH 0

COGENHOE UNITED 3 (Dore 27 Dove 45 82)

Att 302

Entry £5

Programme £1

Quite literally it was a 30 second walk from Wellingborough Town’s Dog & Duck to Wellingborough Whitworth’s Victoria Mills Ground. One lies at right-angles to the other, and for years Whitworth were seen as very much the junior neighbour to Town. The club were started in 1973, and despite the name seem to have had little or no connection to the famous flour-making company based originally in Irthlingborough and now in Wellingborough. But in the here and now I had a queue to contemplate.

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Take It Easy

17 Monday Sep 2018

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Sunday 29th July 2018 ko 11.00

United Counties League Premier Division

WELLINGBOROUGH TOWN 3 (Freitas 48 Speight 55 59)

PETERBOROUGH NORTHERN STAR 0

Att 237

Entry £6

Programme £2

When the rains came we were glad of a little cover. Having a large stand at the Dog & Duck Ground was a godsend, it meant that everyone who wanted to be undercover could be. Someone came up to me and laughed, “You planned it this way didn’t you?” If only life were that easy…. Continue reading →

Elizabethan

07 Friday Sep 2018

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Saturday 28th July 2018 ko 10.45

Peterborough & District League Division Two

WHAPLODE DROVE 1 (Forth 34)

RIPPINGDALE & FOLKINGHAM 3 (Mason 51 Hasler 74 Ferrow 77p)

Att 227

Entry £3

Programme £1

After the relative disappointment of the Raunds game, Saturday dawned with the knowledge that that the hop had a compelling day lined up. I smiled inwardly at myself thinking that, on the first hop I’d seen including the PDFL clubs as a risk, normally the organised groundhop’s sweet spot is at Non-League’s Steps 5 & 6. It is to the great credit of every single club we’ve featured from that league, that Chris and I at GroundhopUK knew that scheduling 3 PDFL hop games on the bounce would prove popular. And a little club from the 10th tier below the Football League proved the point rather well. Continue reading →

The Shop Window

04 Tuesday Sep 2018

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Friday 27th July 2018 ko 19.45

United Counties League Division One

RAUNDS TOWN 0

IRCHESTER UNITED 4 (Harewood 46 Lovell 57 Taylor 63 Bell 75)

Att 245

Entry £5

Programme £1

Of all the organised events GroundhopUK are involved in the United Counties/ Peterborough & District Leagues’ hop is the easiest to organise. A lot of that is down to John Weeks and Wendy Newey at HQ, it really does help when you know that if you ask a favour it’ll get done, but much as due to the high standards that the two leagues have set over the 3 previous years the hop has run. In fact the measure of how good those host clubs have been was the reaction of all concerned when the standard dropped slightly.

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Timbers

03 Monday Sep 2018

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Tuesday 22nd July 2018 ko 19.15

Pre-season Friendly

VIRGINIA WATER 1 (Griffiths 25)

BANSTEAD ATHLETIC 3 (Holden 11 38 Evered 88og)

Att 40 at The Timbers

15 years ago, when I started groundhopping this is what Step 6 in the South-East looked like. For the most part, a railed off pitch with a clubhouse was all you needed, and it was only when you started heading north that the difference in facilities became obvious. I remember a group of London-based hoppers not coming on one of the early Central Midlands Hops, because they’d decided there’d be all fields. The depressing thought is that I still hear these bleats even now. Remember the Notts-based hopper who told everyone 2-3 years ago that the South Peninsula League Hop would be “All fields”. What? St Austell? Wendron? 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 →

The Invisible Bridge

16 Thursday Aug 2018

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Sunday 10th June 2018 ko 11.00

Division 6A Sydvästra Skåne

BUNKEFLO F.F. 3 (Sörensson 50 K Olsson 61 Magnusson 79)

FC BELLEVUE 0

Att 65

Entry & Programme 30 sek

The Swedish Hop’s £230 cost included two nights bed and breakfast in Trelleborg, coach travel including to and from Kastrup Airport, tolls on the Øresund Bridge, and all entry fees and programmes for the games.

After 9 days in Sweden it felt like Robyn and I were packing a small part of our lives away as we bundled our clothes into our suitcases on Sunday morning. The sadness was obvious and after a week and a day of being engaged it was high time for us both to see our families and for me to organise an engagement ring for Robyn! I lugged the suitcases down to the lobby and for the last time attacked the crispy bacon and meatballs. Continue reading →

More Than Just Football

13 Monday Aug 2018

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Saturday 9th June 2018 ko 16.00

Division 5 Sydöstra Skåne

ANDERSLÖVS BoIK 3 (Jonsson 6og Wikström 71 86)

SKEGRIE 2 (Melander 12 Larsson 51)

Att 114

Entry & Programme 40 sek

The Swedish Hop’s £230 cost included two nights bed and breakfast in Trelleborg, coach travel including to and from Kastrup Airport, tolls on the Øresund Bridge, and all entry fees and programmes for the games.

If we thought that Klågerup had been amazing, then I sat on the coach heading towards our final destination of the day wondering how on earth Anderslöv could possibly live up to what had happened before? The coach pulled into a car park behind a local school and driver Jörgen laughed. I leaned forward and laughed too… Continue reading →

I Didn’t Predict A Riot

08 Wednesday Aug 2018

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Saturday 9th June 2018 ko 13.00

Division 6B Sydvästra Skåne

KLÅGERUPS G.I.F. 1 (Vågehed 48)

HALLANDS NATIONS FF 2 (Scholander 26 Brown 84p)

Att 34

Entry & Programme 40 sek

The Swedish Hop’s £230 cost included two nights bed and breakfast in Trelleborg, coach travel including to and from Kastrup Airport, tolls on the Øresund Bridge, and all entry fees and programmes for the games.

At breakfast at the Swedish hop’s base on Trelleborg’s waterfront there were a few hangovers in evidence, but ever the one to look on the bright side of things, it did mean more meatballs and crispy bacon for me! Even hop organiser Kim Hedwall allowed himself a knowing smile, he knew he’d got a another superb day lined up, but the Saturday had proved to be the most difficult of the three to put together.  Continue reading →