Tag Archives: Wales

Hearts

23 Monday Sep 2019

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Friday 23rd August 2019 ko 19.30

Gwent County League Division 2

OAK 2 (Mantle 16 Watkins 80)

USK TOWN 2 (Rodden 25 Cullinane 31)

R Hancock sent off 88 (2nd booking)

Att 178

Entry £3

Programme £1

This Welsh Hop should have been so easy to organise. We’d got the accommodation, the coach company and the league all sorted, and we’d even given the league a day’s preview last year. Even the Otley Arms in Treforest were holding a beer festival! So at the end of last season GroundhopUK owner Chris Berezai had sent the Gwent League a wish-list of clubs we wanted to visit, and we waited, and when that didn’t work, we coaxed and cajoled. In the end we got the fixtures 3 weeks before the event. Continue reading →

The Hoovering Up Exercise

19 Wednesday Jun 2019

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Saturday 4th May 2019 ko 14.30

South Wales Alliance Premier Division

MERTHYR SAINTS 5 (James 4 30 55 75 Randall 65)

GRANGE ALBION 2 (Howard 8og Jeremy 78)

Att c30

Entry FREE

I know what you’re thinking, didn’t I visit this one with GroundhopUK? Merthyr Saints have the distinction of being the very first club visited on the very first GroundhopUK hop in August 2002, although the organisation was Chris Berezai then living in Swansea, and styled “The Welsh Groundhop.” Merthyr Saints lost to Bridgend Town in front of 164, but I wasn’t there, my first Welsh Hop was 3 years later, and it wasn’t until 2009 when I became Chris’s deputy. Doesn’t time fly? Continue reading →

Uppaddus

14 Friday Jun 2019

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Tuesday 30th April 2019 ko 20.00

Gwent County League Division One

YNYSDDU WELFARE 4 (Price 47 53 62 Watkins 72)

WATTSVILLE 2 (Roch 24 79)

Att 43 at Pontllanfraith Leisure Centre

Entry FREE

Programme £1

As a groundhopper you find yourself questioning your sanity on a fairly regular basis. You take a psychological step back from what you’re doing and in this case wonder why you’re travelling from Oxford to South Wales, through evening rush hour traffic to watch a game on a plastic pitch in a cage at a leisure centre the local council are trying to close. But if there was one club I simply had to write about this season it was Ynysddu Welfare. Continue reading →

Carry On Up the Ceiber

13 Monday May 2019

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Saturday 6th April 2019 ko 14.30

Welsh League Division 3

PENRHIWCEIBER RANGERS 3 (Carter 6 Davies 31 Morgan 39)

TREDEGAR TOWN 2 (Hillman 8 Cullinane 46)

Herring sent off 90 (dangerous play)

Att c50

Entry £3

Programme 50p

The drive up to the Mountain Ash area from just beyond Pontypridd is one of my favourites in the South Wales Valleys. Part of the reason why it is the sense of history about the area, and my own memories of so many games and clubs visited in the area. It’s got to a point where if I see a mining village I wonder why I haven’t seen a game there yet! Then there’s the switch-back narrow roads and the seeming endless rows of terraced cottages, this is a part of the world where you do have to concentrate when driving! Continue reading →

Maritime

22 Monday Oct 2018

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Saturday 1st September 2018 ko 14.00

Taff Ely Rhymney Valley League Division 1

PONTYPRIDD FC 3 (Hughes 3og Griffiths 53p Lewis 90)

HOPKINSTOWN 3 (Gooch 4p Thomas 22 Solly 85) 

Baker sent off 90 (violent conduct) 

Att 26

Free Entry

After an 11-game blast around the Valleys over the previous weekend you’d have thought the very last thing I’d want is another game in the area! But my regular reader has probably worked out by now that I’m a contrary soul, and I’d had a rather interesting conversation at Rhydyfelin on the Monday of the hop…. Continue reading →

The Finale (For Now)

21 Sunday Oct 2018

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Monday 26th August 2018 ko 17.00

South Wales Alliance Division 1

AFC WHITCHURCH 1 (Bould 66p)

CARDIFF CORINTHIANS 3 (Raven 50 76p Malloys 86p)

Att 312

Entry ??

Programme £1

There are a few jokes to be told about taking 2 coachloads of groundhoppers a game in a mental hospital, my favourite being that we’d get the same number out than we took in, but there’d be plenty of different faces!  Continue reading →

Attack! Attack!

18 Thursday Oct 2018

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Monday 27th August 2018 ko 14.00

South Wales Alliance- Premier Division

CAERPHILLY ATHLETIC 7 (Tedstone 31 49 55 76 Leadbeater 44 74 Edwards 50)

CWM WELFARE 0

Att 252

Entry £3

Programme £1

I refuse to believe there isn’t a groundhopper out there that doesn’t have more than a healthy dose of O.C.D., it goes hand-in-hand with the hobby! My version of it is an odd variant, if I see a town’s name on a road sign, I want to go and see that town’s club. So after 15 or so years heading up and down the A470 passing Caerphilly each time, you can imagine how pleased I was to be finally seeing a game here! Continue reading →

The Dog That Had Its Day

17 Wednesday Oct 2018

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Monday 27th August 2018 ko 11.00

Taff Ely & Rhymney Valley League Premier Division

RHYDYFELIN 2 (Mahoney 4p 73)

Mahoney missed penalty 37

YNYSYBWL 4 (Dan Davies 39 Livock 45 82 L Price 57) 

C Jones sent off 3 (DOGSO)

Tooze sent off 37 (DOGSO)

Att 229

Entry £3

Programme £1

Monday dawned on the final day of the hop, and fortunately the rain had abated save for the odd shower. I knew I’d be approaching the day with mixed feelings, as this was to be GroundhopUK’s last day with the South Wales Alliance for the time being since we’ve run out of clubs that either want to host, can host, or we’ve not already visited.

For this hop the original plan was to start Monday at Cardiff-based St Albans, but they turned us down so the next idea was to go to STM Sports Old Boys, but the pitch they use as the University of Wales wasn’t available as the university was closed over the bank holiday. So we decided to go for a blast from our collective past. Continue reading →

Level Crossing

15 Monday Oct 2018

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Sunday 26th August 2018 ko 17.00

South Wales Alliance Division Two

LLANGEINOR AFC 4 ( Lock 38 73p Evans 45 Laidler 84)

AFC WATTSTOWN 2 (Fisher 53 Huggins 65)

Att 130

Entry £3

Programme £1

After the games at Vale United and Porthcawl Town we needed the groundhopping equivalent of a hug and a blanket. Whilst the two previous host clubs had been excellent, the weather had left us cold and wet, and with my organiser’s hat on I wondered what we’d find at the last game of the day.  Continue reading →

When The Seaside Came

14 Sunday Oct 2018

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Sunday 29th August 2018 ko 14.00

South Wales Alliance Division One

PORTHCAWL TOWN 4 (Davis 8 Crofts 17 90 Comley 90)

CORNELLY UNITED 0

Att 234

Entry £3

Programme £1

We’d got thoroughly soaked at Vale United, and there was little time between there and our middle game at Porthcawl to dry off. The coaches picked their way along Porthcawl seafront, and the rain lashed over the pier, arcades, and the beach. As the rivulets streamed down my coach’s windscreen it seemed barely plausible that this could be during the height of the holiday season. Continue reading →