Tag Archives: Sports

Flower of Scotland

05 Thursday Apr 2018

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Saturday 17th March 2018 ko 17.00

East of Scotland League

HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY 2 (Ward 11 34)

Dows sent off 77 (dangerous play)

Lane sent off 90 (2nd booking)

LEITH ATHLETIC 3 (Robertson 40 67 Mein 87)

Att 207 at Oriam Indoors, Riccarton, Edinburgh

It was with some regret that we crossed over the new Forth Bridge and left Fife, the county, or is that kingdom (?) had been good to us, despite the biting cold. We headed back towards Edinburgh and Riccarton, and aimed for the game that was virtually guaranteed to be on, whatever the weather! Continue reading →

The 6 Towns

05 Wednesday Jul 2017

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Sunday 2nd July 2017 tapes up 18.00

National League Speedway

STOKE POTTERS 47 (Burnett 12+1 Davey 10)

CRADLEY HEATHENS 43 (Morley 13+1 Perry 9 +2)

Att c400

Entry £13

Programme £1

I have a theory that if Arnold Bennett were writing about the Potteries in the 21st century, he’d have written about the local speedway team rather than the twin football teams of Stoke City and Port Vale. That’s not to disparage those clubs in any way, 99% of the time this blog is about visiting football grounds, but there’s something about Loomer Road in Newcastle-under-Lyme that evokes Bennett.

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Wootton By Woodstock

22 Monday May 2017

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Wednesday 19th April 2017 ko 18.30

Witney & District League – Division 3

WOOTTON SPORTS 0

BLETCHINGTON 7 (White 34 Buschay 35 Evans 40 Deabill 55 73 84 Godfrey 56)

Att c25

Entry FREE

No Programme

After the exertions of the Easter Hop, even I felt like slowing down. I’d talked to the other half of GroundhopUK, Chris Berezai and he did absolutely nothing for three days! But when you’re helped organise and event consisting of 13 football matches in 4 and a half days how do you recharge your batteries? By going to a football match of course! Continue reading →

Gallacticos

21 Friday Apr 2017

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Tuesday 4th April 2017 ko 18.20

Spartan South Midlands League Division Two

MK GALLACTICOS 3 (Wreh 35 Smith 54 Joao 76)

MURSLEY UNITED 2 (Hollingsworth 46 Skelton 76) Jay sent off (dangerous play 80)

Att 35 at North Fuzton Sports Ground, Milton Keynes

Entry FREE

No Programme

When I tick off a pitch in Milton Keynes I always think of my friend James. Maybe you’ve seen the Rennie Trophy presented at the end of each North Berkshire Hop, that’s named after him. James died a few years ago, but before he left us he attempted to watch a game on every single pitch in his adopted town. Continue reading →

Wagons

20 Monday Mar 2017

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Saturday 11th March 2017 ko 13.30

Carmarthenshire League Premier Division

EVANS & WILLIAMS SPORTS 0

TROSTRE SPORTS 1 (Waters 22)

Att 134 at Pitch 3 Penygaer Playing Fields

Entry FREE

Programme £2

I remember when Chris Berezai and I first discussed how we were going to organise GroundhopUK’s entire run in the Carmarthenshire League. It was never going to be difficult to sell somewhere like Abergwili to the hoppers, but the Penygaer Playing Fields in deepest darkest Llanelli was another matter entirely! It is the typical unlovely council facility with 5 pitches and a tired looking changing room block resplendent in anti-climb paint and barbed wire. Perhaps it was no bad thing that we only headed there at the very last minute! Continue reading →

Dos Inglés

26 Saturday Dec 2015

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Sunday 20th December 2015 ko 17.00

Copa Regional de Ceuta- Final

CARMELITAS 1 (Jose 34p) Juande Dios sent off 57 (DOGSO)

RAMON Y CAJAL 4 (Alessandro 24 Cristian 81 Nabil 87 Hamid Oulad 90)

Chakin missed penalty 59

Cristian sent off 90 (violent conduct)

Att c300 at Estadio Alfonso Murube, Ceuta

Entry FREE

Programme NO

The difficulty in planning any football in Spain is that the fixtures aren’t fixed until less than a week beforehand. If it’s league fixture, then you can predict with a reasonable degree of certainty that the game will take place on a given weekend, but that could be any time between Friday and Monday, although the part-time Segunda B, and Tercera divisions are far more likely to play on Saturdays and Sundays. All you can do is cover your options and wait. And there were so many good reasons to visit Ceuta too…. Continue reading →

Sea Change

31 Tuesday Mar 2015

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Friday 27th March 2015 ko 19.30

Isle of Wight DFA Senior (Gold) Cup Quarter-Final

EAST COWES VICTORIA AFC 2 (Gregory 59 Craig 90) Thompson sent off 78 (2nd booking)

EAST COWES SPORTS 2 (Tyler 11 Robjoint 76)

AET East Cowes Sports won 6-5 on penalties

Att 82

Entry £3

Programme 50p

It’s probably now common knowledge that we tried to get a Wessex League groundhop up and running, but a few weeks ago I had to end the project. While there was support from many quarters a final meeting in Totton convinced me that there wasn’t enough enthusiasm where it mattered to make it work. A real shame, as many people put a lot of effort into the project, and I was very taken by the carload of officials from the 3 Wessex League clubs Newport (IW), Cowes Sports, and East Cowes Vics who took the time and expense to take the ferry over to hear what I had to say. When it was all over I felt rather bruised by the encounter, so was heartened when several clubs contacted me to commiserate and invite me to their grounds.

Continue reading →

Football Played On Paper

15 Monday Jul 2013

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Saturday 13th July 2013 ko 15.00

Pre-Season Friendly

ERITH TOWN 1 (Quartey 21)

THURROCK 3 (Griffin 25 Grimaldi 67 Perkins 90)

Att 62

Entry £5

Programme None

Played at Badgers Sports & Social Club, Eltham (Cray Valley Paper Mills FC)

If my first game had a tough of the agricultural about it, then the second was definitely suburban! A quick blast along the A20 changed the locale completely, although there’s no lack of open spaces, the Civil Service Sports Ground is the other side of the road after all.

Its been a few years since I saw Erith at their home ground, The Erith Stadium. It’s not ideal, being first and foremost an athletics stadium, so the uncovered seats were a long way from the action, and the necessity to have a players tunnel made ground grading difficult. The seats did get covered, but nevertheless the club decided to move and groundshare at Cray Valley for this coming season. Continue reading →

Breweriana

07 Sunday Apr 2013

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Saturday 30th March 2013 ko 19.30

Northern Counties East Premier Division

TADCASTER ALBION 5 (Taylor 39 65 Rice 78 Winn 84og Youldon 88) Jeff missed penalty 2, Ward sent off (violent conduct) 61

BARTON TOWN OLD BOYS 1 (Dexter 20)

Att 288

Entry £5

Programme £1

The North Yorkshire town of Tadcaster was founded by the Romans, who named it Calcaria from the Latin word for lime, reflecting the importance of the area’s limestone geology as a natural resource for quarrying, an industry which continues today and has contributed to many notable buildings including York Minster. The limestone affects the chemistry of the water, which has given rise to the brewing industry here, as the water is similar to that at Burton-on-Trent, another centre of the brewing trade.

There are three breweries here, John Smith’s, Sam Smith’s and Continue reading →

Banned!

27 Wednesday Mar 2013

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Tuesday 26th March 2013 ko 19.45

Wessex League Premier Division

ROMSEY TOWN 2 (Phillips 41 Harry 90)

FAREHAM TOWN 0

Att 32 (head count)

Entry £5

No Programme

Until I researched this I had no idea why the small Hampshire town of Romsey resonated with me. It’s notable for fly-fishing on the River Test but I prefer my fish in batter with chips so it wasn’t that, but when I saw that Wilbert Awdry was born nearby the pieces began to fall into place. The Rev W Awdry wrote the Thomas the Tank Engine books, and is was him that got me to learn to read as a child. I remember meeting him as a small boy at a model railway exhibition at Oxford Town Hall, and being star-struck for the first time in my short life. You can blame him for what you’re reading now!

The Broadlands Country House is in the outskirts of Romsey too. Variously home to the inventor of Gunboat Diplomacy Lord Palmerston, and Lord Louis Mountbatten of Burma, it was designed by Lancelot “Capability” Brown, and was where Prince Charles and Princess Diana spent their wedding night. I’m not sure whether that last fact is necessarily a selling point!

The factor that influenced this tie for me was the opposition. Fareham Town secretary Paul “Splodge” Proctor is a Continue reading →