Hopper & Son Non-League Challenge Trophy
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HOPPER & SON NON-LEAGUE CHALLENGE TROPHY Looking for a non-league football fix? Run out of things to do? Head over to the blog below and read what Trevor Knell has to say, you will find a range of articles from Step 1-6 and much more: www.footballwriting.blog Alternatively find me on Facebook under my company name where I am available for any football article writing you would like published: www.facebook.com/TKEnterprises2019 For any queries or ideas please email me at the address below: [email protected] INTRO Following on from the overriding success of the virtual FA Cup we ran from mid March to early May, the easy thing to do would’ve been to draw a line under it and call it a day. I though ‘It’s not going to be bettered.’ ‘We’re not going to get anyway near it.’ ‘Clubs aren’t going to want to do it again.’ The harder thing to do would be to reimagine it as something completely different, bigger and better. Guess which route we took? The Hopper & Son Non-League Challenge Trophy was born long before the completion of our virtual FA Cup. One of the trickier parts to our original competition was the necessary omission of 100-200 Step 6 clubs due to the limited number of entrants that the FA Cup offers. Those that missed out included some of the fantastic clubs we’d visited in the past and, although they may never have know and, even if they did, they may not have cared, I felt bad. In addition, non-league doesn’t end with Step 6. At Step 7 there is an abundance of famous clubs, and there are more in Step 8 although it does begin to get a little diluted with reserve teams at this stage. So the decision was made to create a bespoke non-league competition that ran from Step 1 to Step 7 (a few from Step 8/9 were invited to make up the numbers). The competition would have seven initial rounds, which served as a precursor to a ‘finals’ competition where the last 32 were drawn into a group stage akin to the World Cup Finals with the top 2 in each progressing to the knockout stages. It took a fair bit of planning to ensure that the calculations for each round worked out with different clubs com- ing into the competition at different stages, similar to the FA Cup. In total 1,408 teams were involved. 452 Step 7 sides kicked off the competition in Round 1, with Steps 4, 5 and 6 joining in Round 2. Step 3 arrived in Round 4, Step 2 in Round 5 and Step 1 in Round 6. The first batch of Round 1 matches were tweeted out on Monday May 4th and almost immediately the reaction surpassed that of the FA Cup. The average number of votes per tie on the first day was 86.76, compared to 57.35 on the first day of our FA Cup. These were all Step 7 clubs who had not participated in our previous competition, so to say I was blown away would have been an understatement. Since then, and prior to the group stages, some 220,235 votes have been cast at an average of 31,462 per round and 160.05 per game, of which there have been 1,376 so far. The support has been tremendous and has made the competition extremely exciting to follow. Right now, I’m really excited to see how the Group Stages and beyond pan out. Like the FA Cup, this competition has introduced us to new clubs, new people and whole load of new grounds we’d now love to visit, in addition to the hundreds we already have in mind. When football comes back for real, I cannot wait to start visiting some of these places and meeting some of these people. There are some excellent clubs who have made it through to the Final 32, and whilst there are two, in Barnet and Bromley, who admittedly I’d rather have seen defeated, the fact that they have made it this far should mean that they will still be competitive, even if their official Twitter accounts won’t be getting involved. It’s very difficult to predict what will happen and I hope I’m not going to offend anyone with any predictions that I have made! I genuinely feel that anyone can beat anyone so the next three weeks should be very exciting. Good luck to everyone involved but most of all, thank you so much for getting involved, taking part and making this competition as fun as it has been to run. Thank you, Chris (and Liam) Priday FIXTURES Saturday 6th June 2020 Harrogate Railway vs Finchampstead 1pm Shepshed Dynamo vs Eagle Sports 1pm Tunbridge Wells vs North Shields Athletic 6pm Ossett United vs Stockport Georgians 6pm Dulwich Hamlet vs Cherry Hinton 8pm FC Clacton vs Harefield United 8pm Sunday 7th June 2020 Taunton Town vs Horbury Town 1pm Newhaven vs Sutton Common Rovers 1pm Bromley vs Greyfriars Athletic 6pm Shoreham vs Marshalls FC 6pm Barnet vs Queens Park Crescents 8pm Grays Athletic vs Langney Wanderers 8pm Monday 8th June 2020 Bungay Town vs Clay Cross Town 6pm Stockton Town vs Wallington 6pm Chichester City vs AFC Ringmer 8pm Brentwood Town vs Raynes Park Vale 8pm Tuesday 9th June 2020 Harrogate Railway vs Eagle Sports 6pm Finchampstead vs Shepshed Dynamo 6pm Tunbridge Wells vs Stockport Georgians 8pm North Shields Athletic vs Ossett United 8pm Wednesday 10th June 2020 Dulwich Hamlet vs Harefield United 6pm Cherry Hinton vs FC Clacton 6pm Taunton Town vs Sutton Common Rovers 8pm Horbury Town vs Newhaven 8pm Thursday 11th June 2020 Bromley vs Marshalls FC 6pm Greyfriars Athletic vs Shoreham 6pm Barnet vs Langney Wanderers 8pm Queens Park Crescents vs Grays Athletic 8pm Friday 12th June 2020 Bungay Town vs Wallington 6pm Clay Cross Town vs Stockton Town 6pm Chichester City vs Raynes Park Vale 8pm AFC Ringmer vs Brentwood Town 8pm Saturday 13th June 2020 Shepshed Dynamo vs Harrogate Railway 1pm Eagle Sports vs Finchampstead 1pm Ossett United vs Tunbridge Wells 4pm Stockport Georgians vs North Shields Athletic 4pm FC Clacton vs Dulwich Hamlet 6pm Harefield United vs Cherry Hinton 6pm Newhaven vs Taunton Town 8pm Sutton Common Rovers vs Horbury Town 8pm Sunday 14th June 2020 Shoreham vs Bromley 1pm Marshalls FC vs Greyfriars Athletic 1pm Grays Athletic vs Barnet 4pm Langney Wanderers vs Queens Park Crescents 4pm Stockton Town vs Bungay Town 6pm Wallington vs Clay Cross Town 6pm Brentwood Town vs Chichester City 8pm Raynes Park Vale vs AFC Ringmer 8pm Tuesday 16th June 2020 Last 16 Match 1 6pm Last 16 Match 2 8pm Last 16 Match 3 8pm Last 16 Match 4 8pm Wednesday 17th June 2020 Last 16 Match 5 6pm Last 16 Match 6 8pm Last 16 Match 7 8pm Last 16 Match 8 8pm Saturday 20th June 2020 Quarter Final Match 1 6pm Quarter Final Match 2 8pm Sunday 21st June 2020 Quarter Final Match 3 6pm Quarter Final Match 4 8pm Tuesday 23rd June 2020 Wednesday 24th June 2020 Semi Final Match 1 7pm Semi Final Match 2 7pm Saturday 27th June 2020 Final 7pm GROUP KICKS OFF STAGE SAT 6TH DRAW JUNE Harrogate Railway Bromley Shepshed Dynamo Shoreham GROUP A GROUP E Eagle Sports Marshalls Finchampsted Greyfriars Athletic Tunbridge Wells Barnet Ossett United Grays Athletic GROUP B GROUP F Stockport Georgians Langney Wanderers North Shields Athletic Queens Park Crescents Dulwich Hamlet Bungay Town FC Clacton Stockton Town GROUP C GROUP G Harefield United Wallington Cherry Hinton Clay Cross Town Taunton Town Chichester City Newhaven Brentwood Town GROUP D GROUP H Sutton Common Rovers Raynes Park Vale Horbury Town Ringmer AFC HARROGATE RAILWAY Confirmed squad Goalkeepers Jamie HASSALL Joe WILTON Full Name Harrogate Railway Atheltic Football Club Defenders Nicknames The Rail Jassim ALALI The Locomotives Harry CLARKE Founded 1935 Elliot HOLMES Ground Station View Dan McDAID Capacity 3,500 (300 seated) Mike MORRIS Manager Craig Ogilvie Lewis RILEY League Northern Counties East Ally WILSON League Division One Twitter @THERAILFC Midfielders Kieran GREENWAY Lewis HOARE Sam NEWSOME Brad POVEY Lewis THORNTON Danny WARD Forwards Steve BROMLEY Fraser LANCASTER Jack STAINROD One to Watch Fraser Lancaster How they got here: R2 – 4-1 vs. Barton Town; R3 – Dodworth Miners Welfare; A commanding centre-forward, R4 – 2-1 vs. Whitby Town; R5 – 3-1 vs. Farsley Celtic; R6 – dominant in the air and good at holding 2-0 vs. Stockport County; R7 – 4-2 vs. Hinckley AFC up the ball. A fantastic team player whose commitment will prove crucial, as Prediction: will his influence on the younger Group Stage. It will be a difficult group to get out of for players. Harrogate Railway, with one of the favourites in Shep- shed Dynamo and a dark horse in Finchampstead. Their opening game with Finchampstead could have a big impact of which of the two progress to the last 16. SHEPSHED DYNAMO Confirmed squad Goalkeepers Matty WHITE Defenders Full Name Shepshed Dynamo Reif ARMSTRONG Football Club Jake BETTS Nicknames The Dynamo Cameron DAY Founded 1994 Josh EGGINTON Ground The Dovecote Stadium Jordan WAKELING Capacity 2,500 (500 seated) Lewis WHITE Manager Damion Beckford-Quailey League United Counties League Midfielders Premier Division Sean DOY Twitter @ShepshedDynamo Liam HURST John KING Luke MORAN Niall PRENDEVILLE Karl WHYMARK Reece MORRIS Forwards Shay BRENNAN Matt MELBOURNE Josh MUNDELL Spencer WEIR-DALEY How they got here: One to Watch A thumping 6-1 win over Lichfield City in Round Two sparked a faultless progression through the first few rounds with Liam Hurst Cadbury Athletic and Hednesford Town dispatched in com- fortable fashion.