Steve B the Groundhopper

6.15pm 24 July  2026 Henry Hawtin Memorial Cup, Group A at Enstone Charlbury Town 3 Chadlington 2 (att 76) With a work-free Friday I had hoped for a new ground in the Welsh Cup, but the crop of Friday evening ties were all on grounds I'd been to previously. So instead I headed to Oxfordshire. I'd been to Enstone previously as well, way back in 1990 for a match that was played on a pitch on the far side of the cricket square. But these days the primary pitch is the other of the two, closer to the clubhouse, and hence a desire to return. Enstone doesn't currently have a team of its own, but in the season ahead the ground will apparently be used by a newly-former Burford Town, seemingly unable to get a suitable facility in Burford, and by the reserve side of Longford Park. Neither were in action for this match, which was a group stage game in the annual pre-season Henry Hawtin Memorial Cup, which is played at Enstone. It may be pre-season, but these local rivals, both in the t...

1pm 18 July  2026 Pre-season friendly Hampsthwaite 0 Harlow Hill 2 (att 25) I hadn't been aware of this game until speaking to a fellow groundhopper at my morning game in Leeds. As it was closer than my originally intended game, and an earlier kick off, I decided on a change of plan. I'm not a fan of ticking off clubs' proper grounds for friendlies, but while this was at Hampsthwaite's regular home venue, the Rossett Sports Centre in Harrogate, it is just a caged artificial pitch. It's not too bad as such grounds go, with a spectator area along the full length of one side. Some spare sets of small-sided goals do impede the view in places, but with no admission charge it'd be churlish to complain about that. Both sides are Harrogate based, and both won promotion last season. The hosts to the second tier of the York League, and Harlow Hill to the top division of the West Yorkshire League. It wasn't a bad game for a friendly. Harlow Hill, effectively one level ...

10.30am 18 July  2026 Saturday Morning Summer Cup at Scott Hall Playing Fields, Leeds Bridge Community 2 Leeds Huaren (att 4) A pair of Leeds venues have been used for this year's Saturday Morning Summer Cup, and having visited one for my final game of 2025/26  I ticked off the other early my 2026/27 season. Scott Hall Playing Fields, just north of the city centre, has five pitches. Two were staging Summer Cup games, and I opted for this fixture as the other was a dead rubber. The top four of the eight competing sides progress to the semi-finals, and while Bridge went into the final round of matches assured of their place, Leeds Huaren knew their outcome was in the balance. Bridge Community - a side made up of refugees getting to grips with life in the UK - took a fifth minute lead. They would have doubled it soon after had the referee not spotted what he thought, incorrectly, was a handball when they scored again. Leeds Huaren, who spent last season in the Wakefield and Distr...

11am 12 July  2026 Kildare and District League, Senior Division Arlington 0 Clonmullion 4 (att 30) After the previous day's game in Galway I had hoped to see a Sunday morning game in the Mayo League. But with Mayo's Gaelic footballers in an all-Ireland semi-final the local soccer league postponed the weekend's matches. But Mayo isn't the only junior league with a summer season, and I had a handful of games to choose from the Kildare and District League. I opted for the sole top division fixture. Arlington play close to the small County Laois town of Portarlington, and at Castle Park have a good facility in a rural setting. The main pitch runs parallel to a car park, and has concrete post-and-rail barriers along both sides. There are dugouts on the far side, and a corrugated iron shelter opposite which, while it might have been installed with spectators in mind, was utilised as a dugout by the visitors. Clonmullion are clear at the top of the table, and once they went in...

5pm 11 July  2026 League of Ireland, Premier Division Galway United 3 Sligo Rovers 2 (att 3,076) Like Derry City , Galway United are another club faced with finding an alternative venue for handful of home matches due to work going on at their regular ground. Also like Derry City, Galway have made it a bonus for groundhoppers by borrowing the local GAA Stadium. Pearse Stadium, in the Salthill area of Galway, has a capacity of more than 26,000, making it far larger than United's Terryland Park home and more than big enough for League of Ireland football. Just the seated stand was open to home supporters, with Sligo's travelling fans accommodated on part of the open terracing on the far side. The rest of the far side, and both ends, also consist of open terracing but were closed off for this match. For most of the match this looked like being an unremarkable home win. Sligo began the game bottom of the table, and it was no surprise that they trailed 1-0 at half time. Early in the...

3pm 4 July  2026 Pre-season friendly Cranfield United 3 Stotfold 1 (att 73) Like the day's earlier match at Newport Pagnell, this was a return to a club I visited many years ago to see a pre-season game on an adjacent 3G pitch. I ticked off Cranfield United in January 1992. This game was at Cranfield Pavilion, a Bedfordshire FA facility that has its own entrance, car park and pitch-side building. That building, which I assume includes changing rooms, wasn't in use. But the pitch is close enough to United's main ground for the players to change there. The 3G pitch has a spectator area on one side and dugouts opposite.   This friendly was slow to get going, which was no surprise on a very warm afternoon. Cranfield United are the lower ranked side, but that means little early in pre-season, and they scored the first half's only goal. Both teams made mass substitutions at half time, before Cranfield extended their lead in the second period. Stotfold got a goal back, but a t...

12noon 4 July  2026 Pre-season friendly Newport Pagnell Town 2 Northampton Sileby Rangers 3 (att 48) Not for the first time I began a new season by watching a pre-season friendly played on an unusual ground. The Leah Williamson pitch, named after the Arsenal and England player, is a 3G at the Willen Road Sports Ground, where Newport Pagnell Town are based. I visited the main ground back in 1989, long before Leah was even born. The pitch that bears her name is just beyond Town's regular ground. It's a typical facility, with a spectator area that runs about three-quarters of one side. Friendlies are rarely games I'll travel far for. This lunchtime kick off at least allowed me to combine it with a nearby afternoon game, and was a relatively short detour from a journey between Manchester and Surrey that I was making anyway. The home side scored inside the first ten seconds, for what is probably the quickest opening goal to a season that I've ever seen. They looked the bette...