DJ’S JOTTINGS – NUMBER 28 (Poland Part II)

Matchday images (8) uploaded in five albums shown below:

Having enjoyed the trip to Wroclaw so much, it became a case of going from pole to pole as we were soon back in the same country, this time heading for Krakow. Fly with Easyjet from Gatwick, although some of our party take the Stansted route. Among the passengers is a giant banana, the groom on a stag weekend, and the aircraft’s beer stocks soon run out. This is another aspect of cities offering cheap flights and ‘alcohole’ (sic).

Wroclaw and Krakow have much in common, you might say they are not poles apart (OK, enough of that !) Krakow was for centuries the capital of Poland and the seat of kings. Parts of the old town and market square were more recently used in the filming of ‘Schindler’s List’. However, the main football club Wisla Krakow, are currently playing 70 kilometres away while their own stadium is re-built, so we stay in the more convenient Katowice, for the first 2 nights. Our Pop Hotel takes a bit of finding. The road network is complicated, the sat nav refuses to help by failing to find a signal, the hotel is located off a track to the rear of a petrol station and going by the sign board is actually called the System Hotel !

More difficulties at the Stadion Ludowy in Sosnowiec. Tonight’s game between Wisla Krakow and Legia Warsaw is designated ‘high risk’ so no tickets are on sale at the ground. Quite a few others seem to be in the same situation and there is a large degree of disorganisation around the main entrance with a chaotic car-parking scheme not helping. Pleading with various officials eventually leads to an answer of ‘we may be able to do something if you hang around’, but with kick-off time fast approaching and strict security checks in place, we take up a tout’s offer of tickets for 80 Zloty (about £19). After all this the game starts 10 minutes late and the crowd is only 3,500 !

The Ludowy is set in a bowl, with a curved seated main stand at the centre of one side and pitch-length open seating opposite. Most of the rest of the ground has closed off grass banking with tall floodlight pylons in each corner. The ground is the regular home of 3rd level club Zaglebie Sosnowiec.

Wisla and Legia are among the country’s top clubs but the match itself is not great. Legia win 1-0 with their goal greeted in total silence, suggesting that away fans were barred from attending.

Get a cab into downtown Katowice for some nightlife. Capital of the Upper Silesia region, it is part of a large industrial and urban area, with numerous coalmines and steelworks, gradually being superseded by small businesses and alternative industries. The local tourism website says of Katowice “at a glance, rather less than attractive, unless you want to learn more about post-Communist transformations”. We settle for a beer, served by a local Rick Wakeman impersonator.

A busy day of football on the Saturday with 3 games to fit in, but not too far apart. In the morning its KS Rozwoj Katowice playing Victoria Czestochova in III Ligi Grupo Opolsko-Slaska. This is one of 8 regional leagues at the 4^th level of Polish football. The Stadion KS Rozwoj is another oval bowl with open seating and terracing set into grass banks on the 2 sides. Elevated views can be obtained from the path that runs right round the ground along the top of the grass banking. A small press area provides the only cover. The club colours of green and yellow are well picked out in the fixtures and fittings and the name of the local coalmine is displayed in white lettering on the banks at each end. 5 Zloty (£1.20) for entrance, there is no programme, but posters advertising the game begin to mysteriously fall off the walls. Rozwoj win a reasonable game, the only goal coming 5 minutes from time.

Just a 10 kilometre drive is required to take us to the next match, a IV Ligi – Slaski region encounter between Gornik 09 Myslowice and KS Czestochova. The Stadion Gornik 09 is almost oval in shape, but has been squared off at one end. All of the 139 spectators stay on the near side where there is a fairly new metal stand with seating for about 300 under a perspex roof. There are about 6 steps of open terracing built into a bank on the far side, but it is overgrown and closed off. 5 Zloty is again the admission fee. The word ‘gornik’ means coal-miners, so it’s a sort of Polish version of our colliery welfare sides. Very enjoyable match, the home team seem to be coasting at 3-0, but a sending off precedes a late Czestochova rally. They get back to 3-2 and are close to levelling.

With several hours before our third game of the day, go into Katowice for sustenance. One of our party, who shall remain nameless, sees a sign saying ‘pies’ in a bar, so enquires what pies they do.

Puzzled looks and exchanges behind the bar eventually lead to the explanation that ‘pies’ pronounced ‘p s’ or similar, actually means dogs ! Do get some food later. Not pies, or even dogs, but an excellent pea soup, Silesian lamb roulade with noodles and red cabbage, which along with a large beer, is a bargain at about £6. Finish off with some local vanilla and honey flavoured vodkas.

It’s an 8pm kick-off for the I Ligi match between GKS Katowice and Pogon Szczecin. The Stadion Bukowa is just north of the town centre and holds about 9,700. It consists of a large main covered stand with individual seats, a lower stand with bench seating opposite and open bench seating at one end, mainly for away fans. The other end has been squared off, with now redundant terracing behind. 15 Zloty admission and 3 Zloty for our first programme of the trip.

GKS (Gorniczy Klub Sportowy) are another miners team, formed 1964 and three-times winners of the Polish cup. A slightly bizarre sight is to see a large block of Gornik Zabrze supporters at the game. There are strong links between the two clubs, scarves depicting both sides are very popular and tonight the fans from Zabrze are at least as vociferous in their support for GKS as their own supporters. The real visitors have about 12 fans in the ground at kick-off but this swells to a couple of hundred by the second half. In all there are 8,000 spectators and an excellent atmosphere with singing and chanting led by a conductor flanked by 2 drummers on a podium at the front of the hard-core fans. A large number remove their shirts, despite it being just above freezing point, in order to display their dedication to the cause. Regrettably the cheerleaders keep theirs on.

The high-riding visitors generally control the first half but go a goal down just before the break. The second period provides excellent entertainment and plenty of good positive football from both sides. Szczecin turn it round to lead 2-1 and the home side go down to 10 men. GKS continue to attack and deservedly equalise before having a second player dismissed. Even with 9 men they continue to press. Either side could have won it, but a 2-2 draw is probably about right.

Find 2 more games on the Sunday. GKS Szombierki Bytom are now only in the local Katowice league, probably about level VII, but their Szombierki Stadion used to hold 20,000 and although decaying, is full of character. Set in a large oval bowl, there are remnants of open terracing all round, much of it disappearing under grass, but one section at the centre of the far side, fully maintained. The near side has some individual seats, flanked by benches and a further block of terracing. A new roof extends over the seats from the 2-storey clubhouse block, while the supports from the old demolished stand are still in place. A footpath runs all round the top of the banking and an old scoreboard is perched at one end. Refreshments are served from a green hut and admission is just 4 Zloty (90p). An estimated crowd of 260 see GKS defeat KS Strzbnica 1-0, but it should have been more in a reasonable game.

Pass the national Slaski Stadion, on the southern outskirts of Katowice en route to the final match of the trip. Ruch Chorzow (or ‘Ruth Chorizo’ as one of our group insists on calling them) have a 10,000 capacity ground. Another large bowl with continuous open seating all round apart from a main covered stand at the centre on one side. The imposing light blue floodlight pylons are highly original in design. 20 Zloty is charged for entrance and a free newpaper style programme is available.

Ruch were formed in 1920, have won more than a dozen league titles and are 2^nd in the top division, or Ekstraklasa, at the time of our visit. Visitors Jagiellonia Bialystok, come from up near the Lithuanian border and are towards the foot of the table, but this is largely due to a 10-point deduction for some form of irregularity. The match is a cracker with both sides willing to attack at every opportunity and plenty of fine skilful football on view. Chorzow win 5-2, but the final margin is very harsh on the visitors. Some of the best football ground catering is also to be had – ‘bigos’, a sort of stew with lamb, onions and mushrooms, served with brown bread.

Drive back to Krakow and a good evening of beer and Polish rock performed by a band called ‘Believe’ in a venue more like a jazz club. Time for some sight-seeing including Wavel Castle and the formerly separate Jewish city of Kazimierz, before our lunchtime return flights on the Monday. A fantastic trip all in all and we still have a number of other Polish cities to be visited.

Contributed on 08/09/10