Diary of a newfound groundhopper

Tunbridge Wells 1 Rusthall 2, Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division, Saturday 23 rd February 2019 Following a rare foray to a match outside of Sussex last weekend, this Saturday brought another trip to a game outside of my home county. However, as with last weekend’s trip to Lingfield , I didn’t stray too far past the Sussex border. The truth is that I’ve had my eye on a visit to Tunbridge Wells FC’s Culverden Stadium all season. It’s a club with which I can a claim a very loose connection. Not only is my wife from the town, but my father-in-law was for many years the club’s secretary, among other things. I myself was, for a brief period in the 2007/08 season, the club's temporary program editor – despite never having seen the team play either home or away. Welcome, ladies and gents, to the often weird and wacky world of non-league football! This was a situation, though, that I’d vowed to put right this season. And what better time to pay my inaug...

Wick 1 Selsey 0, SCFL Division 1 Challenge Cup Quarter Final, Tuesday 19 th February 2019 I do love half-term weeks. I mean, don’t get me wrong, having to entertain the kids for a whole week is nothing short of a nightmare (not to mention expensive), and my work productivity definitely suffers when they’re around. But the school holidays also mean no football training for the eldest on Tuesday evening which gives me the ideal opportunity to sneak an extra groundhopping game in. Extra football and an escape from the nightly ‘fun’ ritual of having to put the kids to bed? It’s a win-win as far as I’m concerned. A quick glance at the local fixtures revealed that while I’d already visited most of the home teams playing on this particular Tuesday evening, there was one ground I hadn’t yet visited; Wick’s wonderfully named Crabtree Park. So instead of spending Tuesday evening standing in the cold on the side of a football pitch in Brighton watching my eldest train, I inste...

Lingfield 0 Loxwood 1, SCFL Premier Division, Saturday 16 th February 2019 Having spent the past few months groundhopping solely around Sussex (my last trip outside of the county was to watch Bashley take on ColdenCommon Development back in November), it was time to leave the comforts of home. Albeit not by much. This weekend’s journey took me to Lingfield in Surrey, located close to the borders of both West or East Sussex, and indeed Kent. The Lingers are the only team from outside of Sussex to compete in the Southern Combination Football League, but given the village’s location it’s not hard to understand why their participation in the Sussex-dominated league is more appealing to them then the more Surrey-based Combined Counties League. Despite being located in a different county, it was actually quicker for me to drive there from my home in Newhaven then it has been for me to reach a number of Sussex-located grounds, including that of Lingfield’s opponents for the af...

Eastbourne Town 3 Arundel 0, SCFL Premier Division, Saturday 9 th February 2019 Better late than never, as the saying goes. I’d actually planned on paying my first ever visit to Eastbourne Town’s The Saffrons Ground (at least for football purposes) a couple of weeks ago, only for my plans to be thwarted by a certain professional football club’s inability to be able to raise a side. Bless them. Still, I had my rant about that subject a couple of weeks ago , so no need to reopen that particular can of worms. Therefore, when it came to choosing a game to attend this weekend, one eye was always on the SCFL Premier Division match between Eastbourne Town and Arundel. Coincidently, I’d originally been planning a visit to Arundel’s ground last weekend, only for the good old British weather to intervene . My presence at this fixture was obviously meant to be. I'll still be heading to Arundel before the season is out, mind you!  With my eldest heading off to this afternoon’s Brigh...

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....