Sankt OlofGround: Kvarnvallen Visits: 1 Date: 12th September 2021 Match: Sankt Olof - Gärsnäs 1-1 (Division 4 Skåne Östra) Attendance: 105 Sankt Olof is a village in eastern Skåne with a population of around 600. Last year the local football club gained promotion to Division 4 Östra and with several teams in that league coming from nearby villages there are plenty of derbies on offer. Gärsnäs is only 10 km from Sankt Olof and when I noticed Sankt Olofs IF was hosting Gärsnäs AIS on Sunday afternoon I decided to go to Kvarnvallen for this derby. From Kristianstad it is around 50 minutes by car to Sankt Olof and as I parked my car the weather was quite nice and I decided to leave my umbrella in the car. Next to the ground there is a windmill (Swedish: kvarn) and nowadays it is not very often I see a windmill as nice as the one in Sankt Olof. Kick-off was supposed to be at 14.00 but to my surprise the game started five minutes early, strange to say the least. There were still plenty of people queing to get inside and this was obviously a special match for local football enthusiasts. Most of those present were standing and sitting on the grass bank on the south side of Kvarnvallen. The dressing room roof offered a great view but it was also quite windy standing there. 20 minutes into the game the rain arrived and it then rained for almost an hour. I found cover next to the dressing rooms and actually had quite a good view from there. Gärsnäs are safe in the top half of the table but Sankt Olof are fighting to stay up. It was therefore a bit of a surprise Sankt Olof leading 1-0 at half-time. In the 2nd half Gärsnäs had most of the possession and in the 65th minute they deservedly equalised. The derby at Kvarnvallen ended 1-1 and that was a fair result if you ask me. The next two Saturdays I will be playing table tennis but hopefully I can find interesting fixtures on at least one of the Sundays. ![]() Windmill (Swedish: Kvarn) Entrance Kick-off North End East side East side South End West side West side West side West side View of play West side with the windmill in the background West side West side View of play |