Tag Archives: Rugby League

Who’d Have Thought It?

03 Sunday May 2020

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With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell.

Saturday 18th November 2006 ko 12.00

FA Vase 2nd Round 

SALFORD CITY 2 (Turner 2 Burrrows 90)

FC UNITED OF MANCHESTER 3 (Rudd 8 Carden 13 Chadwick 54)

Att 2,799 at The Willows, Salford

Entry £7

Programme £2

It must be said that 2006 and 2007 was a pretty good time to be a ground hopper, we’d had Llanelli playing a one-off game at Stradey Park and the birth of FC United of Manchester had given the clubs of the north-west something to think about. Continue reading →

Twitching

26 Wednesday Jul 2017

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Tuesday 25th July 2017 ko 19.30

Preseason Friendly

HULL CITY 0

FC NANTES 0

Att 2,097 at Craven Park (Hull Kingston Rovers RLFC)

Entry £12

Programme £1.50

Every so often in groundhopping you get a game played at a one-off ground that the case is so compelling for going that you drop everything and go there. It is the footballing version of what twitching is to birdwatching, and yes, there were many groundhoppers at this game.  Continue reading →

Lucky 13

05 Friday Sep 2014

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Sunday 31st August 2014 ko 15.00

Rugby League Championship 1

OXFORD RL 29

SOUTH WALES SCORPIONS 22

Att 240 at Oxford University RUFC, Iffley Road.

Entry £12

Programme £2.50

I’m indebted to Calne-based Paul Fergusson to alerting me to this one, especially to the location! My encounters with rugby started and finished with an ex-girlfriend who worked for Brakspear’s brewery in Henley-on-Thames and supplied a steady supply of complimentaries for me to be bored rigid watching Henley RUFC play in the second tier of English rugby union. Now there are many advantages of having a blonde girlfriend who gets staff discount at a brewery, but believe me rugby union wasn’t one! I should however point out though the end-of-season dinners were superb, I still don’t remember how I arrived back at my flat in Bell street with a Williams F1 brolly, and a meal for two at a rather swish Italian restaurant one year. Continue reading →

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 →