Heart

20 Monday Jun 2016

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Sunday 6th June 2016 ko 13.00

Division 5 Södra Uppland

GoIF KÅRE 1 (Zachrison 64)

UNIK FK 0 Holm sent off 81 (violent conduct)

Att 126

Sweden’s countryside is so friendly, even the bus shelters talk to you (If you push the button on them)! Following Swedish hop tradition it seemed, we followed the Roslagsbanan narrow gauge railway, but this time to its terminus at Kårsta, although there are plans to reinstate the line right through to the heritage lines further north-east to Rimbo. We were at the furthest outpost of Stockholms Lan (Stockholm County) and our coach bumped down a track at the edge of the village but what we were to find at the end blew us all away. Continue reading →

Odd One Out

16 Thursday Jun 2016

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Saturday 4th June 2016 ko 18.00

Superettan

IK SIRIUS FK 2 (Björkbaum 67 Bergman 78)

TRELLEBORGS FF 1 (Jovanovic 29)

Att 1,170

Entry 140sek (but included in hop price)

Programme 20 sek (but included in hop price)

If the Swedish Hop isn’t about one thing it was this. We’ve put on games at Allsvenskan and Superettan grounds before and the result is always the same. Organiser Kim Hedwall gets the clamour to include them but when we do, we don’t get the extra hoppers that would justify doing it more often. Now whilst Kim and I would love to see more hoppers come to Sweden each year, we are reasonably comfortable with the 20-or-so we get each year.  There was though a couple of compelling reasons to head north to Uppsala. Continue reading →

“You Can’t Win Anything With Kids”

15 Wednesday Jun 2016

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Saturday 4th June 2016 ko 15.00

Division 4 Norra Stockholm

FC DJURSHOLM 4 (Tollis 55 Linner 83 Croon 84 87) Ibraham sent off 19 (2nd booking)

IFK ÖSTERÅKER 6 (Sindemark 27 35 Tuhcic 40 Sjöstrand 53 Musa 62 65)

Att 112

If we’d thought Danderyd was well-to-do, it was immediately trumped by Djursholm! The small town has the most expensive house prices in Sweden and ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus has a house here. Incidentally his ex-wife and fellow ABBA member Agnetha Fältskog lives in a small town with a football team too- Ekerö, but that’s south of Stockholm.

In Djursholm, to the north-east of Stockholm the watertower is a listed building, and the local castle, in baroque style, peeps over the treeline over towards the town’s idrottsplats.  The Roslagsbanan railway trundles on narrow-gauge from what was its original terminus towards Tåby and eventually to Stockholm Östra station. It’s an understated railway for an understated dignified town.
Continue reading →

Dandy

13 Monday Jun 2016

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Saturday 4th June 2016 ko 12.00

Division 4 Norra Stockholm

DANDERYDS SK 2 (Issa 20 Pharmasson 90)

HUSBY FF 3 (Hien 8 47 Tsegai 75)

Att 63

It was one of those morning starts that was dictated more by when the hotel stopped serving breakfasts than what time our coach needed to leave Ulriksdal. You even could see a road sign for Danderyds sjukhus (hospital) from our hotel. It meant a relaxed breakfast with the inevitable crispy bacon, grilled frankfurteresque sausages, and for the more adventurous- pickled herrings! Continue reading →

To The Power Of Ten

12 Sunday Jun 2016

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Friday 3rd June 2016 ko 19.00

Division 4 Mellersta Stockholm

URSVIK IK 4 (Kullberg 36 74 89 Papathanasiou 81)

REYMERSHOLMS IK 2 (Rykelt 53 Engström 58)

Att 75

Back in 2007 if you had have suggested to either organiser Kim Hedwall or I that in 9 years’ time we’d be sat on a coach to Arlanda airport to do the pick-ups for the tenth Swedish Hop we’d have laughed at you. In fact we’d have probably only just stopped laughing now! For the most part the Swedish Hop has made copious use of Kim’s encyclopedic knowledge of the Swedish non-league scene, to the extent that on at least one occasion – Strömsbergs– its taken me some time to work out exactly where I was!
Continue reading →

Island Hopping

11 Saturday Jun 2016

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Thursday 2nd June 2016 ko 19.15

Division 4 Mellersta Stockholm

INGARÖ IF 2 (Asplund 41 Eriksson 76)

HALLONBERGENS IF 1 (Yebio 76)

Att 53

Entry FREE

No Programme

For a city as beautiful as Stockholm the bus station at Slussen T-Bana (metro) station is an unlovely place, a place of stained concrete and tired yellow lights. However, the buses to the far-flung parts of the Stockholm archipelago are included on the SL “Access” card, and are punctual and regular from there, so a group of 6 British people stood in a bus battling the rush hour traffic heading for a rather deserted looking island to the east of Sweden’s capital. Continue reading →

The Zeal Of The Missionary

09 Thursday Jun 2016

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Wednesday 1st June 2016 ko 20.00

Division 4 Södra Stockholm

HÄGERSTEN SK 0

SEGELTORPS 2 (Dalakis 33 Borsen 47)

Att 56 at Hägerstensåsens BP

Entry FREE

No Programme

I’ve long since admitted to a love affair with Sweden, 15 trips in 10 years is proof positive of that, but I’m coming to the the conclusion that there’s something of the missionary in me too. When the car travelling to Gatwick Airport contained regular travel companion Sim, his brother Adrian, and my girlfriend Robyn I suspected my influence had been greater than I’d thought! Continue reading →

Sweet Emotion

08 Wednesday Jun 2016

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Sunday 29th May 2016 ko 16.05

Scottish Junior Cup Final

BEITH JUNIORS 1 (Christie 61)

POLLOK 1 (R. Winters 72)

No extra time, Beith won 4-3 on penalties

Att 4,877 at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock (Kilmarnock FC)

Entry £10

Programme £3

Odd isn’t it? A football match that coincides with virtually nothing, is televised and south of Scotland you’d have had to know what you were looking for to find out about it. There’s really no good reason for it, do the rest of the UK really mistake Junior for Juvenile, surely nearly 5,000 wouldn’t turn out for a youth game? The truth of the matter is that the Scots’ Junior scene is vibrant and for a few reasons its main cup competition is especially gripping. Continue reading →

Contraction

07 Tuesday Jun 2016

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Saturday 28th May 2016 ko 14.30

SJFA East of Scotland Cup Semi-Final

BO’NESS UNITED 4 (Donnelly 9 Snowdon 37 Wright 61 Walker 90)

FORFAR WEST END 0

Att c450

Entry £5

No Programme

You really don’t need a map to find out where you are in Bo’ness. To the south Falkirk and the Grangemouth Oil Refinery looms large, and the town lies on the southern banks of the Firth of Forth, and as such was a site for ship-breaking businesses until the 1970’s. There’s a heritage railway, the Bo’ness and Kinneil Railway that runs for 5 miles from the town. But the obvious quirk here is the name, how did that apostrophe find its way in? Continue reading →

Uncertainty

31 Tuesday May 2016

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Saturday 21st May 2016 ko 14.30

Welsh League Division 2

TATA STEEL P

CHEPSTOW TOWN P

Thursday 26th May 2016 ko 18.45

TATA STEEL 1 (M Lewis 59)

CHEPSTOW TOWN 1 (Murphy 68)

Att 17

Entry £4

Programme £1

Unless you live outside the UK and South Wales in particular you can’t help but have noticed the problems that have befallen Port Talbot. The town is dominated by steel production, so the decision by the steelworks owners Tata to sell the loss-making plant has the potential to be devastating for the area. At the moment the owners, unions, politicians and potential buyers are trying to find a way forward. Until a conclusion is reached the area collectively holds its breath. Continue reading →