Tag Archives: Wales

3 Pipes

17 Thursday May 2018

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Saturday 14th April 2018 ko 14.30

Welsh League Division Two

PONTARDAWE TOWN 1 (Roberts 90)

ABERDARE TOWN 2 (Haggett 48p 50)

Att 109

Entry & Programme £4

If watching Swansea City’s youth team was an exercise in largesse and the complete absence of thought outside of the box this was the exact opposite. Once the Carmarthenshire League left our thoughts in the planning of this hop, once we realised Pontardawe were at home we were always likely to head here. For one Chris Berezai used to be programme editor here, and significantly the club only moved to Parc Ynysderw in the last couple of years.                                                          . Continue reading →

Patterns

16 Wednesday May 2018

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Saturday 14th April 2018 ko 11.00

FA Premier U18 League

SWANSEA CITY 0

LEICESTER CITY 0

Att 113 @ Landore Training Centre

Entry FREE

Teamsheet FREE

With the Welsh Spring Hop almost completely rejigged we left our hotel at Carmarthen a little earlier than usual. With the loss of the Carmarthenshire League’s fixtures I found myself feeling a pang of regret as the coach turned left out of the hotel and headed towards Pont Abraham and the M4. I remembered our 4 year stint in the Ceredigion League where we turned right and headed north; I don’t remember a club on those hops who didn’t host beautifully. It’s a shame we’ve completed the league and there’s no new grounds to visit. But that’s in the past sadly, and there was a trip to Swansea City’s training ground to ponder. Continue reading →

Everything Changes, Everything The Same

15 Tuesday May 2018

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Friday 13th April 2018 ko 19.30

Welsh League Division One

GOYTRE 1 (Leek 17)

LLANELLI TOWN 4 (Loveridge 15 45 90 C Jones 39) Vickers sent off 50 (dangerous play)

Att 151

Entry & Programme £5

For the last few years the Welsh Spring Hop has been based in West Wales, firstly in Ceredigion then for the last 2 events in Carmarthenshire. We’d had a few issues organising last year’s hop and this proved to even worse! In the end only the first and last games of the hop remained the same, visits to Goytre and Butetown and significantly neither of those clubs are in the Carmarthenshire League! The problems Chris Berezai faced were many and varied but can be neatly summed up as follows. Continue reading →

Sea Salt

09 Friday Mar 2018

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Sunday 25th February 2018 ko 14.30

Welsh Premier League

PRESTATYN TOWN 0

NEWTOWN 1 (Goodwin 4)

Att 201

Entry £7

Programme £2

We’d had a bit of an adventure after returning back to our hotel after the Bala game. We were walking in the main entrance when an ambulance on blues and twos screamed into the car park. There’d been a wedding at the hotel and a guest had thought it would be a jolly jape to drop a Viagra pill into someone’s champagne… In the end no harm was done, I hope the victim wasn’t the groom (he spent the night in hospital) and it did serve to empty the bar for the hop party!

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Sunset Over Snowdonia

05 Monday Mar 2018

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Saturday 24th February 2018 ko 17.30

Welsh Premier League

BALA TOWN 1 (Davies 15)

CARDIFF METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY 0

Att 303

Entry £6

Programme £1

Teamsheet FREE

We headed south-west through the foothills over Snowdonia, and although the journey was only 40 or so miles it took us over a hour, such is the realities of travel in rural North Wales. We arrived at Maes Tegid and it became clear that the late kick off had attracted hoppers that we hadn’t seen for the rest of the day. It was a pleasure to grab a tea and catch up, well apart from the one hopper that went through the turnstiles with his hood pulled up then scuttled off to the far end without such as an acknowledgment to anyone else. Different strokes for different folks I suppose… Continue reading →

Rock Climbing

28 Wednesday Feb 2018

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Friday 23rd February 2018 ko 19.45

Welsh Premier League

CEFN DRUIDS 0

BANGOR CITY 2 (Hewitt 44 45p)

Att 426

Entry £7

Programme  & Teamsheet £2

There’s no question that it was highly flattering for GroundhopUK to to be approached to run a Welsh Premier League Hop. But when Chris Berezai mentioned it to me I found myself questioning whether the idea could be made to work? I looked back to the set of compromises that is a successful hop and wondered how we could adapt them for the needs of the Wales’ top domestic league? Continue reading →

Cistercian

14 Sunday Jan 2018

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Saturday 13th January 2018 ko 14.15

East Gwent League Division 1

TINTERN ABBEY 4 (Hollow 11 G Reynolds 24 30 Morgan 42)

MATHERN FC “A” 4 (Wright 2 65 Pearce 44 55)

Att c20

Entry FREE

I’d been faintly amused by the reaction of a few “Lower numbers” hoppers after I’d published my article on Altis. I know and understand the groundhopper that has to have a stand, a programme, and the game at a certain level but but had I, and others been “Barrel-scraping?” It is of course a question without an answer, the title of this blog suggests location rather than a place in a pecking order after all! What really made me smile was what I had planned for the weekend!

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Spectacular

28 Tuesday Nov 2017

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Saturday 18th November 2017 kop 13.30

Gwent Central League-Langdon Cup 2nd Round

FORGESIDE 1 (Tidball 4)

CLYDACH WASPS RESERVES 0 

Att 10

Entry FREE

I’d had a lousy week, and all of my plans for the weekend had crumbled into dust. I really couldn’t raise the enthusiam to head anywhere, and I’ve got Robyn to thank for this trip. She suggested I drop her at her Mum’s in Bristol then head off to “Something Welsh, you usually find something amazing there.” At that point, the penny dropped. Continue reading →

The Carpenter

28 Thursday Sep 2017

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Monday 28th August 2017 ko 13.45

South Wales Alliance Division 2

ST JOSEPH’S 0

CARDIFF AIRPORT 5 (Richards 7 Caton 35 73 90 Fallas 64)

Att 258

Entry £3

Programme £1

It didn’t take long for the coaches to get from Penarth to Cardiff, despite the usual bank holiday traffic. In fact the only issue was working out exactly where the ground was, tucked away as it is behind the suburban housing. The fact that this was for a hop game helped, after 9 games I could recognise many of the hoppers’ cars! Continue reading →

The Two Fences

25 Monday Sep 2017

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Monday 28th August 2017 ko 11.00

South Wales Alliance Division One

COGAN CORONATION 0 Boulton sent off 71 (2nd Booking)

AFC WHITCHURCH 6 (Bould 11 Spencer 27 Woodman 49 Fry 54 90 Brazier 74p)

Att 227

Entry £3

Programme £1

Monday dawned, and I half-showered, half used the warm water to breath life into my tired legs. Just the 3 games left, in what has become something of a tradition, Cardiff Monday, scheduled for a coach drop after the final game at Cardiff Central Railway Station. I found myself wondering why I and others were so tired after 7 games when at Maine Road we’d felt more sprightly after 10? Continue reading →