Tag Archives: UCL

The Bouncy Castle

09 Saturday Aug 2014

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Sunday 3rd August 2014 ko 11.00

United Counties League Premier Division

PETERBOROUGH NORTHERN STAR 1 (MacLeod 8) Clay sent off 21 (denying clear goalscoring..) Stebbing sent off (2nd booking)

HOLBEACH UNITED 6 (Beeson 22p Fuller 34 Parker 49 Dube 71 78 Spencer 90)

Att 357

Entry £6

Programme £1

Badge £3

Picture the scene; Chris Berezai and I are at a GroundhopUK planning meeting with the host clubs on this hop. We’re new to each other, none of these clubs has ever seen a hop game, let alone participated in one, so at the end of it all, I wanted to give the clubs an idea of what good looks like.

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La Grange

07 Thursday Aug 2014

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Saturday 2nd August 2014 ko 17.00

Peterborough & District League Premier Division

NETHERTON UNTED 2 (Patton 42 Mastin 69)

THORNEY 1 (Baldwin 89)

Att 281

Entry £4

Programme £1

Badge £3

It has to be said The Grange turned into one of the more difficult places to find. That’s no reflection on the club, more a reflection on the speed of development in this part of Peterborough. I mean, how many clubs change entrances without moving grounds? I visited the ground back in 2012, and used one entrance, report here and the stream of traffic, not least Rick and the coach caused more than a few surprised looks as the best part of 300 people drove through the new estate.

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In the Deep end

05 Tuesday Aug 2014

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Friday 1st August 2014 ko 19.45

United Counties League Premier Division

DEEPING RANGERS 3 (Lewis 38 Oliver 78 Flack 85) Lewis sent off 43 (dangerous play)

HARBOROUGH TOWN 0

Att 307

Entry £6

Programme £1

Badge £3

So back on GroundhopUK duty and the fruition of something that started with a tweet from league official Daniel Leggett to Notts hop organiser Rob Hornby. That found me visiting Peterborough Sports to meet Daniel, only to find most of the committee there wanting a chat, and things moved fairly quickly from there. The next move was a first for us, involving a new league, the Peterborough & District League, a feeder to the UCL. We’d visited other league’s clubs where geographically convenient, Penybont and Radnor Valley for example on the Mid-Wales hops but a dual hop would be something new for us to plan. Continue reading →

Circles

12 Sunday Jan 2014

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A week or two ago I was asked by the United Counties League Facebook page to write a guest article. It quite deliberately doesn’t mention the Peterborough & District League, who are also involved in August’s hop, after all it was for a purely UCL audience!

I’m a groundhopper, there I’ve said it, and the United Counties League and I go back to October 2003. I’d just moved to Banbury, and saw that Woodford United were at home to Stewarts & Lloyds. The ground was a devil to find, it helped when the lights were switched on, and I watched S & L triumph once their regular goalkeeper arrived and was substituted on! The people were friendly, and the barbeque tasted as good as it smelled!

I must have enjoyed myself, Continue reading →

Transformer

04 Friday Oct 2013

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Wednesday 2nd October 2013 ko 19.45

Hinchingbrooke Cup First Round

PETERBOROUGH SPORTS 2 (Brader 82 90)

BOURNE TOWN 1 (Robinson 30)

Att 85

Entry & Programme £3

It’s the lot of the groundhopper that you expand your circle of comfort time after time. Consider that idea for a moment, its that point on a journey when you can’t find your way home off the top of your head. When I was a child Dad would drive the family Mini to a resort somewhere in England or Wales, and initially it was a case of wondering whether at the end of the road we’d turn left for south or right for north.

As the years went by you learned more roads, the ring road around Oxford, the route to my Aunt and Uncle in Reading, and I saw a lot of the A34 south (I still do!). But as a groundhopper you gradually learn a taxi drivers knowledge of the motorways, and trunk roads of the country, but then, as you complete the football grounds of a particular area or league, that knowledge falls into abeyance.

It was the case to a large extent for Peterborough, up the A43, with the one junction stint along the M1 before heading past Northampton, Rushden and Raunds, before crossing under the A11. It was for a good reason, as Peterborough Sports are new to the United Counties League, and this was their first game under their new floodlights. However what I and the handful of other hoppers saw on arrival surprised each and every one of us.

The ground, in Lincoln Road used to be Continue reading →