Tag Archives: North Berkshire hop

Diamond Lights

15 Sunday Oct 2017

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Saturday 16th September 2017 k0 10.45

North Berkshire League Division 3

DRAYTON 7 (Dennis 8 29 55p 68 S Bolton 15 C Bolton 51 Hughes 57)

UFFINGTON UNITED 1 (Harfield 66)

Att 112 at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Pitch, Chilton, near Harwell.

Entry by programme £4

In so many ways the North Berkshire Hop is the Hummingbird of the organised hops. We’re off pyramid, we’ve only ever been a one-day event, and we’ve even had another league schedule a rival “Hop” against us. But despite some folks turning up their noses up at us, and a few even telling us it wouldn’t work, just like the hummingbird, that the laws of physics say shouldn’t fly, we’re still here, and still doing things our way.  Continue reading →

Aim For The Plane

21 Monday Sep 2015

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Saturday 19th September 2015 ko 13.30

North Berkshire League Division 3

GROVE RANGERS 4 (Pickering 2 Vaux 18 Cramp 21 22)

BENSON LIONS 1 (Radcliffe 88)

Att 154

Entry & Programme £4

Badge £3

The first clubs on my wish list for this hop were Grove and the Lions. They’d kept us royally entertained at the Defence Academy last time round, so it seemed entirely logical that we’d simply reverse the fixture this time. What I entirely forgot about was the full sized model of the De Havilland Venom nearby, marking the site of RAF Grove which closed in 1974, but also I felt also marking the visitors’ links to the RAF. Continue reading →

Can I Call You?

20 Sunday Sep 2015

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Saturday 19th September 2015 ko 10.30

North Berkshire League Division Two

HANNEY UNITED 4 (Bishop 16p 41 Woodside 75 Woodside 88)

MARCHAM 2 (Larman 7 Dobbs 24)

Att 171

Entry & Programme £4

Badge £3

You have to be an enthusiast to organise a groundhop. I mean you wouldn’t subject themselves to the kind of day I had unless you enjoy it. Its not often that you find yourself at Radio Oxford at 7.40 in the morning to publicise the hop one last time, then get a lift to the other side of town to collect the last of our 3 minibuses before pick-ups at Steventon and Didcot Parkway station. Continue reading →

The Abbey

24 Wednesday Sep 2014

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Saturday 20th September 2014 ko 13.00

North Berkshire League Division One

DORCHESTER 3 (J Nicholls 6 J Fleet 6 Patterson 16)

ARDINGTON & LOCKINGE 0 Fairclough sent off 73 (dangerous play)

Att 204

Entry & Programme £4

Badge £3

Food: Meat or veggie pasta

Beer: Rebellion Brewery

It was only a 4 mile journey from Crowmarsh Gifford to Dorchester-on-Thames, and for some of the trip I followed the reverse of the signs put up by Crowmarsh to guide people in to their game. I’d relaxed a little, we’d just set the second highest ever attendance for the North Berkshire Hop, and the hop’s history shows an event where few go to one game then disappear elsewhere. We’d also seen the event being backed by local people as we’d planned, and I had confidence that Dorchester had taken steps to ensure that too. Continue reading →

Synchrotron

11 Monday Aug 2014

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Tuesday 5th August 2014 ko 18.45

Pre-Season Friendly

EAST HENDRED 3 (Sutton 24 Riccio 65 Hummel 84)

GROVE RANGERS 1 (Vaux 51p)

Att 22 at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory pitch, Chilton

Entry FREE

No Programme

If you’re travelling along the A34 north of Wantage and south of what’s left of Didcot Power Station you’ll see quite an edifice. When it was built in 2007 I saw it and wondered if Wantage Town were making an unannounced tilt for the Premier League! It’s the Diamond Light Source, a scientific facility attached to the Harwell International facility, and no I wasn’t visiting the ground used by now defunct North Berks League outfit Harwell International.

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The Bigger Picture

27 Sunday Jul 2014

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Thursday 24th July 2014 ko 19.30

Pre-Season Friendly

ABINGDON TOWN 1 (Lightwood 75)

OXFORD UNITED XI 10 (O’Dowda 16 Long 27 52 56 Roberts 32 45 Bevans 35 Culley 64 Hawtin 87)

Att c350

Entry & Programme £5

So Oxford United’s development squad ran up 10 goals against a North Berkshire League outfit, and genuinely that isn’t the story at all. In Oxfordshire few clubs have fallen as rapidly and as far as Town in recent years. I remember seeing Town playing in the Isthmian League Division One (then just 2 promotions from the Football League) but now find themselves, in theory, seven promotions from their guests’ status. But where did it all go wrong?

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