My Happy Place

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Sunday 9th June 2019 ko 12.00

Division 6 Sydvästra Skåne

LILLA BEDDINGE 4 (Olsson 4 Klinterberg-Nickmål 46 Bassini 54 Vinqvist 85)

KORPEN MALMÖ 1 (Szeregnyi 52)

Att 69

The Swedish Hop’s cost of £285 included all entry fees, programmes, coach travel, 2 bridge tolls on the Øresund Bridge and 2 nights’ bed and breakfast at the Clarion Magasinet Hotel in Trelleborg.

Sunday morning dawned, with the weather perfect and the meatballs for breakfast seemed especially good. Even the slight hangovers evident in several of the party didn’t seem in proportion with the amount of beer we’d consumed in the Tre Lyktor the night before. And for all of that I found my sense of melancholy difficult to shift. Continue reading

The Canal Jumpers

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Saturday 8th June 2019 ko 17.00

Division 6A Sydvästra Skåne

SKANÖR/FALSTERBO IF 3 (Persson 22 Lindell 48 54)

BOSNISKA FK BEHAR 3 (V. Khoshawi Essa Essa 45 Bektasevic 67 Pajovic 74)

Att 70

The Swedish Hop’s cost of £285 included all entry fees, programmes, coach travel, 2 bridge tolls on the Øresund Bridge and 2 nights’ bed and breakfast at the Clarion Magasinet Hotel in Trelleborg.

The final game of the day saw us head over the Falsterbo canal over the isthmus on to what amounts to a man-made island. The canal is short, only around 1.6km and was built in 1941. With Denmark under German occupation and with them having mined extensively the usual shipping route outside Falsterbonäset, a canal was needed to allow ships to pass through the isthmus of what’s now the island of Näset and shorten the travel from the Baltic to the Øresund strait. Continue reading

Stora Hammars Mölla

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Saturday 8th June 2019 ko 14.00

Division 4 Sydvästra Skåne

BK HÖLLVIKEN 2 (Larsson 11 Granqvist 87)

ÅKARPS IF 2 (Svensson 39p Åstland 74) Nilsson sent off (violent conduct) 90

Att 130

The Swedish Hop’s cost of £285 included all entry fees, programmes, coach travel, 2 bridge tolls on the Øresund Bridge and 2 nights’ bed and breakfast at the Clarion Magasinet Hotel in Trelleborg.

After the morning of delightful surprises at Gislöv the coach by-passed Trelleborg and head due west tracing the Øresund coast out towards its confluence with the Baltic sea. Now if you look the town up on Wikipedia it’ll tell you its part of Vellinge Kommun, but I’m bound to say we saw no water-towers!  Continue reading

Way On Down South

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Saturday 8th June 2019 ko 11.00

Division 6 Sydvästra Skäne

GISLÖVS IF 1 (O Idrizi 34)

VÄSTRA INGELSTAD IS 4 (Reuterskold 54 81 86 Wästerberg-Hertz 65)

Att 75

The Swedish Hop’s cost of £285 included all entry fees, programmes, coach travel, 2 bridge tolls on the Øresund Bridge and 2 nights’ bed and breakfast at the Clarion Magasinet Hotel in Trelleborg.

If Robyn’s I’s trip to Copenhagen over the previous 4 days had been about change then the same applied to the Swedish Hop afterwards. Leaving aside the fact that the hop had started in Denmark we awoke in the same hotel as for the previous two hops, the Magazinet in Trelleborg, but even that had switched from being a Best Western to a Clarion over the course of last year. Other changes though were more fundamental. Continue reading

Lucky 13

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Friday 7th June 2019 ko 20.45

European Qualifying Round- Group D – Matchday 10

DENMARK 1 (Højberg 75)

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND 1 (Duffy 85)

Att 34,610

The Swedish Hop’s cost of £285 included all entry fees, programmes, coach travel, 2 bridge tolls on the Øresund Bridge and 2 nights’ bed and breakfast at the Clarion Magasinet Hotel in Trelleborg.

Entry 350 DKK (approx’ £42.06)

Programme FREE

Even taking into account the vibrant history of the Swedish Hop the start of the 13th edition was a bizarre one. Four of us were at our hotel of the previous 3 days in the suburbs of Copenhagen awaiting the indefatigable Kim Hedwall couriering the Trelleborgs FF team coach en route from Kastrup airport to collect us. But how on earth was a proud Swede on a Swedish football team’s bus on a Swedish football tour in Denmark? Continue reading

The Day After

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Thursday 6th June 2019 ko 20.10 but delayed to 20.45 due to lightening

Copenhagen Series Division One

FC GRÆSRØDDERNE 4 (Juul Hansen 52 Frederickson 57 Pedersen 65 Haile 75)

ØSTERBRO IF (Olesen 80)

Att 22 at Ved Stadion, Gentofte Sportspark.

FREE Entry

We awoke to a slightly changed Copenhagen. Save for the fact that thunderstorms were going to arrive at some point that day there was the small matter of Denmark waking up to the results of a General Election. They’d opted for a change in government but as foreigners we were of course divorced from the realities of what it all added up to for the people of Denmark. So much so that what happened next surprised us, and quite honestly it shouldn’t have done.

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Hygge

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Wednesday 5th June 2019 ko 17.00

2nd Division Group 2 Promotion- Denmark

BRØNSHØJ BK 0

VANLØSE 2 (AK Jensen 61 JC Jensen 90)

Att 757

Entry 80 DKK (Approx £9.61)

Programme 20 DKK

With the Swedish Hop’s 13th edition being based once again in Trelleborg, and fiancee Robyn being a fan of all things Hans Christian Andersen it was remarkable that we hadn’t visited Copenhagen previously. Then there was the Danish concept of Hygge roughly translated as cosiness to consider too. The Danish are considered to be the world’s happiest nation, so as the plane touched down at Kastrup and I limped through customs I wanted to see if I could tap into the concept.  Continue reading

Douglas

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Sunday 2nd June 2019 ko 16.10

Scottish Junior Cup Final

AUCHINLECK TALBOT 2 (McCracken 3 Samson 37)

LARGS THISTLE 0

Att 4,639 (1,950 Largs, 2,471 Talbot, Remainder- Hospitality)

At New Douglas Park, Hamilton Academical

Entry £10

Programme £3

Picture the scene, I’m stood at the corner of the two permanent stands at Hamilton Accies. In front of me are two lines of supporters both wearing predominantly amber and black, to my left the Largs fans and to my right the Auchinleck Talbot fans. Which team should I lend my support to for the afternoon? The problem was that I had a foot in three camps, if such a thing is possible? Continue reading

The Burning Bing

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Saturday 1st June 2019 ko 14.30

East Region Junior FA Consolation Cup Semi Final

WHITBURN JUNIORS 8 (Russell 14 Liddell 18 28 72 75 Brass 61 McQuillan 83 Duncan 88)

GLENROTHES  JUNIORS 1 (Martin 80) C Schiavone sent off 65 (dangerous play)

Att c120

Entry £6

Programme £1.50

The idea hadn’t to visit West Lothian quite as soon as this. Of course the Scottish Hop had visited both Blackburn and Linlithgow at the end of March, but with Robyn and I in the Central Belt for the Junior Cup final on the Sunday we wanted another game, and this was by far the best bet!!

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Something On It

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Saturday 18th May 2019 ko 14.30

South Devon League Division 4

ILSINGTON VILLA 0

GALMPTON UNITED 0

Att 66

Free Entry

Sometimes circumstances mean the cards fall neatly in your favour. Robyn and I knew we’d be visiting friends in Plymouth so a game on the way made sense. The issue was that in mid-May a lot of the leagues local to Plymouth or on our way would be finished so I looked more in hope than expectation. But then then I spotted something….

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