✓988 Sowerby Sports Village

Thirsk Falcons 2-5 Darlington RA

North Riding FL - Premier Division

Saturday 1st August 2026

I visited Thirsk Falcons at Thirsk & Sowerby Flatts in October 2019, which can be read here. Since then, the club had a brief spell in North Riding FL Division 1, before winning promotion back to the Premier Division in 2024-25. The Falcons have now settled a mile south of the town centre at Sowerby Sports Village, which has an adaptable 4G pitch and seven grass pitches. The changing room block has a refreshment area, and the pitch has room for spectators along one side and behind one of the goals, with the team benches on the far side.

Sowerby Sports Village,

Inspiration Way, 

Sowerby, 

Thirsk YO7 1ST

Current North Riding Football League grounds visited 41/49

Thirsk Falcons 2 Darlington Railway Athletic 5

North Riding FL Premier Division matchday 1

2pm ko

Att.54hc

The competitive season got off to a flying start with two goals each in the first sixteen minutes. Darlo RA tightened up at the back in the second half and were quick on the break, adding three well taken goals to run out worthy winners. 

1-0 3’ Eliot Summers

1-1 4’ Daniel Hull

1-2 10’Ryan Groves

2-2 16’ Eliot Summers

2-3 62’ Kyle Tyrone Dwight Davidson

2-4 73’ Cameron Holiday

2-5 89’ Callum Perriton

#Heedhopper

63 miles door-to-door

1127 train from Newcastle via Northallerton, arriving in Thirsk 1255.

I had a 36 minute window in Northallerton to tick off the Buck Inn, a pub which I’ve been in before, but not since it became a Wetherspoons. That time slot was broken up by a 15 minute walk each way to the far end of the town, five minutes waiting to get served and one minute to neck my drink! 

It's only seven minutes onto Thirsk, and from the station it was a bit of an expedition, walking through and around farmers fields until finally returning to civilization in Sowerby.(see pic)

As expected, daytrips never seem to go as planned, finding out on the hike back to Thirsk that my train from Northallerton to Newcastle was cancelled(along with several others on the east coast line) I called into the Old Red House for a pint and to work out how I was going to get back home. As it happens, the Thirsk - Northallerton train was going to sunderland, so I booked a ticket to stay on the train, then caught the bus back on the long tedious 56, so finally back home an hour later than scheduled.

20 n.o.

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the award winning Heed Hopper blog… or the website formerly known as ‘The 100 Football Grounds Club’ 

The 100FgC part of the site was formed on the 25th July 2006 with 5 founder members, posting their ground lists on launch day. Membership closed after 5 years in August 2011, the squad coming to a close with the final allotted total of 199 members. Due to popular demand, membership reopened in 2013, with the introduction of the ‘Affiliated Squad’  which eventually closed in June 2019 with 101 members, which gave us a total of 300 Groundhoppers. 

On the 25th May 2023, I declared the club defunct, due to a lack of interest from its membership, the Futbology app killing all interest in the squad using the site to keep a record of logging football grounds. 

Over the last two decades I’ve photographed and put words to almost 900 different grounds, some of which are no more and a lot unrecognisable from the original visit. There’s been many highlights along the way, but the main element has been the friends I’ve made, some of whom are sadly no longer with us and who I miss terribly.

Many other Groundhopping blogs appeared, mimicked, then soon disappeared, but I’m pleased I’ve kept it going and  still have the enthusiasm to still do it, so hopefully with the aid of good health and faculties intact, I’ll still be producing this bollox for another twenty years. Cheers!

✓987 Kinsley Timber Stadium

Kinsley Boys 2-3 Athersley Recreation

Pre-Season Friendly

Saturday 11th July 2026

Kinsley is an ex-mining village in the civil parish of Hemsworth and the City of Wakefield.The village is between Wakefield and Pontefract, with its neighbouring villages of Fitzwilliam to the north and Hemsworth to the south-east.

The club was originally a youth team, founded in 1962 as Kinsley Village FC. The club then progressed as a senior side playing in various local leagues, becoming champions of the Doncaster & District Senior League in 2007, then taking the step up to the Central Midlands League.

Central Midlands League 2007 - 2014 and 2024 - 2026

Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior League 2014-15

Doncaster Senior League 2015-16

Joined the NCEL following their Premier Division North title win last season.

Kinsley Timber Stadium 

Kinsley Street

Wakefield Road,

Kinsley, 

WF9 5HA

Current NCEL grounds visited 34/42

The clubhouse and changing room are behind the goal, with a covered standing enclosure on one side and the team benches opposite. 

Kinsley Boys 2 Athersley Rec 3

Pre-season friendly

2pm ko

Att.80hc

Admission £3

Pin badge £3

Coffee £1(served by a canny lass)

An entertaining first half saw Kinsley take the lead, with the Rec equalising twice. Late pressure from the visitors resulted in a last minute winner. 

1-0 #10 12’

1-1 Kenneth Effah 18’

2-1 #23 45’

2-2 Alex Reed 45+4’

2-3 Leon Osborne 90’ 

#Heedhopper

103 miles door-to-door

0920 Flixbus Newcastle to Leeds, arriving at 1120.

1248 train Leeds - Fitzwilliam, arriving at 1315.

When I arrived in Leeds I stumbled upon a record fair in Kirkgate Market, where I spent so much time vinyl digging, that I didn't have time for a drink before catching the train to Fitzwilliam. 

I did have a pint at the Liquid Spirit in Kinsley before going into the ground, where I met up with Katie & Lee. Also at the match was Groundhopper acquaintance Stuart Long and long lost Heed fans(and now Athersley Rec followers) Nick & Alan Percival. I cancelled my coach home and cadged a lift from Katie back to the north-east. A canny day with one off the 26-27 ‘t’do list’ marked off straight away.

✓986.Moss Heaps

Gateshead Fell CFC 2-3 Washington FC Reserves

Pre-Season Friendly

Saturday 4th July 2026

I can't believe that I'm starting a brand new football season (and actually registering it as a tick) at a ground that's been a general part of my everyday life.

The Moss Heaps are playing fields in between Wrekenton( where I lived for the majority of the first 6 years of my life) and Beacon Lough (where I lived for the next 35 years). 

I've played football on the pitches from being a bairn, and watched plenty of Sunday morning pub football, including when it was the home of The Raven, a long lost boozer on the Beacon Lough East estate. I even walk the dogs over these playing fields every week.

I was delighted to see a new club - Gateshead Fell CFC entering the Wearside League Third Division, a name which indicates they may be playing in my local area, and a team I could lend my support to. The club runs junior boys and girls teams at all age levels, with their senior team now stepping into the non-league pyramid.

According to the Wearside League website, they are listed as playing at the Washington Hub, so disappointing that they aren't playing in the Heed at all, nevermind the Low/High Fell area of Gateshead. Cardinal Hume School is across the road, but the 4G pitch there doesn’t meet league standards and the Moss Heaps is definitely no good, because of the danger to passing traffic(and putting your life in your hands when retrieving the ball)

This was the club's first of five pre-season matches on the Moss Heaps over the coming month, starting with Washington Reserves. The Fell were two goals up and the break, but the visitors were stronger in the second half and took the win with a brace from Milo Bond.

Gateshead Fell 2 Washington Reserves 3

1pm ko 

Att.45hc

2-0 David Kennedy 17’ 32’

2-1 Jason Persee 47’

2-3 Milo Bond 64' 79’

 

✓985 Kings Field

Beeston St Anthony 2-0 Ripon City

West Yorkshire League Premier Division

Saturday 23rd May 2026

Beeston is a suburb in Leeds, located 2 miles south of the city centre. The origins of Beeston can be traced back to the medieval period. It remained a small settlement until the latter part of the Victorian era when it became a primarily residential area for people working in Leeds and surrounding industrial areas. Beeston appears in the Domesday Book, as Bestone. The name seems to come from Old English which translates as -  'estate characterised by bent-grass’(population: over 22,000 which included Holbeck)

 

Beeston St Anthony joined the West Yorkshire League from the Leeds Red Triangle League. The club have been Premier Division champions on four occasions in 2011-12, 2015-16,2020-21,2023-24 and this season they’ve finished league runners-up for a fifth time.

Kings Field

Moorhouse Avenue

Beeston Leeds

LS11 8HA

The ground is fully enclosed, railed off with team benches and hard standing on one side. The Hugh Gaitskell pavilion has a refreshment kiosk at the entrance.

Beeston St Anthony 2 Ripon City 0

West Yorkshire League - Premier Division matchday 28

(2nd v 3rd)

1430ko

Att.92hc (mainly made up by loads of desperate Groundhoppers)

As the players entered the pitch there was a guard of honour for two players, who I’m guessing were making their final appearance for the club. Beeston followed up on their midweek League Cup success with another win, scoring twice in the first half but they should have won by a bigger margin. 

1-0 #8 21’

2-0 #9 32’

#Heedhopper

97 miles door-to-door

Flixbus: Newcastle 0820 - arrive Leeds 1015. Return: 1755 -1955.

I squeezed in one last trip, because I always like to complete the season with my grounds total finishing in a five or a zero digit. 

I travelled on the Flexbus for the first time and it was spot on, running on time in both directions. I spent the morning browsing the record shops and stopping off for drinks, before boarding the 24 to Beeston, the bus stopping a short stroll from Kings Field. 

Afterwards I watched the play-off final in the Head of Steam on Park Row (new tick) before the bus back hyem.