This week’s ramblings concern my “ground-hopping”
obsession. For those of you unacquainted with the term, a ground-hopper is the
variety of football fan who “collects” football grounds. This can vary from the
one-club supporter who wishes to see their team at as many different football
grounds as possible to another extreme altogether where ground-hoppers forsake
the love of one team to visit a different ground every week (or several times a
week in some cases). The latter category of hopper is a much misunderstood
species, viewed with suspicion by more “normal” football fans – how can anyone
“enjoy” travelling miles to a match involving two teams that they don’t
support? A bit like taking a series of lovers rather than a wife! Unfaithful!
Not to be trusted!
Some of you will have heard the “92 Club”. This is a club for people who have managed to visit all 92 football grounds currently in the Premiership and the Football League. Around 1,100 people have “qualified” to date and, if anything, it’s getting harder to complete these days what with several Premiership stadiums being virtually all-ticket and the constant influx of new stadia and new members of the football league. I completed my own personal 92 in November 1986 with a visit to Somerton Park, home of Newport County (yes, they used to be a Football League club!). Since then I’ve managed to stay up to date with the comings and goings of all the various clubs and grounds comprising the 92 but it does take it out of you. In recent years for example I’ve had to travel to exotic locations such as Darlington, Hull, Manchester and Southampton. Come on…how many League grounds have you visited? Count ‘em up!
What does “qualification” involve? Basically you have to attend a competitive home fixture for each club. There is no requirement to “prove” that you were there with programmes or ticket stubs but you do need to keep a simple record of the date, fixture, competition, attendance etc. Could you cheat? Well yes…but why would anybody want to pretend that they had visited the 92 grounds if they hadn’t? It’s sad enough doing it properly isn’t it? And talking of “home” fixtures, it does mean that occasionally you have to revisit a ground because there is a new home team playing there. For example I’ve seen home games at Selhurst Park with the host club being variously Crystal Palace, Charlton Athletic and Wimbledon (remember them?). Similarly I’ve seen both Gillingham and Brighton & Hove Albion host fixtures at the Priestfield.
Having completed the 92 in 1986 I decided to sample the Non-League circuit. What a delight! What so many football fans fail to understand is that there is life outside of the league. What with lower prices, easy parking and great friendliness and hospitality in so many places, I’m not ashamed to say that, these days I prefer Non-League football (what do you mean I must be getting old?). I completed the Conference grounds in the mid-1990’s (although I do need to go to Accrington Stanley and revisit Northwich Victoria to re-complete that particular set). I’ve also done a number of grounds at Steps 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the Non-League hierarchy (Nationwide Conference being Step 1 and Racing Club being at Step 5….come on keep up with me here!). Racing Club’s recent visit to Oldbury United saw me reach 320 grounds visited. I’ve also had the pleasure of attending matches in a number of other countries over the years including Belgium, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Scotland and USA (buy the beer and I could bore you to death over the course of several evenings!)
So, whilst I am obviously a ground-hopper, am I truly a football obsessive? Well you might think so but it all depends on your standpoint. A number of members of the 92 Club have visited all 92 in one season. Some have done it on several occasions. For the truly committed ground-hopper there are “hoppers weekends” where some of the more obscure leagues (normally in the far South-West or North-East will co-ordinate their fixtures to encourage 200 or so hoppers to feast their eyes on up to a dozen fixtures over a bank holiday weekend. Could you take 3 games in a day? I did it once in the early 1980’s watching Leicester City v. Chelsea at 11:00, Wolves v. Leeds United at 15:00 and Port Vale v. York City at 19:30. By the third match I was a virtual zombie (what do you mean “nothing new there then”?) with all of my enthusiasm gone and watching on auto-pilot. Please lock me up if you ever hear me suggesting anything remotely similar in the future! So you see, by comparison with the really serious ground-hoppers, my football obsession is relatively mild! What about you?
Keep the faith!
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