Tag Archives: Sweden

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.

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Mileposts

23 Monday Jul 2018

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Sunday 3rd June 2018 ko 19.00

Division 6C Stockholm

IFK LIDINGÖ BK 6 ( I Gustafsson 9 49 Broström 27 Undhammar 66 Sjöwall 70 Engdahl 77)

TORSTENS LÅJUNGAR BK 0

Att 43

Entry – FREE

One of the many reasons I love Sweden in general, and Stockholm in particular is that it manages to signpost significant points in my life. My first foreign football trip was to Nyköpings BIS in 2007 and my photos since then tell so many stories, from the start of the collapse of just about everything that meant something to me on the 2010 Swedish Hop to the newly separated man trying unsuccessfully to laugh his way around the hop a year later in front of “Offside Magazine”. Then two years ago something I thought would never happen did, Robyn arrived in my life, and actually wanted to join me on my regular little odysseys round Sweden. But unlike all the other times, this Swedish milepost I decided to be in full control of.  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 →

The Palace

19 Thursday Jul 2018

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Saturday 2nd June 2018 ko 14.00

Division 3 Södra Svealand

FC STOCKHOLM INTERNAZIONALE 5 (Culeu 42p 49 Tourang 67 82 Aloui 90og)

TYRESÖ FF 0

Att 78

Entry 50sek (£4.31)

The idea behind this years trip to Sweden had long been to visit Stockholm before travelling south for the annual Swedish hop, based once again in Trelleborg. It meant spending two weekends in Scandanavia with the week between linking them. It gave me a couple of decisions to make. Continue reading →

The Watertower

23 Friday Jun 2017

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Sunday 4th June 2017 ko 15.00

Division 5 Sydvästra Skåne

VELLINGE I.F. 7 (Marius Hansson 22 47 C Wreme 34 60 Kruse 43 Lindell 74 Krönström 90)

HUSIE F.F. 1 (Johannsson 66)

Att 68

Entry 40 sek

We began to make our way back to the Øresund Bridge and our flights from Kastrup airport. The 11th Swedish Hop’s final stop was Vellinge, whose claim to fame seems to be that it was once voted Sweden’s second best place to live, history doesn’t record who won though! The other thing Vellinge is famous for is it’s 40 metres tall, 400 million litre vatterntorn, or water tower. And if you weren’t completely au fait with what a huge concrete funnel is for, the clever Swedes have painted the thing in blue stripes! Continue reading →

Easter Eggs

20 Tuesday Jun 2017

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Sunday 4th June 2017 ko 12.00

Division 5 Södra Skåne

KLAGSTORPS I.F. 4 (Dakaj 24 50 A Sheshaee 30 Krasniqi 54) Mullatahiri sent off 48 (violent conduct)

ANDERSLÖVS Bo.I.K. 1 (Lindahl 33)

Att 115

Entry & Programme 40 sek

With carry-on baggage so limited on budget airlines these days I’ve long since learned to take and wear old clothes so that they can be dumped leaving space for souvenirs on the journey back. But this time I decided that my “North Face” waterproof jacket was due for retirement, so there it sat in the hotel wardrobe in Trelleborg, destined to stay there if the weather stayed sunny. My alarm went, I peered through the curtains….. typical…rain! The coat was brought into action one last time.  Continue reading →

Canapes

18 Sunday Jun 2017

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Saturday 3rd June 2017 ko 17.00

Division 5 Sydvästra Skåne

SKEGRIE B.K. 4 (Ljungvist 5 Revesz 38 80 82)

ARLÖVS B.I. 4 (Svensson 11 25 48 Johansson 61)

Att 46

Entry & Programme 40sek

If our previous game at Gylle was sold to the British contingent on the Swedish Hop as a beautiful location, then Snarringe I.P. was at least its equal. The small village near Trelleborg is best known as where some Dolmen, or standing stones were discovered, dating back to Viking times but is now a peaceful idyll in rural southern Sweden. There was one small problem though, actually pronouncing the name “Skegrie!”

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The Cunning Linguists

16 Friday Jun 2017

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Saturday 3rd June ko 14.00

Division 7 Sydöstra Skåne

GYLLE A.I.F. 4 (Mekic 60 79 Sinteus 69 84)

BASKERMÖLLA I.F. 1 (Korac 53)

Entry 30 SEK

Programme FREE

You have to be careful with the language in Skåne, as in southern Sweden the dialect owes much to Danish, even Stockholm resident hop organiser Kim Hedwall discovered understanding the locals’ dialect wasn’t necessarily a given. He speaks standard Swedish, the kind you’d hear on TV, but this isn’t the Swedish you’d necessarily hear down here. On one hand you could see it as like a Londoner having a conversation with a Glaswegian, but there are other differences too. And the name of the 3rd club on this year’s Swedish hop demonstrated the point rather well…. Continue reading →

The Idrottsplats

15 Thursday Jun 2017

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Saturday 3rd June 2017 ko 11.00

Division 7 Sydvästra Skåne

A.C. KVARNBY 9 (Möller 10 35 Grubessick 22 Persson 29 68 Andersson43 Bengtsson 58 89 Hilveus 70)

KÄVLINGE G.I.F. 1 (Korac 53)

Att 27

Entry FREE

Programme FREE

In Trelleborg we got up and had a leisurely breakfast,  the inevitable crispy bacon, coffee and meatballs banishing the remains of hangovers, dang those pubs were good! The minibus arrived, as did Christian and Ditte from the tourist board, and they gently chided the driver for playing Wu Tang Clan on the radio; it was decided that ACDC was more suitable for 11 middle-aged men and one young woman from Britain….We set off for the furthest out ground on the hop in the suburbs of Malmö. Continue reading →

The Bridge

14 Wednesday Jun 2017

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Friday 2nd June 2017 ko 19.00

Division 7 Sydvästra Skåne

BOSNISKA FK BEHAR 4 (Pajovic 8 27 F Guta 73 76)

TURKISK CENTER FF 1 (Xhemajli 4)

Att 55

Entry FREE

Programme FREE

At one point Joachim “Kim” Hedwall was a fixture on most British-based groundhops, and every time we saw him, we’d ask him when he was going to organise a hop in his country. Eventually he relented, and in 2007 the first Swedish Hop took place based in Nyköping and Stockholm. I was there, and I flew back fully expecting it to have been a one-off event, so catching the plane from Stansted for the 11th Swedish Hop I regard this event as being groundbreaking but also feel fortunate that its still taking place.  Continue reading →