Tag Archives: travel

The One In The Middle

16 Friday May 2025

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Saturday 23rd March 2025 ko 15:30

Essex Senior League

LITTLE OAKLEY 1 (Harris 37og)

Papple sent off (violent conduct) 90+1

STANWAY ROVERS 2 (Okoye 41 Maycock 45+1)

Chatting sent off (violent conduct) 90+1

Att 111

Non-League Day “Passport” £30

Entry £6

Programme FREE

After the Benfleet game it seemed that the hordes scattered to the four winds. There were no end of options for the middle game of the three on the Essex Senior League’s Non League Day event, albeit those of us with the passports were limited to clubs within the league. For me I had two options that would represent a new ground, Little Oakley or Athletic Newham and it was fairly obvious which one I favoured.

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West, yes!

13 Tuesday May 2025

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Sunday 16th March 2025 ko 12:30

East of Scotland League Third Division

LINTON HOTSPUR 2 (Martin 4 McLean 49)

LIVINGSTON UNITED 0

Att 372

Entry £5

Programme £2

Sunday’s fixture on the Scottish Hop saw a complete change of locale. We’d spent a day and a half visiting industrial, and post-industrial towns in the Central Belt. Now it was time to head south and make for the border.

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The Five Sisters

23 Wednesday Apr 2025

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Saturday 15th March 2025 ko 13:45

East of Scotland League Division Two

WEST CALDER UNITED 4 (Wilkins 21 45 McConnell 66 Young 83og)

KENNOWAY STAR HEARTS 3 (Nugent 23 Lawrie 54 Walker 90+1p)

Att 336

Entry £8

Programme £2

From Harthill it seemed like no distance at all to West Calder, another village that owes its existance to the mining industry- in this case shale. We passed “The Five Sisters” on the way- huge bings, or spoil heaps that sadly you can’t see from Hermand Park.

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Caracas

08 Tuesday Apr 2025

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Friday 14th March 2025 ko 19:45

Lowland League

CUMBERNAULD COLTS 2 (Duncan 10og Ross 40)

BROXBURN ATHLETIC 0

Att 375 at Broadwood Stadium

Entry £6

Programme £2

It is always a brutal journey to the Scottish Hop but for me it’s great joy has been watching it’s evolution. From a conversation at Camelon Juniors in 2014, Jamie McQueen’s stirling work while at Whitehill Welfare, Chris Berezai’s marathon driving stints to meet the Lowland League, through to that first game at East Kilbride this event has never come with the huge history of the organised hop south of the border.

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Blessed

11 Monday Nov 2024

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Saturday 5th October 2024 ko 15:00

Southern Counties East League Premier Division

FISHER FC 1 (Barrington 14)

FAVERSHAM TOWN 3 (Kwayie 43 90+6 Newman 75)

Att 423

Entry £8

Programme £2

It has to be said that over the years I’ve developed a soft spot for Fisher Athletic and when they folded in 2009; the phoenix club Fisher FC. There is no obvious reason for it, I first saw Athletic well after the loss of the Surrey Docks Stadium in Rotherhithe in 2004 during their stint sharing at Dulwich Hamlet, and even at Bacon’s College in pre-season in 2012 when I could still have a brief look at the old ground, now well and truly derelict.

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Home From Home

29 Tuesday Oct 2024

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Saturday 21st September 2024 ko 17:30

West Wales Premier League

MUMBLES RANGERS 7 (Jenkins 22 Evans 24 Spring 42 Amphlett 50 69 James 57 Williams 88)

Amphlett missed penalty 45

BRYN ROVERS 0

Att 160

Entry £3

Programme £2

You may recall that Chris Garner and I paid Mumbles Rangers a visit back in 2021 when Covid restrictions were starting to ease. We picked Underhill Park purely as it was a public park so the Welsh Senedd’s dictat that crowds of over 100 for an event were still banned couldn’t possibly be breached (!)

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The River Island

21 Monday Oct 2024

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Saturday 21st September 2024 ko 11:00

West Wales Premier League

YNYSTAWE ATHLETIC 2 (Brooks 34p Green 57)

DAFEN WELFARE 2 (Jones 16 54)

Att 194

Entry & Programme £5

Between the ill-fated Carmarthenshire Hop and this West Wales Premier League Hop we do seem to be seeing a lot of Pont Abraham. Most will know the place as being the western end of the M4 but if you’ve done enough of these events you’ll see it as being the gateway to places like Llandeilo , Pontarddulais and now Ynystawe.

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Seaside

18 Friday Oct 2024

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Friday 20th September 2024 ko 19:00

West Wales Premier League

SEASIDE 0

GARDEN VILLAGE 1 (Jewell 56)

Att 207

Entry £3

Programme £2

For an organised hop that’d been so successful there was a tinge of regret about this season’s visit to West Wales. That was mainly due to the loss for the August Bank Holiday Welsh Hop; the FAW Trophy made it difficult to organise, and the Gwent League’s inability to supply fixtures- impossible. But if this was to be GroundHopUK’s only visit to Wales this season, there was the overarching feeling that we should make it a good one.

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Donna

15 Tuesday Oct 2024

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Saturday 7th September 2024 ko 20:45

Serie C Girone (Group) B

RIMINI FC 0

DELFINO PESCARA 1 (Ferraris 85)

Att 3,981 (2,005 season tickets, 1,976 match tickets) at Stadio Romeo Neri

Entry €22

Programme/ Team sheet online only

We’d flown in to Rimini-San Marino airport the previous Wednesday evening and together with the other passengers on the flight were faced with something unusual. There was absolutely no onward transport, the buses had finished for the day, and there wasn’t a taxi to be seen. I found the number of a local taxi firm and eventually a stream of cabs arrived to take the flight to various hotels in the Rimini, Riccione, and Cattolica area. We finally got to our hotel, dumped our bags and had just enough time in the end to grab a Piadina, it’s a good job restaurants in Italy tend to close late!

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The Big Cheese

21 Tuesday Apr 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.

These next two articles serve two purposes, first to document the one country of the 25 I’ve visited for football, that’s never been covered in this blog- The Netherlands. Secondly this was my first footballing trip abroad as an independent traveller.

Friday 11th February 2011 ko 20.00

Dutch Erste Divisie

CAMBUUR LEEUWARDEN 2 (Schepers 21 Türk 59)

F.C. EINDHOVEN 1 (van Boekel 83p)

Att 5,950

Entry €20

Programme €1

Pennant €7

With this tale, it’s important to set the scene. Three-and-a-half years had passed since that first footballing trip abroad to Sweden, and since that time I’d added no further countries to my experiences. The reason was straightforward, my then wife was claustrophobic and would neither fly, nor go on a cross-channel ferry. I could plan, but I knew that anywhere I went would have to be without her. That I wasn’t prepared to countenance. Continue reading →