Tag Archives: North West Counties League

Slightly Miffed Strawberry Blond

15 Friday May 2026

Posted by in D

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sunday 1st March 2026 ko 14:30

North West Counties League First Division North

DAISY HILL 2 (Sheppard 10 Singleton 73)

STEETON 0

Emmerson sent off 90+3 (violent conduct)

Att 478

Entry £7

Programme £2

Things have changed in Westhoughton. We’d become aware of just how much at the start of last year’s hop at Ramsbottom when the attendance at the New Sirs was far higher than ours! Then when we advertised this year’s hop on the GroundhopUK website using a photo at Daisy Hill from a couple of years ago we were told by the club that no, they don’t play at the New Sirs, the ground is now called “The Ginge Power Stadium” as the ground is now sponsored by streamer Angryginge!

Continue reading →

Free Fallin’

11 Monday May 2026

Posted by in A

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sunday 1st March 2026 ko 11:30

North West Counties League Premier Division

ATHERTON LABURNUM ROVERS 2 (Bacon 5 Obasoto 73)

EUXTON VILLA 0

Att 593

Entry £6

Programme £2

Sunday dawned, or more interestly St David’s Day, and the groundhopping tradition of buying my wife Robyn Daffodils. Robyn is from Bristol, and since we visited Albania and our friend Ditmar famously said, “Bristol, isn’t that nearly in Wales?” she’s been teased about being “Welsh” ever since! It’s not often a girl from Bristol walks round Atherton with a bunch of daffs is it?

Continue reading →

Mechanics

05 Tuesday May 2026

Posted by in B

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Saturday 28th February 2026 ko 19:30

North West Counties League First Division North

AFC BLACKPOOL 3 (Smith 1 Robinson 16 Bury 74)

HOLKER OLD BOYS 0

Att 405

Entry £6

Programme £2

Is it wrong that I still think of AFC Blackpool as their former selves at Blackpool Mechanics? The club started out in 1947 as Blackpool Metal Mechanics before changing their name to Blackpool Mechanics soon after. They initially played at part of Stanley Park in the town before moving to Jepson Way in 1949.

Continue reading →

Linings

03 Sunday May 2026

Posted by in S

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

Saturday 28th February 2026

14:00 North West Counties League Division One North

THORNTON CLEVERLEYS P

MSB WOOLTON P

Postponed – waterlogged pitch

14:00 West Lancashire League Richardson Cup 3rd Round

BLACKPOOL WREN ROVERS 4 (Makepeace 15 Hanslip 56 90+2)

ASTLEY & BUCKSHAW UNITED 0

Att 218

Entry £3

17:00 North West Counties League First Division North

SQUIRES GATE 3 (Riley 21 Squires 46 Hawley 55og)

NELSON 5 (Hawley 17 Hughes 32 88 Green 72 81)

Att 482

Entry £7

Programme £3

We got the news as we were about to leave Fulwood Amateurs. There’d been rain but no-one had any inkling that there was an issue at Thornton Cleverleys. We knew how much the club were looking forward to hosting to the point that they’d asked to be involved well before joining the league. That hit us, and no doubt them hard, and hearing stories from folks that were already there makes us uneasy about what happened and why. We are still getting to the bottom of why Cleverleys weren’t at least given time to work on the pitch- we did have wriggle room after all. But for the avoidance of any doubt, Thornton Cleverleys will be on a subsquent hop, either in the North West Counties or the West Lancs- they were completely blameless in all of this. And after all that’s said and done, their floodlights could be useful!

Continue reading →

Background

29 Wednesday Apr 2026

Posted by in D

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Friday 27th February 2026 ko 19:45

North West Counties League – First Division North

DARWEN 0

COLNE 0

Att 895

Entry £7

Programme £2.50

So back on GroundhopUK duty, but the 4 of us have been doing it so long we just slip into our roles without any great effort, and that also goes for the North West Counties League too. That for us adds up mainly as Martin Fallon, who seems to become a groundhopper for the weekend! Robyn and I were particularly looking forward to visiting Darwen, with their background of Football League membership, but the evening was to straddle comedy and the bleakest of tragedy in the space of minutes.

Continue reading →

The Marches

17 Tuesday Mar 2026

Posted by in S

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Tuesday 16th December 2025 ko 19:45

North West Counties League Division One South

SHAWBURY UNITED 1 (Sowe 76)

TELFORD TOWN 3 (Greer 53 70 Hesson 55)

Att 162

Entry £6

Programme £1.50

In all walks of life it pays to be adaptable, and that goes double if you’re trying to watch non league football in December in the wet! Oddly I was fortunate, I was heading to Allscott Heath near Wolverhampton but got caught in traffic. Since I was stationary I checked Twitter and soon found my choice of game had fallen to a waterlogged pitch. No matter, I had plan B….

Continue reading →

If You Want Bloods You Got It

30 Sunday Mar 2025

Posted by in D

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sunday 2nd March 2025 ko 14:30

North West Counties League Division One North

DROYLSDEN 3 (Kasali 11 Kattah 27 Van 49)

DARWEN 2 (Bailey 3 Severino 49)

Att 1,184

Entry £6

Programme £2

On one level it was fairly predictable that this game, the last of this year’s North West Counties League Hop would see a huge crowd but perhaps not this large! You could easily argue it was caused by a former National League Premier side facing off against a former Football League one. There were a few nuances though.

Continue reading →

Purple Heys

25 Tuesday Mar 2025

Posted by in A

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sunday 2nd March 2025 ko 11:30

North West Counties League Premier Division

ABBEY HEY 0

PRESTWICH HEYS 0

Bardsley-Rowe penalty saved 81

Bardsley-Rowe sent off 90 (violent conduct)

Att 610

Entry £7

Programme £2.50

For Sunday’s fixtures on the North West Counties Hop we returned to suburban Manchester and a club who in my eyes we owed a game to. Abbey Hey had been the visitors at Stafford Town, Wythenshawe Town and even featured on the very first NWCL Hop at Maine Road. That was on 2017, so no withstanding the break due to Covid, Abbey Hey were certainly due!

Continue reading →

The History

23 Sunday Mar 2025

Posted by in G

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Saturday 1st March 2025 ko 19:30

North West Counties League- Premier Division

GLOSSOP NORTH END 0

WEST DIDSBURY & CHORLTON 2 (Banister 60 Bass 81)

Lazenbury penalty saved 17

Att 830

Entry £10

Programme £2

If the North West Counties Hop was going to New Mills then it was close to inevitable that we’d pair them with Glossop North End as the “High Peak Twins.” But with all due respect to New Mills they were never a Football League club…

Continue reading →

The Shawcross Redemption

18 Tuesday Mar 2025

Posted by in N

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Saturday 1st March 2025 ko 16:45

North West Counties League First Division South

NEW MILLS AFC 2 (Woods 13 Pavley 19)

Shawcross penalty saved 7

CHEADLE HEATH NOMADS 0

Att 558

Entry £6

Programme £2.50

We moved from Manchester’s environs for the last two games of Saturday’s North West Counties Hop. The scene moved from the urban to the countryside of the Derbyshire High Peak, as we approached New Mills.

The town was built around coal, spinning and calico printing, and was also a centre for Methodism. That fact partly explains why sweet manufacturer Swizzels Matlow are based here, taking over an old mill in 1940 and sweet treats such as Refreshers and Parma Violets are still produced in New Mills today. Confectionery and Methodism do seem to go hand in hand, Fry Club in Keynsham and Cadbury Athletic in Bourneville are other examples.

Continue reading →