Tag Archives: North West Counties League

Shakermaker

09 Tuesday May 2017

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Sunday 16th April 2016 ko 11.00

North-West Counties League Premier Division

ASHTON ATHLETIC 2 (Smith 10 Vaughan 63)

SQUIRES GATE 1 (Nobley 2)

Att 298

Entry £6

Programme £1.50

It seemed odd to be starting a new hop when traditionally we’d be recovering from a 3 day, 7 game blast. But let’s face it the Northern League’s whole of Easter event a couple of years ago changed everything. For a start it proved that running games on Easter Sunday was popular amongst fans and it reinforced some work that Chris Berezai and I at GroundhopUK had been doing behind the scenes.  Continue reading →

The Tryptych

22 Tuesday Mar 2016

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Saturday 19th March 2016 ko 15.00

North West Counties League Division One

NORTHWICH MANCHESTER VILLA 1 (Martins 67) Norris sent off 90 (violent conduct)

HOLKER OLD BOYS 2 (Stanway 13 52)

Att 25 at Manchester Regional Arena

Entry £5

Programme £2

For the hopper there’s three stadiums to complete at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium. Other than the newly enlarged main stadium, there’s the Academy Stadium,  and on the other side of Alan Turing Way there’s the Manchester Regional Arena. Originally built in 2002 as a warm-up track for the City of Manchester Stadium (now the Etihad) for the Commonwealth Games, it’s had a history as chequered as the football club that currently calls it home. Continue reading →

We Long Endure

21 Sunday Feb 2016

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Saturday 13th February 2016 ko 15.00

North West Counties League Premier Division

COLNE 0

SQUIRES GATE 0

Att 150

Entry £6

Programme £1

You climb to get to Colne, right out of Mancunian suburbs into the mill towns of Lancashire, many still sporting the factory chimneys immortalised by Milton. You’re in the cradle of the game here too, passing the likes of Blackburn, Bolton, and Accrington on the way. As a southerner even after visiting all of those grounds, the names still resonate.

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Building Jerusalem

23 Sunday Aug 2015

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Saturday 15th August 2015 ko 15.00

FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round

NELSON 0

NEWTON AYCLIFFE 4 (Knight 29 Banks 59 Moffat 81 86)

Att 96

Entry £6

Programme £2

Badge £3

If there’s one competition every football fan should be a fan of it’s the FA Cup. Despite top flight clubs attempts to devalue it, for me the memories of clubs you’d never heard of battling against familiar Football League clubs remain a romantic part of growing up a football fan. Be it Blyth Spartans, Shepshed Charterhouse or Sutton United, the FA Cup was and is where the thrill of the underdog giving the patrician a bloody nose was more interesting than watching the same old sides fight for the League title. With those thoughts in mind I wanted something special to visit for the competition’s opening round.  Continue reading →

But It Was Gone

10 Sunday May 2015

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Saturday 9th May 2015 ko 15.00

FA Vase Final

GLOSSOP NORTH END 1 (Bailey 55)

NORTH SHIELDS 2 (Bainbridge 80 Forster 96)

After Extra Time

Att 9,674 at Wembley Stadium

Entry- Complimentary (Many thanks to the Wessex League)

Programme £4

I do enjoy my annual trip to the Vase final, even though on this occasion I found myself photographing the same people I did a few years ago! There’s something touching about the trip to the hospitality seats and seeing all those officials from Step 5 leagues. These people aren’t the career administrators from the higher echelons, these are the people who do it for the love of it, and I do wonder whether when the event will switch to a joint Trophy and Vase day that flavour will be lost in a sea of professionalism? Continue reading →

Countywide

05 Thursday Mar 2015

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Wednesday 4th March 2015 ko 19.30

Staffordshire County Senior League Division One

LEEK C.S.O.B. 4 (Bown 3 Pointon 46 57 83)

KEELE UNIVERSITY 0

Att 62

Entry FREE

Teamsheet FREE

Tea 50p

We really should start with the obvious, it’s County School Old Boys! From a groundhopper’s perspective they were the North West Counties League club that shared at Leek Town. Most hoppers don’t seem to be interested in a ground’s second club, so for many years they sailed under many people’s radar, mine included.

All that changed with their resignation from the NWCL at the end of last season. They took their reserves place in the second tier of the Staffs County League, and moved to Pointon Park, in Cheddleton, some 4 miles south of Leek. That is where its starts getting interesting. Continue reading →

Dark Times

02 Monday Mar 2015

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Tuesday 12th February 2008 ko 19.45

Northern Premier League Division One North

ROSSENDALE UNITED 0

BAMBER BRIDGE 1 (Salmon 36)

Att 146

Entry £7

Programme £1.50

A week or two I told the sad story of Mile Oak Rovers & Youth and how gut-wrenching it was to be at their final ever game. This tale also ends with the club’s extinction but the reason for the club’s demise proved to be more complicated.

Rossendale is a borough in Lancashire, consisting of a clutch of mill villages in the Blackburn and Burnley area. In this quitessentially footballing hotbed the club played in Dark Lane, Newchurch, near Rawtenstall. They were formed in 1898 and worked their way through the Lancashire Combination, the Cheshire League, and into the North-West Counties League. Continue reading →

Which

17 Sunday Aug 2014

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Saturday 16th August 2014 ko 15.10

FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round

WINSFORD UNITED 0

ATHERSLEY RECREATION 1 (Bennett 56)

Att 107

Entry £6

Programme £1.50

 

There are two great motorways heading north in England, the M1 and M6 but it does pay to have a series of back-up plans if you decide to take either of them on! For that the best modus operandi is the The Football Traveller, in fact I’m sure there’s been many a hopper stuck in a tail-back on the M6 that, frustrated at it all, grabs the little magazine for somewhere to go.

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The Letter G

05 Sunday Jan 2014

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Saturday 4th January 2013 ko 15.00

North-West Counties League Division One

WIDNES VIKINGS 3 (Tollitt 49 McEvatt 85 87)

IRLAM 1 (Mooney 11)

Att 71

Entry £5

Programme £1.50

When the rain is this bad it’s no bad thing to have a guarantee that the game will be on! That said, it was notable that as soon as I reached Stoke, the rain stopped and the North-West Counties League was one of very few leagues that saw the majority of its scheduled games take place. However the fact that Halton Stadium has a 3G artificial pitch took the worry out of travelling. In any case I do have a soft spot for the NWCL, not least after Atherton Colleries helped us at GroundhopUK by coping with over 100 hoppers at short notice when we had a postponement on a hop we were organising. Continue reading →

Scene Shifting

31 Sunday Mar 2013

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Thursday 28th March 2013 ko 19.45

North West Counties League Division One

ATHERTON COLLIERIES 0

ROCHDALE TOWN 0

Att 133

Entry £5

Programme £1

The burgundy jacket hung inertly from its hook at the back of the car, so yes it was groundhop time again. I don’t think I’ve ever explained exactly what Chris Berezai and I actually do with regard to organising football tours, or groundhops as they get called.

We liaise with a particular league to get kickoffs staggered over one or more days. That attracts the groundhoppers, so from there we organise advance tickets, to allow clubs some idea of numbers attending, programme production, merchandise, catering, transport and accommodation. We’ve been doing a long time, and its a fairly well oiled machine, but just occasionally you do get a glitch!

This Easter’s hop was on behalf of the Northern Counties East League, and with an excellent base at the Cedar Court Hotel, just off the M1 near Wakefield, and Stringers Coaches providing the transport we were good to go, but then the weather intervened! The area saw significant snow during the week, and by Tuesday it looked increasingly unlikely our scheduled game at AFC Emley could go ahead. I called Atherton Collieries’ secretary Emil Anderson that night, and I will always be grateful to him and his club for more than Continue reading →