Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Lost weekends

Nigel Hughes at Ear I Am talks about groundhopping. Ticking off football grounds is a pastime of the truly obsessive. So wonderfully English. The old 92 club rules were that if a club moved you had to revisit the club at a new ground, only the present home counted.

It got me thinking. *Dons anorak, wipes mouth*.

I've watched top class football at 94 grounds in England and Wales. My official 92 club tally is 66 as I lose a couple every season, I've lost Bristol Rovers twice!

In Scotland I've done Rangers, Celtic, Hearts, Ayr, Airdrie and Hamilton Accies. The last two are old grounds.

In the Conference I've done the current homes of Altrincham, Morecambe, York and Cambridge. I've also been once to the nearest football ground to my home, Ewen Fields, home of Hyde United.

Abroad I've done Ajax, PSG, Lyon, CSKA Sofia, Shelbourne, Nuremberg, Kuala Lumpur, Perth Italia, another in Perth, one in Melbourne (can't remember).

I've also played at Lancaster City, Marine, Exeter City, Brixham Town, Morecambe, Cheadle Town and Leyton.

Is it child cruelty to say that when the kids are older I'm going to embark on some lost weekends to complete the set?

3 comments:

Shaun said...

An impressive list of grounds,nice one!
You could post your list of grounds to my blog,and become a member of 'The 100 Football Grounds Club' - http://100groundsclub.blogspot.com/
Cheers!

Huddo said...

You're near Hyde are you? That's my adopted team - one of the best pitches out of the ones you've seen now they've got rid of the plastic one I bet. It's like a croquet lawn.

I'm not sure how close I am to that 92, but I bet I've seen a lot of them. My uncle has done 100 league grounds in the UK! Still not got all 92 though...

Anonymous said...

Visit Meadow Lane, the San Siro of the East Midlands...