Thanks for a great season lads, with some major highlights both on and off the field!

We made the SAFF Grand Final again but despite a solid effort the Dockers ran away with the score in the second half to claim the title. Big up yourselves Blues!

Södermalm went undefeated through the cricket season; 2 for 2, marvellous effort that! Moreover, Jordo batted a ton, the first ever in Söder and Jordo history! Our efforts haven’t gone unnoticed and currently we’re negotiating with the league to enter a side in Last man standing next year.

Two new Söder social clubs saw the light of day this season:

The Cycling club has gone from strength to strength with weekly social rides and regular Sunday long distance rides covering all of the greater Sthlm. Due to global warming the season has not really ended for the die-hard cyclists, but we can already crown the tyre-change champion: Danne Jordansson! He clocked a back-tyre change in an impressive 7:55,50 minutes.
Get on Strava and join Team Södermalm!

The Racquet club got off the ground with the Söder Tennis championship at the Catella Arena. Inaugural winners were Andrew Becker and Larry Borg, old school, we’re talking tightly interlaced networks of strings in wooden frame.

The social season has been slightly constricted due to the kung flu pandemic, but we managed to pull off a couple of events.
The first ever Söder Master golf championship was played as a pairs event at the Augusta golf course. Team Law/Jordansson deservedly claimed the Blue Jackets after an even par 30 over the 9 holes.

The Bowling championship was played as a curtain raiser to the Söder Awards night. The four top players in the qualifying round plus two lucky losers played off in the final. After all the pins were down Rappa stood victorious.

Tanka won the Söder Footy tipping competition by a miniscule margin. The same total score as Daniel Perillo but with a 13 goal better percentage.

First time winner of the Fishing competition was Calle, who landed a 600g/35cm abborre.

And let’s not forget the big man turned 40 this year, and he celebrated by bleaching his hair. That’s right Bluey, you’re not older than the woman you feel.

The club recently completed a member survey of the season events and the unanimous response was; more of everything! The board appreciates the feedback and will act accordingly.

Last but not least, the club has landed a new sponsor! It’s the half man, half machine, half glass, legend Perezmo together with his old man and Haninge Terazzogolv AB who will be supporting Södermalm. We are very grateful to see the screaming eagle return as a benefactor.

So what’s up next?

Well, this Sunday at 11.00 Kingsley is organizing ice swimming at Playa del Tanto. Guaranteed to wake you up in these dark times. What doesn’t kill you hey.

The Söder AGM and Boule competition (pandemic permitting) is planned for January 17^th so lock it in.

We’ll keep you updated.

The 2020 bowling night was my first experience of a Södermalm AFC social competition. It was with a sense of excitement that I approached the grey bowling building beside Gullmarsplan which I was used to visiting for my daughter gymnastics competitions. I had met a few club members at the cricket, dad’s barbeque and tennis however the build up to this event on the what’s app channel indicated this was serious stuff. Film clips from the Big Lebowski, colourful bowling shirts, some American nut shouting at the public, serious trash talk and a broken trophy cemented a sensation to expect the unexpected. The trash talk was at another level than that Smithy served up at the tennis. When I arrived I was met by a barrage of new names and faces. Brissles, Tanka, Macca, Cordo, Smurf, Tip Tapp and Don Keys . I though “Shit, how am I going to remember all these names?”. We got served a complimentary beer and then the draw began. The names where put face down and then lotted into 5 groups of 3 and 2 of 2. Amongst the aussies we were also 2 swedes, and Englishman and a Mexican. Tip Rat requested a quick check of the associations statutes to see whether Mexicans were allowed and was assured this was fine in spite of the risk of the spread of Corona. The rules were simple. Top 4 results from the first two sets with 2 lucky losers joining them in the final.

As a lucky loser Tip Rat was confident of getting one of those places. Cordo and Kingsley were late and didn’t arrive until mid-way through the first set so it was all down to the second set for them. Larry and I were in a group of 2 playing next to the other group of 2 of Jordo and Don Keys. Quite quickly we had played our first 2 sets and noted that none of us were anywhere near the top 4 spots. Nevertheless, Larry and I got the best overall scores – well over 450! 2 of the top 4 came from lane 14 – Brissles and Tanka. They were joined by Rappa and Nick. Finally, the lucky losers were drawn and it was Tip Rat as expected and Macca who didn’t want to be a lucky loser and gave his place to Fergo. The final provided moments of excitement not the least as the bowlers kept changing lanes so it was not easy to see who was bowling in what lane. In the end, Rappa prevailed edging out Fergo by one point. Brissles came third but somehow Tip Rat made his way onto the 3rd step.

So there it was – Rappa 1st, Fergo 2nd and Tip Rat 3rd . After this we went to the restaurant to enjoy more beers and a burger. The president gave a summary of the year that had passed, number of members, number of paid members, number of events and upcoming events. There was an awards ceremony and a vote for the member with the best looking shirt that Fergo with his pineapple shirt won. After that it was time to head into town and Götgatsbacken. The evening continued and what happened at Brunos stays at Brunos….

On Saturday the 12^th of September 2020, the inaugural Södermalm AFC Tennis Championships took place.  Courts were booked at one of Europe’s finest tennis academies in Danderyd at the “Good to Great” tennis academy at Catella Arena.  The academy was set up by the famous Swedish trio of Magnus Norman (coach of Stan Wawrinka), Mikael Tillström (coach of Gael Monfils) and Nicklas Kulti.  All three have won the Davis Cup for Sweden and all three have been ranked among the best in the world during their careers so the stage was set for a big day indeed.  2 courts were booked on the brand new outdoor clay surface and 11 members from Sodermalm AFL put their names down to play.  We could only take 8 players so Perillo, Briscoe and Kingsley were put down as reserves. Players were ranked by tournament director; Smithy based on a highly technical system that required the use of quantum computing facilities at one of the local hedge funds.  The idea being that good players should be teamed up with weaker players in order for a more enjoyable tournament. 

Rankings were as follows where A = Ridiculously Good and E = Ridiculously Bad:
Smith = B+
Bruffy = C
Nick = C
Logan = B
Rappa = D
Alex = C
Condo = B+
Larry = D

Reserves:
Perillo = C
Kingsley = B+
Briscoe = B+

The tournament director then set the draw:

Match 1 = Bruffy/Alex V Smith/Larry

Match 2 = Logan/ Nick V Condo/Rappa

Winners of Match 1 would then play Winners of Match 2 and Losers of Match 1 would play Losers of Match 2.

And then the rain came………..
The light rain had a few of the players concerned about turning up but only one player (Condo) dropped out due to non-rain reasons and was replaced by Kingsley and so play began.  All players had brought suitable attire including clay shoes and a few bandanas were spotted.  Smith who fancied himself for the win almost had a heart attack when his partner, Larry turned up with a wooden racket from the 1960’s and shorts tighter than Boris Becker at his peak.  Smith and Larry were taught a lesson in tennis from Bruffy and Alex and lost the first set 4-6.  Smith and Larry regrouped and in an epic turn around won the second set 8-6 leading into a third set tie breaker.  Bruffy and Alex were rattled and in the tie breaker third set Smith and Larry got up 7-4.  Alex had turned up in all whites and Bruffy had claimed that he had been dazzled by his partner’s outfit.  Dazzling indeed! Meanwhile on the other court the Kiwi, Nick Law had been booming down some big serves together with his partner the South African wonder Sean Logan and those boys managed to get up over Rappa and Kingsley in 2 sets; 6-2, 6-2. The next rounds took place immediately and Kingsley interchanged with Perillo and that proved costly as Alex and Bruffy got up in the first set 6-1.  Players then mixed and matched on that court and no real “loser” was declared. Sensible indeed. On the other court where the finals were to take place claims from Nick and Logan that they were disadvantaged by being made to change court in order to play on the court that Smith and Larry had just won on were taken to the tournament director Smith and were disregarded immediately…… strangely.  An epic final then took place.  Swedish Larry and the Aussie Smith were shocked by the serving speed of the Kiwi and the net aggression of the South African and went down hard in the first set 6-1. Smith and Larry regrouped and took the second set 6-4 as the young Kiwi and not so young South African began to tire and the double faults crept in.  A third set tie break was going to decide it and the 1960’s racket of Larry came through for team Smith and Larry who won the third set 7-5 to be crowned the inaugural Södermalm AFC tennis champions for 2020.

All retired to the change rooms somewhat wet from the light rain and then convened in the Good to Great facilities for lunch and beers.  Some of the crowd then carried on in Hammarby for further beers …….  A really great day and highly likely to be repeated soon – stay tuned.  Thanks to all who participated and to the club as always.

Tournament Director (self appointed) – Andrew Smith.

Friday evening Söder faced off against Djurgården CC at the JCG for the second time this season. It was clear that training had paid off, the boys came home with another win which puts them on 3 wins out of 3 games since the cricket section started.

Experienced tosser and Captain D Jordansson made the wise decision to start batting. A slow start by Söder with Djugården’s Benedict bowling 1-0 in the first over caused some early jitters, but what followed was a pretty one-sided affair. After excellent batting from Ryan (81), Söder ended up with 186/4(20). The Djurgården batsmen were really put to the test by the Söder bowlers and they finished on 109/9(20). Sean 2-11(2) and Macca 2-8(3) both took double scalps.

In preparation for Friday’s return game against Djurgården the stalwarts of the Södermalm XI practiced at Hägerstensåsens bollplan. Bruffy has been studying old Brett Lee videos to get his fast bowl action perfected and Murph has been working on his appeal. Headed by the Centurion Jordo Södermalm are looking good for Friday. Wasi Akrim and Waddaya Meanwasi are out of contract and won’t be playing.

On a sunlight morning, Team Södermalm pulled out from Älvsjö Station at 06:00 for their ride to Trosa. The destination, Trosa, is a charming harbour town with quaint houses and a canal running through the middle of the town to give it a feel of little Amsterdam. However, the route there is itself a beautiful stretch of road reminiscent of stages from the Tour de France – the flat sections at least – due to the expansive fields and forests, which on occasions roll out to meet the sea. There is also, halfway through, a ferry where the riders took a well earned rest since the pace was kept up at a respectful 26 km/h.

While the kilometers ticked off Andre gently provided us with the necessary encouragement and tips to complete the route and improve our skills on the road. Yet, the road is its own teacher as Jordo picked up the obligatory puncture and had to demonstrate his tyre changing skills under pressure. He clocked under 10 minutes, even with the insanely high ridges on his tyres. So I’m afraid the nefarious record of the longest tyre change is still held by Perillo. Although I’m sure he would want me to point to the fact that Jordo only had to contend with the front wheel unlike him. Thankfully, all of the riders patiently waited since they had been fed at a little cafe in Trosa and were on route to a waffle house for the snack on the way home. Life doesn’t get better than a bike ride with friends, fresh air and fika! …Unless you’re Andree, who quite enjoys the post ride shower with his bike.

This beautiful island provides stunning scenery and quiet roads that allowed the boys to hone their skills with slip streaming and just generally build up stamina. Those skills and stamina will be required as the relatively novice group aims to achieve the true ton: 100 miles or for you Swedes, 161 km. However, this training ride was more modest, yet one we are still proud of since we completed over a 100km.

Beyond that, the group raised their average speed up to a respectable 25km per hour, but we still in general struggled to keep up with Kristoffer when he chose to put the power down. Thankfully we all knew that the Ekerö golf course would provide a nice cup of coffee to reward our efforts. Having said that, by the end of the day, I still stepped off my bike like John Wayne.

Södermalm AFC vs Djurgården Cricket Club @ JCG, Skarpnäck, Sunday 31st May

We would usually be three or four matches deep into the footy season by now but due to the pandemic continuing to rage on here in Europe, the mighty Södermalm Blues turned their sporting attention towards the red leather of a Kookaburra ball rather than that of the red Sherrin. Bradman and all the other weather Gods turned the sunshine on for our match against the Djurgården XI with conditions perfect for some beers, burgers and a bit of the gentleman’s game.

The day began with a bat toss by the two Captains (Jordo & Marcus) with Jordo losing the call and getting sent in by the Djurgåden XI skipper. Slightly nervous that we only had nine batsmen we all thought that this could have been a crucial toss to lose. Nevertheless, Club President and opening batsmen Daniel Jordan was extremely confident at the task at hand and rallied the troops to start padding up and get some ‘throwdowns into ya’.

Both opening batsmen (Jordo & Andrew Smith) certainly looked the part and both even had their own gear to use as opposed to the rest of us that needed the borrowed resources of the opposition team. With Macca (Umpire) and Larry (Square Leg Ump) heading out on to the field, this meant that pre-beers needed to be skulled by all. The first two overs were a bit slowly-slowly as both openers got their eye in on the hallowed synthetic deck but after that Jordo loosened up the shoulders and started to let rip. The run rate suddenly picked up with Smithy building a nice looking picket fence with an important IIIII (5) from an opening partnership of 45 before getting his wicket skittled.

Joel ‘Iron Guts’ Burnell came to centre without missing a beat and turned up the heat with Captain Courageous as they both started to cart the Djurgården attack to all parts of the JCG. You know an opposition team is in trouble when the wicketkeeper needs to take off the pads after 5 overs to have a bowl. Jordo was putting on a MasterClass as he brought up Söder’s 100 with the established cricket side (formally SACS) looking like they had no answers for the Blues top order. With 11 overs gone the game suddenly became extended to a 25 over match with which a total of 200 now looking on the cards. Macca (Innings Umpire) had an excuse for every LBW and caught behind shout with just as many being a lie as they were true. Joel B(25) got his castle knocked over which saw Blues veteran Jonathan ‘Brissles’ Briscoe come to the crease as Jordo contemplated a chance for him to bring up his first ever cricketing century. With a quickfire (20) Brissles was eventually caught which then saw another Söder stalwart in Marcus ‘Rappa’ Rappoccio arrive to the crease to try and help Jordo score his elusive ton. As the Club Pres reached the nervous 90’s, the running between the wickets become almost diabolical with inexperienced square leg ump Larry waving away any close chances just like someone who has been umping 5th Grade cricket all of his life. With a huge six to bring up his 100, Jordo was forced to retire with rapturous applause (mostly due to those of us batting down the order wanting him gone so that WE could have a bat. Rappa and Tom ‘TZ’ Zacharissen plugged away and both finished 11* not out and 4* not out respectively. It was a fantastic batting effort with the final innings total being 3 for 181.

During the innings changeover, the BBQ and beers were in full swing with an obvious lack of Mothers in attendance on such an important mors dag. Iron Guts opened the bowling with a Harmison-esque opening delivery that went for 5 wides but soon applied the screws as he and Macca did their work in establishing a strong start to Söder’s time out in the field. Macca got hit for one of the biggest sixes in world cricket by one of the smallest West Indians (subsequently smashing into a passing car) only to then have him get given out caught behind by his captain umpiring at the other end when clearly kicking the ball down the leg side. With Macca not even appealing it was so obviously not out, the opening batter was allowed to stay out there after such a howler of call but it was only short-lived when the same umpire sends him on his way for one of the dodgiest LBW calls in T20 history. 1st change Craig Taylor (2 for 42) came on with immediate success after replacing Joel B with his rapid pace and then Brissles (2 for 24) also picked up a wicket in his first over at the other end bowling some right arm darts. At this stage, the Djurgåden umpires were proving to be the best players on the Söder fielding team as their fingers were being raised more often than an Aussie bogan driving in Sydney peak hour traffic. Not long after his dismissal, the little West Indian opener sprinted back out to the middle and sacked each of the umpires and proceeded to give nothing out even when some players in fact were walking due to it being so blatantly out. Rappa (1 for 7) and Jordo teamed up during the middle overs to keep the wickets falling but as Söder’s established bowlers were completing their spells, opposition middle-order batsmen and token Aussie Sean started to go to tonky town and brought up a quickfire fifty to have us under the pump and feeling pretty deflated. It was our skipper who again stepped up with a direct hit to run out their captain for a duck but Sean kept the runs free-flowing single handily and was looking like stealing victory away from the mighty Blues. With less than 20 runs to get and 4 overs in hand Söder’s King Midas cemented his Man of the Match performance by bowling out Sean with no less then 12 runs to go and finished the match with figures of 3 for 27.

It was a fantastic day and proved that we may all be footy players but the leather on willow is not that far removed from this talented footy club. Big shout out to all the boys from the Djurgården who made it a bloody terrific day.

Thanks to Brendan McCormick for this match report!

On Sunday 24th of May, Team Söder AFC headed north for a 70km+ return bike tour of Färingsö.

Starting at 06:30 am from Flemingsberg station, Briscoe, Jordo, John and Perillo then rode to Slagsta to catch the 07:15 ferry across to Ekerö after meeting a new team member in Robert T. After a short trip through the island the 5 member crew soon caught up with another 2 keen and ready bikers in Ferguson and Kristofer G.

After learning about racing games and bike lingo from the new local men to help raise the competitive spirit amongst us; such as sprints to town signs and (later) Soviet style stops, the group cycled through Färingsö’s varied landscape, curved roads and challenging hills before heading to Troxhammar Golf Club for a well earned ‘fikapaus’.

After seeing Kristofer G. off at Tappströms roundabout, Team Söder then made their way southbound back to the ferry across to Slagsta for the last ‘long way home’ leg of the trip when Briscoe’s bike suffered the unfortunate 2nd puncture in 2 rides which took 15 minutes to dismantle and change, but this didn’t dampen the spirit of the team as they shortly after charged their way through the steepest climb of the day at Flottsbro before riding several km more and eventually peeling off their way home for the day.

Last Sunday 10th May a few guys headed out on the first long journey on the bike for Team Söder AFC down to Nynäshamn and back.

The meet up was 06.50 with a 07.00 sharp departure from Huddingehallen where Vic & Brissles led the charge down to Nynäshamn.

The crew headed past Flemingsberg, Tullinge and through Södertörn down to Grödby and Segersäng before hitting Gamla Nynäsvägen which led all the way into Nynäshamn. There it was time for a coffee break and to meet Jordo and John who joined the return journey.

On Sunday 19th April we embarked on our first official club cycle ride, to qualify for a match we had 5 valiant warriors Jonny Briscoe, Jordo, Andree, Perillo and new member John Cullen.

Starting out from Älvsjö station a little late due to a bike misplacement, we headed down through Huddinge. After rescuing his water bottle which jumped down the ditch at Haradsvägen, Perillo then formed a solo break away on his 3 speed town bike and headed off on his own route down Glömstavägen.

We hope all Söder members, friends and family are well in these exceptional circumstances brought on by Covid-19.

The SAFF have advised that all 2020 season games until the summer break are cancelled.

As advised by SAFF:

Plan A is to play the regular season over 3 weeks in August & September with the top 2 sides playing a Grand Final on the 2nd weekend of September.

Plan B is to have a 1-day tournament in Norrtälje on the 2nd weekend in September, provided this is possible under the circumstances.

So while we are unable to play footy, the Söder Board will aim to be as creative and appropriate as the situation allows in trying to organise some club events during 2020.
Stay tuned for some cycling tours, and the inaugural Söder golf tournament where the “Blue Jacket” will be awarded!

Stay safe everyone.
Kind regards,
Söder Board

Södermalm Wrapped up its 2nd win for the season playing Årsta Swans down at the JCG last Saturday! 11/5