Anyone who has played for FC Ramsen knows its uniqueness: the lines were lined with wood shavings for decades. The era ended last Sunday, November 10. blue News was there.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- The era of pitch lines made of wood shavings, which were a characteristic feature of the Härdli sports ground for decades, came to an end in Ramsen on Sunday.
- Around 500 spectators watched the third division match, in which Ramsen lost 2-0 to Diessenhofen, but for many the focus was on the farewell to the traditional pitch lines.
- Norbert Schneider, who has been in charge for many years, is ending his involvement, which means the end of a nostalgic tradition for the club and the fans, which will be replaced by the well-known chalk lines in future.
Ramsen in the canton of Schaffhausen, 10 a.m., Härdli sports ground. Third league match between Ramsen and Diessenhofen. Sausages are rolling over the grill. Coffee schnapps is served. Beer is tapped. Crosses fly too far, shots on goal miss, kicks fail. If you walk across the pitch, the dirt sticks to your shoes; occasionally it splashes onto your clean pants.
It smells like football, like sport, like a game that at this moment can only be watched by those who really love it - or who went to school with half the team. Or in other words: third division football on a Sunday morning. Anyone who has experienced it knows the thrill. And may experience a regional football déjà vu at the Härdli, close to the border with Germany. With the difference that, according to club officials, around 500 spectators crowd onto the pitch - an exorbitant number for this level.
A 0:2 as a side note
After a good 90 minutes, the referee sends both teams off the pitch. Ramsen, eighth in the 3rd division group five table, loses 0:2 to runners-up Diessenhofen - in between the home team from Härdli sniffs victory. But for many, this is only a side note.
Because the referee's final whistle brings an era to an end that is accompanied by a lot of emotion, a good pinch of nostalgia and at least local football romance. For the last time, the lines of the pitch on the Härdli are covered with wood shavings. They come from the company of Norbert Schneider, a Ramsen factotum. He was a player, sits on the board, runs the clubhouse, coaches the seniors - and with his timber construction company, he made sure that there were enough wood shavings to cover the lines. Now he is calling it quits.
A bit of nostalgia? Perhaps. For more than 45 years, his carpentry shop provided the shavings - a rarity in Swiss football. They were ridiculed here and there by opponents, but the Ramseners were never bothered. Not even that the era is now coming to an end, as Schneider says. "It's a good thing. Everything has its time."
Schneider says: "It was ideal, of course: on the one hand, we were able to reuse the chips from the sawmills, not just mine. On the other hand, the club was able to save costs that it would have needed for the chalk."
No time for gloom
But now the patron is closing the business and the children have other plans. But "Nöbi", as everyone calls him, is by no means frustrated. On the contrary. Even during the game, he blows chips into the audience. Joie de vivre à la Ramsen. In future, of course, the lines will be drawn with chalk
Christian Gnädinger is one of those who also gets shavings in his hair. He is a local and one of 74 Gnädingers in Ramsen, as he says, not related to the great Mathias Gnädinger, the internationally famous folk actor who came from Ramsen and died in 2015, but nevertheless connected over the years. "I don't mind that the chips will be missing - even if they were unique," he says. Incidentally, his eponymous acting great was also at the Härdli from time to time. As a boy, he also played for the club. "He was highly visible in the community, but not as an actor, just as Mathis."
Giant actor Gnädinger ("Tatort", "Das Boot ist voll", "Kommissar Hunkeler") was regarded as honest, down-to-earth, unconventional and genuine. So quite fitting for a club that had stepped out of line with its pitch lines for decades. And didn't care if it was ridiculed.
