Tag Archives: Wales

In Defence Of the Atcost

31 Friday Dec 2021

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Tuesday 21st December 2021 ko 19:45

Cymru Premier

FLINT TOWN UNITED 3 (Roberts 27 Cadwallader 75p 76)

Weaver sent off 87 (2nd Booking) 

CAERNARFON TOWN 4 (Hayes 21 Hughes 22 Edwards 41 Donohue 45p)

Simpson sent off 62 (Serious Foul Play)

Att 453

Entry £8

Programme £1 (re-issue from postponed game- cover price £2)

Teamsheet FREE

There are always those grounds that somehow evade your attention, and perhaps top of my list was Flint Town United’s Cae-Y-Castell. A lot of that was due to the pandemic and before that it slipped through the net despite a mixture of the Welsh Alliance Hops and a concerted effort around 15 years ago to visit as much as I could along the North Wales coast. So with both Robyn and I having finished work for Christmas and Robyn never having visited North Wales before, we took advantage of the Cymru Football App’s accuracy, and a twice postponed fixture. Continue reading →

Oh, my dear friend. How I’ve missed you.

07 Tuesday Dec 2021

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Sunday 21st November 2021 ko 11:00

Bridgend & District Sunday League

LITCHARD PARK 1 (Randall 41)

GARTH VADER 1 (Horrigan 74)

Roberts sent off FT (Foul & Abusive)

Att 5 at Pitch 4, Newbridge Fields, Bridgend.

Free Entry

I still have a theory that everyone who follows a big club ought to go and watch a game on a park pitch once in a while. I find it oddly cathartic to breathe cold Sunday morning air, to feel the grass give beneath my feet and even to watch the leaves fall like oversized rain drops from autumnal trees. So when my wife Robyn wanted to be in Bristol to see her former workmates on a Sunday morning I knew immediately what I wanted to do.

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Incognito

03 Friday Dec 2021

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Saturday 20th November 2021 ko 14:00

Gwent Premier League- Division One

P.I.L.C.S. 3 (Bown 28 34 39)

COED EVA ATHLETIC 5 (Perkins 35 55 Bloomer 72 Williams 76 88p)

Att 17

Free Entry

There was plenty going on before I even crossed the Prince of Wales Bridge. I knew I’d be based in Bristol for the weekend, with my wife Robyn watching Bristol City on the Saturday and seeing her girlie friends on Sunday morning. That gave me an opportunity or two, but we decided to have a Saturday evening family get-together at the ice hockey because the Bristol Pitbulls versus my hometown Oxford City Stars was too good an opportunity to turn down! Continue reading →

The Mumbles Mile

13 Tuesday Jul 2021

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Saturday 10th July 2021 ko 14:00

Welsh Cup 1st Qualifying Round

MUMBLES RANGERS 1 (E Smith 1)

March sent off 56 (foul & abusive)

PENLAN CLUB 2 (Fisher 56 Edwards 72)

L Otten sent off 77 (serious foul play)

Att c100  😉 at Underhill Park.

Without question Welsh clubs have suffered tougher Covid restrictions than their English counterparts; it does take a remarkable turn of events for me to have not seen a game in Wales since a visit to Afan Lido back in December 2019! Many Welsh teams hadn’t played a game since the first UK lockdown in March 2020, and just to make life more complicated there was a restructuring to the footballing pyramid in Wales too! Continue reading →

The Reliable

23 Tuesday Feb 2021

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Friday 24th August 2007 ko 18.45

South Wales Amateur League Division One

AFC PORTH 3 (Evans 45 72 Snooks 64)

CAERAU 0 

Att 266

Entry £2

Programme £1

On any organised groundhop you want reliability. You want the weather to be fine, the clubs to make the best of their opportunity and at the most basic level you want the teams to turn up at the right place at the right time. But once you’ve got the basics down, you look for cooperation. In the widest sense you look that hoppers, clubs and league understand each others’ compromises but you learn to accept that almost never completely happens. So you look to those hoppers, and clubs who “Get” what you trying to achieve, and unquestionably one club that did in spades was AFC Porth.

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Brecknock

06 Saturday Feb 2021

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Sunday 18th February 2007 ko 14.00

Welsh League Division 3

YSTRADGYNLAIS 3 (Hopkins 37p Maggs 82 86)

CWMBRAN CELTIC 3 (Williamson 9 32 Cheedy 16)

Att 47

Entry & Programme £2

When I put together these articles, I tend to ask myself the same question and that’s “Why would someone visit here?” but in this case I think there are two more pressing things to answer! The first and please forgive the mauling of the Welsh language is “Ustra-Gun-Lice” the name means ‘Vale of the river Cynlais’ these days the River Tawe, which gives Abertawe, or Swansea its name. That tells you a little of your second question, the town is roughly 16 miles north west of Swansea.

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Hindsight

11 Friday Dec 2020

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Friday 6th January 2006 ko 19.30

Welsh League Division One

BRIDGEND TOWN 0

BARRY TOWN 1 (Reddy)

Att c100

Entry £3

Programme 50p

My abiding memory of this game was arriving at Coychurch Road far too early, around 6pm as I didn’t know what time this game was to kick-off at. I knew nothing back then of course Coychurch Road had staged Southern League football, and Bridgend’s stint in English football had only ended in 1983, when the club had opted back into Welsh football.

The night’s visitors had been one of the “Irate Eight” who on the formation of the League of Wales in 1992 had wanted to remain in the English game. They’d played one season as Barri AFC playing out of Worcester City before returning to the Welsh game a season later. Perhaps that’s why they didn’t know what time kick-off time was either…

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Leckwith

09 Thursday Jul 2020

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Saturday 24th February 2007 ko 14.30

Welsh League Division One

GRANGE HARLEQUINS 1 (Karnouniaris 59)

U.W.I.C. 1 (Makas 56)

Att 47

Entry £3

Programme £1

There is a parallel to be drawn here. If you go to a game at the newish Cardiff International Athletics Stadium you’ll see the Cardiff City Stadium beyond the stadium and to the left with the Millenium Stadium in the background. So back in 2007 there I was sat in the stand at Leckwith stadium with Cardiff City’s Ninian Park beyond and to the left with the Millenium Stadium in the background. So Leckwith and the new Athletics Stadium are on the same footprint then? No, not quite….. Continue reading →

A Tale of Trelewis

03 Wednesday Jun 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.

Friday 25th August 2006 ko 18.20

South Wales Amateur League Division Two

TRELEWIS WELFARE 3 (D Morris 65 90 Munkley 90)

GRAIG 3 (D Jones 29p Moon 31 Marshalsea 77)

Att 209

Entry £3

Programme £1

For so many people the clubs of the South Wales Amateur League, now the South Wales Alliance were opened up by organised events by the Welsh Groundhop, now GroundhopUK. I’m not saying I wouldn’t have visited without Chris Berezai’s help, Valleys football is hugely enjoyable, but sometimes you just need that little nudge in the right direction! Continue reading →

Church Going

08 Friday May 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.

Friday 24th April 2009 ko 19.30

Welsh League Division Two

ELY RANGERS 1 (Penikett 53)

U.W.I.C. 0

Att 88

Entry £3

Programme 50p

The more senior hoppers may look at this game and wonder with my GroundhopUK connections why I wasn’t at the visit here that proceeded the “Welsh Hop-Up” a year earlier? The answer was straightforward- I was in Newport Gwent Hospital’s maternity unit! I’d even travelled down for the game with the ex-wife, but half way down we’d got word that Bethan, our friend from Magor had given birth. Continue reading →