We continue with our series of promoting supporters clubs. This time we welcome Knut Roger from the Norwegian Supporters club. I met Knut at the recent supporters forum and invited him to tell us about the club – and here you go.

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HELLO, ALL YOU BLUENOSES OUT THERE !!

It’s a pleasure to be invited to write an article here on J&S.

Nowadays its more Joys than Sorrow, and it makes it all more easy to write. Blues are showing one of their best run since the end of the 72/73 season, and no- one really know what’s going on at the moment. Happy days.

For two weeks ago it was exactly 40 years since the first English football match was broadcast to Norway and the rest of the Scandinavia. This was marked with a lot of highlights from the past, and one thing NRK picked from their archives – was the Birmingham v Stoke match from 1974 (1-1) Hatton scoring our goal.

It was about those days in 1974 that I started supporting Birmingham City F.C. I was a young boy at that time, and I moved to a new place where the interest of English football was growing fast. I don’t exactly remember why I choose Blues, but that team with Trevor Francis was something special, so I guess it was the skill from that long haired wonder – boy that impressed me. I was also fascinated with the penguin-shirt . . And it was a great moment for me that Saturday we beat Manchester City 4-0 live on the television. (Note by Kev – that was my FIRST game at St Andrews!)

The combination between Hatton and Burns were brilliant. My heart melted… Many years have gone, and there have been a lot of sorrows, but I’ve always been proud to support Blues.

The “B.C.F.C. Supporters club of Norway” was founded 1981 by Martin Kolsrud. He is the leader of the club, and the editor of our magazine “Blues info,” and he use a lot of his time to follow the Blues. He also holds the position of a parson, so we feel we are in safe hands. I think we are about 60 members at the moment, but we now see the opportunity to grow a little.

Before the Preston match, last season, we presented the trophy for the best Blues player of the 08/09 season:

From left to right: Chrille (from Sweden) Lee, Trond and Knut Roger

There are 51 different British supporters clubs here in Norway, and there are about 80,000 members registered. Groundhopper and Bluenose Trond Fuhre are the new leaders of the supporters union (all supporters clubs), and also very active in the “Blues Info” and at the website.

He is also the organiser of the football tournament that the union arrange each year, and next years tournament celebrate its 20 years birthday. For the last years there have been some Bluenoses from England and Ireland travelling over to take part in the football and the party here. Some of those are Phil Marshall, Richard Tyrell, Darren Porter, Chris Hirst, Andy Patterson and Matthew Bate.

Chris and Phil contacted Birmingham City about this tournament a few years ago, and the club was offered us shirts and more… just great! We have been to the final, but have never won. It’s always sunny in Oslo that early weekend in June.

Also the Blues academy had a football school here last summer Dean Holtham from the academy was the chief in command. It was an extremely warm week, but it was a success and they will be back next summer. More than 80 young kids, including my youngest son, got involved.

Brian at the Football School

Some of our supporters visit Birmingham every season, and some nearly every month (Trond).

We love the club, the people, the city, the pubs and more. I have two very good friends from the city I live in, who are good Bluenoses and who I also sometimes travel together with. They are Torger Engeland and Øyvind Mauseth. My sons Trevor & Brian (16&15) are now also growing to be good Bluenoses, and it is a proud dad that brings them over to St. Andrews to see the the boys in royal blue against Reading last Desember. This was their first visit over, and it was a Phillips goal that provided the greatest moment at Tilton Road that day.

My most memorable game was against Norwich at Millennium stadium in 2002, when we got promoted. What a beautiful day. That was Joys!

To be invited to the club for a meeting with Michael Dunford and others, before the Fulham game few weeks ago was something that we really appreciated. Trond and I came over and took part in it.

It was all amazing, and we met a lot of great people. Blues took the three points and everything was fine. It was a long, long Saturday, we stayed at Andy’s place that evening, after we have tested a few different pubs and had been to the Bull Ring. We flew home early next morning. At the meeting, I also promised Kev that I would write this article.

We should have been over more often to St. Andrews, but we fortunately have the opportunity to follow Blues every week here in Norway. If there are some Blues-matches that they don’t view on the telly, then I tune into Tom Ross.

We also hope for many CHUCHO goals and glory days for BLUES. Thanks and goodbye to the old board, and good luck to C.Y. and the new. “Chinese Rock.”

PLEASE bring back ZARATE, please. We also have an English forum on our website if anyone wants to contact us.

COYB & KRO. Knut Roger

A quick thank you to Kev for sorting my norwenglish in the article.

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If you have a supporters club that you would like us to plug, contact me here. Tell me about your club where you are, where you meet etc. Tell me something about you, and if possible a photo.

We have spoken to a number of other supporters clubs, the links to these article are below.

Kev

The Redditch Supporters Club.

The French Supporters Club.

The Dublin Supporters Club.