by Gordon McCreath

WHO ate all the pies?

Well, it seems to have been a group of eight groundhoppers from the Netherlands who recently visited Meadow Park for the Super League First Division match against Girvan.

The groundhoppers - fans who visit as many football grounds as possible - headed by Hearts fan Joris van de Wier were packing in three games in a weekend.

“We went to Kilmarnock v Hearts on the Friday” said Joris.

"Thanks to BBC Alba, Ayr United’s game was put back to 5.15pm so a junior match was possible. As we did it by public transport, only the two Irvine clubs and Troon were an option. I’ve been to Meadow three times and I liked the ground. So, I was hoping Medda would have a home game.

"Luckily they had, that’s why we ended up there.”

Joris, who has published a book, “Glorious Hearts,” about his favourite Scottish club, organises at least three groundhopper trips to the UK each year, always including one Hearts match and two others.

Incredibly, all three matches on their recent trip ended in 0-0 draws, which was not necessarily the image Scottish football would like to promote to our guests from other countries.

Joris also gave the answer to the question about the pies: “ Everyone liked our visit to Meadow Park. The hospitality was great and we all loved the pies. Some of us ate three of them, because we don’t have them in the Netherlands.”