Tag Archives: Rob Hornby

Permutations

17 Thursday Apr 2014

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Saturday 12th April 2014 ko 18.30

Notts Senior League Division One

WEST BRIDGFORD 2 (Charlesworth 9 75)

BINGHAM TOWN 1 (Gammon 19)

Att 448

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

Team sheet 20p

Tea 70p

Here’s a quirk for you, West Bridgford has no streets, just roads, as when the suburb of Nottingham was built  in Victorian times the word “Street” was deemed too urban! They obviously saw just how close it is to the centre, I could see Trent Bridge’s floodlights as we arrived at Regatta Way, but no streets, that’s a little odd! The ground reminded me a little of where we’d just left, at Keyworth with three pitches and a large clubhouse. All the pitches are railed off, and the show pitch has floodlights too, and there was ample space to park the dozens of cars that showed up, as for many reasons this game was organiser Rob Hornby’s trump card.
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Old Dalby

17 Thursday Apr 2014

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Saturday 12th April 2014 ko 15.40

Notts Senior League Senior Division

KEYWORTH UNITED 3 (Clarke 4 51 Crawley 35)

SANDHURST 2 (Clarke 8 Bradford 45) Abbott sent off (2nd booking 37)

Att 372

Entry £3

Programme £1

Teamsheet 20p

Tea £1

Other than being the town where shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Ed Balls was brought up, the pretty Nottinghamshire town is also where the British Geological Survey is based. I’m not sure whether their seismographs recorded the best part of 400 groundhoppers heading for the local football team, but Platt Lane was certainly busy! Even a Panda Car crawled along taking a disbelieving look at proceedings; I wish the club has tried to sell those inside a programme!

The ground is perfect for an ambitious county league team, with its spacious clubhouse, railed off pitch and recently installed floodlights. Should the club be successful and want promotion, there is certainly the potential here to build an impressive ground.

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Hot Potatoes!

16 Wednesday Apr 2014

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Saturday 12th April 2014 ko 12.50

Notts Senior League Senior Division

RUDDINGTON VILLAGE 0

BOOTS ATHLETIC 1 (Bonnick 58)

Att 319

Entry £3

Programme £1

Team Sheet 20p

Badge £3

The trip from Wollaton took the cavalcade over Nottingham’s Clifton flyover, where for Rob Hornby his groundhop organising started, the famous 5-games-in-a-day Central Midlands hop where in 2004 Bilborough Pelican, Dunkirk and Greenwood Meadows were the meat in a Graham St Prims and Sandiacre Town sandwich!

From there it is was a very short drive to Elms Park in the pretty village of Ruddington, and my first impression of the place was that an awful lot of cars were doing U-turns! The reason was that in with the prepaid ticket was a set of instructions on how to get to the ground, but the club had decided to make that entrance for players and officials only! Cue a quick volte-face and an entirely sensible trip to car park on the 2nd XI pitch which allowed a surprisingly quick exit afterwards.

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Bolero

16 Wednesday Apr 2014

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Saturday 12th April 2014 k0 10.10

Notts Senior League Senior Division

WOLLATON 3 (Alls 24 46 Atkins 46)

BEESTON 0

Att 282

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

Tea 50p

I think the weather was playing tricks on us; it was one of days when you opened the curtains and saw a sunny day but stepped outside into the cold, with a cross-wind to boot! It wasn’t far to Wollaton, a district of Nottingham built around coal mining, but showing not a hint of its past. In fact the site of the pit is now two streets of houses named after the area’s most famous offspring, Olympic Ice Dance Champions Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean. Wollaton Hall nearby was used to film the last “Batman” film, “The Dark Night Rises,” the manor’s frontage acting as Bruce Wayne’s Stately Wayne Manor. Of course “Batman” is set in Gotham City, named after Gotham which is, yes, a district in Nottingham!

Groundhop organiser Rob Hornby had warned there wasn’t much parking at the Sports Association Ground so we got there early and found plenty of street parking. Of course as aficionados of the organised groundhops will testify, the first game of the day always has bacon rolls on sale! Continue reading →

The Force Of Nature

14 Monday Apr 2014

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Friday 11th April 2014 ko 19.45

Notts Senior League- Senior Division

COTGRAVE FC 4 (Dobbins 53 Waddell 55 Kirkby 63 90)

BURTON JOYCE 2 (Roman Easom 40 75)

Att 311

Entry £3

Teamsheet 20p

Programme £1

Badge £3

I wonder how many people who attend an organised groundhop and pick-up a pre-paid pack of the hop’s programmes realise they have Rob Hornby to thank for them? For it was Rob who first came up with the idea, when he and Chris Berezai used to organise the Central Midlands League Bonanza each Easter. It was, and is a wonderful idea, the programme is a prerequisite for any event to call itself a hop, and so having a pack available to those with a pre-booked ticket quickly became a standard feature. Now when it comes to Rob, I may be biased, he’s shown me great kindness over the years, but as far as I’m concerned he’s the nicest bloke in football so I’ll attend any hop he’s organising, if its humanly possible to do so.

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Gritstone

19 Friday Jul 2013

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Thursday 18th July 2013 ko 19.30

Pre-Season Friendly

DRONFIELD TOWN 2 (Bradwell 63 Whitehead 80)

STAVELEY MINERS WELFARE 3 (Damms 35 Digiralamo 39 Gurnhill 87)

Att 42 at Gosforth Fields 3G, Bubnell Road, Dronfield Woodhouse, Derbys.

Entry Free

No Programme

I think groundhoppers can be separated into 2 broad categories, the ones that are aware how daft the hobby can be and those who aren’t! Becalmed in M1 traffic half-way through a 130 mile drive to the northern-most tip of Derbyshire to watch a friendly on a plastic pitch in a cage, yes I did question my sanity! I’m sure fellow hopper Lee thought exactly the same thing, as he interrogated the traffic app on his iPhone to supplement the sat-nav’s directions.

The trouble is I quite like this part of the world, despite Notts-born Lee’s immediate prejudices against the county in general. I like the Church of St Mary and All Saints, Chesterfield famous for its crooked spire, caused apparently caused by the lead that covers the spire, which was added 300 years after it was built in 1362. When the sun shines the south side of the tower heats up, causing the lead there to expand at a greater rate than that of the north side, resulting in unequal expansion and contraction. This was compounded by the weight of the lead (approx. 33 tons) which the spire’s bracing was not originally designed to bear.

The scene changes when you reach Dronfield, the topography becomes more undulating as you reach the beginnings of the Pennines, and the characteristics of the town seem as much South Yorkshire as Derbyshire. That feeling is heightened when you pass the Coach and Horses ground of Sheffield FC, the oldest football club in the world.

These are exciting times for Dronfield FC. They won last season’s Central Midlands League North Division, and have been accepted into the Northern Counties East League. That means ground improvements, and as I write this the floodlights are being erected. Many groundhoppers will remember Stonelow Road from the excellent Central Midlands Hop game the club hosted http://wp.me/p1PehW-zz, although so far organiser Rob Hornby has not managed to convince me to try the local “Delicacy” Pork dripping sandwiches!

This game was played at the Gosforth Fields facility which is used by Dronfield’s reserves, AFC Dronfield, and Dronfield Rugby Club. Around the location there’s been a spate of house building which is proving to be something of a boon for the place as the bar area serves as a pub for the new community! And there are far worse things you can do on a warm Thursday evening than sit on a balcony with a beer and watch two decent sides play football.

I know Staveley from the Northern Counties East hop which I help organise. They were, and are a joy to deal with http://wp.me/p1PehW-EU and above all else I will remember my trip to Gosforth Fields as being the visit where both clubs and officials were notably friendly and willing to help with fripperies as line-ups.

And despite the fact that at half time there were 21 substitutions, it was a good game to watch. Staveley wore Chesterfield FC change kit in the first half and Spireites home kit in the second, and seemed to have a far stronger first half team. They were good value for their half time lead, but Dronfield took control in the second half, and when Steve Whitehead danced through the Staveley defence to equalise it was a fair reflection on the balance of play. That roused Staveley and Tony Gurnhill won the game with a well-taken strike from the right-hand side of the 18-yard box.

It not often I enjoy a trip to such a ground, maybe it was the company, Lee and I got to meet Sheffield-based hopper Mark Hartley, but this was a hugely enjoyable evening out. Maybe it would be a different story on a wet November Saturday?

Kim’s Miners’ Welfare

24 Wednesday Apr 2013

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Saturday 20th April 2013 ko 18.15

Notts Senior League Senior League Senior Division

KIMBERLEY MINERS WELFARE 7 (Chaplin 14 Fisher 22 26 50 Baker 54 Beecham 63 Wilmott 90)

KEYWORTH UNITED 0

Att 369

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

The Nottinghamshire town of Kimberley was known as Chinemarelie in Domesday Book. With the accession of William to the throne Kimberley came into the possession of William de Peveril, and over the centuries the estate changed hands with the turning of each political tide, eventually being sold piecemeal in the 19th century. The town became a centre for coal mining, brewing and hosiery manufacturing, but one by one these closed, the final one, the brewery closing in 2006, after being bought out by Greene King.

When organising these events it is always handy to have an ace up your sleeve, something that will attract the stragglers. Potentially this was Kimberley MW’s last first XI game at Digby Street, as they have taken on the Stag Ground, the home of the now defunct Kimberley Town. That ground needs work to get it fit for use, so the move may be delayed, but I reckon it may well have concentrated a few minds!

Near to here, in 1817, the last attempted English Revolution took place. The Pentrich Revolution started in the village of Pentrich, north of Derby, where they discussed an uprising and a proposed march on London.  It was badly supported and ill-fated, and an agent provocateur infiltrated their ranks, and this ultimately led to their capture and execution. The 9th June 1817 was to be the start of a national uprising that was to include men from Huddersfield, Wakefield, Leeds and Nottingham. Their forces were to meet at Nottingham and then march to London to overthrow the government. Despite the promise of a wider national uprising it was only the men of Pentrich who marched that night. They reached Kimberley, were met by government troops and fled. The ringleaders Jeremiah Brandreth, William Turner and Issac Ludlam were all found guilty of High Treason and were hanged then beheaded on 7th November 1817.

The issue for footballers playing at Digby Street over the years was where to get changed! The players have at various times changed in a local kitchen and in the basement of the local bowling alley. There’s a lot to like here and congratulations to MW for putting a club history in the programme, I’m sure I’m not the only one who likes reading them. The ground lies next door to where the Digby Colliery once stood. The light industrial units, and the railway waggons on the nearby roundabout are the only clue of the coal mining that once took place here. The issue was dealt with once and for all in 1995 when the changing rooms were bought from Calverton Cricket Club!

The club had thought intelligently about how to host their game. Many clubs do barbeques, to the point that when I organise a groundhop I generally advise against them- there is burger overkill after a while! MW’s was an honourable exception to the rule, the queues spoke volumes for its success.

In the clubhouse a printer was set up, allowing up-to-date teamsheets to be produced, but it was the merchandise stall that intrigued me. Kim Hedwall from Stockholm, Sweden is a good mate of mine, we organise a groundhop in Sweden each year, and one of the MW’s shirts caught my eye. It transpires MW’s change kit is yellow and blue, Swedish national colours, and with the shirt having IKEA as the sponsor, well it was a match made in…..well Kimberley!

It set things up nicely for the final game of the hop which looked unlikely to be anything other than a home win. Keyworth needed a win to escape from the bottom two relegation spots, but their resistance lasted a mere 15 minutes. MW rolled in 7 and in all honesty could have made double figures had it not been for some poor finishing. The plaudits should go to Jake Fisher for his hat trick, but this was an excellent team performance from a friendly club, who did themselves and their town proud in the time quite literally in the sun.

The other person they did proud was organiser Rob Hornby. I’ve been there myself, you give clubs an opportunity and an idea, what they do with it is up to them. I’m sure when Rob finished his drop-offs, and the coach was back in the garage and him back home in Mansfield, he looked back on his hard work on the first NSL hop, and feel quietly satisfied. The rest of the hopping world will be grateful he still does it. Thanks mate!

The Forty Bridges

23 Tuesday Apr 2013

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Saturday 20th April 2013 ko 15.30

Notts Senior League Senior Division

AWSWORTH VILLA 3 (Saxton 20 90 Board 57)

COTGRAVE FC 0

Att 266

Entry £3

Programme £1

You really don’t need to look too hard to find evidence of coal mining in this part of the world, although in this part of east Nottinghamshire there was no pit wheel, the mine was open-cast.

Coal mining started here in the 16th century and Huckerby’s Pit seemed to be staffed by 90 or so children with a predictably high level of deaths and injuries. The pit closed in 1899 but the site was re-opened in the 1970’s, again for open cast mining. When that finished for good, the site became the Shilo recreation ground, where the village’s football team now play.

The area was also a centre for glassmaking, and the area behind what’s now the clubhouse was where the factory once stood, suitably close to the coal mine for fuel. Passing both factory and mine was the railway following the route of what’s now the path on top of the grass bank by the pitch side. That branch line curved away northwards to Pinxton. It crossed the Awsworth Viaduct, almost half a mile in length across the Giltbrook valley, but in the local area the span was known as the “Forty Bridges,” though the actual combined number of arches and girder spans was 43!  This viaduct is no more being demolished to make way for the by-pass, but the smaller Bennerley Viaduct is still in place. Unusually the line closed first to freight traffic, in 1943, and to passenger traffic in 1964.

The ground has a peaceful vista over the Erewash valley. One visitor, Kim Hedwall, from Sweden enjoyed in particular enjoyed it in particular, if only because of the huge IKEA superstore in his sights. ” The Swedish Embassy,” he explained.

The grass bank was a popular place for the crowd to sit, eat the delicious stew and dumplings, and watch the game. Awsworth were my choice for best hospitality, the catering was excellent, they had enough merchandise, which Rob Hornby helped sell, and their team sheet was accurate. It set the tone for an excellent home performance against a Cotgrave side who lacked punch up front. In fact it was only the excellence of Jonathan Garton in the visitor’s goal that prevented a rout.

Eventually the Cotgrave defence had to crumble and a reverse pass found Kieran Saxton who fired home from the edge of the box. The goal of game, if not the entire hop doubled the lead, Josh Board’s curling effort finding the top corner in spectacular fashion. That would have been more than enough for Awsworth to win the game but they added a third in stoppage time, Saxton getting his brace from 12 yards out.

As the game wound down I spotted the hoppers quietly checking their phones, and it took a second or two to work out why. You do tend to lose track of what time it is on these events. They were checking their teams’ results, but for those of us on the hop, we’d already had 3 to ponder, and there was another to go!

 

Under Notts Wood

21 Sunday Apr 2013

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Saturday 20th April 2013 ko 12.45

Notts Senior League Division One

UNDERWOOD VILLA 2 (Townsend 45 Tring 45)

WEST BRIDGFORD 2 (S Prince 5 Charlesworth 10)

Att 341

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge (last one!) £3

Thanks for the excellence of Selston’s traffic operation we were in the village of Underwood in plenty of time. Like our previous location this is a hilltop village with views over the Erewash valley, towards the southern outcrops of the Pennines. It’s a former colliery village, but seemingly has escaped from the deprivation often seen in former mining towns.

The mining heritage is reflected in the club badge with a mine headstock together with a football, bracken, St Michaels church & the crest of the Chaworth-Musters family. Bracken Park is on land owned by the Chaworth-Musters, and they have allowed the club to expand their operations to an area of 5 acres! The current project is a new pavilion which sadly wasn’t quite completed for our visit, but the kitchen part was, so the club made a good profit selling that Midlands footballing staple- Pie and Peas, except that on this occasion there was a choice of 3 types of pie!

Once again the team sheets were inaccurate, and I’m indebted to ace-blogger Peter Miles for giving me the correct line-ups. There wasn’t a moment to be wasted either as the visitors made a flying start. A poor clearance from a corner fell to Sam Prince who volleyed home in spectacular fashion.

Now there is one sure fire way of guaranteeing a goal in a groundhop game is to get Chris Berezai to either visit the toilet or go and buy some food. I’d wondered whether it only worked at events we’re organising, but many thanks Underwood, you proved that his talent is without restriction. Off he went to buy Pie and Peas, and that’s when Jurgen Charlesworth’s stunning, curling volley rocketed into the top right corner!

It set a pattern for the half, with the visitors dominating but all that changed in the final, mad minute of first half stoppage time. Firstly captain Ian Townsend blasted home from more or less the half-way line, then a few seconds later some appalling defending allowed him to round the on-rushing keeper Liam Johnson and slide the ball towards the goal. Did the ball cross the line before Sam Tring applied the final touch? Hard to tell, but if I was Townsend I wouldn’t be very impressed with his team-mate!

The second half couldn’t possibly have lived up to the standards of the first. The sides huffed and puffed but little of note happened. But then Chris didn’t need feeding or anything else. For that I take full responsibility.

 

The Naked Brewer

21 Sunday Apr 2013

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Saturday 20th April 2013 ko 10.10

Notts Senior League Senior Division

SELSTON 2 (Barnes 4 Moore 90)

WOLLATON 2 (Ranson 47  Ranshaw 82)

Att 358

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

I’d stayed overnight in Long Eaton, so a 10.10am kick-off held no fears for me, particularly as my responsibilities added up to nothing more than turning up and watching the game!

The Ashfield-based village of Selston lies to the east of Nottinghamshire, and its leafy hilltop location was in contrast to our urban environs the previous evening. The local St Helen’s Church dates back to 1150 AD. An older Saxon church is thought to have occupied the site, the monolith in the church yard is evidence of this, and that may well have been of ceremonial importance for pre-Christian pagans in the area.

The football club play behind the Parish Hall, and I was impressed at the way the parking was organised as the street outside is narrow and the potential for a bottleneck both before and after the game was massive. Nevertheless the traffic management was excellent, and there were no delays even when leaving the ground.

The club clearly had decided on a tilt for organiser Rob Hornby’s hospitality award; a marquee had been erected and a local brewery had been invited to sell their wares. That proved to be interesting as the brewer Sarah Webster aka The Naked Brewer uses 13.5-tog duvets to warm her containers in her 5-barrel custom-insulated plant attached to her pub, the Corner Pin in Westwood.

Merchandise was sold and the bacon rolls were fantastic! Where the club fell down slightly was the vexed question of line-ups. Many hoppers, me included, like to jot down the line-ups before the game and the normal method of dealing with this is to get the club to use a flip-chart to record the information. For this hop the modus operandi was team sheets, but Selston printed theirs the night before, and they were inaccurate, negating the whole point of producing them. Still I found referee Andy Rolph enjoying a big cigar, and recorded the line-ups direct from the official paperwork and passed the information on to those interested.

It didn’t detract from a superb morning’s entertainment, with Wollaton hitting the bar after a mere 20 seconds! It didn’t take long for Selston to take command, and Richard Barnes slotted home from a good cross from the left. The trouble was that Selston failed to capitalise and the game got rather mired in ugly tackles and still uglier back-chat. In the final analysis Mr Rolph did well to keep 22 men on the field.

Of course if you don’t take your chances you end up paying, and Dave Ranson’s low finish after a good passing move was a real shock to Selston’s system. It got worse for them as Rich Ranshaw’s superb strike gave Wollaton a lead that looked barely credible 45 minutes earlier. And if Wollaton had carried on pressing, they surely would have won the game. Instead they tried to defend the last few minutes, and paid the price.

The Selston keeper Luke Wigley went up for a free kick from the right, and it was his scuffed header that Tim Moore managed to back-heel in to equalise. It was the last kick of the game. A choker for Wollaton, and a game that the hosts could have won, but fantastic entertainment for the bumper crowd.