Monthly Archives: June 2017

Train Time

28 Wednesday Jun 2017

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Saturday 24th June 2017 ko 14.30

Pre-season Friendly

DENBIGH TOWN 4 (13p 73 77 86og)

C.P.D. LLANUWCHLLYN 2 (82 90)

Att 45 @ Ty Isa, Rhewl. (Rhewl FC)

Free Entry

And Llangollen Railway

Return ticket from Corwen East to Llangollen £15

It was a day of coincidences, another chance to watch a Welsh pre-season friendly in June, and another chance to double it up with a heritage steam train ride. This time the railway was full-sized, although the Llangollen Railway runs on tracks once part of the Ruabon to Barmouth line axed under Beeching. That route included the now Bala Lake Railway which we’d travelled on the previous week! Continue reading →

Added Value

26 Monday Jun 2017

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Saturday 17th June 2017 ko 14.00

Pre-season Friendly

BALA TOWN 1 (Connolly 72)

LINFIELD 3 (Waterworth 22 Burns 39p C Stewart 86)

Att c400

and

Bala Lake Steam Railway 

return ticket from Llanuwchllyn to Bala £11

Entry £6

Programme 50p

If there was one thought that I took home from the Swedish Hop it was the idea of adding value. Event organiser Kim Hedwall managed to do that with every single game we attended and that principle certainly influenced my approach to this game. It was a confluence of ideas, my girlfriend Robyn fancied a trip to a steam railway, and needless to say I fancied a football match! I looked at Bala, remembered my visit around 10 years previously, and quickly put “Steam railways Bala” into Google. Continue reading →

The Watertower

23 Friday Jun 2017

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Sunday 4th June 2017 ko 15.00

Division 5 Sydvästra Skåne

VELLINGE I.F. 7 (Marius Hansson 22 47 C Wreme 34 60 Kruse 43 Lindell 74 Krönström 90)

HUSIE F.F. 1 (Johannsson 66)

Att 68

Entry 40 sek

We began to make our way back to the Øresund Bridge and our flights from Kastrup airport. The 11th Swedish Hop’s final stop was Vellinge, whose claim to fame seems to be that it was once voted Sweden’s second best place to live, history doesn’t record who won though! The other thing Vellinge is famous for is it’s 40 metres tall, 400 million litre vatterntorn, or water tower. And if you weren’t completely au fait with what a huge concrete funnel is for, the clever Swedes have painted the thing in blue stripes! Continue reading →

Easter Eggs

20 Tuesday Jun 2017

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Sunday 4th June 2017 ko 12.00

Division 5 Södra Skåne

KLAGSTORPS I.F. 4 (Dakaj 24 50 A Sheshaee 30 Krasniqi 54) Mullatahiri sent off 48 (violent conduct)

ANDERSLÖVS Bo.I.K. 1 (Lindahl 33)

Att 115

Entry & Programme 40 sek

With carry-on baggage so limited on budget airlines these days I’ve long since learned to take and wear old clothes so that they can be dumped leaving space for souvenirs on the journey back. But this time I decided that my “North Face” waterproof jacket was due for retirement, so there it sat in the hotel wardrobe in Trelleborg, destined to stay there if the weather stayed sunny. My alarm went, I peered through the curtains….. typical…rain! The coat was brought into action one last time.  Continue reading →

Canapes

18 Sunday Jun 2017

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Saturday 3rd June 2017 ko 17.00

Division 5 Sydvästra Skåne

SKEGRIE B.K. 4 (Ljungvist 5 Revesz 38 80 82)

ARLÖVS B.I. 4 (Svensson 11 25 48 Johansson 61)

Att 46

Entry & Programme 40sek

If our previous game at Gylle was sold to the British contingent on the Swedish Hop as a beautiful location, then Snarringe I.P. was at least its equal. The small village near Trelleborg is best known as where some Dolmen, or standing stones were discovered, dating back to Viking times but is now a peaceful idyll in rural southern Sweden. There was one small problem though, actually pronouncing the name “Skegrie!”

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The Cunning Linguists

16 Friday Jun 2017

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Saturday 3rd June ko 14.00

Division 7 Sydöstra Skåne

GYLLE A.I.F. 4 (Mekic 60 79 Sinteus 69 84)

BASKERMÖLLA I.F. 1 (Korac 53)

Entry 30 SEK

Programme FREE

You have to be careful with the language in Skåne, as in southern Sweden the dialect owes much to Danish, even Stockholm resident hop organiser Kim Hedwall discovered understanding the locals’ dialect wasn’t necessarily a given. He speaks standard Swedish, the kind you’d hear on TV, but this isn’t the Swedish you’d necessarily hear down here. On one hand you could see it as like a Londoner having a conversation with a Glaswegian, but there are other differences too. And the name of the 3rd club on this year’s Swedish hop demonstrated the point rather well…. Continue reading →

The Idrottsplats

15 Thursday Jun 2017

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Saturday 3rd June 2017 ko 11.00

Division 7 Sydvästra Skåne

A.C. KVARNBY 9 (Möller 10 35 Grubessick 22 Persson 29 68 Andersson43 Bengtsson 58 89 Hilveus 70)

KÄVLINGE G.I.F. 1 (Korac 53)

Att 27

Entry FREE

Programme FREE

In Trelleborg we got up and had a leisurely breakfast,  the inevitable crispy bacon, coffee and meatballs banishing the remains of hangovers, dang those pubs were good! The minibus arrived, as did Christian and Ditte from the tourist board, and they gently chided the driver for playing Wu Tang Clan on the radio; it was decided that ACDC was more suitable for 11 middle-aged men and one young woman from Britain….We set off for the furthest out ground on the hop in the suburbs of Malmö. Continue reading →

The Bridge

14 Wednesday Jun 2017

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Friday 2nd June 2017 ko 19.00

Division 7 Sydvästra Skåne

BOSNISKA FK BEHAR 4 (Pajovic 8 27 F Guta 73 76)

TURKISK CENTER FF 1 (Xhemajli 4)

Att 55

Entry FREE

Programme FREE

At one point Joachim “Kim” Hedwall was a fixture on most British-based groundhops, and every time we saw him, we’d ask him when he was going to organise a hop in his country. Eventually he relented, and in 2007 the first Swedish Hop took place based in Nyköping and Stockholm. I was there, and I flew back fully expecting it to have been a one-off event, so catching the plane from Stansted for the 11th Swedish Hop I regard this event as being groundbreaking but also feel fortunate that its still taking place.  Continue reading →

Dreams

13 Tuesday Jun 2017

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Saturday 27th May 2017 ko 17.30

FA Cup Final

ARSENAL 2 (Sanchez 5 Ramsey 79)

CHELSEA 1 (Costa 77) Moses sent off 69 (2nd booking)

Att 89,472 at Wembley Stadium

Entry £45

Programme £10

I’m old enough to remember the FA Cup when it took over all of the television on whatever Saturday it fell. You could watch “Cup Final Multi-Coloured Swap Shop” if you so desired, such was the importance attached to the final game of the season. Then after lunch I’d sit with Dad and watch the game, preceeded by the marching band, and the singing of “Abide with me,” and it goes without saying that from the moment I first set eyes on the spectacle I wanted to go to a final. There were a few problems with my idea though….

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Four Into Three

12 Monday Jun 2017

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Saturday 20th May 2017 ko 15.30

South Wales FA Playoff for South Wales Alliance

VALE UNITED 4 (Tominey 35 63p 86 Gregory 71)

LLANHARRY 2 (TJ Jones 18 Davies 86)

Att 116 at Pentre Park

Free entry

With the merger of the South Wales Senior and Amateur Leagues to form the South Wales Alliance a kink in the ladder in the Welsh footballing pyramid was ironed out. However in doing so another partial blockage was created, for clubs wishing to seek promotion to the Alliance. The South Wales FA’s solution to it is nothing if not ingenious though.  Continue reading →