On Sat 14th March I received a text from a mate letting me know that a mutual friend from England was coming up to take part in a Ground Hop weekend in the Lowland League. He also asked if I fancied taking in two games the following Saturday at Vale of Leithen and Selkirk.
As I hadn’t seen Andy Groom from Peterborough for about six months I decided this was a good way of catching up and taking in a different side of Scottish football. Andy was the editor of Peterborough fanzine “The Peterborough Effect” when I was doing the same at Motherwell for “Waiting for the Great Leap Forward”. We have kept in touch and informally former the Grumpy Old Football fans club to give us a moan at all that is wrong with modern day football.
Andy is a real ground-hopper having taken in games at every Scottish League ground (something I have yet to achieve) and numerous League and Non-League grounds in England and Europe.
He warned me to expect inquisitive locals to ask whether we were ground hoppers. I could answer honestly that I wasn’t, however I was surprised to find this was also Andy’s stock response. His reasoning was that he didn’t want to come across as a trains spotter.
The Lowland League had kindly staggered kick-offs over the weekend to allow the hoppers to take in six games between Friday and Sunday. Andy had been at East Kilbride on Friday night before meeting up with me on Saturday morning for a trip to the Borders.
Innerleithen looked as though it didn’t know what had hit it as 250 football fans arrived in town. The woman in the coffee shop we visited asked “Is there something on today?”
For the noon kick off against Preston, Vale of Leithen produced a programme for the afternoon . The ground, which I later learned to be called Victoria Park, had a standing area on the changing room side with the rest of the ground flat grass with only a rope to keep the crowd off the pitch.
The game itself was terrible with little to get the hoppers excited, although most seemed more interested in the surroundings. Although, when Preston opened the scoring I was told to watch out for 150 people take a note pad out to record the event, and sure enough that’s what happened.
There was a crowd of over 300 at the game, about four times the normal gate. It was no wonder the locals were so welcoming.
On the final whistle there was a dash to the cars and coaches for the short trip to Selkirk for their game with Spartans at 15:30. Once again the locals were happy to see us, immediately letting us know where the bar was and that the curry, rice and nan at £2 would soon be ready!
The bar soon filled up with people swapping stories of previous trips they had made all over the UK, with Fylde being a popular destination for some reason. They were also impressed by the small seating area on the far side, which was also another popular destination for the hoppers.
When the game got under way I realised I was watching Gary O’Connor play up front for Selkirk, looking a bit chunkier than his prime. He proved to be a peripheral figure in the game as the two teams tore into each other and eventually shared the points in a competitive 1-1 draw.
There was another convoy to Galashiels after the game for the third game of the day, thankfully Andy had been there and it was time to head back home. I don’t think I could’ve coped with a third consecutive match at this level, and that’s coming from someone who’s suffered through the Motherwell first team this season.
Having said that I enjoyed my day, talking and watching football is never a bad thing. The clubs and the League seemed delighted with the weekend, so much so that I heard them talking of doing the same again next season.
While I am not a genuine ground hopper it was interesting to see how far and wide the hobby spreads across the UK with people there from Maidstone, Middlesbrough, Wales and all over.
This may also be something the Highland League should consider, and maybe even the lower reaches of the SPFL as there appears to be a market for it.
WRITTEN BY GRAHAM BARNSTAPLE
Subscribe to the show via iTunes or through a podcast player. The RSS feed is http://terracepodcast.libsyn.com/rss
If you’d like to contact the podcast the email address is show@terracepodcast.net. Alternatively find us on Facebook or Twitter.
Subscribe to Podcast