Category Archives: Sports Watching

World Class Sport in Sonderborg

U19 European Handball Championship (Women)

Denmark is a country crazy about handball. In fact, this tournament has been won 3 times out of the 17 it has been organised by the Danish team. Therefore, Denmark, specifically Sonderborg & Kolding, was considered a fitting location for the 2013 edition.

The tournament started last Thursday (1st of August). At a cost of 50 DKK for a whole day of games, popping in to see a couple of goals from the European stars of the future is well worth it! Games in Sonderborg end on the 10th of August with the 16-10th placement games. When we visited there was quite a lot of space available, so just drop in and enjoy the atmosphere and the playmanship.

World Championship – Europe class Sailing

Considering the lovely weather we have been having, enjoying the outdoors may be of interest. In that case, Sonderborg has been hosting the world championships for the Europe class dinghy since the 29th of July. The boats leave from the Sonderborg marina, from where you can watch the sailors in action out on the water.

As with the handball championship, this championship will come to an end next weekend, with the final races occurring on Saturday 10th August.

Post Danmark Rundt

Post Danmark rundt is a Danish stage race for professional bicycle racers. Followed by around half of Danes, this is a well-known race that hits the spot in this cycling crazy country. This year, 2nd stage ended and the 3rd stage started in Sonderborg.

We went along to watch the finish of the second stage. The race ended by 3 circuits into Sonderborg, up over the bridge and towards Dybbol Molle. This meant that as spectators we got to see the riders pass by four times. This – together with spotting Mark Cavendish – made the wait well worth it!

The six stages of the race came to an end today in Frederiksberg. Mark Cavendish did win this last leg, but the overall winner was Wilco Kelderman.

Watch Sonderjyske’s Ice-Hockey team

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Sonderjysk Elitesport, better known as SonderjyskE is the main Danish sport club based in Southern Jutland. It was created in 2004, when all the elite sport teams in the region were merged into one club in order to improve upon sponsors, resources and attention.

The club consists of 2 football teams, 2 handball teams and an ice-hockey team. Last season we had been along to support one of the football and handball teams, and now it was ice-hockey’s turn.

I will start on a bit of a confession. I have been ice-skating 3 times in my life, so anything to do with ice is pretty much out of my sphere of consciousness. In fact, before this game I had never seen an ice-hockey game, except maybe a short bit on tv, or during a film.

The Game

As the name implies, ice hockey is pretty much hockey on ice (and no – I have no clue about regular hockey either!). It is played on an ice-rink, with 6 players on ice skates, including one goalie guarding a small goal post. The game is played with a hard rubber disc, known as a puck, that each team tries to get into the other team’s goal post with the use of a long stick. Each game is composed of 3 sections of 20 minutes each (though with time stoppage the time easily doubles). And that’s about it.

The Experience

Ice-hockey is big in Vojens, where the SonderjyskE team is based. Considering that the team has been doing marvellously well the last few years, coming top of the league in 2006, 2010 and 2011, this is understandable. This was also clear on the day; it was a Tuesday evening, with a Denmark-Italy football game on at the same time, so anyone watching was definitely an ice-hockey fan before all else, but still the stadium was more than 50% full.

As with all SonderjyskE games we have been to, there was a SonderjyskE band (mainly drums) enthusing the game along, and being around such hardcore fans I felt obliged to clap along (if only to save being attacked by one of them maybe?). The band playing was interspersed with singing, and also some music blasted over speakers when something besides normal play was happening.

Overall, there were 2 things that stuck in my mind regarding this first handball experience:

At the start of the game, the teams go onto the rink one by one. The SonderjyskE (home) team did this to a high energy tune to get the blood running. The opposing team? Unfortunately they only got some tinny slapstick music that could only make you laugh. I though it was a bit mean, but hey, I get the point!
Sponsors. There is one for everything! If someone scores, his name is associated with a sponsor, a penalty? There is a sponsor for that. There is even a sponsor for the different kind of faults!! (slashing, penalty etc). The sponsorship people must be doing a good job as I couldn’t pinpoint one further aspect that could have been sponsored.

I wonder though: is this normal at ice-hockey games, or just limited to Denmark, or maybe just this team?

Oh! And one more question: The SonderjyskE team had goalies, forwards, defence and boblere listed on their team member list. Aalborg, the opposing team, didn’t have any boblere. But what are boblere? Any clues anyone?

Women’s Handball

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When the national team in football is doing badly Denmark’s favorite spectator sport is handball. Especially if the team is doing well as in 2011 when 3 million Danes (60% of total pop.) watched the European Championship finale. Danes will say that the sport is invented in Denmark but that’s not completely true. In any case it is today the third most played sport with 119,000 players nationwide, only surpassed by football and badminton.

This weekend we were again lucky to get our hands on tickets to a match by the local professional sports team. Last time it was the men’s football team in freezing Haderslev we went to see, this weekend it was women’s handball in Aabenraa.

The local team, SønderjyskE has been playing in the 1st Division in the last season and the game we went to see was in the qualifying round to make it into the best league Håndboldligaen. (The handball league system is quite complicated.) The team they were playing were Aalborg DH, a team that is pretty good and beat SønderjyskE last time they met.

After presenting an oversized team jersey and raising it on the back wall the players ran onto the court and the game began.

We had good seats from where we could see the whole court and like a tennis match watch as the game went from one end to the other in fast pace.

SønderjyskE got ahead from the start so that ensured a good atmosphere in the arena. Every time there was a goal or another short break in the game the sound system would boom with schlager music like Lost Souls and Tørfisk.

The local team stayed ahead throughout the game and at one point had a 12 goal lead before they let off their best players and slacked a bit. The end result was a comfortable 35-29 victory to the home team and they are well on the way in the qualifying round.

I’m surprised how much I enjoyed both this game and the last football game, because I’m not really into watching sport except when there are the big tournaments. If I were to compare the two experiences I’ve had watching the local pro football and handball I prefer the handball. The game is faster (both on court and total time at event), it’s indoors, the arena is closer and the beers are cheaper.