Category Archives: N

Let’s Go ‘Ome

07 Sunday Sep 2025

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Saturday 14th June 2025 ko 12:30

Esliiga B

NARVA TRANS U21 3 (Besirgkis 3 Bahval 41 Reivik 72og)

PAIDE LINNAMEESKOND U21 0

Att 84 at Narva Kalev-Fama Staadion

Free Entry

I’ve always found borders fascinating, and I’ve little doubt that the border between Estonia and Russia is nothing if not interesting. Being based near to Tallinn’s main station, Balti Jaam was more than handy as our train left at 6.15am! The little K-kiosk near the platforms as ever was handy for an extremely early breakfast- there are no buffet cars on Estonian trains.

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The Waterworks

19 Tuesday Aug 2025

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Saturday 7th June 2025 ko 16:00

Division 4 Stockholm Södra

NORSBORG FC 2 (Kelile 6 38)

Baysal sent off 67 (second booking)

IFK ASPUDDEN-TELLUS 4 (Vaitsis 35secs Hassan 15 Tavares 56 Birggersson 61p)

Att 88 at Kärsby BP

Free Entry

The Swedish Hop’s cost of £350 included bed and breakfast for two nights, all transport in Sweden, together with entry fees for all games, and a goodie bag!

The merry band that was the 2025 Swedish Hop continued our tour into Stockholm’s southern suburbs. Norsborg is famous as being for where the capital’s waterworks is based- I’m now wondering whether we could do some kind of Swedish Monopoly Board Hop next year. But moreover Norsborg is also used as the name of a range of furniture at IKEA- is there anything in the world more Swedish than that?

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Icelandic

13 Wednesday Aug 2025

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Friday 6th June 2025 ko 19:30

Division 2 Norra Svealand

NACKA FC 1 (Nisic 64)

IK FRANKE 0

Att 66 at Myrsjö I.P.

Free Entry

The Swedish Hop’s cost of £350 included bed and breakfast for two nights, all transport in Sweden, together with entry fees for all games, and a goodie bag!

The Swedish Hop minibus parked up in Sickla Kaj, in Stockholm’s ultra-hip Hammarby Sjöstad and the party had a short time to settle at the Best Western Hotel. Robyn and I have got so used to the place, and the area that it all feels as comfortable as old slippers.

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The One

22 Sunday Jun 2025

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Saturday 19th April 2025 ko 11:00

St Piran League Division One East

NANPEAN ROVERS 6 (Oldham 5 36 Brown 35 Best 85 86 Lawrence 90+1)

ROCHE AFC 0

Att 432

Advance Ticket for all games on the hop £55

Entry & Programme £3

Saturday on the hop dawned and the ground, with all due respect to all the other host clubs over Easter, we all anticipated visiting the most. For the person that’s been following this blog for a while may remember Robyn and I visiting the glory that is the former china clay pit near St Austell 5 years ago. Such is the reputation of Victoria Bottoms that it created an issue in the minds of a certain kind of groundhopper.

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Peppermint

27 Tuesday May 2025

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Thursday 17th April 2025 ko 19:45

South West Peninsula League Premier West

NEWQUAY AFC 5 (Price 18 31 MacConie 81 Cole 90+2)

WENDRON UNITED 0

Att 1,854

Advance Ticket for all games on the hop £55

Entry £6

Programme £3

This year’s South West Peninsula League Hop was especially interesting on a few levels. The first was that the hop wasn’t just in the Peninsula League, organiser Phil Hiscox had decided to take in clubs in both the National League South and the St Piran Leagues. It certainly added more colour to an always excellent event.

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The Shawcross Redemption

18 Tuesday Mar 2025

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Saturday 1st March 2025 ko 16:45

North West Counties League First Division South

NEW MILLS AFC 2 (Woods 13 Pavley 19)

Shawcross penalty saved 7

CHEADLE HEATH NOMADS 0

Att 558

Entry £6

Programme £2.50

We moved from Manchester’s environs for the last two games of Saturday’s North West Counties Hop. The scene moved from the urban to the countryside of the Derbyshire High Peak, as we approached New Mills.

The town was built around coal, spinning and calico printing, and was also a centre for Methodism. That fact partly explains why sweet manufacturer Swizzels Matlow are based here, taking over an old mill in 1940 and sweet treats such as Refreshers and Parma Violets are still produced in New Mills today. Confectionery and Methodism do seem to go hand in hand, Fry Club in Keynsham and Cadbury Athletic in Bourneville are other examples.

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The Dome

21 Sunday Jul 2024

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Friday 14th June 2024 ko 20:00

Division 4 Stockholm Mellersta

SICKLA IF 2 (Rosell 40 Marsden 80)

RINKEBY UNITED 2 (Rawufa 57 Jobe 88)

Att 88 at Nacka IP2

Free Entry

The Swedish Hop’s cost of £320 included bed and breakfast for two nights, all transport in Sweden, together with entry fees for all games, and a goodie bag!

The tram from Sickla Kaj wended its way to Solna, and I used the time to reflect on how the Swedish Hop has changed everything for me since that day in 2007 when the plane landed at Skavsta and the very first Swedish Hop watched Nyköping BIS that evening. That was my first ever game abroad, and it was organiser Kim Hedwall that got me there. Since then, I’ve watched football in 28 countries, so I’ve got a lot to thank him for. He started me off, and without that start so much that’s wonderful would never have happened. It is possible that I’d never have met Robyn. Infamously we met on Twitter and what attracted me to her was my tales of footballing travel. As I said, I owe Kim and Sweden a lot.

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Coda

30 Sunday Jun 2024

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Saturday 11th May 2024 ko 18:30

North Berkshire Cup Final

WOODCOTE 2 (Scoffham 59 Wallace 83)

Gray sent off 120 (dangerous play)

BERINSFIELD 2 (Palmer 2 Holdsworth 21)

Chainey sent off 102 (violent conduct) 102

A.E.T. Berinsfield won 4-2 on penalties

Att 284 at Northcourt Road, Abingdon (Abingdon United FC)

Entry & Programme £5

Well, it had to end at some point. The previous week I’d announced my intention to stand down from the North Berkshire League’s committee after the North Berks Cup Final, the league’s finale for the season. There were many reasons, mainly me not having the time to devote to doing the job as I would like, and I feel the league needs. There was a straw that broke the camel’s back but that isn’t for here.

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The Hospitality

16 Tuesday Jan 2024

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Friday 12th January 2024 ko 19:30

Northern League Division One

NORTHALLERTON TOWN 0

REDCAR ATHLETIC 1 (Boyes 37)

Att 403

Entry £7

Programmme £2.50

Hospitality package (entry, programme, 2 course meal) £25

It’s odd how some things work out. Robyn and I had tried to watch Northallerton Town around 4 years ago. We’d travelled up from Oxford, and as we reached the Calvert’s Stadium, the floodlights were switched off; the game had just been postponed due to a frozen pitch. We found a meal locally, then headed back home down the A1(M). As Robyn put it, it was a mighty long way to go for a Chinese!

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Mission

29 Tuesday Aug 2023

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Saturday 5th August 2023 ko 15:00

Eastern Counties League Division One North

NEEDHAM MARKET U23 1 (Barker 41p)

GREAT YARMOUTH TOWN 5 (Akpo 7 Couzens 34 Duffield 59 Halliday 63 90)

Att 45

Entry £5

No programme

It always pays to have a Plan B. Chris Garner and I were on one of our Saturday trips east and were aiming for an FA Cup game at Little Oakley. There were only two issues with our choice. The first was the weather, it hadn’t stopped raining all day, and the other was Little Oakley’s location.

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