Originally Posted by Madrid_Ranger Born in Ladbroke Grove, went to Middle Row and St Clement Danes (as it was then), played footie down the ´Little Scrubs´ religiously every Sunday morning...... oh yeh and my Dad was a Chelsea fan!!! they've done little scrubs up proper, now got all these high tech playgrounds and stuff. high tech playgrounds??? - The Notting Hill Adventure Playground was as ´high tech´ as it got back then, amazing what you could build with a few sheets of old ply and a handful of bent, rusty nails!!!
For me I was the only QPR fan anyone knew back then... why? everyone at school had Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea or Arsenal bags i thought is that it? and why then does the best player out there not play for them? ... the ball goes wide to Dave Thomas 30,000 odd people at one game also shaped me : watch and enjoy: Back on the rec jumpers for goalposts i relived the result again and again and had blagging rights. Rangers will be in top six again ... its in our blood watch and enjoy: http://youtu.be/MFpSBBLGy50
My dad indoctrinated me early, taking me to games from the age of 2 and by the time i wanted to go to football regularly, inspite of us being on a slump (just relegated out of the prem) i knew there was only 1 club for me
My best mate was a Liverpool fan (big shock) and the prospect of supporting the underdog against the dominant force at that time in this live tv-game was what made it for me. But what probably made me an R was the way QPR won that match, it had everything, fantastic game! After that my Panini album helped me to keep the enthusiasm up as a 10 year old with Mark Falco my big hero. "In Norway QPR's fanbase date back to when QPR was aired often enough on the NRK Tippekampen (Saturday afternoon main matches 1969-1995)" Wikipedia; QPR. My first game at Loftus Road was against Chelsea in our relegation season, 2nd january 1996 i think, heartbreak when Matthew Brazier turned it into his own net. But hooked ever since.
my uncle and aunt use to live near the ground so when i stayed with them my uncle use to to take me to see them ive been a fan since 1963
And Furlong got their winner! Took me a long time to forgive him. Being a South London boy I have absolutely no reason to support the Rs. By rights I should support Palace and my dad tried to get me to support Arsenal. As an impressionable young lad my head was turned by the weird hooped kit, the style of football and some veteran player called Venables. He always looked like he was in control and his invention with free kicks around the box was incredible. Does anyone else remember the freekick where he would lift the ball over the wall for Gerry Francis to turn and volley. Taarabt should be shown some of those videos so he can see that the ball is allowed to go passed the wall! I think above all, with Venables pulling the midfield strings, we played some great football while many others were still playing English style “kick and rush”.
Wow, thanks everyone who posted. Some great stories, I only threw this post out there as a break into the negativity that surrounds us all at the moment. I'm so surprised that so many lived on White City Estate & also went to Sir Christopher Wren as I did, and were also born in Hammersmith hospital. I suppose that we must of crossed paths in sometime at LR or in the vicinity. That is what makes QPR so special. We are all kindred spirits, who love 'The Rangers' no matter what. We are are a real club, and with that, I wish us all the best.
In my case, it all started when my Dad became manager of the General Smuts pub in 1968. Prior to that, I, my brothers and sister, lived in a pub in Brixton. I know about Pickles the dog finding the stolen World Cup but not a thing about the World Cup itself. Likewise, the 1967 League Cup thing means naff all to me (appart from replays). Anyway, around Easter '68, after we moved to the Smuts (which was then a violent sh1thouse), my dad said, there's a football team down the road, here's the money to get in (Less than 3/6 for kids, or 17 and a half pence for the younger generations). I saw Rodney Marsh doing what he did, QPR got promoted to Division 1 as runners-up to Ipswich. My dad got me a season ticket. It wasn't a great season, as we lost 28 out of 42 games. It didn't stop me going. I'll be there against Bolton, as I have been for 43 years, and will be supporting my club, unlike some around here who want to hate,. Some think that Gregory was God, while he did good, he would have sold your grandmothers to make money. Some love Power, he was a clown, who is one of the main reasons why Swindon will start this season in League 2 (also with more debt than they should have). Personally, I liked Bulstrode. He realised the opposition to CFC and Fulham but sadly died before he could get QPR to where he wanted to go. Instead, we fell into the hands of the asset stripper Thom(p)son and then the idiot Wright, who bankrupted the club, before names like Holland and Davies linked up with dodgy people to bring us out of admin with the infamous ABC loan. Paladini then got rid of Power and almost killed us. (not saying that it was all Paladini's fault, just that he kept us alive longre than Power would've done, see Swindon ref) Then Flav and Bernie pitched up. Whther we like them or not (I can go with both views), without them, we were dead. I know people will dislike what I will say next. Without them, we would be AFCQPR, playing at the Linford Christie Stadium (the dump athletics track) behind Hammersmith Hospital and next door to the prison, as there was, and stil;l is, no-one prepared to put their money where their mouths are. Don't wait for Mittal, he has not yet delivered, and I see no reason why he will bother. After all, he didn't do anything to save his son-in-law Bhatia, did he? I am no apologist for Tango and Cash, just prefer to be a realist who, like most, do not have the money to start a "phoenix club". I will support my club, rather than whinge like too many others. QPR were here for a hundred years before most of us and will be for a hundred years after all of us! Sorry, am passionate about my club. Rant over!
Spent the whole summer holiday of 1975 with my mate at their South Ruislip training ground which was next to our primary school. Played in their goals when they wernt there and when they were, acted as ball boy in their training sessions. During which time found ourselves having shots with Parkes, and keepy ups with Francis, Bowles and Clements. I was 8 turning 9 .......... hooked for life
Born in perivale at the maternity hospital we lived in northolt - Mowbray gdns - and I had to cross the western ave every day to go to school. My dads family were all cricklewood but my mums were from the nice bit where park royal meets wembley. Both my brothers were born in highbury so thus begat arsenal fans but I was slightly older and used to go with my dad, uncle dickie and my cousin in his Capri to see the r's.
Born in Isleworth/West Middlsx Hosp, but moved away as toddler with parents who simply weren't into footy. (wipe aside a tear.) Back to Hanwell in mid-80's whereupon a good mate and his fanatic dad got me hooked after inviting me along to see the Rs from the loft (2-2 draw against Norwich in '85). Forever indebted to them! (Then moved away again and followed as best i could until the internet and forums like these made it so much easier. Cheers North!)
I was born in West middlx hospital in early 70's, lived in West Ealing, went to school in Greenford, so obviously supported Liverpool as a young boy before my youth club in Pitshanger lane organized a trip to an actual football match, QPR V Spurs, would of been mid eighties, having negotiated our way around numerous fights we made it into the ground, QPR won 2-1 and i fell in love with the shirts and the ground, went on to work at Guinness in Park royal, and a place in Acton then a place in Staples Corner and lived in either Greenford or Ealing so was always well located to get to the ground - until upping sticks and ****ing off up north about 16 years ago where i could afford to buy a house bigger than a garage.
Had to be me responding to this question didn't it Roller! Venables' creativity and tactical ability was sublime. The free kick outside the box was his speciality whether he took it or not. You'd always see him orchestrating the move. Did he ever once go for the boring direct shot that 19 times out of 20 ends up anywhere but in the net, that we almost invariably get these days? I can't remember one, can you? As for how QPR became my team... we had a thread like this before (about April I think) which got a similarly good response. It captured my imagination, took me way back to 1967 and I wrote reams, so I won't bore you with all that again. What I will say is that I was living in Kilburn back then and some of our neighbours were a bit Rsie... That season Rangers were doing particularly well and they (parents and kids) started going to games. They invited me along, Rangers weren't like the very fashionable Chelsea side of the time but they were ultra-real and highly effective. The rest is history. After that it was, with notable exceptions, up and up one way or another for the next twenty years or more, so it was easy to get and stay hooked. The people I admire are those who started following the club before my time and since 1995 or even 2001. With little chance of success to contemplate, much less celebrate, I marvel at their boundless enthusiasm. Not saying my generation wouldn't have been the same (Rs appear to attract people happy to swim against the current) but have to acknowledge the fact that we had the pleasure of riding on a fairly continual high.
It was the old man for me. Like thousands of Paddies, he ended up in London in the early sixties. He lived in Shp Bush and never missed a home game in all the time he lived there (13 years!).
Even when I lived in hong kong for 5 years in the mid 90's i still kept my season ticket and made 2 home matches during the season. It's part of the madness of supporting the blue & White. My uncle dickie used to run a print farm opp where ikea is now and did all the programme printing in the 80s and 90s til he retired and in classic rangers fashion he used to get part paid with a box at the club with his mate mickey bird. That's how we used to end up trollied awarding MOM to Devon White. In a further twist I met my girlfriend, now wife who was at uni in London at the piano & pitcher in chiswick. Having charmed het with my wit, intelligence and dashing good looks - I look like a young rick astley - we went back to her place on albourne rd and from the upstairs loo window you could see the loftus rd floodlights. It was fate.
Born In Liverpool, my late father was an Everton fan, tried unsucessful to get to follow Everton only to be told to support a team that would win trophies, but I was not going to be a glory hunting Liverpool, Manure, Leeds or any of the other big teams of the day. I have stuck with QPR for almost 40 years, no one understands why I follow them, but it is a passion (I beleve that once you choose a team, you stick with them whatever, unlike some who support whoever is winning at the time).
