O/T family sporting allegiances

Similar. My dad and his dad were from Newcastle and black and white through & through. All of his side of the family are Toon fans.

My mam's side is more split. She grew up in Chester-le-street, Ouston & Pelton area and some of her family married supporters from that other team. So I have Mackem cousins. But the Toon fans in the family far outnumber them.

Mrs Obi and her family have no interest in football.

 

My family is split 50/50 between Oldham and Man City.

 

Was at a funeral of somebody from Ouston last month, used to drink in the Red Lion, you might have known him.

Of course a few of the regs from your days have passed away or moved away now.

 

Never been in the Red Lion there AB, my parents moved darrrn sarrrf before I was born! Even my brothers and sister are true Geordies by birthplace, but being that bit younger, I'm the only one not born there!

 

I'm from a sporting back ground and indeed still am involved in professional sport. My four kids( 2 girls & 2 boys ) were/are all very sporty but are now grown up with familes so don't really have the time to devote to their old sporting activities, plus the fact it's hard to rustle up a few mates for an impromptu game of water polo, row up the Thames or acrobatic dancing.

My eldest lad and I are the only football fanatics in the family, as there's only me and the missus at home now the only person I can have an argument with about the match is myself as my good lady has no real interest in the game.

When I lived in Newcastle and the kids were young I took them all to the match but this was back in the 80's when it wasn't much fun so I'm not suprised they didn't get hooked, excluding eldest lad who's TOON mad.

 

Jezza Kyle style DNA test in the offing? I'd offer a sample of DNA but that might be what got my good self in this situation in the first place.

I need some paternal who's your Daddy Rep.

 

Good that there's two of you though Jim, takes a little bit of pressure off you.

 

here's some more rep dad no stop beeling.

 

Was the eldest the one that was with you when I met you outside KX for the Spurs game?

 

You mean there's actually people older than you still living?

 

Yes you are.

 

Obi if your Mam visits Chester-le-street tell her to go to Lambton Worm it's been done out and it's lovely.

 

Cheers LE my folks have retired back up 'home' as they've always called it, living near Stanley now so I'll let them know.

 

Used to have our cricket dinners and presentations there back in the day.

Had some good times and everybody used to like it, good food and good service. Can't see them dropping their standards.

 

Ouch that hurts AB, that hurts deep.

 

It was indeed AB.


It's his Stag do this Saturday( his second one when I'm allowed to attend ). He had his first one in Leeds last weekend and unfortunately had a bit of bother with some local scrotes, thankfully he's a big lad and used to work the doors in Sheffield so he's good at calming the nutters down and sorting out those who get a bit frisky after drinking on an empty head.

With a bit of luck we'll be taking in an away match before the season's finished or even getting up to Newcastle for a home game. I'll keep in touch and let you know what the plans are....

 

Catch you then Jim, look forward to it.

 

Try and figure this lot out! here is my story.......

I have 3 brothers and a sister and we were all raised as Oxford United fans as my Dad worked at the old Manor Ground as Groundsman and we use to attend every home game without fail and also the old man would take us on away days. As well as being a groundsman my Dad did many other jobs for the club including cleaning the stadium after all home games in which he used to drag all us kids and extended family to the stadium at some ridiculous hour on a sunday morning to earn some extra pennies for the piggy bank! Not the msot glamorus job in the world but as kids we loved it, we'd get to be in the stadium and occasionally you'd see the team training and they would always get us out on the pitch to have a kick around! Sadly the move to the Kassam Stadium put a stop to all this and my Dad stopped working for the club.

Other than being Oxford United fans we all had our 'other' club. Dad himself was an Arsenal fan and myself and my younger brother followed suit. Olders brothers supported Spurs (much to Dad's dismay!) and Crystal Palace (Ian Wright was his favorite player and played for Palace at the time he began supporting them). Mum and sister were not really football fans but did come along to some Oxford games, mainly because she knew this was the only time Dad would allow us to swear when joining in on the chants so she came along to put a stop to it! However when Mum came along we would always ask Dad if we could go stand with "the lads" as we referred to them. This was basically the hardcore fans would stand in the london road and sing all game long! "the lads" loved us as they knew we were "Rays Boys" and quite frankly who doesn't love seeing a couple of young nippers joining in all the songs and really emphising every swear word in the chants! Ray (my Dad) was very well respected at the club for a number of reasons, one because he devoted a lot of time working for the club and also because he was considered "top boy" for Oxford when football hooligans were at peak (but that's another story!).

It was one middle school lunch time on the playground when my love for Newcastle United started, me and my usual friends were having a kick around as we did every lunch time when another group of boys asked us for a match so it was jumpers for goalposts and our team captain assigned us all the role of a real life footballer. The skipper turns to me and says "Chris, your Alan Shearer for today" and i loved it because i was usually Tony Adams and had to play at the back but for this lunch time i got to be the striker! That day i scored a hat trick and our team won, i felt like a hero. When i got home from school that day i told Dad what i had achieved and declared from that day forward i no longer supported Arsenal and that Newcastle was now my team, Dad wasn't best pleased! I decked out my bedroom in Alan Shearer posters and from that day forward any football matches at school or in the garden with my brothers i was Alan Shearer!

To Dad's credit he eventually did accept my love for the great man and one Saturday morning woke me up with a present, my very first Newcastle United shirt, graced with a number 9 and the name Shearer on the back.

Anyway this is how we all stand today:

Father - Arsenal
Mother - Liverpool
Brother 1 - Crystal Palace
Brother 2 - Spurs
Brother 3 - Arsenal
Sister - Liverpool

And of course we all still follow Oxford United.

Apologies for the length of post!

 

My father grew up in one of the poorer areas of Sheffield before the war so he ended up supporting Sheffield Wednesday (only the toffs followed The Blades). My wife, whom I only met the other year isn't interested in sport at all, but her father turns out to be a Wednesday supporter as well (which is why we call Sheffie'd "The Land Of Our Fathers").

When I was bouncing around Europe in the 80s and 90s I seemed to watch Liverpool more than any other team though I never cared for them. I just went along to watch Beardsley and as since Liverpool had a lot of ties with clubs in Scandinavia they would often do pre-season friendlies in Norway and Denmark that I would catch.

So I ended up watching Liverpool as a habit more than anything else in those days until Heysel and since then I have had nothing but contempt for that club. Yes, they may understandably bleat on about about their 98 supporters dying in a terrible and tragic accident but they never, ever, seem to visit Brussels and Turin to make amends for the number of deaths caused, on purpose, by their fans. People bang on here on how much they dislike the Black Cats. Me? I couldn't care less about them as I nor anyone else in my family can remember the differences going back to the Civil War but that team in Red, from the Papist half of Merseyside I have nothing but ill feelings towards for their self pitying whining and their sheer hypocracy.

Later on, when living in Norway, I made a chum with one David Hay, the ex-Chelsea and Celtic player who managed Lillestroem in Norway and I used to get tickets to see them. And there would be the usual friendlies in the summer and I remember Chelsea there once and the only memories I have of that game was that Dave Beasant was tall, very tall and, really, wasn't that good but got to where he was by being lucky.

I have family somewhere in Nottingham and I remember as a kid wearing a black and white scarf and being chased by Forest fans thinking that I was a County follower. My cousin and I were fleeing down some back alleys and that cheesed him off as he was a Forest fan himself. All very strange indeed.

 

It went down hill AB the old owners didnt bother with it. Tavistock Brewery have taken it over and it's top class,only downside no draft Guinness.