Steve B the Groundhopper

2pm 30 December  2023 Southern Combination League, Division Two Capel 1 Storrington 4 (att 45) Capel wasn't my planned destination when I left home, but news that Wimborne Town had a late morning pitch inspection ahead of their game made me nervous about heading to Dorset. The pitch inspection was passed, and the match was played, but the relative lack of fixtures over the festive period meant a late postponement would have left me without an alternative. Capel's pitch had also been subject to a morning inspection but being further east, and starting earlier, meant less chance of the incoming storm causing problems. And, had there been a late call off, I'd have had a chance of getting somewhere else. Beare Green Playing Field, where Capel stage their first team home games, was muddy but playable. It's a roped off pitch with a pair of temporary dugouts. A small wooden pavilion provides changing rooms, and cover for a few spectators. Visitors Storrington are going well in...

2pm 23 December  2023 Spartan South Midlands League, Division Two Aston Clinton 0 Old Bradwell United 0 (att 32) Even if there’d been no football to watch I had to drive from Manchester to London, for pre-Christmas reasons, so a slight diversion to Aston Clinton was a welcome groundhopping opportunity. Pitch-hopping rather than groundhopping perhaps. I last visited Aston Clinton Park in 2010, when the football club played on the furthest of two pitches from the car park. In the years since they've moved to the other pitch, so by my rules a return was required. There’s a pair of permanent dugouts, and the playing area is roped off around all four sides. The biggest change to the venue is a smart new pavilion, including a café from where I was able to buy a welcome coffee and hot snack before the game. Football wise it remains a basic venue, but one that's perfectly adequate for the seventh level of non-League football. Sadly it wasn’t a game that will live long in the memory. Th...

2pm 16 December  2023 South Wales Alliance League, Premier Division Treherbert Boys and Girls Club 11 Dinas Powys 0 (att 28) I'd been undecided where to head for a Saturday afternoon game. I settled on Treherbert as the artificial pitch meant no chance of a late call off and as the home side are going well in the fourth tier of Welsh football. They're currently on course for what would be a third successive promotion. Visitors Dinas Powys on the other hand are almost certainly facing a second relegation in as many seasons. I hadn't realised just how badly the visitors had been struggling this season. This 11-0 defeat was actually an improvement on the previous week's 13-0 drubbing at the hands of Cardiff Airport. Treherbert's half time lead was 5-0 and, as is almost always the case in such high scoring games, their final winning margin could easily have been by more. Credit is due to both sides though. Treherbert never eased up, and didn't patronise their oppone...

10.30am 16 December  2023 United Christian Churches League Lifepoint Church 3 Beacon 1 (att 4) An overnight stay after the previous evening's game in Aberdare gave me an opportunity to watch my first ever game in south Wales's Saturday morning competition, the United Christian Churches League. Like similar leagues elsewhere it's essentially Sunday football for teams that don't want to play on the Sabbath. There are currently 11 clubs, covering Cardiff, Swansea and a few points in between. I chose this fixture because it was the only game to have both a venue and a referee confirmed on the excellent Cymru Football app by Friday night. All but one of the other listed matches were played though, with details confirmed on the app during Saturday morning. Lifepoint's home games are at Ashleigh Road Playing Fields in the Sketty area of Swansea. This match was on 'pitch eight' with junior football taking place on many of the other pitches. It's a level of footb...

7.30pm 15 December  2023 Welsh Amateur Trophy, Fifth Round AFC Llwydcoed 1 Newport City 4 (att 50) I'm yet to visit AFC Llwydcoed's regular home ground, but while that's undergoing development work they're playing this season's home games at the Ron Jones Stadium in nearby Aberdare. Even better, from a groundhopping perspective, they're staging some fixtures on Friday nights. This date was originally scheduled for a home league game, but that was postponed to make way for a tie in the last 32 of the of FA of Wales's Amateur Trophy. Both AFC Llwydcoed and Newport City, who were still called Llanwern the last time I saw them, are in Wales's third tier Ardal leagues. The home side are struggling in the south west division, while the Gwent side are having a better time in the south east. A well-worked goal gave the hosts a 15th minute lead, but Newport hit back to equalise within five minutes. By half time there had been no more goals and there seemed little...

3pm 9 December  2023 Liverpool County Premier League, Premier Division The Naylo 2 Old Xaverians 4 (att 12) Such was the wind and rain I had mixed feelings when it was clear my pitch gamble had paid off. The one 3pm kick off featuring first teams was indeed being played on 'pitch one'. But despite awful conditions, which must have been hard to play in and saw most of the 'crowd' disappear well before the end, this was an entertaining game for the neutral. The Naylo, formerly known as Naylorsfield, opened the scoring a couple of minutes before half time. But in stoppage time just before the break a penalty levelled the score. The h ome team's discipline, or lack of it, cost them during the second half. At one point they had two players sin-binned at the same time, and were back to full strength only briefly before red cards towards the end left them again depleted. They finished the match with nine men. It was goals in the closing minutes that earned Old Xaverians th...

1.15pm 9 December  2023 Liverpool Old Boys Amateur League, Premier Division Huyton Stanley 6 Woodstreet 2 (att 4) The Simpson Ground in Liverpool was a simple playing field with changing rooms when I visited for a Woolton home game in 2014. Since then Woolton have had something of a makeover, becoming MSB Woolton, and the ground has been transformed into one of Liverpool's football hubs. There are now a trio 3G pitches. MSB Woolton apparently have ambitions to climb the leagues and are turning 'pitch three' - which is on the same footprint as the grass pitch used in 2014 - into a venue suitable for promotion. As there were two games at 1pm/1.15pm I knew at least one would allow me to tick off one of the other pitches. As it turned out neither fixture was on pitch I'd already been to so I had a choice. With the prospect of a single 3pm game featuring a first team at home I gambled on the chance to complete the set of pitches in one go, and so dipped into the Liverpool Ol...