Tag Archives: Kim Hedwall

The Boo Bear

25 Thursday Jul 2024

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Saturday 15th June 2024 ko 13:15

Division 3 Södra Svealand

BOO FF 5 (Hellström 31 Tsilicheistos 45+4 Medew 53 58 Nilsson 69)

FC BRANDBERGEN 3 (Katourgi 9 24 36)

Att 79 at Boovallen

Free Entry

The Swedish Hop’s cost of £320 included bed and breakfast for two nights, all transport in Sweden, together with entry fees for all games, and a goodie bag!

From our close-to unplanned trip to northern Stockholm we picked our way back through the capital’s tunnels towards Kim Hedwall’s planned base for the hop, Nacka and Saltsjöbaden- we even passed within sight of our hotel in Hammarby Sjöstad along the way. You could see Kim’s motivation, the area is idyllic, so he knew he’d be showing off his country in the best possible light.

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The Dome

21 Sunday Jul 2024

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Friday 14th June 2024 ko 20:00

Division 4 Stockholm Mellersta

SICKLA IF 2 (Rosell 40 Marsden 80)

RINKEBY UNITED 2 (Rawufa 57 Jobe 88)

Att 88 at Nacka IP2

Free Entry

The Swedish Hop’s cost of £320 included bed and breakfast for two nights, all transport in Sweden, together with entry fees for all games, and a goodie bag!

The tram from Sickla Kaj wended its way to Solna, and I used the time to reflect on how the Swedish Hop has changed everything for me since that day in 2007 when the plane landed at Skavsta and the very first Swedish Hop watched Nyköping BIS that evening. That was my first ever game abroad, and it was organiser Kim Hedwall that got me there. Since then, I’ve watched football in 28 countries, so I’ve got a lot to thank him for. He started me off, and without that start so much that’s wonderful would never have happened. It is possible that I’d never have met Robyn. Infamously we met on Twitter and what attracted me to her was my tales of footballing travel. As I said, I owe Kim and Sweden a lot.

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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. 

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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 →

New Ground

14 Tuesday Apr 2020

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With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell.

Friday 15th June 2007 ko 19.30

Division 2 Östra Svealand

NYKÖPINGS B.I.S. 5 (Holmström 39 53 Stensson 64 M Funes 71 Lundgren 85)

AKROPOLIS I.F. 3 (Allyn 64 88 Birras 90)

Att 226

These days there are no lack of “Foreign Hops” aimed primarily at UK-based groundhoppers. Off the top of my head, there’s been ones in Germany, Switzerland, Romania and the Covid-19 pandemic saw one scheduled in Denmark cancelled. The attraction is clear, see football in a new country but have the logistics organised by someone with local expertise. Continue reading →

Aiming High

11 Wednesday Dec 2019

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Saturday 12th October 2019 ko 10.30

Bedfordshire County League Division 3

REAL HAYNES 7 (Bucknall 17 Lumsden 28 32 62 Ahmed 53 Sheath 73og Pearson 78)

Lumsden penalty saved 60

BLUNHAM 0

Att 196

Free Entry

Programme £2

Like Phil Hiscox and the South West Peninsula League Hop I regard Craig Dabbs and the Bedfordshire Hop as being indivisible. I understand the stresses and strains of organising a hop below Step 6, for Bedfordshire you can read North Berkshire and Witney for me. People tend to be surprised when I tell them that Bedford is Robyn’s favourite hop, she knows its the only event when I genuinely relax. Continue reading →

Making Friends Wherever We Go

02 Friday Aug 2019

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Sunday 9th June 2019 ko 15.00

Division 7 Södra Skåne

HOLMEJA IS 1 (Rosefors 8)

ONSLUNDA IF 1 (Orfawi 36p) L Axelsson sent off (2nd Booking)

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.

From Lilla Beddinge the coach headed north, which seemed a little counter-intuitive for a “South” division. Such I suppose are the vagaries of life in the bottom division in Skåne. The irony was despite this game being the last on the 13th annual Swedish Hop, we were close to the wrong airport, Holmeja is close to Malmö airport but the party were all destined to depart from Kastrup in Copenhagen. Continue reading →

My Happy Place

29 Monday Jul 2019

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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

24 Wednesday Jul 2019

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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

22 Monday Jul 2019

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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 →