Steve B the Groundhopper

3.15pm  26 January 2019 Liverpool County Premier League, Premier Division BRNESC 1 Liverpool NALGO 4 (att 35) There were two top division Liverpool County Premier League fixtures scheduled for after my first game, so I opted for the one that was on a different pitch. Custy's and MSB Woolton took over pitch three, but BRNESC and NALGO were on pitch one, which had staged a lower division Liverpool League game earlier. Pitch two was hosting a West Cheshire League game. Pitch one is closest to the entrance, and has spectator areas on both sides, but as usual at amateur football in Liverpool plenty of those watching chose to stand on the touchline, often encroaching on the pitch itself. One thing the Jeffrey Humble ground lacks is any shelter for spectators, and as this game started the heavens opened, making watching it a challenging experience. Luckily there was enough quality on the pitch to make it worth the effort. BRNESC, going well in the league, scored first but NAL...

1.15pm  26 January 2019 Liverpool County Premier League, Premier Division East Villa 6 Alumni 3 (att 10) The Jeffrey Humble ground in Fazakerley is one of several new football hubs opened in Liverpool this season, all on the sites of multi-pitch sports grounds that were in need of investment. I last visited in 2006, and the pitch used by East Villa back then is still there, but I doubt it's used now that there's a trio of 3G pitches that provide superior facilities. Various clubs call Jeffrey Humble home, and I took advantage of staggered kick offs to see games on two of the new pitches. This game, on pitch number three, should have got underway at 1pm, but that was the time players got onto the pitch and they needed time for a warm up ahead of kick off. Perhaps Alumni needed a bit more time, as they were 2-0 behind in just seven minutes. They let in a third before half time, and things didn't get much better for them in the second period. East Villa played some ...

2pm  19 January 2019 Lancashire and Cheshire Amateur League, Division One Swinton 1 Dom Doyle 3 (att 12) I needed to stay close to home today, and once my first choice game was off I thought I'd be watching football on an artificial surface, until a lunchtime phone call confirmed that Swinton's grass pitch was playable. It was a heavy and muddy pitch though, but Swinton and Dom Doyle made light of it and produced a very enjoyable 90 minutes. Some of the football was very high quality, and certainly above what you'd expect in the Lancashire and Cheshire Amateur League's second level. Dom Doyle FC have an interesting history, having been formed in memory of a Denton youngster who was murdered in 2015. They're doing him proud on the pitch, the first team are unbeaten in the league and on course for promotion to the premier division. They had to be on good form to see off a decent Swinton though. The home side matched the visitors in the first half, and both ...

2pm  13 January 2019 Holman Cup, Quarter-Final Hartland Clovelly reserves 0 Lynton 3 (att 5) I don't usually visit grounds for reserve games but I do make exceptions if a club's second team has a different home venue to the first team. Even then such visits are usually to local games, but I was in the south west for the weekend and this cup tie filled what would otherwise have been a blank Sunday. Hartland and Clovelly used to be separate clubs until they joined forces a couple of years ago. The first team's official home is at Hartland, while the second team usually plays home matches at Clovelly Playing Field. The village of Clovelly is mostly known as a tourist attraction, with its steep pedestrian street, crowded with day trippers, winding down to a picturesque harbour. Just before the the visitor centre and car park is Higher Clovelly, which has enough flat land for a football pitch next to the village hall. There are some surprisingly well-equipped football...

2.30pm  12 January 2019 East Cornwall Premier League, Premier Division St Stephens Borough 1 Wadebridge Town reserves 3 (att 20) Staying in the south west for the weekend I was keen to use the opportunity to visit a ground in Cornwall, which is just a little too far for a day trip, and the way the fixtures fell St Stephens Borough was the obvious choice. They're based in Saltash, which is only just into Cornwall, and the artificial pitch might have been better left as a back up on a wet day, but it was the only game on a Cornish ground I needed above the very local leagues. The Pilgrim Pitch at Saltmill Park isn't an interesting venue. It's a worn-looking 3G pitch surrounded by a fence, but plus points are that spectators can stand inside the 'cage' and there's a good view of the Tamar Bridge. The game wasn't bad either, with a youthful-looking Wadebridge second team pulling off a bit of a surprise by winning at mid-table St Stephens Borough. Wa...

10am  12 January 2019 Bristol Churches League, Division One VCF Santos 1 Clevedon Family Church 3 (att 8) My first ever game in yet another of the Saturday morning leagues that cater for church-based teams who would, presumably, be unwilling to play on Sundays. The Bristol Churches League has two divisions, and this game was between a pair of mid-table sides in the top flight. The standard of football wasn't great, although no worse than I'd expected, but it was an entertaining 90 minutes. It took a while for the game to spring into life though, with little of note in the first 35 minutes or so until the visitors went in front. They doubled their lead right at the start of the second half, but VCF Santos hit back almost immediately. A third goal for the Clevedon side settled the outcome, in a game that was higher in effort than skill. The venue was Elm Park in the Filton area of Bristol. It's a large park with several pitches, sloping steeply from one side to t...

2pm  5 January 2019 Cumberland County League, Division One Silloth 7 Borough 3 (att 20) The small town of Silloth feels remote even by Cumbrian standards, but having seen the Eden Street football ground on a couple of previous visits I was keen to return to see a game. It's a good venue for a club currently in the lower division of the Cumberland County League, but Silloth AFC are well established, in a league with a high turnover of members, and results like this suggest they can bounce straight back after last season's relegation. They'll need to replicate their second half showing more than the first half though. Silloth should have been ahead in the opening moments but were denied by good goalkeeping, and then Borough opened the scoring after just five minutes. Silloth were level after 20 minutes, but although they looked the better side they struggled to turn their superiority into goals, and then conceded again to trail 1-2 at half time. Whatever the home...

3pm  1 January 2019 Isthmian League, North Division Coggeshall Town 0 Heybridge Swifts 1 (att 358) The New Year's Day fixture list seems to get slimmer each season, and I had just the single option for a new ground to begin 2019. But the weather was in a benign mood so I decided it was worth the long drive to Essex. Coggeshall's West Street home had somehow evaded me over the years, and it was the final ground I needed to recomplete what I still call the Isthmian League (with sponsors it's now the Bostik League). It's a nice ground, and it was good to see it populated by a large crowd for the visit of near neighbours and promotion rivals Heybridge. There's a long, low seated stand on one side, plenty of cover at the far end, where there's also a modern clubhouse and the changing rooms, and open standing at the end nearest the entrance. The side opposite the stand, where the dugouts are, is out of bounds, but while it is a three-sided ground there'...