Global Groundhopping

A site that shows the sports venues of Northern England and other areas.

From St. James' Park (Newcastle United) down the pyramid to Malorie Park Drive (Ripon City).

Friday, 28 May 2010

3. Farndale Avenue-Northallerton

Northallerton 194-8 Guisborough 195-4
North Yorkshire & South Durham League Premier Division
Saturday 22nd May 2010

Ground: Farndale Avenue
League: North Yorkshire & South Durham League Premier Division
Admission: Free
Programme: No
Attendance: 38
Capacity: 1100
Seated: 87 (Park benches & Picnic tables)
Covered: 19
Town/City: Northallerton
Date: 28.5.10
Club shop: No
Floodlights: No

This match was between two very unknown sides. Northallerton in the middle of empty North Yorkshire and Guisborough in a little corner of the North East coast.
The two sides met in front of a crowd of 38. Northallerton were batting first and managed to get 194 runs. This would be simple for Guisborough to beat which they did by claiming the 195 runs they needed. The result meant Northallerton were 13th (second bottom) with 56 points, 5 points clear of Thornaby at the bottom. Guisborough meanwhile went to the top now with 126 points and 18 points clear of Middlesbrough in 2nd.

Farndale Avenue is just off Boroughbridge road in the south of Northallerton. The ground has parking for about 75 and there is space along the roads outside.
The North end of the ground holds the pavillion which is two storeys, the top balcony holds the batting team. Below, the overhanging balcony provides small cover for about 19 with park benches. The East end is grass standing with a couple of benches. The South end consists of several benches and in the bottom West corner there is a wooden score box. In the West end there are a dozen benches plus grass standing.

Northallerton matchday pictures

Sunday, 23 May 2010

2. Shipton Road - York

York 320-6 Sheffield Collegiate 144
Yorkshire ECB County Premier league
Saturday 15th May 2010

Ground: Shipton Road
League: Yorkshire ECB County Premier league
Admission: Free
Programme: No
Attendance: 50
Capacity: 1100
Seated: 50 (Park benches)
Covered: None
Town/City: Clifton York
Opposition: Sheffield Collegiate
Date: 15.5.10
Club shop: No
Floodlights: No

York is a large City in the City of York. It has a population of 200,000.
The main highlight of the City is York Minster which is right in the center. It is also only 25 minutes walk from the Cricket ground which is very useful.
You are able to like round the Minster itself, the Crypt, the Treasury and the Central Tower.
You can also explore the City walls which line the City's perimeter. These date back to the Norman times.
There is also Jorvik viking museum which is definitely worth a visit, however you must be prepared for long queues as it is very popular. The Railway museum is on the West side of the City and contains some very interesting exhibits on trains old and new.
York is a centre for sport, even if its teams aren't too well known.
York City fc play in the Blue Square Premier and play their home matches at Bootham Crescent. This is a 9,000 capacity ground including about 5,000 seats.
There are also a number of sides that compete in the York football league. Some notable ones include Bishopthorpe United, Nestle Rowntrees and York Railway Institute, plus the Tadcaster Albion reserve team.
York RUFC share the facilities with York Cricket club and play in the Yorkshire division one. They have a covered standing terrace which holds about 70.
York City Knights RLFC play in the Co-Operative Championship 1 and host games at Huntingdon Stadium on the North West outskirts of the City. Thise includes about 1,500 seats and 3,000 in total covered. Heworth, York Acorn and York Lokomotive also play in the City.

York are currently the Yorkshire Premier title holders and were looking to retain it this season.
Their opponents today were Sheffield Collegiate who finished 10th out of 14 last season.
York won the toss and decided to bat first. They had an extremely successful inning with 320 runs including 43 4's and one 6.
It was then Collegiate's turn to bat and they only managed to get 144 runs with everyone out, giving York an easy win. Collegiate's batting included 26 4's.
The result meant York were top while Sheffield Collegiate sat in 8th.
Meanwhile Hull & YPI sat at the bottom with 0 points.

The ground is accessed by the A19 in the North West of the city. If you come down from the north the ground will come after about 3 minutes on your right hand side. There is parking for about 100 at the ground but that isn' too much of a worry if you look at the attendance. If you do think you will have trouble parking you can park at one the carparks in York centre and walk up. Or you can go to the park and ride and take the bus in. You enter the ground at the North East corner at the pavillion end. This consists of some hard standing, picnic tables and the benches the batting team sit on.
On the East hand side there are some park benches and the electronic scorebox. The south end consists of grass standing, as does the West end.

York matchday pictures

Sunday, 9 May 2010

1. Bedale Athletic & Sport Association-Bedale

Bedale-178-7 Whitby-179-2
North Yorkshire & South Durham league division 2
Saturday 8th May 2010










Ground: Bedale Athletic & Sports Association
League: North Yorkshire & South Durham league division 2
Admission: Free
Score: Bedale-178-7 Whitby-179-2
Programme: no
Attendance: 5
Capacity: 1000
Seated: 17
Covered: 0
Town/City: Bedale
Opposition: Whitby
Date: 8.5.10
Club shop: no
Floodlights: no









Bedale is a small town in Hambleton in North Yorkshire. It has a population of 4,500.
The town is of no significance and has little sporting names. Apart from the Cricket club there is only the football club to represent the town. Bedale Town fc play in the Harrogate & District league Premier Division. They share the premises with Bedale CC and you'll see the back of their 50 seat stand in some of the pictures.










With the cricket season only recently getting underway, I was excited to see what sort of grounds Northern England could bring up. My first stop this season was Bedale who play in the North Yorkshire & South Durham league division 2. Their opposition were to be Whitby from the North East coast. I took the 157 bus from Leyburn towards Bedale and got off at the Market place. It was then a 10 minute walk back the way the bus had come to get to the ground about 1/2 mile out of town. I arrived at the match quite late but thankfully there was a scorebox to tell me Bedale were 40-2. The match dragged along with Bedale slowly getting points, but finally their 50 overs were up and Whitby were able to show them how it's done. The first two batters, Paul Harrison and Matthew Cooper, batted extreely well clocking up 163 runs between them before Cooper was finally bowled out by Edward Wick. Mark Harrison came on, and with 16 runs needed the end was very near for the home side. But on his first bowl Mark Harrison was caught out by Oliver Ward without getting a single run. However Ron Lyth came on as the 4th batter, and him and Paul Harisson got the runs Whitby needed to win the match. A walkover for Whitby, and a nightmare for Bedale. Bedale are currently 8th with 47 points while Whitby are 5th and 9 points off top spot. Darlington RA are at the top with 80 points while Billingham Synthonia 2nds are rock bottom with 16.




The Bedale ground has nothing significant about it. There is a side screen at the North End and fencing to stop the ball going into other fields, but that's about it. There are 7 benches, 6 at the South end and 1 at the North end. There is a tractor shed in the North West corner and the changing rooms at the South end. All the focus is on the football pitch of course but many forget there is a cricket ground there at all. It would be great to see more people watching lower league cricket, as you'll see from the attendance (above) it didn't prove that popular.

Saturday, 8 May 2010

13. Hillsborough-Sheffield Wednesday

Sheffield Wednesday 2-2 Crystal Palace
Coca Cola Championship
Sunday 2nd May 2010

Ground: Hillsborough
League: Coca-Cola Championship
Admission: Adults: £24 Children: £12
Score: Sheffield Wednesday 2-2 Crystal Palace
Programme: £3
Attendance: 37,121
Capacity: 40,000
Seated: 40,000
Covered: 37,500
Town/City: Sheffield
Opposition: Crystal Palace
Date: 2.5.10
Club Shop: yes
Floodlights: yes
Step: 2

Sheffield is a large City with a population of about 530,000.
The instant attraction of the place is the Millenium galleries. If you've got to see one thing in Sheffield, it's these. They include the Metalworks gallery and the Ruskin Gallery. What really tops it off is the fact it's free (or £4 for visiting exhibitions.
Nearby the town hall are the Peace gardens and the Winter Gardens. Also there is Sheffield Cathedral, Kelham Island museum and the Botanical gardens, all are within the cities boundaries.
The town has a big history in sport.
It holds the world's oldest football club, the world's oldest ground and the world's oldest major football ground. There are two derbies in the town. These are Sheffield Wednesday v Sheffield United, the better known one, and the world's oldest derby Hallam v Sheffield.
There are 6 football teams in Sheffield and the surrounding area. These are: Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham United, Sheffield, Hallam and nearby Stocksbridge Park Steels.
The town is also home to several cricket teams. Sheffield United, Shiregreen, Hallam and Sheffield Collegiate play in the South Yorkshire league.
Sheffield RUFC are in the Yorkshire division 1, while Sheffield Eagles RLFC play in the Co-Operative Championship and are based at Bramall lane.

Between their foundation date (1881) and 1990. Sheffield Wednesday only played in 4 different leagues. These were The Football League's 1, 2 and 3 and the Football Alliance.
They won 9 titles during that time. They were founder members of the FA Premiership in 1992, and they played in this division for 8 years before finally being relegated to the Football league 1. In 2004 they were relegate to the Football league 2 which the season after was renamed League 1. Next season they were promoted to the Championship after winning the League 1 play offs. This is where they have remained since.
The club has tasted European football as well. In 1961/1962 the club reached the Quater finals of the European Inter Cities Fairs Cup where they lost 4-3 on aggregate to Barcelona. They beat Roma and Lyon to reach it.
The club has won the FA cup 3 times in their history. In 1896 they beat Wolves 2-1 at Crystal Palace. In 1907 they beat Everton by the same score at the same venue. In 1935 they beat West Brom 4-2 at Wembley.
In 1991 the club won the Football league cup. They beat Manchester United 1-0 at Wembley.
In the Johnstone's Paint Trophy the club managed to reach the Northern final in 2004 before losing 3-0 on aggregate to Blackpool.

This was probably going to be the match of the season. It was a complete sell out, over 5,000 away fans and only one winner at the end of it. I had found it really difficult to get tickets for the away end. On the Monday Palace drew with West Brom, I managed to get what was probably the last two tickets as there were none when I checked a few minutes later.
The noise was deafining inside the ground and could probably be heard for miles.
On reaching Sheffield, we had to pick about a mile away from the ground and walk in.
We reached the ground and had our tickets checked by the police before handing them over to the man at the turnstile. By that point they had probably become priceless.
We were very close to the front so wewere able to see what unfolded well.
Alan Lee gave Palace the lead on 24 minutes with a good close range shot.
A Leon Clarke goal with 2 minutes left of the half left the game in the balance at half time after he went one on one with the keeper.
With 27 minutes remaining Darren Ambrose hit a shot home to send the visiting fans into hysterics.
However it was to be a tense finish when Darren Purse scored a goalmouth scramble.
But Palace held on and will play in the Championship next season while Wednesday will play in League 1.
The riot police arrived with about 20 minutes left to separate the fans at full time, or during the match if needed. For some reason the Wednesday fans were allowed to invade the pitch but the Palace fans weren't. But as you'll see from my pictures I was more than happy to leave the ground than get hit by Water bottles and coins.
Plymouth and Peterborough also went down with Sheffield Wednesday while at the top West Brom and Newcastle were promoted to the Premier league with Nottingham Forest, Blackpool, Cardiff City and Leicester City still fighting for a chance in the play offs.

Hillsborough is a very old ground but amazingly it still looks slightly new. New rooves will be put on the stands behind the goals in the future and 2,000 seats will be added.
All the stands have blue plastic seats. The main stand and the North Stand are both two tiers.
The main stand holds about 15,000 with it's huge size. The North stand holds 10,800 fans (usually away). The East Stand holds 8,100 and the South stand holds 5,400. There are also several hundred seats around the corners of the ground. There is a big clock (that works) above the main stand, which has become a symbol for the ground.

The match programme is £3. It is about 80 pages long and is quite high quality.

Sheffield Wednesday matchday pictures