Steve B the Groundhopper

11am 7 June  2026 Eccles Sunday League, Margaret Piggott Memorial Cup, Quarter-Final Egerton Arms 2 Ordsall 3 (att 22) The Eccles Sunday League gets onto my groundhopping 'to do' list by virtue of having a summer season.  Even so, this was pitch-hopping rather than groundhopping. There are several pitches at the Brookhouse Playing Fields in Eccles, with numbers seven and eight the pair currently used for Eccles Sunday League fixtures. Last summer I watched a game on 'pitch eight', and with both in use this morning I headed along to add 'pitch seven' to my list. For the record, I also saw a game on 'pitch five' back in 1997. With Egerton Arms struggling and Ordsall top of the 12-team league, I expected the visitors to progress to the cup semi-finals with ease. They did get through, but it was a close game. Early on Orsdall were the better side and were ahead after about 15 minutes. A few minutes before half time a goalkeeping error allowed them to double ...

6.30pm 1 April  2026 Manchester League, Division Two Little Lever Sports Club 0 Heywood St James 4 (att 90) This was pitch-hopping more than groundhopping. I was last at Little Lever Sports club 25 years ago, but they've recently converted their second grass pitch to an artificial surface. As far as I can tell the first team usually still plays on the remaining grass pitch, where I saw them in 2001, unless the weather dictates otherwise. However, the club helpfully confirmed that this early evening kick off would instead be on the adjacent 4G.  The whole ground is much improved since my 2001 visit. A new building behind the goal of the main pitch provides changing rooms, a snack bar, toilets and even some cover for spectators. On a wet night the cover would have been useful, but it was too far from the caged artificial pitch to be of much help. The floodlights were useful though, and were on from the start on a gloomy evening. The pitch has a spectator area in the centre of on...

10.30am 11 October  2025 South Manchester and Cheshire Christian League, Division Two Central 2 Ditton Athletic 5 (att 9) It was thanks to an eagle-eyed fellow groundhopper that I learnt, during the week, that Central FC have moved into a football ground that, to the best of my knowledge, hasn't been used for adult Saturday football for at least a couple of decades. The pitch at Jackson's Boat in Sale, adjacent to a pub of the same name and close to Sale Water Park and the River Mersey, has long been a curiosity. I've passed it several times, and wondered why an enclosed and partly-railed off pitch wasn't in more regular use. Central's league campaign only has seven home games, and as this was the second of those I didn't want to wait too long to tick off the ground. Needless to say it's above average for Saturday morning football, with training lights a recent addition, although the pitch-side changing rooms show sad signs of vandalism. Central had lost the...

12 noon 5 July  2025 Pre-season friendly West Didsbury and Chorlton 8 Flixton 1 (att 160) I rarely bother travelling far for pre-season friendlies, and might not have gone anywhere today had it not been for this nearby fixture providing a rare chance to see a senior game at Hardy Farm. It's West Didsbury and Chorlton's training pitch, situated in an open area just outside the main ground. It's just a pitch, with a rope barrier along the far side from where most spectators watched. Visitors Flixton have been reformed this summer, more than a decade after the original club folded. I understand they'll be playing in the Lancashire and Cheshire Amateur League, which is the league hosts West Didsbury and Chorlton were in when I first visited them in 2000. They've progressed since then. As well gaining a longer name - they were just West Didsbury FC in 2000 - they've climbed to the North West Counties League and now attract large crowds. With several leagues separatin...