Sidmouth Town make a welcome return to South West Peninsula League (SWPL) Eastern Division action tomorrow (Saturday) when they travel to Ilfracombe Town (3pm) for what will be their first outing since a February 12, 2-1 home defeat to Crediton.

It’s the start of a busy run of fixtures for the Vikings, for they play again on Tuesday night (March 27), when they are at Bovey Tracey, and again next Friday when they host Budleigh Salterton in a match that is part of the 2018 SWPL Groundhop.

The Groundhop sees non-league football followers take in a number of matches in a short period and draws football lovers from across the globe with this year’s hop including folk from Scandinavia and the USA! It is expected that as many as 150 groundhoppers will be at Manstone Lane for the Good Friday game and that, in addition to what would normally be a healthy crowd for an East Devon derby, means it’s going to be busy – and ought to create quite an atmosphere.

Town chairman Andy Argyle says: “We are looking forward to it. These sort of days do not come along too often for clubs like ourselves and it is a great opportunity for us to create quite an atmosphere and indeed show the club off at its best to what is sure to be a large gathering.”

The Town versus Budleigh game begins day two of the Groundhop with the action staying in East Devon with the second match being at Honiton Town, where Ilfracombe Town are the opposition (3pm), before the evening offering, the Axminster Town versus Crediton United game which kicks off at Tiger Way at 7pm.

As for the first of the forthcoming run of games (the trip to Ilfracombe), Town drew 2-2 with the North Devon side when they met at Manstone Lane in September. The Town away record this season is not good as it is one of eight defeats, three draws and just the one win in 12 outings so far.

However, the fact is that six of the eight defeats have been by a single goal! The one win so far was a 3-2 success at Liverton United. Ilfracombe Town have been beaten four times at home already this season while they have also won six and ended all square in two matches.