Diary of a newfound groundhopper

Oakwood 0 Hailsham Town 7, Southern Combination Football League Division One, Saturday 16 th November 2019 The inclement weather has become something of a recurring theme in this blog over the past five or six weeks. So, to cut a long (and frankly rather repetitive) story short, it’s still raining. And it’s still playing havoc with my groundhopping plans! In a rare fit of decisiveness, I'd actually decided fairly on Monday that my match for this weekend would be Roffey vs Mile Oak in the SCFL Division One. After a relatively dry start to the week (especially by recent standards) I was confident that all was looking good for this weekend. Then, on Friday afternoon, it started raining. Hard. By Friday evening, Roffey had announced that there would be a pitch inspection at 9am on Saturday morning. After checking the club’s Twitter feed at 11am whilst coaching at 5Ways Soccer in Brighton, there was still no news. It was obviously one heck of an intense pitch in

Godalming Town 2 British Airways FC 1, Combined Counties Football League Division 1, Saturday 9 th November 2019 It was always going to happen eventually, I suppose. Especially given the awful weather we’ve been having lately. Yes, following an hour-and-a-bit-long drive to reach the small Surrey village of Alfold yesterday afternoon, I arrived at their pitch only to hear the two words that all football spectators simply dread: Match off. Just 15 minutes before the match was due to kick-off, with players from both teams changed and ready for action, the referee decided that the rapidly deteriorating condition of the pitch combined with the torrential rain that was forecast to carry on falling until long after the game was due to finish, meant that the game was unlikely to reach a conclusion. The players and managers were clearly not happy with the decision (I wasn’t overly thrilled, to be honest). Yet it’s hard not to have a degree of sympathy with match officials in

Steyning Town 0 Horsham YMCA 0, Southern Combination Football League Premier Division, Saturday 2 nd November 2019 I won’t lie. There are some days when I wonder why I’m doing what I’m doing. Not many. But some all the same. This morning was certainly one of those days. As I sat at home, listening to the rain lashing against the window panes whilst watching tree branches being blown at quite unnatural angles by the gusty wind, I must admit that I did consider swerving attending a match this weekend. The radiator was on, the house was warm and Soccer Saturday had just started on the TV. The nine games that I had been potentially thinking of going to watch had all fallen foul of the weather and the clear temptation was to spend a rare Saturday afternoon at home in front of the box. Sounds bliss, doesn’t it? However, no sooner had I settled down into my chair, coffee in hand, to listen to Jeff Stelling and the gang, did I suddenly remember something. Something important. Fan