Tag Archives: travel

Winner Takes It All

14 Friday Aug 2026

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Sunday 7th June 2026 ko 13:00

Division 4 Norra Stockholm

SPÅNGA IS FF 8 (Falsen 3 Bergtoft 33 Callebro 38 46 54 Aga 55 73 Hussein 75p)

DANDERYDS SK FF 0

Att 77 at Spånga IP

Entry & Programme Free

The Swedish Hop cost £360 which included all transport from and to Arlanda Airport and between games, 2 nights bed and breakfast, and any admission fees.

There was time when I found the final day of the Swedish Hop hard work. I know how much gets invested in 3 days and 2 nights so when I sense it all ending there was always a sense of melancholy. In recent years, I’ve dealt with it by simply extending my stay, and organiser Kim Hedwall seems to have kept us all busy in any case!

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Returns

12 Wednesday Aug 2026

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Saturday 6th June 2026 ko 17:15

Division 3 Norra Svealand

IFK UPPSALA 1 (Vahedi 86)

ÖSTERÅKER UNITED 1 (Bechtel 65p)

Att 69 at Lötens IP

Entry & Programme 60 sek

The Swedish Hop cost £360 which included all transport from and to Arlanda Airport and between games, 2 nights bed and breakfast, and any admission fees.

If there’s one road we’ve seen the most of during the 19 years of the Swedish Hop it’s the E4. It runs north from Stockholm passing by Arlanda Airport then heading on to the far north, eventually reaching the border with Finland at Haparanda. But we were heading to the first major city north of the capital – Uppsala.

It’s a place of learning with Uppsala University dating back to 1477, and a place of antiquity- Old Uppsala was the main pagan centre of Sweden in Viking times. The Swedish Hop was based in Uppsala back in 2015 and we stayed very close to Lötens IP, and I’m sure we all wondered when we’d ever take in a game there? Just the 11 years then….

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Runes

03 Monday Aug 2026

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Saturday 5th June 2026 ko 13:00

Division 2 Södra Svealand

ÄNGBY I.F. 1 (Kotiram 69p)

TÄBY F.K. 0

Att 137 at Ängby IP

Entry 80sek

The Swedish Hop cost £360 which included all transport from and to Arlanda Airport and between games, 2 nights bed and breakfast, and any admission fees.

Mornings on the Swedish Hop do tend to be relaxed. A buffet breakfast, why do meatballs seem so appropriate here but nowhere else? Some pickled herrings, why not? Then all aboard the minibus for some fairly random football matches, even by our standards!

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Happiness

02 Sunday Aug 2026

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Friday 5th June 2026 ko 19:00

Division 3 Södra Svealand

TROSA VAGENHÄRADS SK 1 (Åkerblom 71)

HANVIKENS SK 0

Att 85 at Häradsvallen (grass)

Free Entry

The Swedish Hop cost £360 which included all transport from and to Arlanda Airport and between games, 2 nights bed and breakfast, and any admission fees.

It’s the same every year. I try and explain why Robyn and I spent a not inconsiderable amount of money to spend a weekend watching some fairly obscure football matches in Stockholm. I’m happy to admit it’s not for everyone, but since 2007, with a 3 year break for Covid these weekends have become my happy place. So much so, Robyn and I got engaged in Stockholm prior to the 2018 edition!

Sweden and I seem to complement each other, so over the years these events have slowly metamorphosed into trips with friends to see friends. I know that that doesn’t sell the hop to many others, but in all honesty, there’s a part of me that has stopped worrying. Read these next few articles, and perhaps you’ll see the value.

So I look forward to organiser Kim Hedwall’s email that always starts with “Welcome to the …th Swedish Groundhop”

Except in 2026 there were a couple of problems.

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Mynydd y Gaer 

21 Tuesday Jul 2026

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Saturday 9th May 2026 ko 14:30

Ardal North West

CPD LLANNEFYDD 3 (Salisbury 4 Owen 30 Edwards 90)

MYNYDD ISA 1 (Beck 36)

Att 58

Entry £5

It has to be said that Robyn my wife does come up with our best ideas. She fancied a weekend in North Wales so we spent a few days exploring Snowdonia from a base in Llandudno. For me it was a chance to revisit a lot of the places we visited in the days of the Welsh Alliance Hops and introduce Robyn to some seriously long placenames. But somehow we ended up at one with quite a short name really….

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The Oldest Club in… well….

17 Friday Jul 2026

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Saturday 2nd May 2026 ko 15:00

Shropshire County League Premier Division

LLANYMYNECH 1 (Thomas 46)

WHITCHURCH ALPORT 1946 5 (Jones 24 Milburn 25 Hailes 48 Owen 66 Cadman 87)

Att 21

Free Entry

Back in medieval times the border between modern day English Shropshire and Welsh Montgomeryshire must have been fairly porous. Even hundreds of years later there are still towns with Welsh names in England such as Trefonen and vice versa. But none managed to be quite as odd as Llanmynech the village that manages to be both English and Welsh!

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Saintly

14 Sunday Jun 2026

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Saturday 14th March 2026 ko 19:30

East of Scotland League Premier Division

ST ANDREWS UNITED 3 (Sneddon 69 Dunn 88p)

McManus sent off 59 (2nd booking)

SAUCHIE JUNIORS 1 (Elphinson 38)

Columbine sent off 67 (2nd booking)

Att 374

Entry £11

Programme FREE/ £3

4 game days are always tough, and with St Andrews being substantially further north than the other 3 games, we felt under pressure, particularly with a coach driver light. I understood all too well the East of Scotland League’s desire for the extra game- when else could we head to northern Fife?

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Linings

03 Sunday May 2026

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Saturday 28th February 2026

14:00 North West Counties League Division One North

THORNTON CLEVERLEYS P

MSB WOOLTON P

Postponed – waterlogged pitch

14:00 West Lancashire League Richardson Cup 3rd Round

BLACKPOOL WREN ROVERS 4 (Makepeace 15 Hanslip 56 90+2)

ASTLEY & BUCKSHAW UNITED 0

Att 218

Entry £3

17:00 North West Counties League First Division North

SQUIRES GATE 3 (Riley 21 Squires 46 Hawley 55og)

NELSON 5 (Hawley 17 Hughes 32 88 Green 72 81)

Att 482

Entry £7

Programme £3

We got the news as we were about to leave Fulwood Amateurs. There’d been rain but no-one had any inkling that there was an issue at Thornton Cleverleys. We knew how much the club were looking forward to hosting to the point that they’d asked to be involved well before joining the league. That hit us, and no doubt them hard, and hearing stories from folks that were already there makes us uneasy about what happened and why. We are still getting to the bottom of why Cleverleys weren’t at least given time to work on the pitch- we did have wriggle room after all. But for the avoidance of any doubt, Thornton Cleverleys will be on a subsquent hop, either in the North West Counties or the West Lancs- they were completely blameless in all of this. And after all that’s said and done, their floodlights could be useful!

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Pillgwenlly

20 Monday Apr 2026

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Saturday February 14th 2016 ko 14:00

Gwent Premier League, Premier Division
PILL AFC 1 (Simmons 38)
P.I.L.C.S. 1 (Jayne 24)

Att 25 at Pill Harriers Sports Club, Newport

Free Entry

You may recall the Welsh Hop paying Pill YMCA at Mendalgief Road a visit back in 2018. It was during Pill’s fairly brief merger with Newport YMCA; Pill AFC moved back to the other side of the Transporter Bridge to their spiritual home of Pill Harriers Sports Club soon after out visit. I’m not sure why they did, but unquestionably you do get a better view of the bridge!

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Gorgonzola

10 Friday Apr 2026

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Saturday 10th January 2026 ko 14:30

Serie C Girone A

A.S. GIANA ERMINIO 0

A.C. RENATE 1 (Karlsson 33)

Att c600 at Stadio Citta di Gorgonzola

Entry €10

Robyn and I were in Milan for the weekend, and true to form this wasn’t a trip that involved wall-to-wall football. We’d visited the stunning La Scala Opera House, and the equally beautiful Cathedral- the Duomo di Milano but stood as we were in the piazza outside, we looked at each other and decided we fancied watching a game.

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