Sportland

02 Tuesday Sep 2025

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Wednesday 11th June 2025 ko 18:00

Estonian “Tipner” Cup Round of 64

JK TALLINNA KALEV u21 6 (Lasn 28 Väjlas 60 Kirss 69 Oja 78 Tammepöld 80 81)

RL VANA HEA PUUR 0

Att 27 at Sportland Arena, Lilleküla Football Complex, Tallinn

Free Entry

We’d made good use of the Ühiskaart public transport cards. A combination of tram and bus had taken us roughly 6km north of Tallinn centre to the TV Tower in the village of Pirita. It was a fascinating place, built in 1980 to relay footage of the sailing competition of the Moscow Olympics based nearby!

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Balti Jam

29 Friday Aug 2025

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Tuesday 10th June 2025 ko 17:00

Estonia U19 Eliitliiga Esilliga

TALLINNA JK LEGION 1 (Blinov 82)

TARTU FC HELIOS 0

Att 73 at Wismari Jalgpallistaadion, Tallinn

Entry Free

It was interesting approaching Estonia having arrived from Sweden. I found myself making comparisons with Stockholm rather than the UK. There is a clear Scandinavian influence, but I was most interested in their past as being part of the USSR before their independence was regained in 1991. You’ll hear Russian spoken, roughly a quarter of Estonians speak it as their first language, but that percentage alters massively depending on where you are, as we were to find out later.

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Scenes From A Swedish Italian Restaurant

26 Tuesday Aug 2025

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Sunday 8th June ko 13:00

Ettan Norra

IFK STOCKSUND 3 (Suleiman 31 Perez 54 Lundström 57)

ASSYRISKA FF 2 (Ugwu 10 Fernandez 34)

Att 325 at Danderyds Arena

Entry 100 sek

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!

It seemed unusual to not be packing our suitcases. The Swedish Hop was ending, but Robyn, Adrian and I had booked an extra night in Hammarby Sjöstad before travelling to Tallinn on the overnight ferry on Monday evening. It allowed us the most precious of commodities, time and we managed to make full use of it, but not as a few folks expected!

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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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Ivar Lo

15 Friday Aug 2025

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Saturday 7th June 2025 13:00

Division 4 Stockholm Södra

STUVSTA IF (Labihouton 16)

SKOGÅS-TRÅNGSUNDS 1 (Thunberg 52)

Att 62 at Stuvsta IP

Free Entry

Free Programme (to Swedish Hop party)

The party also received either a mug or pennant each too

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!

Saturday morning dawned as what this Englishman calls the Full Swedish breakfast was in order at our hotel in Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm’s southern suburbs. I’m not saying its for everyone, but the scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, meatballs and chicken sausages were lovely, and if you’re feeling adventurous, you could try a side of pickled herrings on crispbread. I did every time, but then Sweden and I do get along…

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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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National Day

11 Monday Aug 2025

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Friday 6th June 2025 ko 14:00

Division 3 Östra Svealand

IK VILJAN STRÄNGNÄS 1 (Malmqvist 87)

IFK NYKÖPING 2 (Thunström 50p Björklund 79)

Att 206 at Vasavallen

Entry 80sek

Programme online

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!

It was Thursday evening, and I was airside at Heathrow Terminal 2. Robyn was contemplating how far it was to our gate (SAS, so 200 metres only) and Adrian was complating whether he had time for another beer (as always- yes). As for me I was contemplating the series of occurences that had got us to there for a flight to Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport.

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The Knockin Shop

08 Friday Aug 2025

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Saturday 30th May 2025 ko 14:30

Montgomeryshire Amateur League

TREFONEN 2 (C Jones 4 L Davies 32)

LLANGEDWYN 1 (Buckley 36)

Att 72

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With the season in England and Wales in its last couple of days it was a case of leagues squeezing in their final fixtures. I decided to do something specific and that is to mine the seam that is the narrow strip of territory in Shropshire, that’s still English but the place names are Welsh.

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Goats

06 Wednesday Aug 2025

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Saturday 24th May 2025 ko 14:00

East Berkshire League-Division One

CAVERSHAM UNITED 5 (Doran 14 23 49 Mole 78 Abery 90)

van Luk sent off 39 (violent conduct)

OLD WINDSOR RESERVES 1 (Spires 26)

George sent off 39 (violent conduct)

Att 22

Free Entry

If you take the A4074 from Wallingford towards Reading, you’ll pass by some lovely villages as you pass through west Oxfordshire into east Berkshire. I’ve documented the likes of Checkendon and Goring on here but my connections to the area go back far further back- to childhood in fact.

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Epic

31 Thursday Jul 2025

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Saturday 18th May ko 18:00

Championnat National 3 Groupe E

RACING CLUB DE CALAIS 3 (Merien 6 Sylla 14og Knockhaert 58)

STADE DE REIMS II 1 (Diadeie 47)

Att c500 at Stade de l’Épopée

Free Entry

I must admit, a trip to France wasn’t on my list of priorities for the end of the 24/25 football season, but sometimes a random conversation changes everything. Here the conversation was between Robyn and Chris Garrett (he’s a weatherman) at the hop game at Newquay. He’d spotted a fairly random game at Racing Club Calais on a Saturday evening making it straightforward enough to get there and back via the Channel Tunnel in a day.

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