Copenhagen, Denmark

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DAY 20 - WEDNESDAY 8 SEPTEMBER

Got up too early and caught the Tube to Heathrow. It?s a lot more accessible and cheaper than Gatwick and the ?2 fare is an absolute bargain. There are two stops, Terminals 1,2 & 3 and Terminal 4, so if you?re catching a flight from Heathrow make sure you know where it?s departing from.

For me this marked the second stage of the tour, as I was about to enter a country where unlike New Zealand, USA, Canada, Ireland and England, English was not the dominant language.

The flight departed at 8.30am, arriving into Copenhagen at 11am. London is an hour behind Copenhagen so flight time is only an hour and a half. I was met at the airport by Ian Hill, President of the Danish Australian Football League (DAFL). Drove through the city to Ian?s home in Stenlose, which is situated in the country outside Copenhagen.

Ian, 36, first came to Denmark in February 1991. He had to send a letter to the Australian Embassy and in their reply he received a note from Mick Sitch, founder of the DAFL, about playing Australian football in Denmark. There was a phone number to ring but Ian didn?t follow it up. However, Ian?s brother?s father-in-law, John Fitzgerald (editor of The Herald in the 1970?s), subsequently met Mick Sitch at an AFL function in Melbourne, where Mick was presented as the Danish ambassador for Aussie rules. John got Mick?s Danish number from him and Ian gave him a call.

Ian, who never played in Australia, started playing with the Amager Tigers in 1992, playing there until 1994. In 1993 he became the Vice-President of DAFL and in 1994 was elected President of the Tigers. In 1995 he left the Tigers to form the Farum Lions with Jim Campion, where he played and was also the Treasurer. From 1996-1997 he was again the Vice-President of the DAFL but took a year off from official duties in 1998. In 1999 he became President of DAFL. Ian was voted a life member of DAFL a year and a half ago. He is one of only 4 life members.

Ian is a Software Engineer with Computer Associates. In addition to his normal 40 hour working week he spends about 20 hours a week on DAFL business. His employment also requires him to go to Frankfurt for a week 5-6 times per year, as well as attend at least one annual conference in places such as Helsinki, Oslo or New York.

On the way to we stopped to buy some Danish pastry. What we call Danish is actually known as ?wienerbrot? by the locals. Feel free to use that info at your next party.

Ian had arranged to work from home that day so I decided to do some sightseeing in Copenhagen. Caught the bus to Farum and then the train to Central Station. The Tourist Information Office is right across the road from the station, which is pretty handy. To be honest there's not a lot to see in Copenhagen if you're just hunting tourist attractions. Even the famous The Little Mermaid statue is pretty disappointing. However, there are bus, canal and walking tours that cover most of the sights worth seeing.

After walking around Copenhagen for a couple of hours I headed back to Ian's place. After dinner we talked a lot about Danish footy as he prepared the DAFL grand final program. Ian does a superb job - the DAFL website he runs is easily the best international site and the program he put together is of exceptional quality.

Ian started a newsletter, Ugeavis, in 1994, which he produced until the end of 1997. He created the DAFL website in 1996 and realised that there was a lot of duplication with the newsletter. So he stopped producing the newsletter in the hope that people would download and print information from the website.

Ian made the point that DAFL is the largest Australian football league in the non-English speaking world. In fact if you remove Great Britain with its cultural ties to Australia and hundreds of thousands of ex-pats, DAFL is the largest footy league outside Australia. Over 250 people have played in DAFL's open age league in 1999. In addition to this they have about 70 kids between the ages of 10 and 14 (both boys and girls) playing in their fledgling junior league. Four of their seven clubs are now actively engaging in junior clinics.

Between February and September there is probably enough work for a full-time position and DAFL definitely needs more promotional and marketing work. Ian estimates that they would need about $40,000 as the cost of living is very high in Denmark. For example, the first tax bracket starts at 49c in the dollar, with the top rate at 68c.

I was amused to see footage of a DAFL match which was shown on the 1997 Grand Final edition of The Footy Show. A player, who had been choking his opponent, was approached immediately after by his opponent?s girlfriend, who didn?t look happy. The player shoved her away and she promptly threw the contents of the cup of coffee she was holding all over him.

Danish Footy

Australian Rules Football in Denmark has its origins in March, 1989. Some expats began to hold occasional training sessions in Copenhagen, and within two years there were enough players to break up and form 3 clubs. With this structure, competition began in 1991.

Since then, four clubs have joined the competition. One from the suburbs of Copenhagen, two from the peninsula of Jutland on the European mainland, and one from neighbouring Sweden. So DAFL currently consists of 7 competing clubs which are all reasonably stable and self-sufficient.

The original clubs are the Amager Tigers, Copenhagen Crocodiles and North Copenhagen Barracudas. The ?expansion? clubs are the Aalborg Kangaroos (joined 1993), Helsingborg Saints (1994), Farum Lions (1995) and Arhus Bombers (1997).

The current format of a DAFL season is quite standard. Each club plays each other club twice (home and away) with a final four at the end of the season. In addition to this a Lightning Premiership is held for non-Australian players only, and DAFL also tries to have at least one representative game each year. This is typically against a similar team from the British Australian Rules Football League. They also limit their representative team to non-Australian players.

In 1994 DAFL established a scholarship program with Power House FC in the VAFA. This came about through former DAFL President Mark Scotland, whose brother is the President of Power House. Each year DAFL selects two to four players to play for a season at Power House, with DAFL paying half the airfare. Ideally they are also sent on a coaching course under the auspices of the AFL, who also supply them with tickets to some games. These players for the most part return with a better understanding of the passion Australians hold for the game, and their newly acquired enthusiasm is always passed onto their Danish and Swedish teammates. Many of the players have returned to Denmark to captain or coach their clubs.

In 1999 one DAFL club, the Farum Lions, has begun serious junior development. On May 14 the first under 12 match was played between the Cats and the Lions, and also included girls on both teams. This endeavour has had mixed support from the AFL, but whether or not this support continues, the boundless enthusiasm shown by these children, their parents and teachers, and the Farum City Council, will ensure its success.

DAFL has a very strict policy towards participation by Australians. While they recognised the necessity to have experienced players involved, they also realise that it is crucial that they are used to the utmost benefit. With some clubs having almost no access to Australian players and some having unlimited access, it is important to ensure a balance. Currently, no club may have more than four Australians on the field at any time, or six on the team-sheet. There are about 700 Australian citizens resident in Denmark, and at any time there are about 30 to 40 playing in DAFL.

Local sport in Denmark is run very differently to the way it is in Australia. In general, it is administered by local government officials who are paid to do it, and as a result, it can be very expensive for the participants. But DAFL is run the Australian way - by volunteer people with full time jobs. This situation has its good and bad points. The good is that it makes DAFL cheap - about $200 a year per player, whereas you would pay that much per month to play most other sports. The bad is that the Danish players often fail to recognise the need to help out once in a while, and the result is that DAFL is run almost exclusively by Australians and people from countries other than Denmark.

DAFL is not a member of the Danish Sports Federation (DIF). This is because they don?t technically fulfil the admission criteria. Membership of DIF would greatly enhance their credibility within the Danish media and the business community. As a result, the league has never had any substantial corporate sponsorship, although all of the clubs have at some stage managed to acquire support from local bars, cafes and other businesses.

Currently, their two biggest stumbling blocks are umpires and travel. Almost by definition, anyone living in Denmark who is qualified to umpire a game of Australian Rules would much rather be playing. At the moment they get by insisting that the bye club provide umpires. This cannot last but fortunately, over the last two years, a substantial number of non-Australians have taken on the job of umpiring, so things are looking up, at least in the area of recognising that they have a problem in this area.

However there is no Umpires Coordinator and no accreditation scheme. The good news is that Rob McGregor, an Aussie, will be Umpires Coordinator in 2000 and has met with the AFL?s Roger Berryman and Rohan Sawers. Coach of the Danish All-Stars, Rob has been involved with the DAFL since 1996. He has coached the Amager Tigers since 1998. He made the excellent point that kids are a good source of boundary umpires. Promise them a hot dog and a coke or a couple of dollars and they?ll run all day.

Umpires do get paid, with their wage consisting of 3 parts: travel costs, a base wage of 200kr per game and a travel bonus system. This system is on a sliding scale of between 50 to 200kr extra, depending on how far you have to travel. So the further you travel the more you get paid. Goal umpires receive 100kr per game. Boundary umpires do not get paid as nobody wants to do it. The rule is that a player from the attacking team has to throw the ball in.

Despite being only one-fifth the size of Victoria, Denmark consists of islands and waterways which make travel cumbersome and expensive. Arhus is three-and-a-half hours from Copenhagen, Aalborg five, and the trip from Helsingborg to the centres in Jutland often takes up to seven hours. Add to that the cost, and you can understand why no club outside Copenhagen has ever won a DAFL Premiership. They have tried to redress the balance in 1999 by moving some of the Copenhagen clubs? home games to Jutland, forming double-headers and evening out the travel burden. But they still feel they have a travel situation which no other league has to endure.

Our participation rates are 25%!A(MISSING)ustralian, 60%!D(MISSING)anish and Swedish, and 15%!f(MISSING)rom other countries. On average, about 250 people play in DAFL each year, and a total of about 650 players have played in official DAFL matches since it began in 1991.

DAFL records indicate players from the following countries have played in the DAFL: Denmark, Australia, Sweden, New Zealand, Great Britain, Ireland, USA, Greenland, Fiji, Canada, Finland, Cyprus, Holland, Iceland, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, South Africa, Germany, Croatia, Norway, Belgium, Austria, Mexico, Lebanon, Chile and Romania.

Lack of television exposure of the sport is a problem. In 1997 the AFL was shown on Danish Pay TV (at 11.30pm on Thursday nights), but it has not been shown since. It would be great if it was on Eurosport, which is televised all through Europe in about 8 different languages.

The DAFL has had its share of high profile players over the years. Ben Howard played for the Essendon Reserves and came to Denmark in 1996. He was asked to play for the Helsingborg Saints, who had finished winless the previous season. Such was his impact that they finished undefeated with a percentage of 300%! (MISSING)They lost the grand final to the Farum Lions after thrashing them by 200 points in the second semi-final.

Stuart Stevens, who coached Denmark against Great Britain in 1999, played for the Melbourne Reserves and represented Western Australia in the 1980?s. However, the only AFL senior player to play in the DAFL was Brett Mackenzie, who played for North Melbourne in 1988. He played a few games for the North Copenhagen Barracudas in 1997.

The Danish national team is actually known as the Denmark-Sweden Vikings. However in April 1997 the first Denmark v Sweden match was played in Helsingborg, Sweden, for the Viking Cup.

DAFL does not have a corporate sponsor. Doktors Pub was a very good supporter of the league in its infancy but it has since declined. Although they supply all the medals and trophies for the Doktors Cup and the Premiership they don?t provide any cash.

Someone needs to be paid to seek and attract sponsorship. DAFL would like to approach existing AFL sponsors (eg. McDonalds and Coke) in Denmark, with a letter of introduction from the AFL.

Before 1999 if a team only had 14 players, the opposing team could only play 14. Now teams are allowed to play a maximum of 16 players, and a minimum of 12, on the field. The reason for 16 players is that the grounds are smaller in Denmark so 18 a side becomes very crowded, scrappy football.

If you don?t have at least 12 players you forfeit the match. Teams are awarded 4 points for a win, 2 for a draw, 0 for a loss and -2 for a forfeit.

There are 24 players on the team list, therefore the interchange bench can have as many as 8. Of the 24 only 6 can be Aussies, and of these 6 only 4 can be on the field at one time.

Ian strongly believes that a reserves competition would go nowhere. He would rather have more senior clubs. If they had the resources and money he could see a 12 team league. There is scope for extra teams in Copenhagen, Arhus (Denmark?s second largest city), Odense (3rd largest), Aalborg (4th largest) and Gothenburg (Sweden?s third largest city).

DAY 21 - THURSDAY 9 SEPTEMBER

Danes don't start work until 9.30am so I got to sleep in. It was a beautiful day and so I decided to do some sightseeing outside Copenhagen.

Ian dropped me off at the train station on his way to work. First stop was Hillerod, where Frederiksborg Castle is situated. It's a beautiful castle built on 3 islands in a vast lake. Although begun by Frederik II it was mainly built by Christian IV between 1600 and 1620. The Museum of National History (1500-present) is also housed here.

Next stop was Helsingor, where you board the ferry for Helsingborg, Sweden. Helsingborg is the home of the Helsingborg Saints, one of the seven teams in the DAFL. I was quite surprised that a return ticket costs only 32kr (about $8). Further, they?re valid for 2 months, so if you?re on a day trip there?s no need to hurry.

I boarded the ?Hamlet? for my trip to Helsingborg - at 110m by 28m, weighing 2300 tonnes and a passenger capacity of 1250 it?s not small. On board facilities include a bar, coffeeshop, restaurant, money changers and poker machines. There?s even a grocery store! At this stage of the trip I had had a gutful of sitting down so went outside and stood on the bow for the entire trip - 20 minutes. It?s a great view, you can see Sweden quite clearly from the shore and the smell of the sea water is invigorating.

There are no customs procedures to go through as there is virtually no customs. You just get off the boat and walk into Sweden. I asked the customs people if I could get a stamp in my passport but they wouldn?t give me one, the bastards.

I had a look around Helsingborg, starting with the Karnan Tower. You can get a good view of the city from the tower, which was built in the 14th century. You can buy things in Helsingborg using Danish money but watch the exchange rate, as the Danish kroner is stronger than its Swedish counterpart. This doesn?t stop the locals charging 15 Danish Kr for 15 Swedish Kr, for example.

After walking around the city I caught the ferry back to Helsingor in Denmark. Helsingor is also known as Elsinore in English and Shakespeare fans will recognise the name. The city contains Kronsborg Castle, which is famous as the setting for Hamlet ("something is rotten in the state of Denmark"), arguably the Bard?s greatest play. The castle was built by Frederik II between 1574-1585 and even if you?re not a Shakespeare fan it?s worth a look. It also contains the Danish Maritime Museum.

After having a walk around Helsingor I had had enough of sightseeing for the day and went back to Ian?s place, where we spent most of the night talking footy.

Ian explained some of the cultural differences confronting footy in Denmark. Apart from the language difficulties, Denmark has an extensive cradle to grave social security system. As a result a lot of Danes don?t appreciate having to work for something. For example, university students get six years of study free, as well as a generous study allowance. The volunteer system of Australian sport doesn?t really exist in Denmark, with most of the work required to run and sustain DAFL being performed by Australians (Ian Hill and Mick Sitch). The bottom line is that the Danes just want to play footy and the Australians are too preoccupied with their own clubs.

Minority sports are run by local councils in Denmark. They are administered by people who get paid to do it. An example of how important local government is in Denmark as compared to Australia is the following. In 1999 the Farum Kommune (Farum City Council) passed a law that states that every year, every pensioner can go to the European Riviera (eg: Greece) all expenses paid, including accommodation and airfares.

The two biggest sports in Denmark are soccer and handball. Soccer, like DAFL, is a summer sport and is played from April to September. Handball is a winter sport and is played indoors. Ian believes it?s one of the few sports he?s seen that has the same tempo as footy. It is a kind of cross between basketball and footy.

DAY 22 - FRIDAY 10 SEPTEMBER

Ian dropped me off at the train station and I caught the train to Copenhagen. I took my luggage with me as Ian was going away with his family for the weekend, returning for the grand final. Apparently a Barracudas player was going to put me up.

After checking in my luggage at the station I went to the Nyhaven area to do a canal tour. Nyhaven is the trendy, yuppie are of the city and as a result they charge outrageous prices. Essentially it?s a street of outdoor cafes and bars along a canal. If you like paying a fortune for your beer then this is the place for you.

The tour was great and lasted just over an hour. I was impressed by the fact that the tour guide provided commentary in 3 different languages - Danish, English and German. And you want to pay attention too, as you get asked quite a few times to duck your head when going under low bridges. I really enjoyed the experience, although probably not as much as the 3 old blokes in front of me who kept passing their flask back and forth the entire time. No doubt cheaper than Nyhaven.

Despite many phone calls I could not get hold of the bloke I was supposed to be staying with, so after lunch I rented a bicycle and pedalled down to Amager. When in Rome do as the Romans do - in Copenhagen this means grabbing a bike and going for a ride. Like the Netherlands, where yours truly was born, Denmark has an extensive network of bicycle paths, complete with pedestrian crossings and traffic lights. I went to Amager to have a loom at the new bridge that has just been finished, which connects Denmark to Sweden. Amazing stuff!

Returned the bike after cycling about 20km, not that far but enough to earn a quick feed at McDonalds. At 45kr (about $9) for a ?value? meal it?s an absolute ripoff! Anyway, I still couldn?t get through to this bloke and was starting to worry. Thankfully I got hold of Mick Sitch and he was able to put me up.

How footy began in Denmark is a great story. Mick Sitch, a self-confessed, unashamedly football-mad Aussie resident in Copenhagen, loved his adopted country, but badly missed his footy. He placed an advertisement in a newspaper asking if anybody would like to meet him under a tree in a public park and have a kick of a footy. In addition to Mick, a Dane and a New Zealander turned up, and from there, things just snowballed. Such has been his contribution that the league?s best and fairest award, the Sitch medal, is named after him.

It was great to finally meet Mick and we talked footy over a few beers before calling it a day.

DAY 23 - SATURDAY 11 SEPTEMBER

Woken very early by Mick for a 14km run around Lake Farum with him and his friend Lars. We had a swim as well, which was very refreshing. The countryside here certainly is beautiful.

After a quick brekkie Mick and I headed down to the ground for a feast of football. The first game was between the DAFL All-Stars and the Wimbledon Hawks from the BARFL. This was the second time the Hawks had played the DAFL All-Stars, the first match being played in Denmark in 1997. The Hawks were hoping to make it two in a row, but a determined All-Star outfit ensured the "European Cup" stayed on Danish soil.

DAFL All-Stars v Wimbledon Hawks
Final Scores:

DAFL All-Stars 5.1 9.2 12.3 16.7 (103)
Wimbledon Hawks 1.1 2.1 7.5 10.7 (67)

At the previous grand finals in Toronto and London I had the opportunity to speak to many interesting people, and this day was no exception. Jon Hroi Finnsson, 27, has played in the DAFL since 1994. His brother Pall Tomas Finnsson, 24, was voted the second best player in the league in 1999. Both from Iceland and studying in Denmark, they are going back home in 2001 and intend to start footy in Iceland.

Jon thinks footy is a great sport for Iceland and there?s been about 10 Icelanders play in the DAFL. Pall has even umpired a game. Like Denmark, the biggest sports in Iceland are soccer and handball. Iceland has a total population of approximately 270,000.

Matt Porter plays for Arhus and is an 18 year old exchange student from Perth. He?s loving it and having a great time. Scott Properzi is the President of the Copenhagen Crocodiles and has been in Denmark for 8 years, of which he?s played 7. He?s also Canadian.

Bo Rotheisen is a Dane and is the President of the Farum Lions. He got involved in footy after watching his best friend play. He believes it?s the best game to watch as something is happening all the time, the ball is always in motion. It?s much better than soccer.

Erik Krolmark, 25, played European handball for 20 years and wanted to try something different. Australian football is now his No. 1 sport. Erik went on the Powerhouse Scholarship scheme in 1998, along with 3 other Danes. "I had the time of my life. It really matured us as we learnt a lot. DAFL paid half of the airfare and got us at a club. The club supplied all our uniforms and looked after our club fees, although we had to arrange our own accommodation and employment. In many ways Aussies and Danes are similar so this wasn?t a major problem.

We all played in the Reserves. The first half of the season was pure learning. I was used to marking the ball as I am a handball player, but kicking was something I needed to work on. We arrived in February but it would be great to go earlier and do a pre-season. It was not just a football experience, it was a life experience."

Great to finally meet Jim Campion, DAFL?s Junior Development Officer, and the man who has been responsible for the success of the junior development program in Denmark. Jim, 37, hails from Yarrawonga and has played in quite a few country leagues. He moved to Denmark in 1993, playing with the Amager Tigers before switching to the Copenhagen Crocodiles in 1994. In 1995 he started the Farum Lions with Ian Hill. Since then the Lions have played in every grand final, until 1999.

How did Jim get involved in junior footy? The Lions were training in Solvang Skolen?s hall over the winter and a few kids stayed after their soccer training, having a kick to kick. Jim started inviting his kids and a friend?s kids down. As the numbers grew they started playing indoor games, teaching them the basics.

Eventually Jim started going to schools and running clinics. He ran 1 or 2 a week, doing a total of approximately 18 over three months. The sports teachers were only to happy to see them as it gave them a chance to have a break. Jim has now been to all 5 schools in Farum and the younger and older brothers are starting to come down as well. The biggest problem is to convince their parents that it?s not a violent sport, and the parents that do become involved can see that.

Jim decided to run a junior tournament and the first game was in April. The played through April and May, with the grand final in June. The kids loved it.

The Lions received 20,000kr from the Farum Kommune to conduct a summer program for 11-14 year olds. There are currently 3 teams: the Lions, Bombers and Cats. There is also a team of 12-15 year olds, called the magpies. There are 70 kids in total, including 15 girls.

He hopes to expand the junior program to Vaerlose (pop: 18,000), Birkerod (pop: 22,000) and Allerod (pop: 20,000), starting with one team in each. There?s a big rivalry between these cities in soccer, there?s no reason why there can?t be in Aussie rules.

The other clubs have now started to run junior clinics - they realise if they don?t do it they are going to be left behind.

Jim spends 20 hours a week on average on the juniors. He is a Computer Programmer with Nord Data Detail but would ideally love to be able to spend 4 days a week at work, and 1 day on footy. He is currently organising a 3 week junior tour of Australia in June/July 2000, with matches planned for Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane. He hopes to be able to play some of these at half-time of AFL matches.

Sweden

Also met Terry Lundquist at the grand final. His real name is Ingmar but call please him Terry. Terry is 34 and was born in Germany. After moving to Sweden at the age of 1 he came to Australia when he was 7, returning to Sweden when he was 24. He hopes to return to Australia one day.

He first became involved in the DAFL when he was organising an Australian visa at the embassy in Copenhagen, and saw a pamphlet on the DAFL. He started the Helsingborg Saints in October 1993. In their first season in 1994 they had no experienced Australians and their coach was from Sydney, a bit like the blind leading the blind. As a result they only won two games.

1995 was a crisis year. They had sacked the previous year?s coach and he had started another club, the Lund Bulldogs (Lund is 30km south of Helsingborg). They were mostly Englishmen. The first game between Helsingborg and Lund was an all in brawl. The Bulldogs were admitted to the DAFL in 1995 and played 4 matches before folding, their only victory coming against Helsingborg. The Saints did not win a game that season.

In 1996 they were undefeated, unfortunately losing the grand final. Ben Howard had played in the Essendon Reserves and was very good for the club, with the players learning a lot from him. Also Joacim Aulin returned from a scholarship with Powerhouse. 1997 was a rollercoaster year. Ben Howard returned to Australia and they finished one game out of the four. 1998 was a similar year although they improved to finish third. In 1999 they were a bit unorganised, finishing second last. They are hoping to recapture the spirit of 1996 next season. They have about 30 players, of which 6 are Australians.

Terry is excited about another club forming in Stockholm (the Vikings) and is looking forward to playing them. But Stockholm is 6-7 hours by car. Gothenburg, however, is only 2 hours drive north of Helsingborg and has heaps of Aussies. There?s even two Aussie pubs, the Dancing Dingo and the Kangaroo. Further, there?s a direct ferry service from Gothenburg to Aalborg, which means travelling time would only be 90 minutes. Aalborg, Arhus and Helsingborg are all keen to play an exhibition match in Gothenburg to hopefully inspire the formation of a team there. Other possibilities include Malmo, Lund and Halmstad.

I was honoured to be the special guest of the DAFL and to be introduced to all the players and officials before the match. It was a great day and in terms of organisation it was the best of the 3 grand finals I attended.

Unlike Canada and the UK, the national anthem (Danish) was played, as well as not one, but two, curtain raisers. Grand finals should be the jewel in the crown of any international league and offer great opportunities for media exposure, recruitment and revenue. As such it would be great to see other leagues follow Denmark?s example.

However, the most pleasing part of the day was the junior match. If international footy is to survive, it will be because of increased participation rates achieved through sustained junior programs. To put it quite simply, no kids, no future.

Before the junior game I spoke to one of the kids and asked him why he plays Australian football. Nikolai Hogskilde is 10 years old and plays for the Cats. He loves footy because he can tackle, and he loves kicking goals. When he gets bigger he hopes to play in the seniors. He still prefers soccer to footy but hopes to represent Denmark in both sports.

1999 DAFL Grand Final
Final Scores:

Copenhagen Crocodiles 4.2 8.4 15.8 17.12 (114)
North Copenhagen 3.0 8.3 8.4 12.6 (78)

Goals - Copenhagen - 8 A.Davie; 3 F.Gottschalk; 2 A.Ravenarki; 1 C.Coleman, S.Jones, Richard Keogh, Robert Keogh.
Goals - North Copenhagen - 4 G.Murray; 2 Martin Hansen, Mogens Hansen; 1 S.Macrae, J.Pardey, G.Pepin, L.Sch?ann.
Best Players - Copenhagen: A.Davie, A.Ravenarki, A.Williams, S.Allen, R.Foster.
Best Players - North Copenhagen: Unavailable.
Umpires: J.Cawley & S.Wynn.
Venue: Solvangskolen, Farum.
Crowd: 250

After the grand final I went to Mick?s to pick up my luggage before dropping it off at Ralph McCurdy?s place, where I was supposed to stay the previous evening. Ralph, an Englishman who plays for the Barracudas, had unfortunately broken his leg earlier in the season and so had missed out on playing in the big one. I was invited to the Barracudas? wake at the Doktors Pub. Had a late night for a change and enjoyed catching up with my new Danish friends, Carlsberg and Tuborg. It was a very hyggelig (cosy, friendly) evening. One of the players bought me a drink called Old Danish. Whatever you do, never drink this.

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