Grassroots football league gets ready for second ground-hop

The West Lancashire League is getting ready for a bank holiday weekend filled with football as its second ‘GroundHop’ approaches.

The inaugural edition was a huge success last August, with a combined attendance of 3,484 at the nine featured games.

This year, nine more games will take place across four days in every corner of Lancashire.

Coppull United, Caton United, Storeys of Lancaster, Galgate, Stoneclough, Eagley, Turton, Haslingden St Mary’s and Rossendale are this year’s host clubs.

The weekend has been organised by the league and GroundHop UK, who began organising these special weekends in 2002. In their early years, the games usually involved Welsh League and Central Midlands League sides.

As time has gone by, they have expanded their coverage and now organise several hops over a domestic season in many corners of the UK, including the North West Counties League, the East of Scotland League and the United Counties League.

The West Lancashire League has three senior divisions: the Premier Division, Division One and Division Two, as well as two reserve leagues.

The Premier Division is level 11 of the English football pyramid and participating teams can apply for North West Counties League membership.

Many local clubs have done this in recent years and made a successful step up, including Charnock Richard, Longridge Town, Euxton Villa, Thornton Cleveleys and, most recently, Fulwood Amateurs.

This year’s host clubs are making the most of the event by offering additional food and drink options and other incentives while Galgate are hosting a family fun day in conjunction with their game.

Most teams are charging £5 for entry to their games.

Ahead of this weekend’s action, West Lancashire League Chairman Andy Hosker told the Lancashire Post: “Following a very successful inaugural GroundHop in 2025 when we were blessed with stunning weather along with good football, the West Lancashire Football League are excited to welcome their second annual groundhop for the August Bank Holiday weekend.

“With this year’s event featuring nine matches from across the WLL divisions, including a Friday night fixture and matches on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, it provides an exciting opportunity to again raise the profile of the West Lancashire League, both as a national feeder league in the North West of England and nationally overall.”

The games are as follows:

Friday August 28, 6,30pm: Coppull United v Freckleton (Division One)

Saturday August 29, 11am: Caton United v Langho (Division Two)

Saturday August 29, 2pm: Storeys v Hawcoat Park (Division Two)

Saturday August 29, 5pm: Galgate v Appley Bridge (Division Two)

Sunday August 30, 11am: Stoneclough v Chipping (Division One)

Sunday August 30, 2pm: Eagley v Hurst Green (Premier Division)

Sunday August 30, 5pm: Turton v Carnforth Rangers (Division One)

Monday August 31, 11am: Haslingden St Mary’s v Lostock St Gerards (Premier Division)

Monday August 31, 2pm: Rossendale v Milnthorpe Corinthians (Premier Division)