Diary of a newfound groundhopper

Storrington 0 Littlehampton Town 6, Southern Combination Football League Division One Cup Round One, Saturday 26 th October 2019 As with last week, my match selection for this weekend was made with more than half an eye on the weather. Having endured on-and-off outbursts of rain for much of the past seven days, and with an absolute deluge forecast for Saturday afternoon, the obvious – and safe – choice would have been to go and watch a match being played on a 3G surface… Again. However, having already visited all the local 3G surfaces, I was reticent to pay yet another visit to a ground that I’d already been to. After all, the whole point of being a ‘groundhopper’ is to visit as many different grounds as possible. It was only seven days ago that I revisited Lancing’s Culver Road ground, so I really didn’t want to spend a second consecutive Saturday at a ground I’d already been to. Plans to head to an all-weather surface a little further afield were scuppered by wif...

Lancing FC 1 Loxwood 0, Southern Combination Football League Premier Division, Saturday 19 th October 2019 After a week of heavy, at times unrelenting, rain, the choice of venue for this weekend’s match was made with half-an-eye on the weather. With Saturday morning pitch inspections being scheduled throughout Sussex, there was simply no way I wanted to risk arriving at a ground only to discover the game had been called off. Therefore, a re-visit to Lancing’s 3G surfaced Culver Road Stadium – the home of the Sussex County Football Association HQ – was ultimately decided upon, for the SCFL Premier match between high-flying Lancing and bottom-of-the-table Loxwood. In truth, the weather wasn’t the only factor behind my decision. Had it not been for the fact that wifey was attending a course of some description (she did tell me what it was about, but I wasn’t listening) meaning I had our two boys for the afternoon, then I probably would have looked to attend an FA Cup qu...

K Sports 3 AFC Croydon Athletic 1, Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division, Saturday 12 th October 2019 I’m starting to think that I’m destined not to watch any FA Vase matches this season. Having missed games in the t wo qualifying rounds for a combination of reasons , I had been almost certain that I’d be at an FA Vase match this weekend – right up until Thursday lunchtime. In fact, I’d even picked which game I was going to go to. Mile Oak vs Redhill. Perfect. Then I remembered something. Or rather, then I was reminded of something. We’d (by which I, of course, mean wifey) had already made other plans. We (she) had arranged to visit her sister in Tunbridge Wells on this particular afternoon. In fairness, I do vaguely recall her mentioning something about this a few weeks ago. But – surprise, surprise – I wasn’t really listening to what she was saying and so agreed uncomplainingly to her plans without really knowing quite what it was I was agre...