Walney to the rescue for intrepid groundhoppers

Paddy Mooney and Nick Willis ticked off the Division Two side’s ground on Saturday after travelling up from their homes in Birmingham and Stoke, fearing the weather was about to scupper their groundhopping adventures.

They had planned to take in Milnthorpe’s home match with Tempest United and when that was called off, Vickerstown’s home clash with Wyre Villa.

But when that bit the dust too they kept on going – with Walney’s home match with Chipping thankfully saving their Saturday.

And Paddy – pictured here with referee Peter Worrall – only had words of praise for the players and the league in general.

“We had originally planned to go to Milnthorpe but that was off due it being waterlogged,” explained Paddy, a 66-year-old retired finance manager.

“So we thought about carrying on up towards the Lake District and then check Twitter. Then the Vickerstown match went so we were left with Walney Island or Askam.

“It was a cracking game and we were invited in at half-time for a cuppa, I think they took pity on us with the weather as it was!

“We got talking to the referee, Peter, and he was blown away I think by what we were doing. But there’s hundreds of guys who do this every week.

“The West Lancashire League is an excellent league for Step 7. The standard of the football is really good and the grounds are always decent. We really like the West Lancs League.

“The clubs keep people informed well on social media about whether the game is on or not and the league website is kept up to date on a Saturday morning, which helps.”

Paddy left his home in Birmingham at 9.30am, picked Nick up at 10.30am and was in the pub by 1pm before taking in the game, which Chipping won 3-2 thanks to an 89th minute winner.

A stop off in Ulverston on the way for more refreshments and a chippy tea followed before Paddy arrived home in the Midlands at 10pm.

Paddy says they’re roughly halfway through ticking off the West Lancashire League clubs and love seeing new places and meeting new people.

Both were season ticket holders at professional clubs – Paddy at Liverpool and Nick at West Bromwich Albion – but now prefer the grassroots football on offer up and down the British Isles.

‘It’s all about the day out and the camaraderie,” says Paddy.
“We meet other groundhoppers all the time and we all have one thing in common – the love of football. I think it’s a more honest level of football.

“You got taken for granted at bigger clubs and it lost its luster to be honest.

“There’s a warmth to grassroots football and it became an obsession.

“We travel all over but it’s always somewhere new.

“We get to see places that we would never get to otherwise – we went to a village on Saturday near the ground called Biggar and it was almost medieval.”

Paddy and Nick have taken in a few games in the North Lancashire League and Westmorland League and reckons Fulwood Amateurs’ ground (“One of the very few grounds I have been to with a golf driving range!”) and Blackpool Wren Rovers’ Brews Park (“You don’t get many with cover on all four sides”) as his favourites so far.

Tomorrow, it’s 51-year-old Nick’s turn to drive as they head south to Milford Haven in south-west Wales for their latest groundhopping mission with a planned trip next weekend to Belgium where they will watch three Division 2 matches before getting the Channel Tunnel home.

But what do their respective wives say about it all?

“My wife will say she is long suffering,” laughs Paddy, who has two grown—up children.

“We’ve been married 30 years and Saturday is my day and she has her own routine. I wouldn’t dream of going shopping with her and nor would she probably want me to.”

But with the current high fuel prices, how much does their hobby cost them?

“I don’t even want to think about it!”