Tag Archives: Scotland

Keith

20 Wednesday Oct 2021

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Saturday 2nd October 2021 ko 11:15

East of Scotland League Conference A

DALKEITH THISTLE 8 (Weston 32 61 McTernon 50 Leslie 58p Callaghan 66 Dixon 70og McFadden 76 Burrows 90)

TWEEDMOUTH RANGERS 2 (Robinson 6 35)

Robinson sent off 46 (Violent Conduct)

Att 309

Entry £7

Programme £2

Pie Steak

Saturday dawned and I began to feel that normality was returning. Part of that was Robyn flying in to join us the previous evening and another was the completely full coach, to the extent there was no room for Robyn, Craig Dabbs and I. I didn’t half clock up the miles that weekend. With a 4 game day lined up mainly in Mid-Lothian I’d made a mental note to conserve my energy, 4 grounds with seating at a premium was going to be tiring, and I hadn’t completed that many games in a day in over 2 years. Moreover, the Scottish footballing pyramid had changed since GroundhopUK’s last visit. Continue reading →

The Delay

08 Friday Oct 2021

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Friday 1st October 2021 ko 19.45

Lowland League

BO’NESS UNITED 3 (Flynn 31 Jacobs 42 Locke 68)

CIVIL SERVICE STROLLERS 1 (Cole 43)

Att 507

Entry £7

Programme £1

Pie – Scotch or Macaroni

It is a historical point that the first hop to be cancelled due to the pandemic was the Scottish Hop and the first one back could so easily have been this one, delayed for 18 months!  While I loved what we did and will do in the Witney & District League this is altogether a different animal. But you would have thought that simply taking the same event, with the same host clubs (albeit with the Friday and Sunday games transposed) and restaging it after the break would be easy enough to do wouldn’t you? And you’d be wrong! Continue reading →

Life In Black & White

02 Thursday Sep 2021

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Saturday 14th August 2021 ko 15:00

Scottish League 2

ELGIN CITY 3 (Hester 17 22 46)

ALBION ROVERS 0

Att 488 at Borough Briggs

Entry (Main Stand) £14

Programme- Online

Teamsheet- Free with raffle ticket

Badge £3

The car was packed to the gunnels ready for the long drive south. I stopped for a final coffee as we were about to leave Inverness, and roughly half the Fort William FC side followed me in. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that I could have so easily been watching them play. With the pitch at Claggan Park in such a state that it can’t be used this season Fort are playing all their home games away and were en route to a home defeat at Forres Mechanics. Robyn and I ended up following them along the A96 but carried on to Elgin, a destination that for me did have some significance. Continue reading →

The Stone Of The Tub

29 Sunday Aug 2021

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Friday 13th August 2021 ko 20:00

Highland League

CLACHNACUDDIN 4 (Morrison 52 Logan 70 Taylor 80 90)

STRATHSPEY THISTLE 1 (Duncan 14)

Att c350

Entry £10 (plus £1 stand transfer)

On one level it would have been rude not to, our holiday accommodation was only a 10 minute walk from Grant Street Park. Yes, we’d based ourselves in the Inverness district of Merkinch, and through no planning at all we’d found ourselves in a place steeped in local football history. 

Our flat was more or less opposite the site of the Telford Street home of Caledonian FC, one of the two sides (the other being Inverness Thistle) that merged in 1994 to form today’s Inverness Caledonian Thistle. The merged club played their first two seasons at Telford Street before moving to the newly built Caledonian Stadium in 1996. The ground was demolished and now is a retail park. But a trip to Clach did involve a certain amount of sentiment, as I’d visited back in October 2007, ironically for another Friday night fixture. 

Continue reading →

Northern Day

23 Monday Aug 2021

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Tuesday 10th August 2021 ko 19.45

Scottish Challenge Cup 1st Round

BRORA RANGERS 0

ABERDEEN B 1 (Ruth 70)

Yeats sent off (dangerous play) 63

Hanratty penalty saved 75

Att c70 at Dudgeon Park

Entry & Teamsheet £10

On occasion I take the bus into Oxford, and in the High Street, close to the Rhodes statue at Oriel College is a little shop called “Brora.” It specialises in knitwear, and by that I mean the sort of thing that attracts the kind of person that would spend £300 on a jumper. I’ve looked at the place a few times, but there does seem to be a slight issue with their marketing. Continue reading →

Seeking Nessie

19 Thursday Aug 2021

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Monday 9th August 2021 ko 19.00

Inverness & District Amateur League-Premier Division

LOCH NESS 2 (Ingram 35 Fraser 90p)

MARYBURGH 0

Houston sent off 90 (DOGSO- handball on goal-line)

Att c70 at Bught Park Pitches, Inverness

Free Entry

I’d lined up 5 games during our stay in the Highlands and really didn’t expect to add to my list. This wasn’t going to be a groundhopping tour, more a holiday with a match taken in where convenient. I am though part of a Scottish Football WhatsApp group and they pointed out this fixture. Since Bught Park is less than a mile away from where we were staying it would have been rude not to have come along ! Continue reading →

Fishing

18 Wednesday Aug 2021

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Saturday 7th August 2021 ko 15:00

Highland League

FRASERBURGH 6 (Young 24 P Campbell 28 Butcher 64 Beagrie 72 Meekings 75og Barbour 82)

BRORA RANGERS 2 (Gillespie 3 J Macrae 13)

A Macrae sent off 87 (2nd booking)

Att c300 at Bellslea Park

Entry £10

Teamsheet – Free (I asked a committee member)

It was Saturday morning and the M90 was misbehaving. The satnav was telling me my margin for error was shrinking alarmingly and I was tired. Some folks go on holiday to relax, while I use that map exclusive to groundhoppers, that somehow makes Fraserburgh on the way from Hamilton to Inverness! There were no end of games we could have watched that really were on the A9 north but I’d seen photos of Bellslea Park….. Continue reading →

Love Story

18 Thursday Mar 2021

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Saturday 11th March 2006 ko 15.00

Scottish League Division One 

ST MIRREN 1 (Adam 90) 

QUEEN OF THE SOUTH 0

Att 3,436 at St Mirren Park, Love Street, Paisley

Entry £15 

Programme £2

Saturday 31st January 2009 ko 12.30

Scottish Premier League

ST MIRREN 1 (Wyness 83)

KILMARNOCK 1 (Kyle 29)

Att 7,542 at New St Mirren Park, Greenhill Road, Paisley

Entry £18 Programme £4

I have a feeling I didn’t approach Paisley as some others do. I remembering seeing the place as the place where the slightly psychedelic “Paisley Pattern” comes from, and holiday visits to the likes of the “Sma’ Shot Cottages” and the Coats Observatory were greatly enjoyed. But the second Iain my regular companion to all things Scottish and I went to watch Queen of the South away at Love Street in 2006, I soon spotted a change in that viewpoint.

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Walfrid

26 Tuesday Jan 2021

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Sunday 11th May 2008 12.30

Scottish Premier League

CELTIC 2 (McManus 37 McDonald 87)

HIBERNIAN 0

Canning sent off (2nd Booking) 83

Murray sent off (DOGSO) 90

Att 58,515

Entry £26

Programme £2.50

Now you might find this hard to believe but this was actually something to do break up a journey home to Oxfordshire!  Watching a game at Wick Academy had become a mission, and so when I finally managed to get it done at the third attempt a day earlier I  sat in a cheap hotel in Perth contemplating a beast of journey home! It needed something to break up the drive back to Banbury, so a few days earlier I’d looked for a game on the way. I’m not sure why I hadn’t thought about Celtic, it certainly isn’t due to any sectarian thoughts, you’re reading the thoughts of the product of a Protestant father and a Catholic mother after all! Continue reading →

Racing Colours

19 Tuesday Jan 2021

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Saturday 26th December 2009 ko 15.00

Scottish Premier League

MOTHERWELL 1 (Jennings 39)

ST JOHNSTONE 3 (McDonald 55 58 71)

Att 4,140

Entry £22 

Programme £2.50

It wasn’t the most straightforward of Boxing Days. I was still with the ex-wife back in 2009 and we’d finally managed to cope with parental Christmas blackmail (“If you don’t spend Christmas Day with us we won’t bother celebrating it” – How could we be in two places at once??) by booking ourselves into a log cabin in the Lake District for Christmas week. Perhaps the familial gods saw what we did – we promptly got snowed in, and I needed a tow just to get the shopping home! In the end, I ended up parking up half-a-mile from the cabin just to allow myself transport while we were there. It also had the (un) intended benefit of allowing me to go to football!

Continue reading →