Steve B the Groundhopper

3pm 6 April  2026 Hampshire Premier League, Senior Division Meon Milton 5 Andover Town 1 (att 39) As we were in the South East over the Easter weekend it was an easy journey down to Southsea to visit the home ground of Meon Milton, who play in what was Eastney Barracks. The barracks closed about 30 years ago, and these days the sports ground is the Cockleshell Community Sports Club. The main football pitch is some distance from the changing rooms, and is railed off with a pair of dugouts. There is some cover for spectators, to the front of an adjacent social club, although oddly the club itself has no connection to the football team. Outside the ground, the former officers' mess building looms over the pitch. Andover Town are bottom of the table, although with games in hand on teams above them they still have hope of avoiding relegation. To achieve that they'll have to improve on this performance. There was an even start to the game, but once Meon Milton opened the scoring it s...

4pm 7 February  2026 Hampshire Premier League, Senior Division Bishops Waltham Dynamos 2 Liphook United 0 (att 24) Once the rain unsurprisingly wiped out my plan A game, and the very late finish to my match at Reading made reaching plan B in time for kick off off unlikely, I was onto plan C. Plan C was an artificial pitch at Mountbatten School in Romsey, booked by Bishops Waltham Dynamos once it was obvious their regular home ground wasn't going to be playable. The 4pm slot may have been unusual, but was a bonus for me as it meant I'd be there comfortably ahead of kick off. Romsey is a fair distance from Bishop's Waltham, but the venue wasn't that random as it was Dynamos' regular home ground last season. It's a standard 3G set up, with floodlights and a worn pitch that was more rubber crumb than fake grass. There's a spectator area one side, and a welcome surprise was a kiosk near the pitch selling hot and cold drinks, crisps, sweets and chocolate. Having s...