“Nybro could be a nightmare for a lot of teams this year” • Marcus Lefby column

New bridge.

Bjorn “Buna” Johansson and Des Morrone would probably be smiling up at the sky, if they weren’t lying down and wrestling in the corner.

A pure Smålands derby between Nybro and Tingsried, just like in the good old days.

He was a fanimage at the time.

I didn’t immediately emerge with a broken heart from Växjö and continued along District Road 25, east past Risinge and Furuby, via Hovmantorp and Lessebo, straight into the Glass Kingdom.

Past Ljuder and Moshultamåla where Vilhelm Moberg, “Ville i Momåla”, was born in 1898, but perhaps it is difficult to compare the “Immigrants” with the Nybro Vikings?

Ah, take Losec.

Nibro worked hard, they deliberately plowed their ice hockey rink back and forth, causing the plow to become clogged by stone burrs hidden in the soil, and started again and again.

Troubled years, bad years, playoffs and all sorts of nonsense, they planted their seeds and watched harvest after harvest go bad.

It was brave and damned in every way, and it would have been easy to leave for an easier life somewhere else, football in Kalmar, ice hockey in Vaxjo, football in Öland, but most of them stayed and didn’t give up, it had to be. Take off, and in the end it all came to an end when Nibro finally had to celebrate a lead last spring, again after a disgusting dissolution of a playoff series.

And now this.

the first show.

Against Tingsred.

Scenes that are unimaginable today

I’ll need Erik Niva’s moderation on the podcast to tell the stories I’ve heard about all the Nibro-Tingsred clashes from the past.

In the 1969/70 season, both teams played in the First Division, and in the Southern League Tingsried had the chance to reach the qualifying series but was defeated at home by Nybro in the deciding match.

Later that season, Taif got their revenge when they played away to Nibro Stadium and from then on they never returned.

One day I called Sverker Torstensson, the stubborn legend of Nybro, and asked him how those matches were going, and how he and his wooden brother Des Moroni were doing in Tingsried.

– Those were difficult times. After the game, I chased him all the way to the locker room and part of the crowd followed him. They wanted to see how it turned out.

All fights eventually ended in a suspension.

Sverker was not allowed to play matches in Tingsryd – nor was Des allowed to play in Nybro.

– The first time I was in Tingsried, the changing rooms were a little far from the hall, and I had great difficulty getting to the rink, because people were screaming, throwing snowballs and turning into thieves.

A different time and scenes that are completely unimaginable today, and Sverker sums it up well.

– so beautiful! It was a real emotion.

I haven’t been to the Old Victoria Hall since 1989 when I missed a penalty here, as a young player with Diö GoIF.

The body is fine and snowed in this position.

To show.

Peasant derby in the peasant style

I didn’t have to walk several meters into the village before I heard the first sound “TTT-AAA-III-FFF – Taif Robbery!”– The rhyme echoes between the facades of houses. People say that they sleep poorly, nervously, they wake up sweating.

Many people were stuck on lock at 17 to get in and get a good seat, everyone understood that this would be a friendly match and take a step into the middle and atmosphere before the introduction to the end. The silver band folded over the Viking was excited and set off.

The solid heel away created the perfect environment, it was a farmers derby the farmers way.

After a memorial minute for “Bona” Johansson, so quiet that we could hear the fluorescent lights twinkling, the madness broke out.

Not everyone was following the Health and Welfare Board’s latest recommendations on alcohol this evening, but supporters of the home team, who have not watched an ice hockey game in the Swedish top flight for 14 years, got to see a nervous local team.

The match faltered, and Taif created chances, and the period ended in a 0-0 draw.

It should be closer to 30 degrees

Then it just narrowed.

Welcome to Midgard.

The home team scores 1-0 after four minutes and the Vikings with little air under the shields and that oblique block at the back could be a nightmare for many teams this winter.

2-0 and 3-0 came from sheer speed, three goals in two minutes in front of an entire village that had been waiting 14 years to make their mark.

Probably mainly on the plexiglass which is fogging up again.

Tingsried got lost in the fog, it must have been close to 30 degrees in that tin box, I had to change my shirt after two periods, and the most exciting thing this evening was that the ice lasted a full game.

The game ended 4-1 in the end, the final period was played faithfully and the home crowd enjoyed a perfect homecoming.

They didn’t get to see any mass battles a la Des Moroney and Sverker Torstensson, but I think they were very happy anyway, just like me.

From Nibro Wave Love.

We will meet again.