In early March 2020 I guess we all knew something bad was evolving with the virus, but as I walked out of the stadium in Alloa, I never thought that the final whistle on the 2019/20 was coming. The cancellation of all football from Friday 13th March was an omen, just a week shy of the 6th Scottish Groundhop. No one could have foreseen an 18 month hiatus before it could go ahead. Commendably though, when the world started edging to “new normal” the same six venues chosen originally were tweaked in the schedule for this season to allow it to happen. So two and half years on from the last hop in Scotland, technically the 2020 hop was “Go” in 2021/22.
My goodness, it was almost as if the weather gods who delight in throwing everything at a March hop weekend wanted to remind the October brigade not to get too complacent. Depending on exactly when you arrived at Newton Park, Borrowstounness (Bo’ness) that Friday night, the angle and speed at which the rain was coming down varied, but it was a tempestuous welcome.
The Saturday before the hop, Wick’s need for a Scottish Cup replay had me delighted to be heading to Bo’ness to see the Scorries, but what I hadn’t bargained on was that game being abandoned due to an ankle break and needing to head back on the Tuesday for the re-run. Three times in 7 days felt a bit much, it took the edge off opening night of the hop for me.
Bo’ness have always been one of the most successful East Junior sides, and it was no surprise to see them get into the Lowland League at first attempt after they mapped across from the Junior world. It was a good thing they managed promotion that season, given that the next two campaigns were both aborted. The ground itself is a hotchpotch of portacabin’s down one side, a fine shed (much needed on this particular night), a proper, if in need of repair terrace behind one goal and a grassy terrace at the opposite end. The view from the top of the gravel terrace affords a bright night time view of the vast Grangemouth petrochemical plant all lit up in the distance.
Considering the weather, a crowd of just over 500 was a good effort, although Bo’ness do have a strong support base as both cup ties versus Wick wouldn’t have seen many less in attendance for those encounters. Considering the wind and periodic rain, the two sides put on an excellent show. This one ebbed and flowed, was never dull and the clincher when it came to put Bo’ness out of sight at 3-1 was easily the goal of the hop, an absolute screamer into the top corner beyond the outstretched attempt by the keeper.
The opposition for this game were Lowland League stalwarts from North Edinburgh, the curiously named Civil Service Strollers. Despite not having anything to do with the white collar working fraternity any more the name has stayed, although most people will refer to them as The Strollers or the CSS. They are of course a favourite of the groundhopping family given they came to the rescue at extremely short notice one biblically wet Saturday a few years ago when Preston Athletic’s Pennypit in Prestonpans was deemed unplayed. A phone call to the CSS HQ to alert that a bus load, plus car entourage were headed to Christie Gillies Park, Muirhouse to watch their game was enough for quick thinking. Someone was dispatched to a nearby Morrison’s Supermarket to hoover up as many pies as they could get hold off in anticipation of a hungry horde descending on them. Obviously for many a hopper a match day programme is a desirable read, but at such short notice this souvenir was always going to be lacking, and they had to make do with a team sheet, although the club did unearth a selection of old editions. The memory and the warmth towards the Strollers seemed prevalent amongst a knot of fans from England on one of my many visits to a stairwell canopy at Newton Park sheltering from the rain.
A feeling of dread refused to leave me on Saturday as I was driving out of Edinburgh with the forecast suggesting a gradual decline in the weather, and when you are on a four game roster, getting soaked would seriously diminish the enjoyment. All four games were in Midlothian bookended by the Friday/Sunday games in West Lothian. Many years ago, when all the World Cup regions were all drawn in one staging, on this particular occasion it must have been televised, with for BBC Scotland viewers, Archie MacPherson doing the pontificating. Understandably boredom was doubtlessly seeping in for the scholarly great man of Scottish football, but he came out with a line during the Asian group stage draw when China, Hong Kong and Macau were all placed in the same group, and I have no idea why this stuck with me but he said, “my goodness, they’ll be able to hire a minibus to travel in that group”! It seems very appropriate to trot this out for the Saturday hop in Midlothian, as they will never come up with a closer quartet for any future Scottish hop for sure. Indeed, had the games been 30 minutes further apart I might have contemplated walking between some of them.
King’s Park, Dalkeith was the morning opener, a quaint wee fenced off ground at the back of a fine park, complete with a couple of rugby pitches where the lads scrumming it down might have found it all a bit surreal with Billie Eilish thumping out of the normally sedate home of Dalkeith Thistle, certainly at that time on a Saturday. The hop games in this series were nicely spread across three tiers of the relatively new Scottish “pyramid” with two games from each level. Wedged in between the two Lowland League clashes (fifth tier) in the first half of the hop was this 7th tier encounter, with the visitors headed up the A1 early from Tweedmouth just over the border in England, but one of Scotland’s two English non league sides.
Tweedmouth Rangers had been involved on the hop before, lambs to the slaughter for Kelty Hearts at New Central Park, when they went down 11-1, but they did score first. Given Kelty are still hopping through leagues, now in Scottish League Two, and they were regularly crushing sides in that sole season in the East of Scotland League, but as galling as the mauling had been, the difference in class and ambition was colossal. Here at Dalkeith, the orange shirts of Tweedmouth were at it again, scoring first, and despite being pegged back, they went 2-1 in front well ahead of half time. It has to be said, had VAR been present it would have been chalked off, even a linesman might have helped, but at this level in Scotland they don’t always have assistants, placing an enormous extra burden on the referee, so marginal offsides aren’t always going to be called. It was all square at the break, the game had been jaunty, and the weather was obliging too with just an occasional spit. After halftime a red card for Tweedmouth for a flayling elbow saw Dalkeith suddenly find an extra gear and went nap, racking up a further 6 goals for an 8-2 win. The final whistle couldn’t come soon enough for the youngsters of Tweedmouth. They are improving by hop standards though, and if they ever end up on the route again, we’d expect a 5-3 scoreline!
The next match was arguably the “big” game of the weekend with Lowland leaders Bonnyrigg Rose hosting surprise packet of the season Dalbeattie Star who led the league early in the campaign having come out of the traps with five straight wins. A number of hoppers broke off from the official tour at this juncture having already been at New Dundas Park. Some headed for Ormiston, others to Penicuik or Arniston, as well as the more local enthusiasts who headed to cheer their own team at Tynecastle, Kirkcaldy or even Dumfries, but these characters were foregoing the next two hop games at the very least.
Dalkeith to Bonnyrigg by car is no more than a five minute escapade practically in a straight line. If you have never been to watch a game here I would implore you to add it to your list as New Dundas Park is a quirky and somehow magical place. If Bo’ness were a successful Junior side, Rose were even more so, and they have an even greater loyal support base. Should Bonnyrigg win the Lowland League this season and make it through to the playoffs, a bit of work is going to be needed to be carried out to get them a covered seated stand necessary to meet league criteria and allow them to step up. The pitch and the varying degrees of slope is a marvel too. The inclusion of the kebab pie, recently made famous in Scotland at Armadale Thistle was certainly going down with the visiting fans, a spicy way to warm up on a cool afternoon.
The controversial inclusion of the Glasgow giants B teams at this level has thrown an unwanted spanner in the works, and it still needs to be sorted out! Essentially if either B were to win the league it might come to it that the Lowland League have no representative in the play off, leaving the Highland winner to play the bottom side from League Two. The “B” sides might have added a number of pounds on the gates of the Lowland clubs depending on when their “A” sides are playing, but essentially we were all lead to believe that these clubs were merely playing glorified friendly matches, and right across all lands on this island, we have no tradition of inviting reserve sides into any pyramid and that is how it should always be.
Rose v Star was the game of the hop for me, with two highly accomplished sides showing great skill, tactical awareness and passing movements in a thoroughly invigorating joust . I am sure Dalbeattie surprised a lot of people, as in recent seasons they’ve been at the wrong end of the league, but having seen them twice already this season I wasn’t taken aback by how well drilled they were. Many teams come to Bonnyrigg and sit in, almost expecting to lose but trying to keep the score down. Star had no such intention and while they had to defend at times for periods, they were always on the lookout for a passing option to start an attack themselves, not resorting kicking it as far up the pitch as possible as the odd poorer side have resorted to here. Bonnyrigg won the day, narrowly 2-1, both goals coming from successful cutbacks, a staple of the Bonnyrigg route for goals. They were made to work for the three points in this one by a side who might have snatched a point near the end, however the header was tame and easily caught by the keeper. At no other ground do I have an unblemished 100% home win record and this was my 12th straight Rose success here at New Dundas, where Montrose, Buckie and East Kilbride, all higher profile clubs have come and gone without anything either, so Dalbettie can take confidence from this fine effort. For the record, the highest attendance of the six games was here, albeit just 12 more than had been at Bo’ness, although a few hundred less than when Rose hosted Rangers B.
The next game was back in the 7th tier with a Satnav pincer movement through Newtongrange, host to the last game of the day, en route to Easthouses a mere ten minute drive from Bonnyrigg. The Newbattle Complex is the rather grand name for the home of Easthouses Lily Miners Welfare to give them their full name. Despite the clubs lowly league, this was the only venue of the six that afforded some of the more elderly hoppers a welcome seat whilst watching as they have a relatively modern wee 50 seater facility, although sitting in the stand would have starved the viewer of the fabulous view over the Pentland hills and the amazing sunset that unfolded, a treat for those on the opposite side on the high grassy banking.
The 7th tier is divided into two Conference this season with all barring the top six in each one getting relegated into a new 8th level next term, where the Tweedmouth Rangers of the Scottish non-league world will find their level. Even in early October this encounter was starting to be vital for Easthouses as they were 7th in the table well adrift from the teams above them. A win would have helped close the gap on the likes of Glenrothes, the visitors, who were one the clubs just above them.
The first half was disappointingly dull, but that might just be an illusion of having watched an altogether more classy game beforehand. The Fife side led 1-0 at the break, and when they doubled their advantage early in the second half it looked like the game was gone from the Lily’s. However, that old cliche, 2-0 is a dangerous scoreline came back to haunt Glenrothes who were left reeling as Easthouses scored two quick fire goals to get level. The town of Glenrothes was one of Scotland’s new towns of yesteryear along with East Kilbride, Cumbernauld and Livingston etc, and one of the hallmarks of the new town planners is the proliferation of roundabouts. By the end of this encounter Glenrothes were certainly running rings round Lily as getting on equal terms merely poked the bear. At the final whistle, the Fifers headed back across the Forth with a 5-2 win. On a clearer day I imagine you can see the River Forth from up here, gosh it has to be one of the expansive views of Scotland you’ll ever enjoy from a football ground.
The very short trip back down the hill to Newtongrange for the night game saw an extraordinary car parking issue as the usual attendance was swollen to just over 400, more than double the usual crowd these days at New Victoria Park, and the vehicles seemed to be coming from all angles. With the club car park full more than an hour ahead of the game, the street outside filled up fast as the hop brigade arrived. It was the tightest turnaround with this game a mere 50 minutes after the Easthouses clash. Despite the chaos outside, heading immediately to the ground saw a relatively limited number of people already inside. It transpired the vast majority were supping a libation in the clubs real money earner its social club next door. Newtongrange, like the majority of places on this hop, was a mining village, and it is home to the Scottish Mining Museum. The local football team, Star, has a nice outline of the pit and its wheel on the bottom of their blue shirt this season. Other mining town’s football teams are named after the mining pit which were all named after flowers, hence Rose, Lily and the soon to arrive Bluebells for the last game at Broxburn.
New Victoria Park is nicely enclosed amongst trees which regularly take the edge off a breeze. It also has the best covered terrace of any of the six games in the hop, and with high flying Tranent in town, they’d brought a good number of fans over from East Lothian. Indeed, this was bottom hosting top. Nittin, as the locals call Newtongrange had only managed 3 draws in the opening 12 games of the season and are already badly cut adrift in an otherwise tight league where everyone is trying to avoid the four relegation slots as the East of Scotland Premier Division recalibrates after the first round of Covid promotions with no relegation. The second round never happened as the 19/20 campaign was null and voided, much to Tranent’s dismay I am sure as they were leaders at the time. This and the last match were both from this tier, the 6th level, its chance to shine for the visiting hoppers.
As this fine tussle unfolded you would be hard placed to know who were the joint leaders and who were the winless bottom club. Star really put in a shift and deservedly took the lead, and while they were pegged back, they merely rolled up their sleeves and went in front again. At 2-1 an accidental goal saving header came at cost, with the thunderous shot whacking off the side of the young defender’s head, something he knew nothing about, and judging by the struggle two backroom staff had getting him to walk off even with their assistance, the poor lad was seriously concussed.
During another break in play later on, a constant chipping away at the officials by the Tranent bench reached a crescendo and strong words were exchanged. They felt aggrieved that a penalty had been denied them, and the ref rightly told them off. However, perhaps the seed had been sown, the softening up tactic had worked, because a few minutes later a penalty was awarded, and without the benefit of a replay I can’t say for certain, but it looked soft. Both teams went for the winner, perhaps finally Tranent had the edge, and given Penicuik had won earlier in the day, they knew only three points would put them back on top on goal difference. Another goal never arrived and a 2-2 draw was the very least Star deserved from this rousing encounter.
That was the Midlothian day done, four games wooshed by in a flash. I am sure those of us who stood for easily ten hours of the day enjoyed a good night’s sleep, but the hop wasn’t done yet, with the final match back in West Lothian at Broxburn still relatively close to Edinburgh.
Now I have to hold my hands up here and state that while I have never pinned my tail to any particular non-league side, Broxburn are one of the teams I keep a really close eye on when I am not watching them live. As I drove out to Albyn Park, home of Broxburn Athletic, with the sun shining amid a raging wind, I was wishing above all other games that this was the venue and the game that would stick long in the memory of those heading down the A1 or M74 back south.
Albyn Park is one of my favourite non-league venues. From the high grassy banks behind the dugouts you get a great view of the other side of the Pentland hills from Easthouses as well as regularly seeing many planes either taking off or coming into land at nearby Edinburgh airport. It is certainly encouraging to note the sheer volume of air traffic taking to skies once more, a further sign things are edging in the right direction. Rightly, Broxburn continues to apply the rules regarding Covid closer to the letter than any other club at this level with temperature checks and masks upon entry. Those in attendance might have noted the unusually located covered terrace a significant distance from the pitch side. I recently discovered through speaking to Stephen Stuart from the club that this is due to the fenced off area in front of the enclosure being a covered mine shaft, and the last thing they would want is for an excitable crowd to cause this to re-open!
The very modern clubhouse which is used for keep fit, dance and educational classes at various times in the week was open prior to kick off as a welcome escape from the wind and a place to have lunch, or a drink, as well as browse the clubs souvenir stall and a local programme seller with all his wares. Some of the hoppers were enjoying this all too much as they were a little tardy in arriving pitchside for the final game.
The groundhopper is a curious animal. Yes we all love football, and it is essentially a hobby, but it sprouts in divergent ways depending on what the thrill of the game is; collecting programmes, badges, capturing photos of the stadia, detailed team information, scorers, substitutes, crowds etc, or the more modern registering your game/visit on the football app and pouring over which other hoppers are at your game. Everyone has their own gig or a few in some cases. How everyone coped in lockdown is the key as to whether the game is seen as just that, a game, or whether it is an obsession. The pandemic rumbled a few such characters who would even go to the lengths of breaking the law to peek over a fence to see a largely meaningless game given the whole thing was voided in many cases. For me the game fell back into its rightful place, there are much more important things in life and I still can’t find the courage to go into anywhere busy, let alone a full stadium as my duties as a carer have never been as important as they are now. I try to choose a game worth seeing including a team I am interested in rather than out and out knocking off a new ground.
Broxburn were one of the first wave of Junior sides that jumped across to the Senior set up, and in their first season in the East of Scotland they came so close to clinching promotion to the Lowland League leading Bonnyrigg 2-0 with the Rose down to ten men. Rabbits were plucked from hats that day as the visitors remarkably won it 3-2 with the winner coming off a counter attack in the dying seconds as Broxburn tried to win the game themselves. It is a match that will live with me forever, it was an absolute classic. The following season the club made the 4th Round of the Scottish Cup, losing narrowly 1-0 at St Mirren, having seen off East Stirlingshire and Cowdenbeath en route.
The wind didn’t assist this match becoming a classic, and two very well matched teams tried their best to provide goalmouth action, but they were largely cancelling each other out. Dundonald, another side from Fife gradually grew to be the stronger of the two and not only managed to bag the only goal of the game, but forced some cracking saves from the Broxy goalkeeper. The homeside were just lacking a cutting edge up front, and the defeat saw them slip down to fifth place. Any hoppers who were Arsenal fans might have been endeared to Broxburn as the colours and kit are identical, but sadly I didn’t get my wish that this would be the game everyone would rave about.
The final whistle brought the curtain down on the six game hop, 29 goals and an announcement before kick off that even prior to the last game the total attendances at the 6 hops held in Scotland had gone over 10,000 people. Maybe laughably small for those used to the monied end of football, but these hop matches can provide small clubs with added boost to club funds and they are grateful. This particular hop had added more than 2000 to the tally and might be deemed the most successful thus far. The formula of two games from different tiers certainly worked. These events are good, it brings people with shared enthusiasm together and for a couple of days you can largely forget the issues of the day. The hop is over, long live the hop.
Football Adventures with James Rendall 