Nelson 3 v Chadderton 1
North West Counties Football League
First Division North
Padiham 1 v Ashton Athletic 5
Barnoldswick Town 0 v Avro 2
North West Counties Football League
Premier Division
Saturday 5 March 2022
Ilkley Town 0 v Garstang 0
North West Counties Football League
First Division North
Sunday 6 March 2022
Tale Of The Ale
Right. Let's find out who put the Hop in the Hop. (Disclaimer, I only did 5 of the possible 7 games)
Three teams (Bacup Borough, Padiham & Barnoldswick Town) had traditional clubhouse bars.
One team (Bacup Borough) had a recognisable, branded Craft Keg beer.
One team (Padiham) had a hand pulled cask, Real Ale.
Three teams (Padiham, Barnoldswick Town & Ilkley Town) had bottles of beer from smaller, independent & local breweries.
I'm afraid Nelson were the odd one out. A clubhouse of sorts, but not a real bar, and only cans from the major brands.
The Deets
Lagunitas Brewing Co, DayTime IPA on Keg at 4% in the Bacup Borough clubhouse
Reedley Hallows (Burnley), New Zealand Pale on Cask at 4.5% in the Padiham clubhouse
Prospect Brewery (Wigan), Silver Tally, Golden Ale from a bottle at 3.7% from the Barnoldswick Town bottle bar
Ilkley Brewery Co. Blonde from a bottle at 3.9% from the Ilkley Town bottle bar
All four of those were new Beer Ticks for me. And all five grounds were new Ground Ticks for me. Pushing my ground ticks to 387. That, my son, is what a successful weekend looks like.
So, GroundHop. A group of lovely anoraks organise with leagues & clubs for staggered kick off times over a weekend. They sell the idea to leagues & clubs as a way of boosting their attendance, programme sales, badges & merchandise sales, pie, chips & burger sales and, our very good friend BEER SALES.
They then sell the idea to punters of all descriptions, but essentially of the ground & game ticking persuasion. They lay on a hotel & a coach. And encourage other groups like the Carrier Bag Firm to "do it independently".
Man, they cram it. This one was a Hop around the North West Counties Football League. One game Friday. Four, yes Four, on the Saturday. And two on Sunday. Realistically, you can't do it by bus & train. So, you need a Designated Driver.
On about 80 minutes, the Hoppers start gathering near the exit gate. Initially, it's like the start of the Le Mans 24 hour race. Football nerds waddling, limping, occasionally striding to their motors. SatNavs already set. No time to take your coat off. In n Off. Get your seat belt on at the first lights.
Then, from that Le Mans start, it's deffo straight into Wacky Races. As mechanical veeehicular transport of all hues rockets off to the next ground in a ramshackle convoy. I'll tell you, it's a glorious sight to behold. On the final Saturday leg from Nelson to Barnoldswick the route was up, then further up, on ever narrowing country roads. Some poor civilian fucker needed to turn right onto it, into the flow of geekmobiles. His face. Quietest road in the County. From nowheresville to the environs of nowhere. And, it's suddenly the M25.
The Armies
Best named army & flag go to the marvellous Sewer Army at Barnoldswick Town. If you take their word for it - they've conquered all the Chippies.
The Firms
Most boisterous firm goes to Avro. An extravagant one man Pyro Tifo. Although they need to wind the casual sexism to the female linesman back. A long way back. Wind it to non fucking existent Lads n Lasses (yes Lasses as well). Tannoy announcements said the same using different language. The Avrovians were Banter Specialists. The varmints. As I walked in front of their stand they greeted me with….
"Does your Care Home know you're here?"
FFS
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Stats
I have now Blogged from 1,074 games in 2,756 days
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