Archive for June, 2025

Greyhound racing at Romford, Saturday 21st June 2025

June 24, 2025

Jen had a conference in London and so we headed down there for a week. I like to try out different places to stay and for this trip we booked one of those canal boats. It was moored on Regent’s Canal at Coal Drop Yard.

I’ve stayed on a few types of boat and quite liked this one. It was tall enough for me to rarely bang my head and stable enough. The only downside was that the electricity supply wasn’t strong enough to charge my laptops, so much of my working time was spent in the nearby library.

You’d think that there would be plenty of options in London for sporting activities, but the only event that appealed was a trip to Romford dogs. Oddly, there wasn’t much going on gig-wise either. We went to see Sparks at Hammersmith Apollo, which is where I saw five Mott the Hoople gigs within a week, back in 2009. Looking back, I’m pleased that I finally got to see Mott and I’m equally pleased that the band enjoyed their reunion. It’s a particularly poignant memory in the week that Mick joined Buffin and Pete in no longer being with us.

Sparks were good. It’s always a fun atmosphere and they have a similarly dedicated fanbase to that of Mott. Ron is pushing eighty, with kid brother Russell not far behind. Hopefully they will continue for a while yet.

Earlier in the week I’d been up to Newcastle, where Paul and I had seen another set of siblings in The Molotovs at Think Tank. It’s a small venue with a low ceiling, perfect for a mod-revivalist band. They signposted a lot of their influences, but none more so than The Jam. The singer, who was only seventeen, was reminiscent of Weller at the same age. The bassist was less reminiscent of Foxton as she was an eighteen-year-old girl, but she had a similar presence. I’d very happily see them again, ideally in similar sized venues.

Final gig of the week was advertised as an ‘Anti-Folk Festival’ at the London Hospital Tavern, Whitechapel. It seemed as if the pub bill was organized by the main guy from David Cronenberg’s Wife. As he was able to guess my name when we went in, it’s possible that Jen and I held the only advance tickets bought.

I should have seen David Cronenberg’s Wife last year when they were supporting Jeffrey Lewis at The Georgian, but I was a bit tired and so didn’t bother. Big mistake as they were excellent and, like The Molotovs, I’ll add them to my list of bands to keep an eye out for.

Ok, less music and more dogs. Greyhound racing is dying off and with Crayford closing down earlier in the year, Romford is the last remaining London track. It might well be a case of now or never. Jen and I took the Elizabeth line eastwards and then walked back towards the city past pubs and car showrooms, neither of which had any customers on a Saturday morning.

It was free to get in, presumably with the costs being met by whoever needs televised racing to sell to betting shops. A couple with a toddler and a baby came in just before us and it reminded me of taking Tom to the greyhound racing at Cleveland Park when he was three or four years old. I may have given him the impression that we were going to a special zoo, just as I did with the fish counter at Tesco.

It was a really hot day, so I was grateful for the air conditioning in the main stand. There were around sixty or so people inside, which is a lot more than I’d expected. I’d assumed that nobody would be interested, but it was more like day care for old people.

A solitary bookie turned up after four races, but I didn’t see anyone betting with him. I’m surprised that on-course betting survives in the days of smart phones and bookies Apps. Maybe there are pockets of people still using cash.

I was also surprised to see the bar open and a food counter downstairs selling bacon and sausages in buns and baguettes. There was a big meeting at the same track that evening, so maybe they were just warming up for what would much likely be a substantial crowd.

Despite being given a racecard, we didn’t study the form, and our selections mainly came from Jen liking a dog’s name. The only exception was when we eavesdropped on a woman sat behind us and piggybacked on her excellent selection. It was enough to mitigate our losses to just under three quid over the six races that we hung about for.

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Vita BK v Skogsa IF, Thursday 12th June 2025, 7pm

June 23, 2025

The second and final game of this trip was at Vita, a small village that’s a forty-minute drive north of Lulea. I’d been tempted by a game a further hour on, in a town that bordered Finland, on the basis that at this time of year it’s light virtually around the clock and if I went later in the year it might not be such an easy drive.

In the end, I opted for the closer fixture at the Vita IP. I arrived a good twenty minutes before kick-off, parked my car pitch side and wandered over to the bloke manning the burger counter. He was curious about why I was there and how I even knew the game was being played. I showed him the Futbology App which mildly amused him. When I ordered a burger from him he directed me to a hatch where I could pay for it and also for admission to the game.

It turned out that payment for the game was voluntary. As I didn’t have the preferred Swish App I handed over a one hundred Krona note. The fella inside thought that was excessive and gave me fifty back. He also handed me a bag from their sponsor which contained a cap, water bottle and some sweets. I may have got the best of that transaction.

The players were still warming up as I took my burger to a small three row wooden stand. It had an announcer in a box at the back of it, which I thought a little over the top for a sixth-tier Division 4 Norrbotten Norra fixture.

The playing surface was more appropriate for the level though. It wasn’t particularly flat and had areas without grass. On the other side of the pitch to me were the dugouts, and behind them the main road. Every now and then a lorry would pass with a trailer full of lumber.

The stand filled up as the game kicked off, with the overall attendance peaking at around forty people and three dogs. Midway through the first half I was greeted by a fellow groundhopper who had been alerted to my presence via the Futbology App and who then identified me with the help of the burger man.

Leif is in his mid-sixties but still reffing at the level above this game and running the line at tiers three and four. He pointed out that the ref in this fixture, who was also in his sixties, had once been Sweden’s top match official.

He filled me in on some of the details of the league and the players. It’s rolling subs at this level and it worked well with nothing like the delays that you get with regular subs. We chatted a little about the new eight second goalie rule and how, as a ref, he felt that it would work.

I rarely speak to people at games for long but would be happy to bump into Leif again.

It was one way traffic on the pitch with Skogsa three up at the break and five in front as we reached ninety minutes. Vita nabbed a consolation in added time in what ended up as a five-one away win.

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Bergnasets AIK v Boden City, Monday 9th June 2025, 7pm

June 21, 2025

After the trips to Finland and Denmark, it was time to move on to Sweden, this time for work rather than the dubious pleasure of watching Duran Duran. The project I’m involved in is in a small town in the north of Sweden, just a hundred kilometres or so from the Arctic Circle.

It’s a region that doesn’t have any top tier clubs, but that suits me fine and for the first game of the trip I selected a fourth-tier fixture in the Division 2 Norrland league.

The Jiabvallen ground was a few minute’s drive away on the outskirts of Lulea. The roads leading to it all seemed to be bordered by forests, although it’s not just the roads, everywhere is bordered by forests. Flying in, the views below me were all either trees or lakes. I’m hoping to get the time to have a decent look around the region when I make my monthly visits.

It was eighty crowns to get in, which is about six quid. That included a free programme too. The game was between mid-table Bergnasets and Boden City who were bottom of the seven-team division.

There was a three-row wooden stand that ran most of the length of one side of the pitch. Around a hundred or so people had turned up. The ones near me were mainly players who hadn’t been selected and their friends. A couple of youngsters were sat at the front, eating salad that they’d brought from home in Pyrex dishes.

The standard was good, particularly the home side. I’m not sure at what level in Sweden the players drop to part-time, but they all looked to be ‘proper’ footballers. Bergnasets had the best of a cagey first half, but neither side managed to break the deadlock before half-time.

At the break I got myself a burger. Just as it had been earlier at the gate, I was given the choice of payment in cash or via an App called Swish as they couldn’t take payment by card. I don’t have the Swish App as you need a Swedish bank account to open it, but fortunately I had sufficient Swedish cash with me.

After the restart, Bergnasets picked up where they had left off. They had most of the decent chances, including hitting the bar from what might well have been a cross rather than a shot. The Boden City defence held out though and the game finished goalless.

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FC Copenhagen Women v Naestved HG, Sunday 8th June 2025, 4pm

June 20, 2025

My second game of the day was at Denmark’s national stadium, Parken. It had been the venue of the Danish men’s team’s fixture with Northern Ireland the previous evening, but this game was a third tier women’s game between Copenhagen and Naestved. Copenhagen Women don’t usually play their games in a thirty-eight thousand capacity ground, but they had recently clinched promotion and the venue was chosen both as a celebration of their season and to try and entice along a few new fans in advance of their upcoming second tier campaign.

Tickets were free but had to be reserved online and by the time I’d booked mine the website advised that 25,000 had already been taken up.

The metro was  busy with lots of families and young women heading for the game. I did a lap of the stadium before finding my entrance to the B11 section, high up behind the goal. It was free seating within each section and so I found a spot close to the front of that tier.

The crowd didn’t feel like twenty-five thousand and it was no surprise when they announced an eighteen thousand attendance. That’s still pretty good for a third-tier fixture.

Fifteen minutes in, there was some Fiddler on the Roof type music played over the PA. That was the signal for people to throw inflatables onto the pitch. The players seemed used to that kind of disruption and casually trotted over to the dugouts for a time-out.

Shortly after play resumed, the visitors took the lead with a shot from distance that caught the home goalie off her line and dipped just under the bar. The goal celebrations revealed a section of Naestved fans at the end of the main stand to my right. The away joy was short-lived however and Copenhagen quickly equalized with a similar effort, chipped in from the edge of the box.

It was clear that the league table hadn’t lied and Copenhagen were by far the better of the two teams. They went ahead with a back-post header early in the second half and then just ran down the clock to clinch the points and send their new fans away happy.

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Brondby Strand IK v Vallensbaek IF, Sunday 8th June 2025, 1pm

June 18, 2025

I’ve been doing some consultancy work for a project in Sweden and was due to fly on to there the next day for some meetings. Jen was heading back to the UK and so we parted company at a metro station. She went in the direction of the airport and I took two trains to Brondby for the first of the afternoon’s games.

It was raining fairly heavily and I had a fifteen minute walk from the station to the Langbjergskolen ground. I could see the pitch from a couple of hundred yards down the road, as well as a clubhouse with a small viewing area at the front.

Some early arrivals had nabbed spots under the roof overhang of a building behind the goal, whilst those who didn’t mind getting wet stood pitch side opposite the clubhouse.

It was free to attend and there were around a hundred people there to watch the seventh-tier fixture between Brondby Strand and Vallensbaek. It’s games like this that make me grateful for the Futbology App, which has made groundhopping so much easier. In the not-so-distant past it would have been difficult to discover that a seventh tier foreign league actually existed, never mind having accurate fixture details and ground location easily accessible.

Unfortunately, the technology can’t help with the standard of play, which was English Sunday League level at best. The visitors took the lead early on with a lofted shot that deceived the goalie. Brondby equalized just before the break with a decent effort that was curled inside the far post, beyond the reach of an unsighted keeper. Both efforts were celebrated with an air horn blast from the same guy who was stood three feet away from me.

At half-time I bought a tray of chips from the café, then mistakenly dusted them with what I’d thought was salt but turned out to be powdered milk. I wondered how many of the people simply assumed that English blokes routinely added powdered milk to their chips. Perhaps one or two of them might be tempted to adventurously try it in future.

The second half was all Vallenbaek. They went ahead on the hour when a goalmouth scramble ended with a Brondby defender diverting the ball into his own net. They soon added a third from a quick break and then another two before the end for a decisive five-one away win. It was still raining as I made my way back to the station.

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B 1908 Amager v Greve Fodbold, Saturday 7th June 2025, 12 noon

June 16, 2025

The second gig of the Duran Duran tour was in Copenhagen and Jen and I flew in from Finland a couple of days in advance. I’d not been to Copenhagen for forty years but recalled that the only places we could afford to drink on that occasion were the free brewery tours that included three bottles of their product. Whilst I was grateful for the past generosity, or marketing tactics, of the breweries, forty years of saving up had allowed me to look forward to trying something other than Carlsberg or Tuborg on this occasion.

I may have been a little harsh with Duran Duran as they’ve actually got three songs that are listenable, which is three more than a lot of bands.

Jen wanted to buy some wool from a shop in nearby Roskilde that is well-known in world knitting circles. Roskilde is a short train ride outside of Copenhagen and also boasts a record shop and a church full of dead kings. We picked up an early seventies album from The Trammps which was selected primarily for its double denim with afros band photo on the sleeve.

Sadly, the dead kings weren’t on display, but the tombs that they were in were ok for a short visit, particularly the ones with stone skull carvings.

We were staying in the south of Copenhagen and so could walk to the first game that I’d identified. It was a fifth-tier game described as a relegation group, which is presumably that thing that they have in Scotland, where the league splits into two at a certain point in the season and you play only those teams in your half of the table.

It took us an hour to get there and on arrival we handed over fifty Krones each, which is around six quid. For that we also got a programme included.

The Sundby Idraetspark ground is a century old, but from what I read, the main stand only dates back half that time. There was a small open stand on a grassy bank behind the goal to our right and an athletics track lapped the pitch, although with only three lanes on all but the home straight.

We got hot dogs before kick-off, with the buns an optional extra. They were also serving beer from the same counter, but it felt a little early in the day to start a session.

1908 went into the game bottom of their group, with Greve a little higher and possibly safe from relegation. 1908 dressed up as Fulham with Greve rocking an Everton vibe. The match started five minutes before scheduled and an early goal for the visitors meant that 1908 were trailing even before they were due to have kicked off.

The home team’s day got worse as we approached the half-hour when a defensive mix up left a visiting striker unchallenged and all he had to do was take the ball around the prone keeper and roll it into the net.

For a long time, it just looked to be a matter of how many Greve would score, but with a quarter of an hour remaining, 1908 intercepted a back pass and tucked it away to halve the deficit.

Both sides stepped up their efforts in the final minutes. There were some late tackles and yellow cards. 1908 pushed hard for an equalizer but it didn’t come. The way that the home players slumped to the ground suggested that the result must have mattered to them. Perhaps it confirmed relegation.

Of more importance though was that I’d ticked off a game in Denmark, taking the total number of countries where I’d seen a game to sixty-five. Well done me.

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FC Ilves 2 v Atlantis FC Akatemia, Monday 2nd June 2025, 7pm

June 7, 2025

The Duran Duran gig that had brought us to Finland was in Tampere which is two hours drive north of Helsinki. It was a scenic route with frequent deer sightings in the nearby fields. We’d booked an apartment close to the Nokia Arena venue and didn’t move too far away from it, so I’ve no real idea whether I saw the best bits of Tampere or not.

Jen enjoyed the gig whereas I struggle a bit to appreciate their music. I don’t mind listening to Planet Earth or Girls on Film, but the other eighteen songs could be vastly improved by condensing them all down to a five-minute medley.

I had a more enjoyable evening the previous night when I went along to the Tammelan Stadium which was a short walk further on from the Nokia Arena. The game was a fourth-tier fixture between Ilves reserves and Atlantis.

I hadn’t expected much difficulty in getting in, but tickets were required and they could only be bought online. A very helpful steward identified the website and two minutes and ten euros later I had my seat.

The Tammelan stadium is just a year old and has an eight thousand capacity. I like the design which includes downward curved roofs on the stands behind the goals. There was a possible flaw in the stand opposite to me though with the uprights for the floodlights going straight through the upper tier. If the seats behind them were sold then it would have been a very obscured view for those people.

There was a concourse area behind me with bars and food. Some people watched the game from stools through the glass. I could see the appeal in poor weather, but this was a sunny evening and perfect for sitting outside.

There were around two hundred people in my stand, including half a dozen or so from Atlantis. The only other spectators were twenty home ultras who had a dedicated section behind the goal my right. They all looked to be fourteen years old and were dressed in black with five or six flags between them. A constant drumbeat accompanied the game

The first half was goalless, but Atlantis might well have had a penalty early in the second. The outraged Atlantis number nine soon made amends though, getting a marginal touch to a lofted cross. The visitors quickly doubled their lead with well-finished half-volley.

Ilves pulled one back with twelve minutes to go and then pressurized the Atlantis goal. It paid off in added time when a great through ball split the defence. It was squared and tucked away. I shared in the joy of a last gasp draw that feels like a win.

I was less joyful when I popped into the supermarket on the way out to find that alcohol sales finish bang on the stroke of nine o’clock. I’d missed the deadline for buying a couple of cans of beer by four minutes. Maybe I should have made an early dart from the game to ‘beat the traffic’.

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IF Gnistan v FC Ilves, Sunday 1st June 2025, 4pm

June 4, 2025

Fortunately, Jen and I have similar tastes in music. Actually, we seem to have similar tastes in lots of things. One slight difference though is Duran Duran. They were one of Jen’s childhood bands whereas I’ve always seen them as talentless tossers. However, Jen accompanies me to plenty of events where her focus is on knitting rather than whatever I’m interested in and so when I saw that Duran Duran were touring Europe, I booked us tickets for Tampere and Copenhagen.

First stop on the way to Tampere was two nights in Helsinki. It’s somewhere that I visited back in 2009 with Paul for a Hanoi Rocks gig on their farewell tour. In the battle of the bands, I’d say the Finns beat the Brummies hands-down.

Our apartment was only a few minute’s walk from where I’d stayed the previous time, but I remembered nothing of the area. On that first trip Paul and I did some salmon fishing, popped into a castle and drank in what I recall as being old bloke pubs.

This time Jen and I wandered along to the harbour. There were plenty of food stalls, most of which sold reindeer meatballs or salmon soup. It’s probably like every restaurant in Teesside sticking a parmo on the menu. We had neither, as we ended up eating in a Georgian establishment, so it was mince dumplings and some fried potatoes. That’s a win.

As you might have expected, I scheduled in some football. Finland is somewhere that I’d yet to see a game, so the visit would take the total countries where I’d watched a match to sixty-four.

We caught a train from Helsinki station that took us four stops and twenty minutes north to the suburbs. Everyone was very helpful, something that I now associate with Finns, and we arrived at the Mustapekka Arena with around twenty minutes in hand. It’s a ground with just a 2,600 capacity, which struck me as being on the small side for a top-tier fixture.

I’d bought tickets in advance that morning at twenty-two euros a pop. It was as well I did as there were very few empty seats. We were in what appeared to be a temporary stand made of scaffolding, whilst there was a more permanent structure on the other side of the pitch. A few people stood behind each goal and watched through netting.

There were beer and burgers for sale and an old bloke manning a barbecue. I got a hot dog at half time which came without a bun. That’s ok on the basis that the hot dog is the best bit. I’d have been less impressed if it had just been a dogless bun.

And the match? Well, not very much happened at all, at least for the first eighty-seven minutes. Visitors Ilves had most of the territorial advantage with the Gnistan goalie keeping his side in the game by making some decent stops. The home side couldn’t hold out though and to a collective FFS from the crowd, Ilves nicked a goal three minutes from the end. They sealed the win with a second goal in added time.

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