by Noel Draper

If, like me, you love football (if not why are you reading this?) and have access to something called the internet you might, like me, have joined Twitter for the purpose of keeping up with your favourite club and players. You might also have followed a few players not from your club and maybe a completely different club altogether. I know I have.

It was while reading one of these “other club” tweets that I saw something interesting. The tweet from the club said that their award winning canteen would be open for a game but it was aimed at someone or something called Non-League Chips. Being a bit of a curious person I clicked on the link and was immediately intrigued and a little amused. That someone or something had set up a website to record, with pictures, the standard of chips at non-league grounds. They even had a league table up and running based on the scores. It was such a fantastic idea that I immediately wished that I had thought of it first. Being the professional that I clearly am I put my jealousy to one side and asked them if they would like to say a few words to the Cutter. Here then, in their own words, is their story. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you, Non-League Chips.

Welcome to the Cutter guys, can you tell us a little about yourselves?
I am Luke and I have too much hair. The person responsible for the updates is Rory who is follically challenged. We use the pseudonym “The Ref” on the website. I’d like to add that there are more of us, some of whom I don’t know the name of or haven’t met yet, but we all have two things in common and that is a love of chips and non-league football.

Who first came up with the idea and when?
I first thought of the idea whilst eating some chips at the Whitehawk F.C ground earlier in the season. For some strange reason I tend to come up with these ideas from time to time. Rory sorted it all out and got everything up and running soon after that game and Non-League Chips was born.

Are you both rather portly gentlemen?
I can’t speak for our official reviewers but both myself and Rory do like our food.

What is the best and worst chips you have eaten?
The chips I ate at Whitehawk F.C earlier on in the season were awesome. I think the chips at Worthing F.C were a low point, the un-melted cheese on top was like a slap in the face.

Anyone who spends a few seconds on your website will notice that you have a fascination with cheese on your chips. Why?
I wouldn’t say it was a fascination. Some people seem to think that cheese on chips is an abomination (a friend’s dad actually said that to me). Needless to say there hasn’t been much cheese at any of the grounds we have visited this season so we are dropping the cheese league.

Do any of the clubs you visit give you feedback?
We do get some feedback from the clubs via Twitter if they have one but what has surprised me is how many non-league clubs have an account.

What are your future plans for the site?
Hopefully we are going to get some more official reviewers signed up from all over the country. We’ve already got some new people helping us out as we can’t be everywhere. I’m also hoping that we get some foreign submissions. There will also be some changes made to the site in time for next season so keep checking.

Can anyone join in?
Yes. All they have to do is visit our site and submit their chip score making sure that they include a photo.

So there we have it. One quite brilliant idea. I would like to say thank you to Luke for answering the banal questions and to point out that if you do want to submit your own clubs’ chips you can do so by checking out their website at  www.nonleaguechips.tumblr.com or following them on Twitter @NonLeagueChips