Staring deeply into cyber space one evening I had a hunt around the world of non-league football. I was hoping for more to be honest from the web address "sticky palms blog" but what I did find was a bloke who you could say is a little bit keen on the amateur game, after confessing to have fallen out with it's professional big brother. The Groundhopper, and his wife Mrs P, who seems like a Captain Mainwaring's other half figure that you never see, being the stars of the show. As I write this on the night of the Leeds away match our hero talks about his plan for the day, saying : "Mrs P has finally put her foot down and is going shopping in Loughborough!! Might sneak in Nottingham Forest U18s v Manchester City U18s at The Academy." The Groundhopper has been to 42 different grounds this season and his site, full of excellently written match reports, is certainly worth a look. Infact this groundhopping game certainly seems to be a serious business. With the chap who runs the website "thegroundhog" suggesting that he has now started to run out of grounds close to his home at Step 6 and higher of non-league, so he's started taking an interest in the Staffordshire League. Well come on, let's be honest, who wouldn't, although my personal interest didn't go as far as clicking on the link for an explanation of ground grading at Step 6. I'm sure he enjoyed his New Years Day though as he joined 77 other hardy souls to watch Brocton thumped 5-1 at home to Heath Hayes in the Midland Combination Premier, if you could call it a home fixture as Brocton actually groundshare with Heath Hayes. With that being the most local of derbies then it was understandable that Brocton's attendance was down to 38 for the visit of Continental Star in their following home game. One site "blackfelladder" even has a mission statement, with the editor, el Queso Grande, saying that it is his aim to attend a game at all those Arngrove Northern League Clubs he has have never visited before, in 2007-8. Incase you were worried about such a mammoth task the great news is that he hit his target early on the day I write, after attending West Allotment Celtic against Bedlington Terriers at the Blue Flames Sports Complex in Benton. Birtley Town 0-1 Darlington Railway Athletic can't have been much of an afternoon out though as he himself admits to not writing his report until 24 hours after the match as he'd spent that time trying to remember something memorable about the game. He certainly takes plenty of pictures to put on the site, although in some of them he's either falling over or the pitch has a slope worse than the north face of the Eiger, especially at Esh Winning in September. "eachgameasitcomes" is pretty much photograph free, although the editor does show the matchday programme for each game on his site. Like most ground hoppers no game is too low down the pyramid so their region of the country provides plenty of fixtures, with this hopper seemingly being North London based. His last match sees him taking in the Milton Keynes game, not the Dons though, as the MK Wanderers play Rangers X1 in the North Buckinghamshire League Division One. I would be immediately put off going as he knows of no pubs within sensible walking distance, but that didn't stop him and 23 others from venturing out to the Kents Hill Pavilion on a Wednesday night. And 15 of them were apparently late as there were only 8 people there for the kick-off. They must be polite down that way though as the highlight of the first-half was a home player telling the linesman (a Rangers substitute) to "just shut up and leave me alone." Any site that gives a mark out of ten for the quality of chips on offer is always going to get my vote, and that's the case at "aveley-to-zalgiris blog" where teams have to be visited in alphabetical order (don't ask). Although I'm not sure that the editor is a real chip aficionado as he states that at Kings Lynn there were no chips on sale but that he was happy with a crème egg. Ely City though score a bumper 9, with the chips so hot that they melted the polystyrene tray, tea scoring an excellent 9 as well, mainly due to it having "self-controlled" milk. Whether that means the milk has been on an anger management course or you put it in the cup yourself I haven't worked out yet. A nice cup of tea and a good tray of chips is certainly what I'd need though to keep me going in this ground-hopping game. |