WEST COUNTRY FOOTBALL

PREVIEW: SEPTEMBER

I’m typing this still reeling from my return to work after a week in Spain. My holiday, while I don’t want to seem ungrateful, got in the way of at least three match days – i’ll be the first to admit this was poorly planned. Anyway, now that is out of the way with, I can focus on important things like football.

Bath time

Bath City 1 – 1 Forest Green Rovers
Preseason Friendly
Saturday 27th July 2019
Twerton Park, Bath
Attendance: 366

It was looking like I would be going without seeing my beloved Bath City in preseason for the first time in a long while. As it was, my friend Jason is back for a few weeks, visiting from South Korea suggested we go to the Romans’ penultimate warm up game against League 2’s Forest Green Rovers. I didn’t take much persuasion so I hopped on the train to Bath.

Into the Warm

Warminster Town 0 – 2 Bemerton Heath Harlequins
Preseason Friendly
Thursday 18th July 2019
Weymouth Street, Warminster
Attendance: ?

If you were going by kits alone, this could have been AC Milan versus Juventus. But in what Serie A game can you hear every word the players are saying to each other? Every word the managers are barking at their players? Every conversation between referee and player? I knew i’d rather be at Weymouth Street than the San Siro.

PREVIEW: AUGUST 2019

I reckon I find this time of the year exciting and frustrating in equal measure. Excited for the new season ahead, and frustrated by the drip-feeding of fixtures and cup draws, and frustrated not knowing – due to working shifts – which weekends i’ll be free and which i’ll be otherwise engaged. I also feel overwhelmed trying to decide on matches to go to, but I suppose that just goes to show the abundance of great football teams in the UK’s south west.

El Chocolato

Cadbury Heath 2 – 0 Cadbury Athletic
Preseason Friendly
Saturday 13th July 2019
Springfield, Bristol
Attendance: ~75 (headcount)

I love a gimmick. That is not to say that everything about this fixture was gimmickry – Heath are celebrating their 125th anniversary this year, and Athletic their 25th. Perhaps the more obvious reason for these two teams to be facing off is the partially shared name and therefore the connotations with chocolate. Bristol-based Heath have been on my radar for a while, being on the easier-to-access side of the city for me, while the visitors today had travelled down from the southern reaches of Birmingham for this fixture. For the forthcoming season the home side will be competing in level 9 of the pyramid (Western League Premier), while Athletic are currently one step lower in the Midland League Division 1.

The Wait is Over

Bradford Town 0 – 3 Hungerford Town
Preseason Friendly
Tuesday 9th July 2019
Trowbridge Road, Bradford-on-Avon
Attendance: ?

Anyone would’ve thought it had been over two months since I’d last been to a football match; my camera was out of battery and I forgot my notebook. All this meant was I had to rely on my camera’s phone, and with this being a summer’s evening, the light didn’t start to fade until well into the game and the photos came out alright. I cobbled together some bits of paper and dug out a pen – my notebook for the evening.

My vision for 2019/20

I find this time of year both frustrating and exciting – frustrated by the lack of football, and the drip drop of news and friendly announcements; excited about the prospect of the new season. However, this is the time of year when I plan – as best as I can – the upcoming groundhopping year.

Welcome

I have been running a groundhopping Twitter account for a couple of seasons now.

The last year or two have been pretty hectic for me, but now I feel like I should be able to dedicate more time to this. As a result I have decided to start this blog to document my groundhopping.