The Disconnect

Tags

Barnton, Football, groundhop, GroundhopUK, Hop, Non League, North West Counties League, Townfield, Vauxhall Motors

Friday 8th March 2019 ko 19.45

North West Counties League- Division One South

BARNTON 0 Cobley sent off FT (foul/abusive)

VAUXHALL MOTORS 2 (Webb 35p Hassall 70)

Att 272

Entry £5

Programme £1

I’d met the coach we at GroundhopUK were using at Ellesmere, in Shropshire, and from there we headed north to pick up a cohort of groundhoppers at Crewe station. It gave me rare time to think as Paul picked his way through a series of leafy Cheshire villages. The first North-West Counties League Hop was 6 games over the last 2 days of the 2017 Easter Hop but its roots lie in a phone conversation I’d had with then Atherton Collieries’ programme editor Joe Gibbons in 2013 that lead to the hop party diverting there when a game at AFC Emley on the Northern Counties East Hop had been postponed due to drifting snow.

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Kilbourne

Tags

AFC Kilburn, Ambergate, Central Midlands League, cmfl, Football, groundhopping, GroundhopUK, Hop, Miners Welfare, Non League, SHERWOOD COLLIERY

Saturday 5th May 2018 ko 13.45

Central Midlands League South Division

AFC KILBURN 1 (McCready 84)

SHERWOOD COLLIERY 3 (Wiesztort 26 Sawter 56 Beardsey 80)

Att 207

Entry £3

Programme £1.50

Maybe it’s because I’m a southerner but when you mention Kilburn, I tend to think of the suburb in north-west London near Maida Vale. In fact I think we took the Hellenic Hop there a couple of times back in the day!  The Kilburn in Derbyshire is in the Amber (river) Valley, which made the “Jade” Garden choice of name for the local Chinese takeaway seem rather inappropriate!  To confuse things further until roughly a century ago the village was known as Kilbourne! The area was the setting for ITV tv drama “Peak Practice.”

The Flock

Tags

Aslockton and Orston, Central Midlands League, Chris Berezai, cmfl, Football, GroundhopUK, Highfield Road, Hop, Non League, Rob Hornby, Swanwick Pentrich Road

Friday 4th May 2018 ko 19.00

Central Midlands League -South Division

SWANWICK PENTRICH ROAD 3 (G Wilding 52 Brooks 77 83)

ASLOCKTON & ORSTON 0

Att 194

Entry £3

Programme £1

If there was ever a league with a history with the organised groundhop it was the Central Midlands League. It reached the national consciousness in 2004 when the league hosted the first and so far only 5-in-a-day hop with the Times in tow to cover it! The hop also managed to be the first to feature 8 games in 48 hours in a freezing March in 2008. Who could forget the snow in Calverton? Of course at the centre of the hops were Chris Berezai at GroundhopUK and the league’s Rob Hornby.

Beer Drinkers

Tags

beer, Football, groundhopping, Harrox, Hop, John Harrox, Molson, Moulton, Non League, PDFL, Peterborough and District, Windmill

Saturday 29th July 2017 ko 13.45

Peterborough & District League Premier Division

MOULTON HARROX 3 (Parry 6 Watkin 26 Woods 42)

SUTTON BRIDGE UNITED 0

Att 280

Entry £4

Programme £1

You got a sense of divergence as the crowd left Holbeach. Some headed for Deeping, some for Fakenham and others March Town. The destinations all had one thing in common, they all were grounds at Step 6 or above, or putting it another way the kind of grounds that if we’d have made the hop an exclusively UCL event, would not have seen hoppers on anything like the scale that happened here. Whilst I understand their reasons, there is a point of view that doesn’t deal with life at Step 7 or below; it would have been lovely to have seen them try the delights of Moulton Harrox and Spalding Town, there were were strong reasons for optimism.

Comrades

Tags

Football, groundhopping, Hampshire, Hop, Long Lane, Ringwood Town, Shaftesbury, Wessex Hop, wessex league

Tuesday 8th November 2016 ko 19.45

Wessex League Division One

RINGWOOD TOWN 2 (Vint 42 Samways 83og)

SHAFTESBURY 5 (Colohan 4 10 Finnegan 36 63 Ford 70)

Att 40

Entry & Programme £5

You’re only just in Hampshire here, just the River Avon separates the historic market town from Dorset, and being on the edge of the New Forest the feel of the town couldn’t be any more English if it tried. I’m not sure the fact that the external scenes for “The Brittas Empire” were filmed at Ringwood Leisure Centre quite fits the narrative though!

From Cheese to Ham

Tags

Bremhill View, Calne Town, Corsham Town, Football, groundhopping, GroundhopUK, Hop, New floodlights, Western League

Saturday 8th October 2016 ko 19.45

Western League Division One

CALNE TOWN 3 (Dolman 21p Jones 29 Webb 61)

CORSHAM TOWN 2 (Pring 12 90)

Att 257

Entry £5

Programme £1

If the day started at the cheese of Cheddar then it finished at the Ham of Calne. Every time you’ve eaten a genuine slice of Wiltshire Cured Ham, chances are it originated at the Harris meat processing plant in Calne or until its closure in 1983 at least. Until then the trade in Irish pigs meant that the plant was roughly half-way to Smithfields Market in London. Time and pork wait for no man it seems.

The White Horse (2nd from) Final

Tags

Football, groundhopping, GroundhopUK, Hop, Malmesbury Victoria, Meadow Lane, Westbury United, Western League

Saturday 8th October 2016 ko 16.30

Western League Division One

WESTBURY UNITED 0

MALMESBURY VICTORIA 1 (Wilkins 52)

Att 233

Entry £5

Programme £1

I’m beginning to think the time and place and to organise groundhops is in hospitality on the previous year’s event! Westbury had been the visitors at Keynsham Town last year, and I remember seeing their committee at half-time during a quite wonderful time, and their enthusiasm was both infectious and magnetic. It was an easy decision to include them this time round.

The Field Of Cheese

Tags

Bowden's Park, Cheddar, Cheddar AFC, Football, groundhopping, GroundhopUK, Hop, Portishead Town, Western League

Saturday 8th October 2016 ko 10.15

Western League Division One

CHEDDAR 2 (Ham 5 Vaughan 17)

PORTISHEAD TOWN 1 (Mortimer 51)

Att 222

Entry £5

Programme £1

The morning started cool, with overnight rain; I quietly celebrated that this was the last English hop of 2016. Four games in a day is one thing when the weather’s good, it’s rather different when it’s cold and wet. I headed down a surprisingly quiet M5 and made for Bowden’s Park.

Comparatively Speaking

Tags

Bedfordshire County league, Engineers Arms, Football, groundhopping, Henlow, Hop, Ickleford, Kempston Hammers Sports, White Eagles, Wixams, Wootton Blue Cross, Wootton Village

Saturday 1st October 2016

10.45 Bedfordshire County League – Division One

HENLOW 3 (Hills 11 Knight 45 Walker 50)

ICKLEFORD 3 (Miceli 48 Bussle 72 G Follano 83) G Follano sent off 87 (2nd booking)

Att 126

13.45 Bedfordshire County League – Division Two

KEMPSTON HAMMMERS SPORTS 2 (Grandidge 16 67)

WIXAMS 0

Att 93

16.30 Bedfordshire County League – Division Three

WOOTTON VILLAGE 2 (A Flynn 49 Churchill-Hall 80)

WHITE EAGLES 2 (Cygan 55 Ptak 87)

Att 131

Entry for all games was free with programmes available for £2, and badges for £3

It’s a point of some regret that the only organised hop on the calendar this season that I’m not involved in is this one. I like to attend other people’s hops, firstly because I’m under no pressure, and secondly because there’s always an opportunity to learn something. Here the organiser is Craig Dabbs and the beauty of his offering is that there’s a direct comparison possible with at least one GroundhopUK offering, and his his philosophy of offering the maximum opportunity for clubs, hoppers and league is the same as ours.

Aftermath

Tags

Athletic, groundhop, GroundhopUK, Harrier, Harriers, Hop, Long Sutton, PDFL, Peterborough & District League, Wittering

Sunday 31st July 2016 ko 17.30

Peterborough & District League Division One

WITTERING HARRIERS 5 (Lockwood 23secs Middleton 27 Braint 37 Cayley 56 Tippett 90)

LONG SUTTON ATHLETIC 2 (W Oliver 3 Cawthorn 59)

Att 250

Entry £4

Programme £1

The throng finally managed to escape Sawtry’s car park and headed off for the last game of the hop. We were bound for the RAF town of Wittering, and in the planning stage this did throw up an unusual decision or two. The club do play some of their games on the air base, beyond security so there was a decision on where to play this one. At GroundhopUK we’ve held games with a security check, who could forget Benson Lions at the Defence Academy in Shrivenham? In this case though the base don’t seem to like Wittering holding all their games there, so we decided to stick with the straightforward, for this time anyway!