A Mixture

19 Wednesday Oct 2022

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Saturday 27th August 2022

11.15 South Wales Alliance Division Two

FAIRWATER 2 (Coles 30 Jefferies 69)

PENYGRAIG UNITED 3 (Tann 13 63 Langford 24)

Att 201

Entry £3

Programme £1

14:00 South Wales Alliance Division Two

CARDIFF COSMOPOLITAN 0

ST ALBANS 0

Att 109

Entry £3

Programme £2

17:00 South Wales Alliance Premier Division

BRIDGEND STREET 1 (Taylor 90+ 4)

CARDIFF CORINTHIANS 1 (Davies 78)

Att 264

Entry £4

Programme £1

Saturday on the Welsh Hop was a little unusual. For a start we normally make Bank Holiday Monday “Cardiff Day” but here we ended up having two days in the capital.  Now while a lot of that was due to the slightly unusual set of circumstances that saw us hopping the South Wales Alliance for a one-off reunion year. Like Tongwynlais the evening before Fairwater were one of the winners of the series of last season’s play-offs of the district leagues’ champions to get into the SWAL. Continue reading →

The Alliance

14 Friday Oct 2022

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Friday 26th August 2022 ko 18:30

South Wales Alliance Division 2

TONGWYNLAIS 1 (Older 59)

COGAN CORONATION 3 (Vilis 8 Preston 19 Taylor 72)

Att 234

Entry £3

Programme £2

I’m sure there are better analogies but for me the re-emergence of the Welsh Hop was my sign that the we were some way of putting the troubles of the pandemic behind us. With my many and varied connections to Wales I knew just how hard Coronavirus hit here, to the extent I knew the hop coach would be driven by someone new this time round. I thought of Steve Pitt who was lost to the virus during lockdown as the coach headed down the A470 from Treforest. Continue reading →

Gefle in Gävle

11 Tuesday Oct 2022

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Saturday 20th August 2022 ko 16:00

Ettan Norra

GEFLE IF 2 (Rauschen-Broben 61 Yakoub 87)

Lundin sent off (2nd booking) 90

SANDVIKENS IF 1 (Mohammed 20)

Kouyate sent off (2nd booking) 82

Mohammed sent off (violent conduct) 90

Att 4,142

Entry 150 sek (approx. £12)

The bus heading back into Gävle from Testbovallen stopped at Gavlevallen and we had reason to be relieved. The whole point of Robyn and I being there, was that Swedish Hop organiser Kim Hedwall had built this Saturday around visiting Gefle IF’s new home. But there was a question of lexicography to answer first. 

Continue reading →

Våra Barns Bramtid

06 Thursday Oct 2022

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Saturday 20th August 2022 ko 12:00

Sweden Gästrikland Youth League

STRÖMSBRO IF 3 (Bergland 53secs Törneld 35 Salminen 72)

GEFLE IF BLÅ 8 (5 15 25 41 51 65 68 75)

Att 25 at Testebovallens IP, Gävle

Free Entry

We’d long since planned our last full day in Sweden to be based around football. I’d thought about taking Robyn to any of the big 3 grounds in Stockholm, the Friends Arena, the Tele-2 and top of the list, the Olympic Stadium but there wasn’t a single game for us at any of them. We were happy to dip further down the Stockholm pyramid, but I knew Swedish Hop organiser Kim Hedwall was going to be in Gävle and let’s face it, you know he’d be able to sniff out an interesting game, or two as it turned out. Continue reading →

Stripes

04 Tuesday Oct 2022

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Friday 19th August 2022 ko 20:00

Division 4 Södra Stockholm

LÅNGHOLMEN FC 1 (Baldwin 63)

KONYASPOR KIF 1 (Okur 83)

Att 65 at Västberga IP

Free Entry

In this visit of reunions this was a little unusual and it all was due to Kim Hedwall and I picking a random game back in 2008. I remember it well, walking down to Essinge IP from the bus stop from Liljeholmen we were discussing which one of us was going to ask the referee for the team-lineups. As we walked in I was so attuned to hearing Swedish for a second I didn’t recognise the language I was hearing! Continue reading →

Tunnbrödsrulle

03 Monday Oct 2022

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Thursday 18th August 2022 ko 20:00

Division 6B Stockholm 

NOCKEBYHOVS IF 2 (Björklid 13 Ahmed 76)

APOLLON SOLNA 1 (Engström 69)

Att 41 at Åkeshovs BP

Free Entry

From the moment the ferry from Helsinki docked at Värtaterminalen I wondered how Sweden had changed since Robyn and I had visited last, a pandemic and 3 years ago. We took a bus into Nybroplan and immediately saw one change, you can use your credit card on the ticket gates in the same way you can in London. Continue reading →

Boats

29 Thursday Sep 2022

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Sunday 14th August 2022 ko 18:30

Finland Miesten Kakkonen Lohko B

HJK KLUBI 04 4 (Haggström 21 Ezeh 69 Toivonen 76 Vuorinen 84)

VJS 3 (Nyholm 24 Mehmeti 82 Oila 90)

Att 324 at Bolt Arena, Töölö, Helsinki

 Entry €15 (approx. £13.28)

After our rather frantic first day in Helsinki, we deliberately slowed down for the rest of our stay in Finland’s capital. We took a leisurely tram ride to the Market Square, and then took the ferry (included in the Helsinki public transport pass) over to Suomenlinna. The island fortress, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, like so much in Finland has a background in being Swedish, Russian, and Finnish. It was good to have a gentle stroll around the place knowing we only had one time we had to keep to, kick off in Töölö. Continue reading →

Gauges

27 Tuesday Sep 2022

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Saturday 13th August 2022 ko 17:00

Finland Kansallinen Liga

FC HONKA NAISET 1 (Sutela 56)

HPS NAISET 1 (Nurmet 66)

Att 332 at Tapiolan Urheilupuisto, Espoo

Entry €5 (approx. £4.48)

There was a certain symmetry in Robyn and I linking a trip to Helsinki to a return to a post-pandemic Stockholm to see friends that we hadn’t seen, in some cases for 4 years. Sweden did rule over Finland from the 13th century until 1809, and to this day you’ll see signs written in both Finnish and Swedish, the latter is still an official language.

Given my connections to Sweden, and the notoriously difficult to understand Finnish language I did find it difficult to pick up even a few words of Finnish, it was so much easier to use the Swedish I already knew. As Swedish statistician Mads put it, ” You call the country Finland which is in Swedish, but call the capital Helsinki- which is in Finnish!” Continue reading →

Sunday’s Revisits

23 Friday Sep 2022

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Sunday 31st July 2022

ko 12:00 United Counties League Premier Division North

LEICESTER NIRVANA 1 (Nelson 87p)

Nelson missed penalty 66

BELPER UNITED 0

Smyth penalty saved 78

Att 285

Entry £5

Programme £2

Ko 15:00 United Counties League Division One

ST ANDREWS 2 (Law 50 87)

WEST BRIDGFORD 1 (Stevens 67)

Att 290

Entry £5

Programme £1

After breakfast at the University of Nottingham we headed south to Leicester. I opted to take my car, with my wife Robyn helping Chris Berezai and Craig Dabbs it meant a quicker trip after the final game. I took quieter country roads, rather than the motorway and with crowds yesterday and crowds to come it was a treat to have a little time for reflection. Continue reading →

Saturday’s Revisits

15 Thursday Sep 2022

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Saturday 30th July 2022

11.00 United Counties League Division One

BIRSTALL UNITED 4 (Crossley 9 29 64 84)

Lefley sent off (DOGSO) 13

SAFFRON DYNAMO 0

Gladman penalty saved 69

Att 303

Entry £5

Programme £2

13.45 United Counties League Division One

BARROW TOWN 1 (Raceala 81)

Larter sent off (violent conduct) 45

RADFORD 5 (Halls 27 45p Jebbison 68 Seaton 79 84)

Att 240

Entry £5

Programme £2

16:45 United Counties League Division One

HOLWELL SPORTS 3 (Pope 55 Allcock 69 Bestwick 86)

HUCKNALL TOWN 3 (Westcarr 9 Knight 22 Bell 68)

Att 249

Entry £5

Programme £2

19.30 United Counties League Premier Division North

MELTON TOWN 2 (Anderson 45 Lee 53)

SELSTON 0

Att 316

Entry £6

Programme £1

I do think as a groundhopper and a writer the aim should be to find something for yourself in every game you see. It could be simply following the team you love, it could be ticking of a new ground but what is there when it’s something new- four revisits in a day? For me it was seeing how the clubs had changed in the time since I first visited. Some places had changed more than others! Continue reading →