The Round Ball Game - II

[Lat-Literal]

[QUOTE=johncorrigan;718523][QUOTE=Lat-Literal;718305]Still not sure which team to support in Scotland.

If I wasn't a Buddy, Lat, and had the choice to support any other team (apart from them) I think I might be inclined to Brechin City. Mostly I have to say because of the ground with its iconic beech hedge, and also Brechin is a pretty crazy place. I often think that Oor Wullie looks like he comes from Brechin and that the Stoorie Burn is in fact a tributary of the Esk. Nothing to do with the footie - just a good place to watch it! But we just don't really have the choice, do we?

Brechin can't be a million miles from you, JC. But I am guessing that the Dundee clubs, Forfar and even Arbroath are probably nearer geographically? The nearest I came to that area on my one and only trip was Pitlochry. And I should really be choosing a team from near to one of the places I visited - Arrochar, Glencoe, Fort William, Inverness, Culloden, Strathpeffer, Ullapool, Nairn and Pitlochry - but apart from Fort William and Inverness, I wouldn't immediately know what they are.

On whether we have choices, maybe there is a distinction to be made between supporter and follower. At club level, I support Arsenal and York. The first was where I was taken. A slight family influence. The second was just up the road at a time when I was of an age to choose another one for myself. Association with mates. It was easy to add in Marseille in France, AC Milan in Italy and Ajax in Holland as I later went to matches there. But I follow them rather than support them.

Another in Holland and another in France - smaller - became defunct. I've sort of got Braga in Portugal because I was at an international there just as its very unusual stadium opened. Spain is a lot trickier. It should, by rights, be Valencia what with the Benicasim Festival but I dunno. I had a photo taken outside the Nou Camp. I like Deportivo for the idea of the immediate area though I've never visited it and Betis for the history and stadium. With Germany, I have no feeling at all.

[johncorrigan]

[QUOTE=Lat-Literal;718533][QUOTE=johncorrigan;718523]

Still not sure which team to support in Scotland.
Brechin can't be a million miles from you, JC. But I am guessing that the Dundee clubs, Forfar and even Arbroath are probably nearer geographically? The nearest I came to that area on my one and only trip was Pitlochry. And I should really be choosing a team from near to one of the places I visited - Arrochar, Glencoe, Fort William, Inverness, Culloden, Strathpeffer, Ullapool, Nairn and Pitlochry - but apart from Fort William and Inverness, I wouldn't immediately know what they are.

Maybe Ross County of the Championship, Lat...the Staggies hail from Dingwall a bit north of Inverness and the Black Isle. Nice wee ground but a blinkin' freezin' place to watch footie on a morning like this, I imagine.

[cloughie]

Blackburn 2 Toon 4

See you at Wembley cloughers .........

I fear an unfavourable goalfest at Stamford Bridge on Live TV!

[antongould]

I fear an unfavourable goalfest at Stamford Bridge on Live TV!

Keep the faith cloughers ........

[zola]

I fear an unfavourable goalfest at Stamford Bridge on Live TV!

Not if we're still stuck with playing Morata or Giroud by the time the game's played ! It'll only be two or three.

[Lat-Literal]

[QUOTE=johncorrigan;718662][QUOTE=Lat-Literal;718533]

Maybe Ross County of the Championship, Lat...the Staggies hail from Dingwall a bit north of Inverness and the Black Isle. Nice wee ground but a blinkin' freezin' place to watch footie on a morning like this, I imagine.

Thank you JC.

I remember you recommending to me the Black Isle as the place that might suit me best. At that time, I was thinking about coast plusses rather than weather minuses (and I have no idea why plusses has three esses and minuses only has two). But only a couple of days ago I was looking at a picture of Inverness CT's ground. It is close to the water and, I thought, likely to be a bit exposed to the elements so I had it on my list to look again at the details of Ross County to see if the ground was more secluded.

Among my other investigations. I found out more about Brechin. It looks like the town attracts a friendly Harley Davidson crowd while the football ground is unique for having a very prominent hedge. Going back to Queen of the South, they have an indie song and while it is alright it isn't as good as I would have wished.

So there are still a lot of options here and none of them command a majority in my head. However, I have sadly had to rule out Arbroath which was another team I had been considering. That is, on the grounds of their scary song "Welcome To Arbroath - You Might Accidentally Get Killed" - although it was educational.

Chicken Pipe - Welcome To Arbroath (You Might Accidentally Get Killed) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tco5DaT_B-c

[vinteuil]

Do you mean in Lats terms of choosing a selection of teams, or in the sense of having one particular team to support ?

Anyway, should the mood take you , you are spoilt for choice in West London...

... well, I live one street away from Loftus Road, and one of Mme v's sons-in-law and family are paid-up QPR supporters, so at one level the choice shdn't be that difficult.

Still not sure that I understand what 'support' implies.

Tho' I know I'm briefly discontented if Cambridge win the boat race...


.

[eighthobstruction]

Tho' I know I'm briefly discontented if Cambridge win the boat race...


.

....

[Lat-Literal]

... well, I live one street away from Loftus Road, and one of Mme v's sons-in-law and family are paid-up QPR supporters, so at one level the choice shdn't be that difficult.

Still not sure that I understand what 'support' implies.

Tho' I know I'm briefly discontented if Cambridge win the boat race...


.

Ah yes, v, I could always detect the Stan Bowles connection in your posts. It makes perfect sense now. You do realise that most people who never went to Oxbridge choose in respect of the boat race on the basis of their preferred city or favourite shade of blue? I'm a city preference person here. I prefer Cambridge as a city to Oxford. Colour wise, it could be, just, the other way round. So now you know. Does this forum claim to "support" BBC Radio 3? I can't recall and haven't checked recently.

Maybe re football, it would be easier to explain what supporting a club doesn't mean. It doesn't mean supporting financially. For nearly a decade, I stopped my membership of Arsenal on the grounds that I was no longer prepared to pay money in order to pay more money for tickets. It wasn't, of course, like that in "the old days" when you could decide to go on the day. It meant I lost my silver membership and any chance of getting it back but to keep paying made no sense what with me not going.

As it happens - and I am now going to contradict myself - I have re joined this year as a red member. This is the only option now as I am at the back of the queue. It's cheaper but tickets are very limited. Still, it is the only way of doing things if I ever want to set foot in the place again. In many ways I resent it. Too corporate - and Newcastle don't do this. I got a ticket for the Gallowgate end quite easily in advance on the internet which was surprising and immensely pleasing at the same time.

On a different note:

I have just paid to join the York City Supporters' Trust. This is as a thank you to the kind people who unlocked the ground for me so I could have my own personal tour before its closure. They don't know I have done this. It just feels the right thing to do. But it is a disaster zone. "We" (note what I did there) could end up in the seventh tier of football which is ridiculous. It will give me a say on the club's future direction including on senior appointments but sadly not on the imminent ground move.

Thank you for your correspondence.

I hope this clarifies the matter for you.

[cloughie]

Keep the faith cloughers ........

As ever anton!

[teamsaint]

... well, I live one street away from Loftus Road, and one of Mme v's sons-in-law and family are paid-up QPR supporters, so at one level the choice shdn't be that difficult.

Still not sure that I understand what 'support' implies.

Tho' I know I'm briefly discontented if Cambridge win the boat race...


.

Oddly, “ Briefly discontented” probably sums up my mood after a bad result these days. Which boat race are you talking about though ? There can’t be just one ? On a very slow day’s sport in summer, I have certainly heard commentaries on Radio Solent from somewhere on the south coast of clubs like this .

http://www.coalportersarc.com

Support ?
Well at the practical level it means being there in person , because big noisy support certainly helps teams. You know, like Newcastle......

Otherwise, I suppose it is a word for tribal loyalty, in the main. And more importantly, the money that we put in........


( This does feel a bit like discussing football with Henry Root......)

[vinteuil]

Otherwise, I suppose it is a word for tribal loyalty, in the main.

... that, I suppose, is what I suspected. Or feared.

Why is 'tribal loyalty' thought to be a Good Thing?

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[greenilex]

Tribes are overgrown families, and divided families fall.

[teamsaint]

... that, I suppose, is what I suspected. Or feared.

Why is 'tribal loyalty' thought to be a Good Thing?

.

Is it ? Who by ? To what extent ?
I'd say most football fans can see both the up and the down side of their (tribal) loyalty, and the loyalty of others. A bit like political tribal loyalty ?

[cloughie]

Is it ? Who by ? To what extent ?
I'd say most football fans can see both the up and the down side of their (tribal) loyalty, and the loyalty of others. A bit like political tribal loyalty ?

The down side probably more frequently!