15 Shades of Graham

Hopperational Details for the 2011-12 Season
Dates & Venues	From August 2011 to May 2012, 69 games
Result	225 goals at an average of 3.26 goals per game
Competitions	31 different leagues or cup competitions.
Hopping	62 new venues to take the lifetime list to 465 with four triples and one quadruple
Multiples	August Bank Holiday (Sandhurst, Fleet & Kidlington) Boxing Day (Norwich United & King’s Lynn Town) New Year’s Eve (Bloxwich Utd & Studley) Central Midlands League Quadruple, March 2012 (Clifton, Basford Utd, Dronfield Town & Glapwell) Easter Saturday (Maltby Main. Stocksbridge PS & Worsbrough Bridge Athletic, overlapping the NCEL hop) Easter Monday (Bletchley T & Buckingham T)
Maintaining the 92 & the 116	Brighton & Hove Albion
Outside England	Scotland (St Mirren, Glasgow Celtic) and Wales (Bala Town, Aberystwyth Town)

Here are fifteen shades of Graham for the 2011-12 season.  No, I am not doing fifty.
No, I haven't read it, but I am with the zeitgeist innit.  Enjoy.

1 Corby Press On Corby Town 6 Bishop’s Stortford 1 17 August 2011 (Conference North)

Reason Chosen: This was the first competitive game at Corby’s new stadium.

What’s Happened Since? Bishop’s Stortford’s manager Ian Walker, or former England goalkeeper Ian Walker, and/or son of former Norwich City manager Mike Walker (depending on which paper you read) left the club by mutual consent (although again that depended on which paper etc etc) in December.  The club had been placed in the Conference North (where they will be staying again, it would appear) at a very late stage and player recruitment had been tough.  They recovered to finish a creditable tenth.  Meanwhile, Corby Town have been through a takeover – they finished 17th and have just appointed former Northampton Town boss Ian Sampson as manager for next season.

Read and watch more at: http://modushopperrandom.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/corby-press-on.html

2 The Joy of Six Shifnal Town 3 Gornal Athletic 4 aet 24 August 2011 (FA Cup)

Reason Chosen: Completing a personal-best run of six FA Cup ties and replays in consecutive days, publishing the world’s first footage of the International Space Station passing over an FA Cup match, and a magnificent game which included an outfield player saving a penalty with his first touch as a stand-in goalkeeper.

What’s Happened Since? Gornal Athletic went out with credit at Kidsgrove in the next round.  I was there, making a contribution to the season’s record for therealfacup.  In the league, these two served up a 4-5 in December as Gornal won their league with a game to spare.  They move up to the step 5 Alliance Midland League next season.  Shifnal Town finished in lower-mid table.

Read and watch more at: http://modushopperrandom.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/joy-of-six.html

3 Hooky Hanging On in the Vase Hook Norton 2 Wokingham & Emmbrook 2 aet 11 September 2011 (FA Vase)

Reason Chosen: Non-league venues at their best – great clubhouse, wind-assisted goals, a cricket boundary line across the pitch and cows in the adjacent field chasing after a wayward ball.

What’s Happened Since? Wokingham & Emmbrook won the replay 2-0 but lost at Winslow United in the next round.  Both teams had mid-table finishes in their respective Hellenic leagues.

Read and watch more at: http://modushopperrandom.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/hooky-hanging-on-in-vase.html

4 Market Forces Eventually Win Ely City 3 Needham Market 4 aet 20 September 2011 (FA Cup)

Reason Chosen: Match-of-the-season for me.  A gripping cup-tie played in abysmal weather conditions and a credit to everyone concerned.

What’s Happened Since? Needham Market were beaten at home by Nuneaton Town in the next round.  In their leagues, both teams had promotion near-misses.  Ely City finished runners-up behind Wroxham in the Eastern Counties League.  Needham Market reached the play-offs (again) but lost out to Enfield Town in the final.

Read and watch more at: http://modushopperrandom.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/market-forces-eventually-win.html

5 GY Reports From GY Great Yarmouth 0 Felixstowe & Walton United 5 24 September 2011 (Eastern Counties Premier)

Reason Chosen: A chance to watch from the oldest stand in continuous use – the main stand at the Wellesley dates from 1892 – and an example of the randomness that often decides my hopping life.  I was here because the New Zealand All Blacks had scored exactly 37 points in their Rugby Union World Cup win over France.

What’s Happened Since? Great Yarmouth did not win another league game until the last day of the season and they will drop to step 6 next year.  Their AGM on 11 June may be “interesting” as they say in the diplomatic corps.  The club are advertising a number of positions ranging from Treasurer to bus driver.  Felixstowe & Walton finished just above the relegation zone.

Read and watch more at: http://modushopperrandom.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/gy-reports-from-gy.html

6 Brighton Rocking as Tigers Come for Teatime Brighton & HA 0 Hull City 0 15 October 2011 (Championship)

Reason Chosen: A trip to Brighton’s impressive new home was needed to keep my current lists of 92 (Premier League, Championship, Leagues One & Two) and 116 (same plus Conference National) up to date.

What’s Happened Since? Hull City finished 8th and Brighton 10th.  As I write, the vacant managerial post at the former is being offered to Steve Bruce.

Read and watch more at: http://modushopperrandom.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/brighton-rocking-as-tigers-come-for.html

7 Hoops? Aye, They Did It Again Glasgow Celtic 2 Hibernian 1 23 October 2011 (Scottish Premier League)

Reason Chosen: By far the biggest crowd of the season, the biggest stadium and the highest-ranked club.  Hard not to ignore all that history and feel the pressure, expectation and edge that goes with it.

What’s Happened Since? Celtic duly won the title in a season dominated by off-field issues at their city rivals Rangers.  Hibernian escaped relegation by one place and reached the Scottish FA Cup Final where they were thumped by their city rivals, Hearts.

Read and watch more at: http://modushopperrandom.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/hoops-aye-they-did-it-again.html

8 Modus Hopper Random on Ice Milton Keynes Lighting 2 Peterborough Phantoms 2 (Milton Keynes win after shootout) 3 December 2011 (English Premier League Ice Hockey)

Reason Chosen: The blog’s first diversion into the crazy world of grown men with sticks trying to kill each other on ice.  Many thanks to the MK Lightning tweeters who picked up the blogpost and reacted with good humour, making this the second most-viewed post of the season.

What’s Happened Since? I am now up to six on the rinkhopping list and the Northern Hemisphere Net Coriolis Force Zamboni Clockwise Rotation Theory remains intact.  MK made the playoffs but lost out to Slough Jets.

Read and watch more at: http://modushopperrandom.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/modus-hopper-random-on-ice.html

9 ‘Twas the Day Before Christmas Dorking Wanderers 3 Storrington 2 24 December 2011 (Sussex County League Division 2)

Reason Chosen: A splendid location for a game on the morning of Christmas Eve, providing an insight into the murky world of groundhopping addiction.

What’s Happened Since? Dorking Wanderers and Storrington finished 3rd and 9th respectively.  Box Hill is still there, as are three hoppers waiting for the programme reprint.

Read and watch more at: http://modushopperrandom.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/twas-day-before-christmas.html

10 You Have to be a Linnet to Win It King’s Lynn Town 1 Holbeach United 0 26 December 2011 (United Counties Premier)

Reason Chosen: An impressive crowd of 1040 for a 1st v 2nd clash in step 5.

What’s Happened Since? It seemed at the time that King’s Lynn had got a grip on the division after this result.  They were 12 points ahead on Easter Monday but Long Buckby reeled them in with games in hand, and beat them 2-1 at home with two games to go.  When King’s Lynn could only then draw at home to Desborough Town, Long Buckby made no mistake and won the league.  However, there is a happy ending.  King’s Lynn’s record, with 106 points, gets them a promotion after all from the step 5 pool and they join the Northern Premier League Division One South next season.  Holbeach were overtaken by teams with games in hand and finished sixth.

Read and watch more at: http://modushopperrandom.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/you-have-to-be-linnet-to-win-it.html

11 Star in the Descendant as Bloxwich Wake Up Bloxwich 3 Continental Star 2 31 December 2011 (Midland Football Combination Premier)

Reason Chosen: The ending - dramatic, controversial.  Star had been two up and cruising.  See if you agree with the referee's decision by viewing the key clip.

What’s Happened Since? Continental Star went on to win the league by four points, and Bloxwich finished seventh.

Read and watch more at: http://modushopperrandom.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/star-in-descendant-as-bloxwich-wake-up.html

12 Hertfordshire Mavericks 47 Surrey Storm 62 19 January 2012 (Netball Superleague)

Reason Chosen: My first-ever diversion into the world of top-tier netball.

What’s Happened Since? Both teams made the mid-season split into the top half.  Storm had been second, just behind Northern Thunder.  However, Storm beat Thunder home-and-away in winning all six post-split matches.  These two ended up facing each other in the grand final after relatively easy playoff semi-final wins.  Mavericks lost to Thunder to go out at that stage.  Thunder won the grand final by 2 points.

Read and watch more at: http://modushopperrandom.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/storm-over-hertfordshire.html

13 Lions Use Their Escape Claws at Leicester Leicester Riders 75 Milton Keynes Lions 77 21 January 2012 (British Basketball League)

Reason Chosen: Not the first blog diversion into courthopping, in which I have pre-blogging “previous” at any rate, but the most dramatic.  A buzzer-beating three-pointer from Adrien Sturt, captured on film, sealed a magnificent road win for the Lions.

What’s Happened Since? Lions’ season rather ebbed away and they finished outside the playoff positions, a big disappointment for them.  Riders finished strongly, finished the regular season as runners-up  and made it all the way through to the play-off final where they lost to Newcastle Eagles.

Read and watch more at: http://modushopperrandom.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/lions-use-their-escape-claws-at.html

14 Police Called to Shootout in Sussex Three Bridges 2 Gresley 2 aet (Gresley win 7-6 on penalties) 28 January 2012 (FA Vase)

Reason Chosen: The first game, a 1-1 draw, had suggested there could be dramatic unfinished business.  The blogpost includes the world’s first simultaneous video coverage of Venus, Uranus, the Moon and a goal.

What’s Happened Since? After all that, Gresley were thumped at St Ives in the next round.  Both teams, however, can look forward to step 4 as they ended the season as champions in their respective leagues.

Read and watch more at: http://modushopperrandom.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/police-called-to-shootout-in-sussex.html and for the original game http://modushopperrandom.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/drawing-in-derbyshire.html

15 Hawayday at the Bay Whitley Bay 1 West Auckland Town 2 18 February 2012 (FA Vase)

Reason Chosen: Having been sent on this journey by the roll of a die, this turned out to be a day dominated by hospitality and hospital.  Under normal circumstances, the teabar notice about Bovril supply would have been enough for a day.  I had not expected to witness Whitley Bay’s first defeat in this competition in four seasons, but the drama was astonishing.  I had footage of a controversial tackle that was over half-an-hour earlier than the consequent red card, delivered when the ambulance had left the pitch.  The three goals in the game were late, later and unbelievably late.  This became the most viewed Modus Hopper Random Blogpost of all time.

What’s Happened Since? I originally published the post with Howayday in the title, but was saved from further embarrassment by prompt instruction in north-eastern vowels by several friendly correspondents.  There really should be a local version of Pygmalion, if you ask me.  (e.g “the rain in the Tyne falls mainly down the drain”)  In following rounds, West Auckland disposed of Bournemouth Poppies and Herne Bay to reach the final at Wembley, where they were runners-up to Dunston UTS.  In their very competitive league, West Auckland also finished second (to Spennymoor Town) and Whitley Bay ended up sixth.

Read and watch more at: http://modushopperrandom.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/hawayday-at-bay.html

Nearly got into the fifteen (you can pick these from the tag cloud on the right):

• Non-League Day 2011 at Stourport Swifts
• Good wins for Witham Town (in the league) and AFC Totton (in the FA Cup)
• Freezing all known appendages at Curzon Ashton
• My Three-Hop Deluxe Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape
• The mathematics of Staveley's run of home ties in the FA Vase
• The goalkeeper at the end of a rainbow at Dronfield Town
• The worst ground I have ever visited - sorry, Bletchley Town, it's you
• The location of Colwyn Bay's ground and a goal by Frank Sinclair
• The Vosper Thornycroft Pigeon Club hut at Sholing FC
• Theale's celebrations in winning the Reading Senior League

Thank you for all the interest and encouragement.  I hope to cross paths with more readers next season, randomness allowing, as I seek to get all the current grounds down to Step Three added to my lifetime list.  I will also pay plenty of attention to the early rounds of the FA Cup.  Have a good summer, and look out for the occasional diversion on here!

Star in the Descendant as Bloxwich Wake Up

This game was available on Freeview

 

Hopperational details    


Date & Venue
Saturday 31 December 2011 at The Red Lion Ground, Somerfield Road, Bloxwich   
Result
Bloxwich United 3 Continental Star 2   
Competition
Midland Football Combination Premier Division (Step 6)   
Hopping
A short journey from the planned hop to Tividale, whose 11am match was postponed, for this 12 noon confrontation.   


This match in one sentence   
The archetypal game of two halves, with the visitors' two-goal half-time lead finally wiped out in a controversial climax just after the home goalkeeper had been correctly sent off.   


So what?   
Continental Star were second recently but find themselves in fourth - the divisional leaders Bolehall Swifts had an 11-2 win today.  Bloxwich United are safely in mid-table.   


The drama unfolds   
I had not done any pre-match research but a quick look at the league table suggested that Continental Star would need a win to keep any realistic title challenge alive.  They started the stronger and were indeed the more imposing physically of the two sides on a wet pitch.  Here's the scene-setter clip, with the home side in red:





They took the lead after 12 minutes with a direct free kick, as captured here.  The scorer is Davion Hamilton.  0-1





The second goal came nine minutes later.  A superb ball from the back gave #9 Daniel Holgate a chance to run at the defence, and in full flow he would take some stopping.  He rounded the keeper and shrugged off the challenge of defender Steven Coyne, but in bundling the latter to the floor and the ball over the line there were shouts for a foul, and if not a foul then offside, and if not offside then not picking on someone his own size, from the Bloxwich bench.  The referee had a lengthy conversation with the lino before confirming the goal.  0-2

Holgate scores Star's disputed second goal

Consultation in progress

The rest of the half got a bit feisty at times as the tackles flew in on the tricky surface and the ref was working hard to keep a semblance of control.  Star looked likely to add a third but Bloxwich improved defensively.  I struck up a conversation with two hoppers who had dropped in for the first half on the way to a higher-level game, and we all agreed that they had probably seen enough to get the sense of this match.  How wrong we were.  0-2 at half-time

I still cannot really offer any explanation of why this game turned the way it did, unless complacency was setting in to the Star players.  Bloxwich had a goal disallowed before they pulled the first back on the hour mark.  It was an odd-looking goal, a high loopy shot from Tony Simkiss dropping out of the sky and over the Star keeper, Lucien Nrabando.  1-2


The game was now more evenly contested.  Holgate had a good chance for a third in a one-on-one with the keeper, but his rolled goalbound shot was intercepted by a defender in the six-yard box.  The game changed and the tide turned when Bloxwich substitute Adrian Jones crossed to the far post from a freekick and Ashley Southall scored.  2-2


Here are some clips from around the 80 minute mark.








Having been at the other end, anticipating Star's third, I now moved round, and the lino will be pleased that I did.  I happened to be filming and in the right place to capture the key moment.  The next clip clearly confirms that Nrabando handled the ball outside the box in stoppage time, and so his red card was correct.





It was necessary to put an outfield player in goal, and then Adrian Jones stepped up to take the free-kick.  3-2





There was time for one other horror-tackle moment before the final whistle.  Plenty of drama for the passing neutrals, of which there were many.  Final score 3-2


Man-of-the-Match
It has to be Bloxwich United's substitute #12 Adrian Jones for the cross leading to the equaliser and the dramatic freekick winner to secure the points.
   
A snippet from the programme   

From the history of the home club:
"In 2001 plans were announced to merge Blakenhall and Bloxwich Town to form Bloxwich United FC.  The team were to play at Blakenhall's Red Lion ground, whilst redevelopment work took place at Abbey Park, home of Bloxwich Town.  Sadly, just 19 games into the Southern League Western Division season, the plug was pulled on the club... Bloxwich Town were to bounce back and were reformed for the start of 2002/3 ... the club rather surprisingly folded in May 2005.  The emergence (after three years) of Bloxwich United AFC will put the town back on the footballing map.  By working together we can help raise the profile and kudos of Bloxwich."


What Next?   
M5/M42/A435 to Studley (blogpost to follow), arriving at 2.55pm just in time to see their game with Tipton Town.