DJ’S JOTTINGS – NUMBER 20 (Denmark)
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Copenhagen, so good they named it ‘wonderful’, twice. This was the first destination during two consecutive weekend trips to Denmark last season. Fly with Easyjet from Stansted and it’s only a 12-minute train ride into the City centre. A short walk takes us to our billet, The Cab Inn. ‘Sleep cheap in luxury’ is their slogan. Well I suppose it is cheap by Scandinavian standards, but I wouldn’t call a glorified ‘Formula One’, luxury. It does come out well for location, location, location, however.
Back to the central station for a 17 kilometre journey to Ballerup / Skovlunde for our first game at 1pm. Skovlunde IF compete in Division II East of the Danish League while Ballerup IF play in Serie I. The two sides share the Ballerup Idraetspark, a 4,000 capacity ground in a sort of bowl, with grass banks around much of it. The main stand has about 1100 covered seats and is built into the bank on one side, with a few deep steps of terracing flanking it. The changing rooms, bars and refreshment areas are all at the flat near end. Outside the members bar, tables have individually named slots reserved for their beer. The game between Skovlunde and Copenhagen’s B1908 looks likely to end in a 1-1 draw but heavy home pressure finally gets its reward with a 94th minute winner. Admission costs 50 Krone (£10) and free programmes are handed out.
Our second match requires a bus journey to Lyngby, a suburb about 10 kms north of Copenhagen city centre. The Lyngby Stadion has an athletics track, full pitch length covered stands on each side containing a mixture of seating and standing areas, and open banking round the track at the ends, with blocks of concrete edged, grass covered terracing in each corner. The ground holds nearly 10,000 and supporters are catered for by a café /bar including an upstairs viewing balcony, behind one of the sections of corner terracing, or in the glass-fronted VIP lounge at the top of one of the side stands.
Lyngby BF have won both the league and cup in the past, but struggled financially once professionalism came in and dropped several divisions. They rode out the storm however, resisted attempts to be swallowed up by FC Copenhagen and are back in the top flight, albeit at the wrong end of the table. The game we see is against AGF from Aarhus and it’s a relegation scrap between the two bottom sides. AGF win it 3-1 with all the goals coming in the last 20 minutes. An official crowd figure of 2,701 is given out but there appears to be about double that actually there. £10 is charged for entrance and a newspaper style programme is freely available.
Complete our first day with an extensive and expensive bar crawl in Copenhagen. The days where you could only drink Carlsberg or Tuborg are no more since the formation of a Danish beer consumers organisation in 1998 and there is now a host of Danish micro-brews to choose from. Vesterbro Bryghus, Brew Pub Kobenhavn, McJoyce ,Charlie’s Bar, Bryens Kro, Plan B, Orsted Olbar and the Lord Nelson are among the bars offering a good range of draught and bottled beers.
Onto Saturday and a hire car is required to achieve maximum match potential. The first game at 11am is easy enough. Frem BK’s Valby Idraetspark ground is just south of the city centre, 7 minutes if going by train. 12,000 capacity stadium with one main seated stand running full pitch length and open terracing on the other three sides. The entrance fee of about £8 includes a voucher for a free coffee and cough medicine style spirit at half time. The sponsor’s beer is available at £1 a bottle and even cocktails are served at the ‘tea bar’. Attractive cheerleaders and an elephant mascot with costume trouble add to the fun at a very friendly club. Oh, and there’s a decent programme on sale for £1.50. Frem have been in the top flight and even in Europe but were languishing in the lower half of the second tier at the time of our visit. Faced with 3rd placed Koge BK they turn the formbook on its head and romp to a 6-1 victory.
The remaining two games are on adjacent grounds. There is just the small matter of a 170km drive to get there in the first place. This takes us over the very impressive bridge to the island of Fyn. It’s a fine piece of engineering totalling 20km in length, in two sections. The cost of building it is being offset by charging a £20 toll ! Going to South Wales does not seem so bad any more.
Odense is the main settlement on the island and it is FC Fyn that we see first. The club was only formed in 2006 with the merger of B 1909 and B 1913. We should be grateful they were not called B 2006 I suppose. The match is a Division II West local derby against Naesby BK. Fyn win it 2-1 but it should have been a far more comprehensive score. The 8,000 capacity Odense Athletik Stadion has believe it or not, an athletics track round the pitch, but steeply raked seats in the main stand and elevated standing areas opposite provide a reasonable view. Open terracing curves around one end with a three-storey building, that includes restaurant and viewing balcony, at the top. £6 for admission and £2 for a programme.
Stroll immediately next door to Fionia Park, the 16,000 capacity main Odense stadium. Separate all seated stands on each of the four sides, mostly under cover and there are small standing areas in each corner with large floodlight pylons behind. About £13 is charged for entry and a free newspaper style programme is available. The ‘Polsemix’ (chips with rock salt and little bits of sausage) is very tasty. The match, against Brondby, attracts a near 13,000 crowd but is something of a disappointment. Familiar players in Thomas Helveg and Morten Bisgaard in the Odense line-up cannot prevent a 0-0 stalemate.
That completed this particular visit to Denmark, only to return a week later, this time flying into Aarhus on the east coast of Jutland, the ‘Ryanair airport’ being 43km north of the city centre. Stay at the Scandic Crown in Aarhus and manage to check in and collect tickets for today’s main game from a ‘7-11’ store before heading off to the first match.
Aarhus Fremad play in the Viasat Sport Divisionen (2nd tier). The Riisvengen Stadion is to the north of the city and provides a 5,000 capacity oval shaped venue with the pitch at the centre of a cinder track. Three sides have a couple of steps of terracing with a wide shale standing area behind. 50 individual seats are set out on one side and bar tables are dotted around. There is no cover and only the reserve pitch has floodlights. A café / bar is attached to the clubhouse in one corner at the near end. Admission costs £7 and the programme is free.
H.I.K. (Hellerup) from the Copenhagen area provide the opposition and both they and the home side are near the foot of the table. A poor first half ends with the two sides swapping near post headed goals. Aarhus get on top after the break but are made to pay for missed chances, H.I.K. winning it with two fine late strikes. The official attendance is 283.
Just 7km to drive for our second match kicking-off at 5pm. Our desire to get a decent parking spot gets us stopped by the local constabulary, but our pleas that we do not understand Danish are accepted, even though a sign showing a car with a red line through it needs little translation !
The main Aarhus club, AGF, play at the NRGi Stadion south of the City centre. It holds just over 20,000, all-seated and all covered and is part of a large complex including indoor arena and Atletion, re-developed in 2001. The Atletion building has Roman style columns at the front. A single tier stand is attached to the rear with executive boxes at the top. The other three sides have continuous double tiers in a horseshoe shape round the ubiquitous athletics track. £14 for entry and £1 for a programme.
AGF have been Danish champions on 5 occasions, though not since 1986. Ten years later they were runners-up as well as winning the Cup for a record 9th time. They are now near the bottom of the league and face FC Kobenhavn, Denmark’s biggest side and champions for the last two seasons. The visitors win pretty comfortably, 2-0, with Jesper Gronkjaer and Marcus Allback in their line-up.
Pleasant evening on the beer, establishments varying from a local micro-brewery to a German bar with waitresses in Bavarian costume and finally ‘The Cockney Pub’ where they are holding a Christmas ale festival.
Despite the rigours of the Saturday evening still manage an early rise with a treble on the agenda for Sunday. 45km drive for the Silkeborg v Kolding second division game, kicking off at 11am. The Silkeborg Stadion has covered seating along each side. There is a further stand at the near end where one corner is in-filled with a covered terrace, the other with two two-storey cabins housing changing rooms, offices, club bar etc. Each upper cabin also has a viewing balcony. Open terracing at the far end. There is even a children’s playroom next to the club shop and a little tea trolley that goes round during the game, all in all a splendid ground. £10 charged for admission and a free newspaper style programme is provided. A decent game as well. Silkeborg, looking to bounce straight back to the top flight, take the lead with a 35-yard cracker and go on to win 3-1, watched by 1,716.
It’s a further 70km south for a 3pm kick-off at Vejle BK and the final match at the Vejle Stadion before they move to the new ground immediately next door. Capacity of the old ground is listed as 15,000 but the official attendance of 6,868 almost fills the place. The main stand is on the far side with a standing terrace towards one end. The near side has about 20 steps of open terracing, curving round the essential running track at each end and sloping down to pitch level behind each goal, and at one end there is a further wedge of terracing beyond. Vejle have been champions on four occasions but following relegation are another club seeking an immediate return to the top division. A 3-1 victory against BK Frem today strengthens their hold on top spot in the Viasat Sport Divisionen. There is a parade of former players, including Johnny Sivebaek prior to kick-off and supporters are allowed to inspect the almost completed new ground at the end. It all looks quite neat but nowhere near as much character as the old one.
Have a long trek for our last game of the day, to within 15 km of the northern coast of Jutland. FC Hjorring was only formed in 2006 and is the most northerly club in the Danish League. The 7,500 capacity Hjorring Stadion is an oval shaped ground with a cinder track. There is an elevated main stand with screen ends, at the centre of the near side, fronted and flanked by terracing. 5 steps of concrete terrace surround the rest of the ground. A thick wooden perimeter rail encloses the pitch and very tall floodlight pylons dominate each corner. It is a bitterly cold evening and some kind folks in the sponsors hut take pity on the shivering English travellers and invite us in for bread and home made soup. Tonight’s game against FC Fyn is in Division II West (3rd level of the Danish League). The 2nd in the table visitors go a goal down but come back to win an enjoyable match 3-1 as they score just for Fyn (Groan!)
With just the one game to see on Monday, have time for some sightseeing. ‘Den Gamle By’ (The Old Town) is a heritage village created from over 75 historical buildings brought from all over Denmark. Exhibitions, craft displays and period re-creations take place within the various buildings and freshly baked old style bread and cakes are among the items that can be purchased.
Our final match of the trip is a top division clash between Viborg FF and OB (Odense). The Viborg Stadion holds nearly 10,000 and is a modern rectangular ground with four separate covered stands, each containing 15 rows of seats, except for a small standing area at each end. 110 Danish Krone (£11) for entrance with a free programme available. Not a great game. Viborg are poor and OB do just enough to win it 2-0.
Lunchtime return flight on the Tuesday ends another highly enjoyable trip to the land of the Vikings.
contributed on 29/10/08