Monthly Archives: June 2015

Shapes of things

28 Sunday Jun 2015

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Saturday 27th June 2015 ko 15.00

Friendly

BEESTON FC 3 (37, 39, 48)

SHERWOOD COLLIERY 8 (19,35,41,68,72,73,83,85)

Att 36 at Trent Vale Road

There’s been a few changes on the Notts side of the border with Derbyshire this close season. One of those has seen Beeston AFC merge with fellow Notts Senior League outfit Boots Athletic, to form Beeston FC. They’ll play most of this coming season, including their hop game at the nearby Hetley Pearson Ground, but the plan is to renovate here at Trent Vale Road, and call this place home. Continue reading →

Extra Time

23 Tuesday Jun 2015

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Saturday 20th June 2015 ko 13.30

Extra-Time Project

AC WOLLATON 6 (Pietraforte 59 Todd 81 88 94  109 Burke 102)

RUSHCLIFFE DYNAMO 5 (Firth 47 Brown 55 Walker 90p 113p Rudge 101)

2 hour game

Att 14

Entry FREE

Programme- By donation

As far as I’m concerned this is Rob Hornby territory. As I exited the M1 at Kirby Muxloe and headed north-east I began to pass the villages whose clubs he’s featured on his hops. I saw a Metropolitan line train on the Old Dalby test track, and found myself reminiscing over a hard fought contest at Keyworth United. From there is wasn’t far to the Rushcliffe Leisure Centre, with the Nottingham Football Centre tucked in behind it. Continue reading →

Together, Stronger

22 Monday Jun 2015

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Saturday 13th June 2015 ko 15.00

South Wales FA Play-Off Final

STM SPORTS 4 (Reffell 12 Graham 48 Worsley 57 84)

PONTLOTTYN AFC 1 (Colbourne 32)

Att c600 at Cardiff City Stadium

Entry £3

Programme £1

Groundhopping and the amateur game go back a long way, back to the days of 4-game Saturdays in the South Wales Amateur League, and those hops only ended when we finally ran of clubs to visit! Back then we all wondered why there was the odd position of two leagues, the Amateur Leaguer and the Senior League occupying the same footprint and the same level, the fifth tier? Continue reading →

Another Way of Looking At It

21 Sunday Jun 2015

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Stockholm June 2015

One of the fringe benefits of watching obscure football matches all over the world, is that you inevitably end up seeing a country and its people as they are, not as the tourist guides try to present it. Over the last 9 years Stockholm has signposted many significant times in my life; I jump on plane and 2 hours later there it is, welcoming me back. But until now I’d failed to take the short-cut and visit all the touristy bits. Continue reading →

The Wedding Present

17 Wednesday Jun 2015

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Sunday 7th June 2015 ko 16.00

Division 6 Västra Uppland

MORGONGÅVA SK 2 (Magnusson 2 Folkesson 17)

ÅSUNDA IF 1 (Holmberg 76) Mahmood sent off 90 (2nd booking)

Att 94

NB The Swedish hop’s cost of £280 included all entry fees, programmes, two nights bed and breakfast, and coach travel between the games and Arlanda airport.

Entry FREE

Teamsheets FREE

The final game in this year’s Swedish hop took the party back towards Uppsala, and the pretty agricultural district of Heby. In so many ways Ramsjövallen was exactly the kind of ground we like to feature. Its isolated, pretty, and if it wasn’t for Kim Hedwall organising this annual event the coach party would never of even heard of it, let alone paid it a visit. A closer look also shows the other side of organising a groundhop too, the benefit to the club. Continue reading →

Catalina

16 Tuesday Jun 2015

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Sunday 7th June 2015 ko 12.00

Division 4 Norra Stockholm

VIGGBYHOLMS IK 3 (Persson 20 Sten 49 N Jonsson 63)

FF TÅBY CITY 1 (Higgs 89)

Att 129

NB The Swedish hop’s cost of £280 included all entry fees, programmes, two nights bed and breakfast, and coach travel between the games and Arlanda airport.

Entry & Programme 20sek

From our base in Uppsala, we set off due south towards Stockholm before striking out east into the outer reaches of the archipelago. We reached the municipality of Tåby most famous for the large numbers of Viking runic stones found here, and less so for being the home of DJ and producer Eric Prydz.

House music seemed a million miles away as the coach pulled into the small town of Viggbyholm nestling in Stora Värtan, an inlet of the Baltic Sea. There are beaches and boat clubs, and the area was opened up in no small part by the opening of the Roslagsbanan, a 891 mm narrow gauge railway running from Stockholm Östra station out north and eastwards. Continue reading →

Telegraph Road

15 Monday Jun 2015

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Saturday 6th June 2015 ko 16.00

Division 3 Östra Svealand

MÄRSTA IK 3 (Samura 16 Altumer 34 Tsakle 87og)

JUVENTUS IF 2 (Muqdisi 62 69)

Att 107

NB The Swedish hop’s cost of £280 included all entry fees, programmes, two nights bed and breakfast, and coach travel between the games and Arlanda airport.

Entry & Programme 40 sek

In many respects this game would have been perfect as the final game of the hop 24 hours later, Märsta (pronounced mosh-ta) is at the edge of Stockholm’s northernmost suburbs, and is close to Arlanda airport. As such its a typical dormitory suburb, with the fields gradually giving way to houses, then the churches and the schools. At the centre of it all is the Pendeltåg or commuter train station to central Stockholm. The town does have the distinction of being where the first telegraph pole in Sweden was erected.

Continue reading →

Countrywide

14 Sunday Jun 2015

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Saturday 6th June 2015 ko 13.00

Division 4 Uppland

RIALA GoIF 3 (Thorleifsson 26 Stenbäck 83 Bengstsberg 89)

GAMLA UPSALA II 1 (Strandlin 55)

Att 96

NB The Swedish hop’s cost of £280 included all entry fees, programmes, two nights bed and breakfast, and coach travel between the games and Arlanda airport.

Entry & Programme 40sek

It has to be said that Riala’s home, Lundbyvalen is rather isolated, in fact so isolated that the coach driver had some difficulty in finding it. All rather different from the stock in trade for the coach driver these days, the endless school runs. It was well worth the wait, and Kim Hedwall being the consummate hop organiser he is, had factored in plenty of time as a failsafe. Time in these matters is a precious commodity! Continue reading →

The Why and Why Not

12 Friday Jun 2015

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Friday5th June 2015 ko 19.00

Division 6 Norra Uppland

FILMS SK 1 (Wallmo 37)

FC BÃLINGE CITY 2 (Freij 24 Jansson 76)

Att 78

NB The Swedish hop’s cost of £280 included all entry fees, programmes, two nights bed and breakfast, and coach travel between the games and Arlanda airport.

Entry 20sek

Kim Hedwall has been running the Swedish hop since 2007, and this first game on the 9th hop was our 50th game at our 48th ground. In those years we’ve been rained on, two of the party have been roped in as linesmen, and we’ve appeared on Swedish national TV and “Offside” magazine, the Swedish equivalent of “4-4-2.” We’ve never taken a party of more than 30, due in part to a misunderstanding about what the event is for.

Continue reading →

Change at the Globen

11 Thursday Jun 2015

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Thursday 4th June 2015 ko 19.00

Allsvenskan

DJURGÅRDEN 1 (Johnson 37)

IFK NORRKÖPING 1 (Tklalcic 55)

Att 17.902

Entry 275 sek (c£20.61)

Programme 20 sek

If you want to know why I watch so much Swedish football this evening demonstrated why neatly. After a day’s sightseeing I was in the process of dumping my bag at the hotel in Stockholm’s Gamla Stan when my phone went off. Back in 2011 the Swedish Groundhop visited a tiny club called Åkersberga, and since the away team objected to the club’s choice of club linesmen, I was roped into helping out! It would have ended up being an obscure footnote, and a fun story to tell at parties but Continue reading →