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Groundhopping away from home

Bootle FC 3 Charnock Richard 1, NWCFL Premier Division, 21 st August 2018 When, a few months ago, the parents of the Withdean Youth team that I had coached for the past eight years clubbed together to buy me a tour of Anfield, my wife viewed this as a great opportunity to take a few days away with the kids during the summer holidays. What she hadn’t banked on back then was my new hobby of Non-League groundhopping. Therefore, with the tour booked, and our dates away confirmed, I started looking into possible matches that we could attend. You can probably imagine the better half’s excitement when I informed her of my plans. Surprisingly, however, she didn’t turn down my offer for her to tag along me and the kids. Following some half-hearted research (never been a strength if I’m honest), I noticed that North-West Counties Football League side Bootle FC were scheduled to be at home on the Tuesday evening that we were due to be in Liverpool. The name Bootle struck a chord ...

Sussex snow prompts sojourn to Seaford

Seaford Town 3 Midhurst and Easebourne 3, SCFL Division one, Saturday 2 nd February 2019 Over the last few days, I, like a large proportion of the British population I suspect, have become something of a weather watcher. As the week wore on, and it became increasingly clear that snow was likely to meddle with the weekend's local nonleague football schedule, I began trying to pinpoint areas in Sussex where games were likely to go ahead. Just in case my first-choice game of Arundel vs Pagham were to fall foul of the conditions. Which ultimately it did. Now, 20 years ago or so, if I'd wanted to keep track of what the weather was supposedly going to be like, I’d probably turn the TV on to see what the highly trained meteorological experts giving the forecasts were saying. You know, Ulrika Johnson, Denise Van Outen… people like that. But times have changed. These days I no longer bother listening to the ‘experts’. Instead I do what most other sane British people do....

Peacehaven’s late show proves why leaving early is a no no

Peacehaven and Telscombe 3 Langney Wanderers 3, Southern Combination Football League Premier Division, Tuesday 20 th August 2019 One of my biggest bugbears when attending live football matches are ‘supporters’ (and I use that term loosely) who leave the game early to ‘avoid the traffic’. It’s something that I used to see all the time when I took my Brighton-supporting eldest to the Amex Stadium on a fairly regular basis a few years ago. One game that particularly sticks in mind was a match against Leicester. The visitors were leading 1-0 with about five minutes left when a Leicester player was sent off. Suddenly, and somewhat inexplicably, a plethora of people sitting around us stood up and started shuffling unapologetically towards the exits, obviously eager to get a march on those foolish enough to actually stay around until the end of the game. I just don’t get it. Never have done. Never will do. There was still plenty of time for late drama, but these ‘fans’ clearl...

Diary of a newfound groundhopper

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