About Time

Tags

Allsvenskan, Football, groundhopping, IFK Trelleborgs, Kastrup, Oresund Bridge, Skåne, Sweden, Swedish hop, Trelleborg, Trelleborgs FF, Vangavallen

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!!

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The Invisible Bridge

Tags

Bunkeflo, Football, groundhopping, Malmo, Non League, Oresund Bridge, Skåne, Sweden, Swedish hop

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.

More Than Just Football

Tags

Anderslöv, Anderslövs BoIK, Anderslovs, Football, groundhopping, Kim Hedwall, Non League, Skegrie, Sweden, Swedish hop, Trelleborg

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…

I Didn’t Predict A Riot

Tags

Football, Hallands Nations, Klågerup, Non League, Scania, Skåne, Smygehuk, Sweden

Saturday 9th June 2018 ko 13.00

Division 6B Sydvästra Skåne

KLÅGERUPS G.I.F. 1 (Vågehed 48)

HALLANDS NATIONS FF 2 (Scholander 26 Brown 84p)

Att 34

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.

At breakfast at the Swedish hop’s base on Trelleborg’s waterfront there were a few hangovers in evidence, but ever the one to look on the bright side of things, it did mean more meatballs and crispy bacon for me! Even hop organiser Kim Hedwall allowed himself a knowing smile, he knew he’d got a another superb day lined up, but the Saturday had proved to be the most difficult of the three to put together. 

A Lovely Town For a Murder

Tags

Football, Henning Markell, Johanna Sällström, Krister Henriksson, Liga 06, Non League, Skåne, Sweden, Swedish hop, Tre Lykktor, Trelleborg, Wallander, Ystad

Friday 8th June 2018 ko 19.00

Division 5 Sydöstra Skåne

YSTADS I.F. F.F 0

LIGA 06 I.F 3 (Andersson 27 A Svensson 64 H Nilsson 71)

Att 140

Entry 50sek

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.

Last year’s Swedish Hop produced some amazing memories, not least the drinks reception at the Mayor of Trelleborg’s home. There was one massive disappointment, and that was that only 12 people booked, down from our usual 20 or so. I decided to take a little advice.

The usual chestnut came out, to feature top flight games more. That’s easily done on the eastern European hops, where entry costs tend to be nominal to western wallets, and the general costs far lower than in Scandanavia. Additionally, we’d included Allsvenskan and Superettan games on previous hops to little increase in numbers. But I didn’t want to dismiss the big ground idea out of hand, in the end I saw it as time to get creative, and simultaneously, so did organiser Kim Hedwall! What we ended up doing was supplementing our normal unknown gems with one massive ground. 

Brothers

Tags

Andersson, Öja, Björkvallen, Blentarps, Football, groundhopping, Non League, Skåne, Sweden, Ystad

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.

Kim’s Stockholm

Tags

Akropolis, Division 1 Norra, Football, groundhopping, Sollentuna, Spanga IP, Stockholm, Sweden

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!

Alternatives

Tags

AIS, Broangsplan, Football, groundhopping, IFK Tumba, Nackdala, Pappas Pojkar, Rodstu Hage, Stockholm, Sweden, Tumba

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. 

The Red Line

Tags

deaf, Football, Fruången, groundhopping, IFK Hephata, Malarhojdens IP, Mälarhöjden, Non League, Stockholm, Sweden

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.

Mileposts

Tags

IFK Lidingö, Kaknastornet, Lidingo, Lidingovallen, Ropsten, Stockholm, Sweden, Torstens Lärjungar, Vasa

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.