Joys and Sorrows Speak to the South Wales Blues Supporters Club
Filed under: Blues News, Blues Supporters Clubs / Websites, Kev's Ramblings
Here is our latest article on Blues supporters clubs. This time the South West Wales club. Over to Keith Gadsby.
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Welcome to South Wales Blues Supporters Club. We are now into our tenth season having been originally founded by Trevor Bishop and Paul Landon. Trevor now lives in Brisbane, Australia however, even the time difference does not prevent him from following his beloved Blues.
The majority of our members are Exiled Brummies who have moved down to South Wales with their work/families. In fact through the friendships that have developed over the years it has come to note that four of us were all born in the same hospital, Marston Green. Sadly no longer there.
Most members have followed Blues from the 60’s – 70’s and through the dark times. Our oldest member now into his 70’s has many a story to tell.
Each year we present a trophy to our chosen Player of The Season, the first recipient was Geoff Horsfield in season 2002-03. He epitomised everything that Blues are about. This photo shows Trevor and Paul our original founders together with Scott, Trevors’ son.
Geoff and some of the South West Wales Supporters Club
Here is another shot presenting Emile Heskey and displaying our club flag which hopefully will be flying high at Wembley come May.
Emile and some of the South West Wales Supporters Club
Several of us are Season Ticket holders and also hold Away Travel Member cards so we get to see most Home Games and a few Away games. We generally save our best effort for the last game of the season where Fancy Dress is the order of the day. Here we are a few seasons back at the Blackburn game, we even had a Police escort that day. We must have looked suspicious!!! (Sorry it is a little blurred).
The South West Wales Supporters Club in Fancy Dress!
We also get together as often as possible to watch a Blues game on TV. Generally we meet up in or around the Cardiff area which is a central meeting point for us. Fellow South Wales Blues are welcome to come a join us. We can be found on Facebook.
You can contact us or leave a message.
Keith.
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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 Norwegian Supporters Club.
The Middle East Supporters Club.
The Netherlands Supporters Club.
The Norwegian Supporters Club Speak to Joy and Sorrows
Filed under: Blues News, Blues Supporters Clubs / Websites, Kev's Ramblings
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 Talk to Joys and Sorrows
Filed under: Blues News, Blues Supporters Clubs / Websites, Kev's Ramblings
Another plug for a supporters club, this time a lot closer to home! We spoke to Lynda Courts of the club, and she gave us this information. (We actually met Nigel and Lynda at the recent supporters forum before the Fulham game).
We are Redditch Blues, and we have been in existence for over 16 years. The club was previously run by Sam Joseph, Chris Lindsey and Dave Wormington, but due to ill health and other personal reasons the committee stepped down in May 2009 and Myself and Nigel Davidson took over. Our honarary president is Tom Ross of BRMB and amongst our members we have the pleasure of the Wembley goal scoring hero, Paul Tait.
Nigel Davidson and Lynda Courts
We are located at The Oast House, Paper Mill Drive, Church Hill South, Redditch, B98 8QJ, Tel – 07756 498842, email - website , we also have a facebook group Birmingham City Official Supporters Club Redditch Branch.
We meet on a monday night at The Oast House from 8pm – 10pm for people to join and to book tickets / coach travel for home and away games. At present we have about 150 members of whom about 40 travel regularly on the coach to home games and about 35 travel regularly on the coach to away games – obviously numbers vary depending on our opposition and the time and place – we can take up to 49 people.
The Redditch Supporters Club going to the Wolves game
We have members from the local area, Redditch, Bromsgrove, Droitwich, Solihull etc but also as far afield as Bristol.
If you are involved in a supporters club anywhere in the world and would like Joys and Sorrows to give you a plug, contact Kev via the contact page.
The French Blues Supporters Club talk to Joys and Sorrows
Filed under: Blues News, Blues Supporters Clubs / Websites, Kev's Ramblings
We continue with our look at the supporters clubs around the world with a focus on the French Supporters Club.
The club is run by Ken Jones who is a Blues Exile living in Paris. The club has been going for about 2yrs, since Ken moved to France.
Anyway over to Ken!
I have followed the Blues for at least 20 years now, I got into them during the dark days of the late 80s/early 90s!
My most memorable game, was at home against Southampton in the first season back in the Premier League. I remember Christophe Dugarry winning it single-handed, coming back from behind twice to win 3-2 (he’s a pundit on TV over here and brings a smile to my face everytime he appears!). Obviously the League Cup final and playoff wins are pretty unforgettable too.
Ken Jones
Anyone (in France) can join us, although we don’t really have a formal “membership” (yet) - but I’m always happy to meet fellow Blues supporters and would like to get a regular meet-up for TV matches organised (just need to find more Bluesnoses – I know they’re out there in Paris and beyond…)
A typical week leading up to and including a game for me, is to update my blog/website with match reports from the previous weekend, and any Blues related news - and have a quick look forward to the next game. This is done in French – my aim is to find expats but also try to hook the passing Frenchman – I met Franck Queudrue’s brother and dad that way! If the match is on TV, I’ll send out a message with the details of where to watch it and to see if anyone else is interested in meeting up to watch it.
If you are interested in contacting Ken, please do so by e-mailing him or logging onto his website. (As previously said, the website is in French!)
If you are involved in a supporters club anywhere in the world and would like Joys and Sorrows to give you a plug, contact Kev via the contact page.
Can Anyone Help an Irish Supporter for the Stoke Game?
The following post was put on the forum yesterday:
I’m an Irish Blues fan and I’ve booked to go over at Christmas I have my ticket for Chelsea game already but I’m struggling to get a ticket for the away Stoke game, I was wondering if anyone had a season ticket that isnt going to the game, that could buy a Stoke ticket, and then sell it to me.
For me it’s a shame to go all the way over planing for two games and only getting to one of them, and it’s not really a game you would fancy going in the home end – something I’ve had to do before!
If you might be able to help, contact me via the Joys and Sorrows contact page and the J&S staff will put us in touch. I’m based in Armagh city.
Let us know if you can help.
Kev
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