Tag Archives: Welsh Groundhop

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 →

St Illtud

05 Monday Sep 2016

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Saturday 27th August 2016 ko 10.30

South Wales Alliance – Premier Division

LLANTWIT FARDRE 6 (L Jawad 7 Miller 16 48 80 Griffiths 21 K Jawad 60)

BETTWS 0 Williams sent off (dangerous play 45)

Att 190

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

I’m not sure why I still felt tired, one piece of useful information from 6 years previously I had remembered. If you’ve enjoyed yourself at the Otley Arms and there are four of you that are sufficiently lazy, it is only £1 each to take a taxi up the hill back to your digs at the university in Treforest! That and we’d changed the way we do breakfast too…. Continue reading →

Homecoming

03 Saturday Sep 2016

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Friday 26th August 2016 ko 18.30

South Wales Alliance Premier Division

SULLY SPORTS 2 (Briscombe 22 73p)

CANTON LIBERAL 4 (Kooper 10 Phillips 27 61 Quick 40)

Att 281

Entry £3

Programme £1

When the 2015 Welsh Groundhop finished its stint in the Welsh Alliance at Penmaenmawr Phoenix Chris Berezai and I had a few decisions to make. On one hand we loved the accommodation at Chester University, and had an excellent relationship with our coach company up there, but we were torn over which league or leagues to visit. Ideally we like multi-division leagues with no reserve teams as that allows for the hop to stay in a league for 3 or more years, but there was a clarion call from our past…. Continue reading →

Pent or Five

10 Thursday Sep 2015

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Monday 31st August 2015 ko 11.30

Welsh Alliance Division 2

PENTRAETH 10 (McGonnigle 1 18 54 55 R Roberts 14 Monument 18 37 C Jones 59 89 D Owen 72)

GAERWEN 2 (McGuiness 21 Leuthwaite 27)

Att 376

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

As the coach pulled in back at Chester University the previous evening I remember glancing up at the evening sky. It was dark, with nothing to see, but I’d remembered the previous year’s hop at the pouring rain at Kinmel Bay and how disappointed I’d felt that we’d finished the longest hop of the year on a damp squib. That was a feeling enhanced at 2.30am when I woken by the rain lashing down against the window pane. I slept fitfully after that and when it was still raining at breakfast it took driver Jase to laugh, “Don’t worry mate, it’s not raining in Bangor!” to make me smile. Continue reading →

Mountaineering

07 Monday Sep 2015

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Sunday 30th August 2015 ko 18.00

Welsh Alliance Division 2

MYNYDD LLANDEGAI 3 (M Smith 6 M Hughes 70p Whitmore 74)

MELIDEN 2 (Buckley 15 Szabo 78)

Att 305

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

We left Llanrug and climbed into the mountains of Snowdonia and then we climbed some more. The roads narrowed, the heather turned purple almost it seemed through oxygen deprivation, and eventually we reached the tiny village of Mynydd (Mountain) Llandegai. Continue reading →

Electric Mountain

07 Monday Sep 2015

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Sunday 30th August 2015 ko 14.30

Welsh Alliance Division One

LLANRUG UNITED 2 (Palmer 64 DN Williams 87)

LLANRWST UNITED 1 (Jenkins 79)

Att 324

Entry £4

Programme £1

Badge £3

Even after a week or so after the event, there’s one aspect of the Eithin Duon ground I’m not certain of. If you stand on the right-hand side of the pitch there’s a wonderful view of Snowdonia, with a massive pylon in the middle of it! Now on one hand the pylon is exceedingly ugly, but it does give the place quite a talking point, and I’d hate the valley to be without power! Continue reading →

Renaissance

04 Friday Sep 2015

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Saturday 25th August 2015 ko 19.45

Welsh Alliance Division One

LLANGEFNI TOWN 4 (Evans 57 A Hughes 63 I Jones 74 S Jones 78)

LLANFAIRPWLL 0

Att 409 (Welsh Hop Record)

Entry £4

Programme £1

It felt like we were reaching the 285 yards bit of a marathon as we reached Cae Bob Parry, in the market town of Anglesey, Llangefni. We were grateful the ground has floodlights, a relic of the club’s solitary season in the Welsh Premier, back in the 2007/8 season, but here’s the thing, we were due to visit here on Saturday of the first Welsh Alliance Hop back in 2013. Continue reading →

Oh I do like to be…

03 Thursday Sep 2015

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Saturday 29th August 2015 ko 16.45

Welsh Alliance Division One

TREARDDUR BAY UNITED 4 (Murphy 6 A Thomas 17 28 C Williams 47)

ST ASAPH CITY 3 (J Jones 47 86 Johns 74)

Att 304

Entry £4

Programme £1

Badge £3

From our first two games in agricultural Anglesey, the third saw a complete change of locale. We headed north-west and on to Anglesey’s smaller brother Island, Holy Island. Its best known for the port town of Holyhead, and the ferry over to Ireland, but just west of there is the holiday village of Trearddur Bay. Continue reading →

Lost In Translation

01 Tuesday Sep 2015

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Friday 28th August 2015 ko 18.30

Welsh Alliance Division Two

MOCHDRE SPORTS 1 (Owen 67)

PRESTATYN SPORTS 0

Att 313

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

GroundhopUK’s roots lie with the Welsh hop, back 13 years ago when Chris Berezai put together a one-day event for the Welsh League. My, how the baby has grown as we distributed 130-or-so programme packs and room keys at Chester University and waited for our two coaches to take us to the first game of a 4 day, 11 game extravaganza in the Welsh Alliance. Continue reading →

Looking Back

31 Wednesday Dec 2014

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Hindsight is a wonderful thing, so with 2015 nearly upon us let’s cast a final glance on 2014, after all some exceptional places did get a visit! If you’d like to see more of the places featured, the links with take you to the original articles.

January saw a week’s visit to Malta, and between avoiding nervous British pensioners, and my attempts to source the biggest full English breakfast on the Island, we did manage to watch 9 games. For me there were two highlights, the games on Gozo, where there seemed to be more capacity in the Catholic Churches than residents!

SONY DSC

Of Continue reading →