Tag Archives: Scotland

Border Reiver

25 Wednesday Mar 2015

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Saturday 21st March 2015 ko 12.00

Lowland League

VALE OF LEITHEN 0

PRESTON ATHLETIC 2 (Bruce 41 Roy 57)

Att 312

Entry £5

Programme £1.50

Badge £3

I suspect we all needed a good night’s sleep after Friday’s long journey, certainly the faces at breakfast looked refreshed, maybe the hotel bar hadn’t done as well from GroundhopUK as is usually the case! We left East Kilbride heading south down the M74 before striking out east along the beautiful Tweed valley.

We passed through Peebles, right past Peebles Rovers’ ground (isn’t it handy that the Lowland and East of Scotland Leagues share a fixture secretary?) before reaching the small town of Innerleithen. Continue reading →

The Game Changer

23 Monday Mar 2015

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Friday 20th March 2015 ko 19.45

Lowland League

EAST KILBRIDE 1 (McLeish 64)

WHITEHILL WELFARE 0

Att 491

Entry £5

Programme £2

Badge £3

In 1992 the Northern League’s Mike Amos invented the organised groundhop, a series of staggered kick-offs with transport between the fixtures. Phil Hiscox took the concept to the South-West and GroundhopUK’s Chris Berezai to Wales, but Scotland had never seen a groundhop. That wasn’t through lack of trying, we at GroundhopUK tried for the Highland League who told us variously that they didn’t need any extra crowds, and that we’ve never bring them, “More than 30 hoppers.” A region of the Juniors even told us we could hold a hop in their leagues but all the games would have to kick-off at 2.30 on a Saturday….

To be honest, we’d given up and when hoppers mentioned the idea we’d trot out one of the stories and shrug our shoulders. A shame, but that was life.

Continue reading →

Weegie

10 Tuesday Jun 2014

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Scottish Junior FA West Region Superleague, Premier Division

POLLOK FC 2 (Hunter 41 Diack 89) Aitchison sent off (denying clear goalscoring opportunity) 6

LANARK UNITED 1 (McCluskey 71) McLaughlin missed penalty 6

Att 415

Entry £5

Programme £1 (they issue for every game)

Badge £3.50 but charged £3 due to lack of change

Meat Pie £1.20

Bovril 80p

In early 2011 I wasn’t in a good place. My marriage had ended, and I was sat alone in a house I knew I was destined to leave. Fortunately I am blessed to have a friend in Dumfries in Iain and I was both fortunate and grateful to get a phone call to say,

“Come up (to Dumfries) and visit, and since its you, I’ll let you pick the game.!

Well you shouldn’t ever turn down an opportunity like that, so I travelled up, collected Iain, and at lunch time we parked in the Morrison’s car park adjacent to the ground. Iain extracted a large wedge of cash from the supermarket ATM, and one of my memories of the day was that he found it pretty much impossible to spend it at Newlandsfield Park. Iain, my friend, this is the wonderful world of the Juniors, no rip-off prices here! Continue reading →

The Ying and the Yang

08 Sunday Jun 2014

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Saturday 10th May 2008 ko 15.00

Highland League

WICK ACADEMY 3 (Weir 9 Shearer 27 Macadie 73)

FRASERBURGH 2 (Johnston 22 Hale 78)

Att 263

Entry Comp’

Programme £1

Pain is part and parcel of being a groundhopper, it’s the yang to the ying of a wonderful ground and an exciting game. For some the pain is self-inflicted, the hopper who doesn’t count nil-nil draws travelling from Blackpool to Fakenham 3 times for example, but my ground of pain for years was Harmsworth Park. Of course if the place had have been just a few miles from where I was living at the time, Banbury in Oxfordshire, it wouldn’t have been an issue, but Wick Academy are the most northerly senior club in the UK, and a trip here took more than a little planning. Continue reading →

Rain Clouds Over Leith

29 Thursday May 2014

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Sunday 25th May 2014 ko 15.30

Scottish Premiership Play-Off Final 2nd Leg

HIBERNIAN 0

HAMILTON ACADEMICAL 2 (Scotland 12 Andreu 90)

Agg 2-2 AET Hamilton won 4-3 on penalties

Att 18,301

Entry £10

Programme £2

Team Sheet FREE

I’d wanted to pay Easter Road a visit for ages, for one thing it was the last of the Scots Big 5 for me to do (Rangers, Celtic, Hearts and Aberdeen being the others), and the O.C.D. side of me wanting to visit a ground I’d parked near to a number of times on holidays! There was also the “Which Hibs?” factor to consider, after a trip to the Maltese Hibernians, the additional “S” is important, just ask a well-known groundhopper! The full sorry story, and the trip to the Maltese version can be found here! Continue reading →

Two Magpies

27 Tuesday May 2014

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Sunday 25th May 2014 ko 13.00

Scottish Womens Football League 2nd Division South East

BOROUGHMUIR THISTLE 3 (Livingstone 10 Hanson 50 To 83)

HUTCHINSON VALE RESERVES 1 (C Devlin 15)

Att 13  at Meggetland Sports Complex, Edinburgh

Entry FREE

No programme

As I stood in the almost deserted stand watching a game a pitch’s width away I watched two magpies stand on a crash barrier and survey the scene. Like me, they were sheltering from the torrential rain, most of the other spectators tried to keep their umbrellas from turning inside out at pitchside, but lets face it, if there’s cover its best used! Continue reading →

The Canal

27 Tuesday May 2014

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Saturday 24th May 2014 ko 14.30

Scots Junior East Region, East of Scotland Cup Quarter Final

CAMELON JUNIORS 3 (Wright 34 Allison 48 Batchelor 76)

CARNOUSTIE PANMURE 0

Att 122

Entry £5

No Programme

Aim for the Falkirk Wheel, and you’ll be at the edge of Camelon. It’s a town dominated by its larger neighbour, and the Union Canal that reaches its confluence with Forth and Clyde Canal at the wheel. The latter canal runs behind, and rather counter-intuitively, above Carmuirs Park, set at the back of an estate of social housing. Continue reading →

The Auld Fem Derby

03 Thursday Apr 2014

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Sunday 30th March 2014 ko 12.00

Scottish Women’s Premier League

RANGERS 2 (Sneddon 20p Mulvey 55)

CELTIC 1 (Jones 11)

Att 79 at Petershill Park, Glasgow (Petershill JFC)

Entry £4

No Programme

To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure how to approach this game. On one hand it was a women’s game, not known for being high profile in the UK, but it did involve Celtic and Rangers with all the sectarian idiocy that fixtures between the two clubs attracts. I pondered my attire, would that red Neilston scarf bought the previous day attract unwanted attention, would my SLR camera be allowed in, and would there be a sizeable police presence?

Continue reading →

The Brightest Star

02 Wednesday Apr 2014

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Saturday 29th March 2014 ko 14.00

West of Scotland Junior Cup 3rd Round

NEILSTON JUNIORS 0 Digney sent off FT (2nd booking)

SHOTTS BON ACCORD 1 (McKenna 88p)

Att 121

Entry £5

Programme £1

Scarf £5

We had a guest on this mini-tour, Sim loves his football despite being an Oxford United fan, and with this fixture being the centrepiece of the weekend I wanted it to give him a true flavour of the Junior scene in Scotland. We drove south-west from Glasgow for around 11 miles to Neilston, just south of Paisley. Like the latter town the village grew massively during the Industrial Revolution due to the textile trade and the derelict Crofton Mill still stands, the only survivor of the seven mills than stood beside the River Levern between Neilston and Dovecothall.

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The Third Way

31 Monday Mar 2014

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Friday 28th March 2014 ko 20.00

East of Scotland Amateur Cup Semi-Final

TOLCROSS THISTLE 1 (Perry 43)

STEINS THISTLE 2 (Lynn 46, M Kane 61)

Att 148 at Ainslie Park, Edinburgh

Entry £4

No Programme

North of the border the football is split 3 ways, Senior, Junior and Amateur, and there’s very little cross-over. You get some clubs in one section that could easily play in what is, in theory, the higher level, and especially the case of the Seniors, the converse also holds.

Continue reading →