Tag Archives: Non League

Kilbourne

26 Tuesday Jun 2018

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Saturday 5th May 2018 ko 13.45

Central Midlands League South Division

AFC KILBURN 1 (McCready 84)

SHERWOOD COLLIERY 3 (Wiesztort 26 Sawter 56 Beardsey 80)

Att 207

Entry £3

Programme £1.50

Maybe it’s because I’m a southerner but when you mention Kilburn, I tend to think of the suburb in north-west London near Maida Vale. In fact I think we took the Hellenic Hop there a couple of times back in the day!  The Kilburn in Derbyshire is in the Amber (river) Valley, which made the “Jade” Garden choice of name for the local Chinese takeaway seem rather inappropriate!  To confuse things further until roughly a century ago the village was known as Kilbourne! The area was the setting for ITV tv drama “Peak Practice.” Continue reading →

Fergie Time

24 Sunday Jun 2018

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Saturday 5th May 2018 ko 11.00

Central Midlands League-South Division

HOLBROOK ST MICHAELS 5 (Sanders 19 65 Kirl 30 Collingwood 47og Hayes 80)

LINBY COLLIERY WELFARE 2 (Gill 50 Butler 90)

Att 212

Entry £3

Programme £1

One of the advantages of being involved in organising these events is knowing you’ll be at each and every game come what may. Because as you ground count gets higher and higher you run the risk of forgetting exactly where you’ve been! The Derbyshire village of Holbrook I knew to have 2 football teams, and I remembered seeing Holbrook Miners Welfare for ground #500 back in the day. Time blurs memories so when I saw Holbrook Sports and Holbrook St Michaels I wondered which one I’d visited! Continue reading →

The Flock

20 Wednesday Jun 2018

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Friday 4th May 2018 ko 19.00

Central Midlands League -South Division

SWANWICK PENTRICH ROAD 3 (G Wilding 52 Brooks 77 83)

ASLOCKTON & ORSTON 0

Att 194

Entry £3

Programme £1

If there was ever a league with a history with the organised groundhop it was the Central Midlands League. It reached the national consciousness in 2004 when the league hosted the first and so far only 5-in-a-day hop with the Times in tow to cover it! The hop also managed to be the first to feature 8 games in 48 hours in a freezing March in 2008. Who could forget the snow in Calverton? Of course at the centre of the hops were Chris Berezai at GroundhopUK and the league’s Rob Hornby. Continue reading →

Horwudu

19 Tuesday Jun 2018

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Wednesday 2nd May 2018 ko 18.30

North Bucks & District League Premier Division

GREAT HORWOOD 7 (Broom 20 Dixon 32 65 85 Tappin 36 Hawkins 60 Cronin 67)

WING VILLAGE 1 (Robinson 1p)

Att c15

Free Entry

This one definitely was one to salve my slice of OCD that tells me I simply have to watch a game at any ground I drive past more than once. Great Horwood lies on the main A421 between Buckingham and Bletchley, the village to your left and the Castlefields playing fields to your right. There’s been a village here since Saxon times, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records this place as “Horwudu” meaning muddy wood in 792! Continue reading →

Gingerbread

01 Friday Jun 2018

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Saturday 21st April 2018 ko 15.00

Northern Premier League-Premier Division

GRANTHAM TOWN 0

ALTRINCHAM 2 (Merrie 50 Johnston 78)

Att 689

Entry £10

Programme £2

In my working life, knowledge of the geography of the UK is useful. There’s a large map on the wall behind me, to help work out how long it takes to get from place to place, but being an inveterate groundhopper usually makes it redundant. After all, simply having driven to most of the towns helps, but the glaring exception was Grantham. Continue reading →

The Goose

30 Wednesday May 2018

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Saturday 21st April 2018 ko 12.30

Notts Senior League Premier Division

FC CAVALIERS 1 (Kolapo 35)

AFC DUNKIRK 0

Att 42

Entry & Programme £2

When Rob Hornby retired from organising the annual Notts Senior League Hops he left a cohort of clubs playing in caged 3G facilities that needed visiting if you wanted to complete the league. Now I doubt that any hopper would prioritise any such ground, they are designed after all for the participant rather than the spectator. But that would do the Forest Recreation Ground a massive disservice, its history makes it well worth a visit.  Continue reading →

Billy’s Cause

28 Monday May 2018

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Tuesday 17th April 2018 ko 19.45

Southern Combination Division One

MIDHURST & EASEBOURNE 2 (Carter 15 Broughton 50)

SELSEY 2 (Seye 54 Correll 90)

Att c50

Entry & Programme £5

Many years ago my ex-wife and her family loved to spend weekends at Butlin’s in Bognor Regis. I was never a convert to Billy’s cause, watching Bucks Fizz with one original member (the blond one) wasn’t and isn’t my idea of fun. In my eyes the whole point of the exercise was tick off another local ground. The journey down from Henley-On-Thames was interesting as my former father-in-law has a phobia of motorways, so the obvious M3, M27 route was eschewed. Continue reading →

Something

23 Wednesday May 2018

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Sunday 15th April 2018 ko 14.00

South Wales Alliance Division One

AFC BUTETOWN 1 (Farah 80p) Farah missed penalty 51

TONYREFAIL B.G.C. 1 (Cicigoi 49)

Att 120

Entry/Programme £2

The Welsh Spring hop ended as it has started, at a ground that we’d actually planned on visiting for quite some time! AFC Butetown’s Canal Park home is used for a carnival each August Bank Holiday making a visit on the normal Welsh Hop impossible. But this was a visit that was more than just a question of helping to complete a league, as Butetown’s colloquial name is far more evocative. Continue reading →

A New Hope

21 Monday May 2018

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Sunday 15th April 2018 ko 11.00

Bridgend & District League Division One

WICKED 4 (Picton 11p Griffiths 50 86 Davies 56)

GARTH VADER 3 (Evans 26 Vincent 47 Richard Boydell 77)

Att 47 at Coychurch Recreation Ground, Bridgend

Entry & Programme £2

Chris Berezai and I get it, we really do- some hoppers don’t do Sunday football. But last year’s Welsh Spring Hop saw something special. We’d been let down by Gorseinon FC who’d refused to play on a Sunday at Pontlliw so needed a replacement game. Chris approached Richard Boydell at Garth Vader and something magical happened. Continue reading →

3 Pipes

17 Thursday May 2018

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Saturday 14th April 2018 ko 14.30

Welsh League Division Two

PONTARDAWE TOWN 1 (Roberts 90)

ABERDARE TOWN 2 (Haggett 48p 50)

Att 109

Entry & Programme £4

If watching Swansea City’s youth team was an exercise in largesse and the complete absence of thought outside of the box this was the exact opposite. Once the Carmarthenshire League left our thoughts in the planning of this hop, once we realised Pontardawe were at home we were always likely to head here. For one Chris Berezai used to be programme editor here, and significantly the club only moved to Parc Ynysderw in the last couple of years.                                                          . Continue reading →