Category Archives: E

The Trams

13 Wednesday Nov 2013

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Saturday 9th November 2013 ko 12.00

U21 II Osztály Közép A

BKV ELÓRE 2 (Bajusz 9 Peinlich 16)

SZOLNOKI MÁV UTÁNPÓTLÁS 4 (Baté 12 Zskakái 45 69 Tóth 84)

Att 89

It seems that if you like football, and you’re in Budapest, the place to be is Népliget station. Apart from being the station for Ferencváros’ Stadion Albert Florian, currently being rebuilt, it also is handy for the “1” tram route which runs east to west along the Hungária körgyűrű  (Hungary Boulevard) and has the stadia for MTK, Elóre, and the National Puskás Ferenc Stadion, along its 13 km length.

Elóre’s Sport utcai stadion, or Sports Street Stadium is adjacent to MTK’s, with just the street, Sport utcai separating the two.

Continue reading →

Poacher Turned Goalkeeper

31 Thursday Oct 2013

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Tuesday 29th October 2013 ko 19.45

Southern League South & West Division

EVESHAM UNITED 0

MANGOTSFIELD UNITED 3 (Bath 50 Hunt 66 Egan 86) Sawyer sent off 57 (denying a clear goal scoring opportunity)

Att 173

Entry £9

Programme £2

Team sheet FREE

It seems an age since I visited Evesham’s former home at Common Road, in fact well over a decade. Evesham is one of those delightful market towns, built around a meander (in this case the River Avon) with two bridges over it that create traffic chaos. I remember travelling round the one-way system twice before finding the turn for the ground!

The town was founded around an 8th century abbey, one of the largest in Europe, which was destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, with only Abbot Lichfield’s Bell Tower remaining. In Evesham’s case the meander is almost closed, making the old town easily fortified but also extremely prone to flooding. However the area has fertile land, and even today the area is noted for the sheer number of market gardens.

Musically speaking, Traffic’s Jim Capaldi was born here, and American singer PJ Proby lives here. In contrast, Harry Styles from One Direction was born in Evesham.

United sold Common Road for housing and left Continue reading →

Football Played On Paper

15 Monday Jul 2013

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Saturday 13th July 2013 ko 15.00

Pre-Season Friendly

ERITH TOWN 1 (Quartey 21)

THURROCK 3 (Griffin 25 Grimaldi 67 Perkins 90)

Att 62

Entry £5

Programme None

Played at Badgers Sports & Social Club, Eltham (Cray Valley Paper Mills FC)

If my first game had a tough of the agricultural about it, then the second was definitely suburban! A quick blast along the A20 changed the locale completely, although there’s no lack of open spaces, the Civil Service Sports Ground is the other side of the road after all.

Its been a few years since I saw Erith at their home ground, The Erith Stadium. It’s not ideal, being first and foremost an athletics stadium, so the uncovered seats were a long way from the action, and the necessity to have a players tunnel made ground grading difficult. The seats did get covered, but nevertheless the club decided to move and groundshare at Cray Valley for this coming season. Continue reading →

Castling Banjos

16 Sunday Sep 2012

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Tuesday 11th September 2012 ko 7.45pm

Hampshire Senior Cup 1st Round

EVERSLEY & CALIFORNIA 4 (Baker 8 40 41 Day 13)

WHITCHURCH UNITED 3 (Jupp 4 Dallarda 64 Walker 81)

Att 22 (h/c)

Played at Cody Sports and Social Club, Old Ively Road, Farnborough

Entry & Programme £5

Coffee £1

I was a little surprised to be the only hopper at this game. Had everyone else been here when Farnborough North End were based here? Incidentally they’re now playing in the West Surrey League and are based at Southwood Fields. Eversley needed a floodlit ground, as this cup competition stipulates thus and the lights at their normal ground, Fox Lane aren’t expected to be ready until December.

The club used to be called Eversley FC, but merged with Wokingham-based youth outfit California FC for the start of this season. Eversley means “Wild Boar Clearing,” but this gives no clue as to the well-heeled nature of the village. Statistically speaking it forms part of the least deprived borough of the UK. There are 3 major stately homes, Firgrove Manor, Glaston Hill House and Warbrook House, and the local churchyard is where author Charles Kingsley is buried. For 35 years he was rector of the parish, and in that time wrote “The Water Babies, ” and “Westward Ho!”

The feeling of affluence leant itself well to their temporary home. Situated down a tree-lined lane, the Cody Sports and Social Club, started life as a club for the various companies in the aeronautical industry still evident in the area. Both the sport and social sides of the club survive, with archery and children’s football finishing up in the half-light when I arrived, and in the clubhouse, there was still more going on. In one room a chess club was in progress, and in another, set suitably away from the former,  a banjo club was plucking away. With a heavy cold in its early stages, I plonked myself in the plush clubhouse, bought myself a strong coffee, and read my programme alongside the ladies’ book club who were reading something altogether more highbrow.

Other than the location I was attracted to this fixture, because it pitted together sides from different leagues, E & C from the Combined Counties, and Whitchurch from the Wessex. It proved to be an entertaining evening’s entertainment as  E & C recovered from conceding an early goal, to find themselves 4-1 up at the break, due to no small part to a superb hat trick from Matt Baker. His first, a curling 25 yard free kick was out of the top drawer.

Eversley made two changes at half time, presumably to rest players for the weekend, and that was very nearly their undoing, with Whitchurch finding an outlet in George Dallarda. He scored, and set up Luke Walker for Whitchurch’s 3rd. But, despite constant pressure for the last few minutes, they couldn’t force extra-time. And with my cold making my head swim, I was grateful for that small mercy! I wonder though where Eversley will opt to play their home tie in the next round?

You Cannot Be

13 Wednesday Jun 2012

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Friday June 2012 ko 19.00

Division One Norra

ESKILSTUNA CITY 1 (Rogic 47)

IF SIRIUS FK 0

Att 630

Entry & programme Hop Ticket

Burger and Can Fanta 50sek

So, back to Sweden for the weekend, but this is no ordinary weekend, this is the 6th Annual Swedish Groundhop, organised by Kim Hedwall, I’ve been on all 6 and in recent years helped Kim a little, mainly as a sounding board.

An issue for this year’s event was our desire to move away from the hop’s base of Stockholm, and base it somewhere in Värmland, Sweden’s beautiful lake district. With no suitable hotel in the most obvious location Örebro, Kim picked out Eskilstuna as there was a Friday night game. It proved to be an inspired choice, but it did leave us with only one choice for the hoppers’ flight into Sweden.

The 6.10am flight from Stansted to Nyköping based Skavsta is not ideal, especially as it would put us at the hotel well prior to 2pm when our rooms would be available. That problem was solved by a stroke of genius by Kim, a visit to the Taxinge Slott. This castle dates from the 13th century and is famous for having Northern Europe’s largest selection of cream cakes on sale! So picture the scene, 24 bleary eyed hoppers enjoying a cream cake or 10 and a refillable coffee outside in the summer sun. It killed an hour, gave the 3 newbies a chance to introduce themselves and in other cases catch up with old friends.

The Comfort Hotel in Eskilstuna, was a bonus too, mainly for its location, with easy access to the town’s bars and restaurants, but with the quirk of a rock and roll theme, the lifts being named after Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon of The Clash! I used the time to catch up with a little sleep before everyone reconvened at 5.45pm for the short drive to Tunavallen.

Its a ground I’ve visited before, for fellow tenants IFK Eskilstuna. Its an interesting place, built in 2002 on the site of the 1958 World Cup venue. There’s identical seated stands either side of pitch, with one end having wooden step terracing, the other simple hard standing. What sets this 7,800 Allsvenskan-compliant stadium apart is the tower blocks on each corner, complete with floodlights, and the balconies do seem to give a great view of a 3G pitch that’s set to be replaced with an even better artificial surface.

We were given a talk on the club by the chairman, before taking our seats for a game that he felt his side would do well to get anything out of, given that Uppsala-based Sirius were yet to lose. He was proud to comment that his side were all from Eskilstuna, apart from Lansana Kamara, who’s from Sierra Leone!

What we gor early on was a demonstration in text-book passing from the visitors, but as the game wore on, it became clear that Sirius were creating nothing that the home defence couldn’t cope with. Particularly impressive was home keeper Nicklas Bergh, who pulled off a number of fine saves. As hoppers we wanted a goal, and that came just after half time, Filip Rogic scoring with the faintest flick of a header direct from a corner. Sirius huffed and puffed but created only one gilt-edged chance, Alagie Sosseh missing an open goal with just seconds remaining.

For students of Swedish hop history, when Sirius’ Ian Sirelius came on as a second half subsitute, he squared a circle for the hop. He appeared on the very first hop, for Råsunda vs Gamla Uppsala, in wonderful 2-2 draw at Skytteholms.

Half a eye on Game D

05 Tuesday Jun 2012

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Saturday 26th May 2012 ko 14.00

Division 2 Södra Svealand

KB KARLSKOGA FF 1 (Pénzes 50og)

ENSKEDE IK 2 (Olsson 8 Andersson 52)

Att 94 (h/c)

Entry 60 sek

Programme FREE

Lottery 20sek

Team sheets FREE

From Karlstad it was a short, well 70 km drive east to Karlskoga and a Division 2 encounter. It was a real shame to leave Varmland with its lakes and head east, but in all honesty the scenery was no worse in Svealand! The reason for the choice of fixture was that Kim Hedwall is now working with South Stockholm based Enskede. They looked a good outfit on the 2011 Swedish hop and it would be interesting to see how they had progressed.

Karlskoga is best known as the birthplace of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite and the owner of several armaments firms, some of which are still in business  (for example Akzo Nobel) today. He used his fortune to posthumously institute the Nobel Prizes of which all but Peace are awarded in Stockholm. Annoyingly the museum was closed!

Still, I suppose the stadium bearing his name is the next best thing, and its huge! Nominally it holds 10,000 but I would have though far more could be accommodated. It is of course far too big for a 4th tier club, and the club played the first few games of the season on a 3G pitch within the complex. As a club Karlskoga’s main claim to fame is that Sven-Göran Eriksson and Tord Grip both played for the club in the early 1970s, the latter as player-coach. Incidentally the KB bit stands for Karlskoga/Bofors, Bofors merging into the club in 1963. The city’s ice hockey team still plays as Bofors.

I had a chat with the manager, who admitted to being nervous at the side’s prospects that afternoon. He had reason too, with Enskede second in the table behind Carlstad United and Karlskoga in mid-table. With Carlstadt at home to Nyköpings BIS Kim and I had half an eye on the scoreboard with the score being relayed in real-time!

The visitors made the perfect start too, albeit with a massive fluke. Mattias Olsson crossed from the right touch-line, and home keeper Joakim Fromholdt looked horrified as the effort sailed over his head and into the top left corner! The lack of a celebration from Olsson spoke volumes.

The rest of the half saw Enskede in full control but creating few chances. The hosts looked to be a decent side, but despite forcing a series of corners didn’t look like troubling the visiting defence.

All that changed in the 50 minute. A free was awarded to Karlskoga 25 yards out on the right. This was whipped in by Johan Persson but it was Enskede’s Balàzs Pénzes who glanced his header in, albeit under extreme pressure from Karlskoga’s Henrik Andersson.

Parity didn’t last long. Enskede’s Modasa Zekria’s excellent deep cross from the right found Fredrik Andersson at the back of the box and his header beat Fromholdt easily. It proved to be the winner, and Enskede were able to maintain possession and stifle the home threat easily to close out the game.

There was nothing else to do but to follow the Carlstad game. That proved to be the real bonus for Enskede with the leaders losing, sending Enskede top. It was a happy Kim that drove the car back to Solna that evening.

Cultural Learnings

05 Tuesday Jun 2012

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Thursday 24th May 2012 ko 19.00

Allsvenskan

I.F. ELFSBORG 2 (Ishizaki 5 Nilsson 80p)

BK HÄCKEN 0 Chatto sent off 90 (2nd booking)

Att 9,744

Entry 225sek

Programme and Lottery 20sek

Badge 40sek

Please don’t try to find Elfsborg on the map, the club is based in Borås about 65 km east of Gothenburg. As a city it gained greatly from the construction of the railway network in Sweden, and today is a thriving university town. I particularly liked the sculpture outside the campus! The electronics firm Ericsson is based in Borås, as is the atomic clock that sets the time for Sweden.

So why is the city most famous club called Borås? The answer is that in 1906, two years after its inception, the founders opted to change the club’s name as they felt there were too many clubs with Borås in their name. With 5 Swedish titles the move doesn’t seem to have hindered their progress!

The Borås Arena is a new edifice, opening in 2005 next door to their former home, Ryavallen, now being converted to athletics use. The new ground has a 17,400 capacity, and a 4G “Fieldturf” pitch. The stadium was originally scheduled to be a tournament site for the 2009 UEFA Under-21 Championship, but a sponsorship conflict with the Max fast food chain’s location at the stadium and official sponsor McDonalds, plus a contractual requirement for official sponsors to have a monopoly over the stadium’s area, and a refusal to close the restaurant led to it losing its status as a site for the tournament.

I liked the place, as I found it both spacious and quirky. The turnstiles for our stand were between its two tiers, and I did enjoy my Max burger, sat underneath the stand. The only difficulty we found was the numbering system used. We found our seats eventually, but the ticket doesn’t make is clear which tier you are on, you just have to know by which section you are in!

The game was a local derby of sorts, BK Häcken are from Gothenburg, but while the away end was vocal, it was by no means full. The Häcken fans were quickly quietened as Stefan Ishizaki’s 22 yard free kick should have been easily thumped clear by Daniel Frölund. He, however kicked at thin air, and the ball sneaked at the back post with keeper Christoffer Källqvist unable to scramble over in time.

It became clear quickly that the Elfsborg trio of Niklas Hult, Ishizaki and former Southampton player Anders Svensson are the reason that Elfsborg reached the European break 8 points clear. They gave the visitors no time on the ball, and despite the visitors having the two top goalscorers in the division in Waris Majeed and Rene Makondele, Häcken were never able to fully exploit their pace and movement. Sometimes it was a poor touch letting them down, but most of the time it was better thinking when out of possession, mainly by Svenson, that swung the play in Elsfborg’s favour.

The lead was doubled with 10 minutes left when Mohammed Ali Khan brought down Hult just inside the box, needlessly as he was posing no danger, and Lasse Nilsson put away the penalty with the minimum of effort. Häcken played out the last few seconds with 10 men after Nigerian Dominic Chatto was dismissed for his second bad challenge. More worryingly for the Swedish National team, Anders Svensson limped away at the finish was an ice pack taped to his hamstring.

To finish, a word about the programme. It’s combined with the half time lottery! What you get is a palm sized cardboard affair that opens out into an 9 page leaflet. It does the job rather well. For the uninitiated though, you could miss it, as its sold more as the lottery than the programme!

Badges Posters Stickers & T-Shirts

08 Sunday Apr 2012

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Friday 7th April 2012 ko 10.45am

Northern Counties East League Division One

ECCLESHILL 2 (Edwards 26p Smith 90og)

DINNINGTON TOWN 3 (Trench 11 72 Mirfin 53)

Att 253

Entry & Programme Hop Ticket

Badge £3

Raffle £1

After watching the forty or so hoppers take full advantage for a buffet breakfast at the hotel, we set off north for the first of four games today.

It had many years since I’d last visited Bradford. The cliches about Mosques and Temples do hold to some extent, but the ward of Eccleshill is more suburb than sikh, and Plumpton Park a green oasis. There’s tradition, the sadly disused urinals that a tall person could have used and continued to watch the game, and the stand whose seat numbers aren’t sequential. I watched our coach load languidly walk round and enjoy the facilities.

If the NCEL wanted a blueprint on how to host a hop game, this was it. From the moment I walked in, the club showed wonderful hospitality, even down to a gentleman cleaning down the seats in the stand. I was asked “Are we doing all right” by chairman Adrian, “Mate, I replied it really couldn’t be better.” Bacon Rolls and sausages were bought at a quite incredible rate, and Chris and I had to do nothing more than enjoy a cup of tea and chat with the club and League officials who again had turned out in force.

There was a presentation to Andy Sykes of Dinnington by League Chairman David Morrall, to mark the players 400th appearance, before the real action started.

Dinnington started brightly, and opened the scoring in spectacular fashion with Michael Trench’s superb free kick going in with the help of the post. Marcus Edwards replied for Eccleshill from the penalty spot after Sykes was adjudged to have handled.

After the break a defence splitting ball put Dinnington’s Simon Mirfin clean through, and he made no mistake slotting past home keeper Dominic Smith. Finishing was the difference between the two sides, as Eccleshill were to miss two gilt-edged chances. Andy Howland’s miss was bad, but Marcus Edwards effort – a yard out with the keeper behind him was incredible. No-one, not even him will understand how it was physically possible to get the ball over the ball from there! The player could do little else in the aftermath than weakly smile.

United were made to pay as Liam Cartledge’s erudite lay-off found Trench, and he blasted home from 25 yards. A little rough on the friendly hosts, who found scant solace in Matt Smith’s late own goal. By that time the clubs were enjoying the phenomenon of “Groundhoppers itch” where hoppers get itchy feet and head for the exits with a few minutes left!

I thanked the club for their efforts and headed for the coach. Another 3 to do, you see!

Deco

16 Wednesday Nov 2011

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Monday 14th November 2011 ko 7.45pm

Isthmian League Alan Boon Cup 3rd Round

ENFIELD TOWN 0

AFC SUDBURY 2 (Docker 19 Dare 73)

Att 152

Entry £8

Programme £1

Pint of Coffee £1

This new ground is in fact an old ground! Its fame until now is that it’s the athletics stadium where Sebastian Coe trained en route to Olympic gold. And yes, folks I’m well aware that athletics and football are uneasy bedfellows!

The short history of Enfield Town is a troubled one. Continue reading →

Rhyme and Rjissen

17 Monday Oct 2011

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Saturday 15th October 2011 KO 2.30pm

Topklasse Zaterdag

SVV EXCELSIOR 31 2 (Wilens 46 56)

IJSSELMEERVOGELS 1 (Ramic 30)

Att c1,500

Entry €8

Programme FREE

Teamsheets FREE

Coffee €1

These 4 games were the brainchild of well-respected hopper Peter Ford; I merely provided company, and occasional directions! We used the Channel Tunnel on Friday night, well Saturday morning and stayed the remainder of the night at the spartan, but cheap Formule 1, at Calais Coquelles. Despite a massive hold-up on the Antwerp ring road, we arrived at Sport Park De Koerbelt,in Rjissen, Netherlands around 45 minutes before kick off.

Despite the name the Dutch Topklasse is in fact the 3rd tier, and there’s very little promotion up to the next level the Erstedivisie. In fact the vistors have won the Topklasse Zaterdag for the last 2 seasons, and it was obvious that the locals were keyed up for this game against the “Big Boys.” Which brings me neatly up to the Zaterdag bit. Below the top two levels, Dutch football is split into Saturday and Sunday football, a remnant of the influence of the two major religions in the country. Nominally at least the Catholics play on the Sunday, and the Protestants on the Saturday. Odd, but handy for the groundhopper!

The ground is on the edge of town and has a rural feel, even featuring a narrow gauge railway outside. There’s a large wooden stand, but the impression is one of space, the main pitch is “Veld 3” and there plenty of space for the patrons to mill around or use the excellent clubhouse behind the near goal. It reminded me of Degerfors of Sweden, but smaller.

The game was a cracker. Spakenburg based Vogels clearly had it well within themselves easily and Ramic’s opener, a spectacular overhead kick will live long in the memory. But they reckoned without their host’s persistance, and Wilen’s 25 yard free kick was an excellent reposte. The winner was almost as good as what had preceded, Ten Hove’s cross from the left fooled the Vogels defence, I though Wilens touched it in, the stadium announcer didn’t!

Make no mistake, this was a huge shock, and the expressions on the faces of the home fans at the end spoke volumes. It was then back over the border to Belgium for our second game.