Tag Archives: groundhopping

One To Do

29 Wednesday Aug 2018

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Saturday 14th July 2018 ko 15.00

Pre-Season Friendly

BATH CITY 2 (Rigg 45 89)

BRISTOL CITY U23 1 (T Richards 68) M Richards missed penalty 85

Att 187

Entry £8

Programme 50p

Between booking a wedding venue and meeting friends for a meal what should an engaged couple do? The answer in Robyn and I’s case was to visit one of the great British football grounds.  Continue reading →

Returns Policy

22 Wednesday Aug 2018

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Wednesday 4th July 2018 ko 19.30

Pre-Season Friendly

HADLEY 0

REDBRIDGE 3 (61 77 84)

Att c35 at Barnet Lane 3G

After my frankly life-changing tour of Sweden in June, save for the odd World Cup game on television I’d taken a break from all things football. I’ll admit it was unusual for me, I remember one close season lasting less than 24 hours! But I looked up the Football Traveller’s friendlies list and soon spotted a ground you can’t do during the regular season. A bonus was that it involved driving past the site of one of my favourite grounds of the past. Continue reading →

About Time

19 Sunday Aug 2018

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Sunday 10th June 2018 ko 16.00

Dam Division 2 Södra Götaland

TRELLEBORGS F.F. ( Salmi 6 Nilsson 16 Williamsdottir 45 81 Le Grand 53 Svensson 67)

JAMSTORPS A.I.F. 0

Att 60 at Vångavallen

Entry FREE

The Swedish Hop’s £230 cost included two nights bed and breakfast in Trelleborg, coach travel including to and from Kastrup Airport, tolls on the Øresund Bridge, and all entry fees and programmes for the games.

In some ways this felt like the logical conclusion of so many factors. We asked people want they wanted, and some asked for a big ground so Trelleborg’s biggest ground was the obvious place to head. I wasn’t necessarily convinced, we’d included Allsvenskan and Superettan games before to little effect on numbers attending but plenty on the cost of the hop itself. But there was plenty of reasons to attend a game here, but the one that eventually drove us here was simple, organiser Kim Hedwall really really wanted to go!! Continue reading →

The Invisible Bridge

16 Thursday Aug 2018

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Sunday 10th June 2018 ko 11.00

Division 6A Sydvästra Skåne

BUNKEFLO F.F. 3 (Sörensson 50 K Olsson 61 Magnusson 79)

FC BELLEVUE 0

Att 65

Entry & Programme 30 sek

The Swedish Hop’s £230 cost included two nights bed and breakfast in Trelleborg, coach travel including to and from Kastrup Airport, tolls on the Øresund Bridge, and all entry fees and programmes for the games.

After 9 days in Sweden it felt like Robyn and I were packing a small part of our lives away as we bundled our clothes into our suitcases on Sunday morning. The sadness was obvious and after a week and a day of being engaged it was high time for us both to see our families and for me to organise an engagement ring for Robyn! I lugged the suitcases down to the lobby and for the last time attacked the crispy bacon and meatballs. Continue reading →

More Than Just Football

13 Monday Aug 2018

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Saturday 9th June 2018 ko 16.00

Division 5 Sydöstra Skåne

ANDERSLÖVS BoIK 3 (Jonsson 6og Wikström 71 86)

SKEGRIE 2 (Melander 12 Larsson 51)

Att 114

Entry & Programme 40 sek

The Swedish Hop’s £230 cost included two nights bed and breakfast in Trelleborg, coach travel including to and from Kastrup Airport, tolls on the Øresund Bridge, and all entry fees and programmes for the games.

If we thought that Klågerup had been amazing, then I sat on the coach heading towards our final destination of the day wondering how on earth Anderslöv could possibly live up to what had happened before? The coach pulled into a car park behind a local school and driver Jörgen laughed. I leaned forward and laughed too… Continue reading →

Brothers

02 Thursday Aug 2018

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Thursday 7th June 2018 ko 19.00

Division 5 Sydöstra Skåne

ÖJA FF 3 (Alfred Andersson 7 Axel Andersson 8 Sebastian Andersson 24)

BLENTARPS BK 1 (Malmborg 61)

Att 97

Entry FREE

With the four of us opting to split our time in Sweden between Stockholm and the annual Swedish hop, once again based in Trelleborg, the vexed question was how we were going to travel the 650km between the two cities? I rather fancied taking the train from Stockholms Södra to Lund, then changing for Trelleborg Centrum. I suspect the journey isn’t in any Bradshaw’s Guide, but it looked fun and Trelleborg station is only around 200 metres from the hop’s current base at the Best Western Hotel Magazinet on Trelleborg’s waterfront. As ever the solution came from Swedish Hop organiser Kim Kedwall. Continue reading →

Kim’s Stockholm

30 Monday Jul 2018

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Wednesday 6th June 2018 ko 15.00

Division One Norra

AKROPOLIS I.F. 1 (Alemayehu 43)

SOLLENTUNA FK 1 (Ramsell 28)

Att c250

Entry & Programme 100 sek

Our last day in Stockholm was the day where Swedish Groundhop organiser Kim Hedwall showed his mettle. The Swedish hop was the first non-UK hop and has run every year since 2007. The reason it started was Kim and without him it couldn’t run- he and the event are indivisible. So when he asked the 4 of us to meet him earlier in the day at Fridhemsplan metro station our notoriously individualistic selves didn’t need to ask questions, we just planned our route!

Continue reading →

Alternatives

26 Thursday Jul 2018

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Tuesday 5th June 2018 ko 19.00

Division 6F Stockholm

NACKDALA A.I.S. 5 (Karlsson 20 Löwenhamn 28 72 Cansu 35 Lehtinen 44)

PAPPAS POJKAR 4 (Rasoli 18 88 Eriksson 70 Bui 90)

Att 25

Based as we were in the Stockholm suburb of Årstadal the Pendeltåg, or commuter train was handy for us. Two stops north saw us in the centre of Stockholm but with our SL Access cards allowing access south-west to Södertälje and beyond we opted to make for a town I barely associated with Sweden’s capital, but Tumba still managed to shock me.  Continue reading →

The Red Line

26 Thursday Jul 2018

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Monday 4th June 2018 ko 19.30

Division 5 Stockholm

IK HEPHATA 1 ( Radhe 17)

SKOGÅS/ TRÅNGSUND A.I.K. 0

Att 19 at Mälarhöjdens IP

Free Entry

The metro train trundled south-west on the red line heading towards its terminus at Fruängen. Robyn was looking at the route map above the door,

“So it’s all the way to Fruängen then catch the 163 bus to the ground?” she half-asked, half told.

She was absolutely correct, but the time she’d spent interrogating the map she missed the train stopping at Hägerstensåsens. That was where’d watched Hägersten SK, her first Swedish football match. I pondered all that had changed since then.

Continue reading →

Friendship

20 Friday Jul 2018

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Saturday 2nd June 2018 ko 19.45

International Friendly

SWEDEN 0

DENMARK 0

Att 41,558 at Friends Arena, Solna

Entry 100 sek (approx £8.62)

Programme 20 sek*

When I was putting this year’s trip to Sweden together this fixture was an obvious one to consider. The time of arrival for Robyn, Sim, Adrian and I had been set in stone, and once Swedish Groundhop organiser Kim Hedwall offered to hire a car and collect us from the airport and drive us from there to Kristinebergs IP then to our hotel, and finally to Solna the cards rather fell into place.  Continue reading →