Two questions

Directly relevant to SIHK. There is a "cause" to it. [in Daniel-esque mystic style]

1. Do we have any famous Spurs fans in our club?

2. Have we got any amusing stories of the great lengths any of our members have gone to see a Spurs match?

the greatest length I have gone to is to spend a morning on the phone trying to get various tickets for various games. That's about it really. I wish I had a better story dammit...give me time....

I have one. 3 years ago I was back in UK for Christmas. My mate Kelvin is a season ticket holder and unfortunately for him could not make the two fixtures around Christmas - Man Utd game ( just before ) and Charlton ( 29th ? )

He already managed to get me a members ticket for the Man Utd game so he gave his season ticket to another mate. I was given the season ticket for Charlton match. I was sitting next to his mate during Man Utd game and was given the season ticket book for Charlton.

For those not familiar with the season ticket procedure, Spurs issue a book containing numbered vouchers. The club informs ticket holders on match day which voucher to use.

Rather foolishly it's not done in numerical order.

The number for Man Utd at home was something like 10 so his other mate decides to rip out all those voucher left in the book preceding number 10. Don't ask me why....probably thought Kelvin had failed to attend those games and was thus 'tidying ' up his book.

I arrive at the Charlton match and was told the required voucher number was one of those which his mate had ripped out !!

Your not suppose to give season ticket vouchers to friends so I was struggling to explain why the required voucher was missing. In the end I went for a hearty plea about how I had travelled all the way from HK, seldom get to see by beloved Spurs and that surely against Charlton it wasn't going to be a full capacity ! This went on for about 3-4 minutes. Meanwhile other people queuing were starting to complain.

Just when I thought I'd have to walk away she decided to let me through.

We went on to win 3-1 !!

Ding dang do !

Right James, I'll do my best. I have two for you.

The first was back in 1981 - the FA Cup Final v Man City. At that time I was living in Denmark and there was absolutely no way I could afford to get back to England, let alone get time off work..........unless I had a cunning plan. And a cunning plan I had! I was teaching an evening class of adults at the University and I ended up persuading the Head of English that a language/cultural tour to London would be a good idea. Of course I made no mention of the Cup Final. The programme was drawn up, with us leaving Denmark on the Thursday and returning a week later on the Wednesday. Unbelievably, I got paid for doing this and had all my expenses covered. So, off we set on the 15 hour ferry trip/booze fest from Esbjerg to Harwich (the Danes love their drink) and settled into our hotel in Central London. I had by now managed to get hold of my ticket for the Final but had still not told the group that I wouldn't be joining them on their visit to the British Museum. Come Saturday morning, I casually mentioned to the group of 20 adults over breakfast that, unbelievably and completely out of the blue, I had been given a Cup Final ticket. I'm sure they all saw through that immediately but it wasn't a problem ....... as all 20 said they wanted to go to Wembley with me and would try to get tickets off the touts. So off we trooped, nice and early, to Wembley Stadium, where the Danes bought all manner of Spurs merchandise and some successfully bought tickets for the match at grossly inflated prices, but cheap for the Danes. Those who didn't get a ticket, hung around the stadium to savour the atmosphere. Sadly the match was dire and the afternoon ended in anti-climax. And where was I for the replay......... on the bloody ferry going back to Denmark, with no way of knowing the result until arriving the next morning!!!

The second was in 1984 and this time I was living in a remote village on the East Coast of Malaysia. The electricity supply was erratic at the best of times and was sure to fail during the transmission of the UEFA Cup Final against Anderlecht. Very few matches were broadcast live in those days and reception was always a problem. The TV we had was capable of being powered by a car battery, so that night I removed the battery from our crappy little Honda Civic, got everything ready for a long night of nervous anticipation, and at 3am, I settled down in front of our tiny TV, powered by a car battery that was very possibly on its last legs. Extra time was a nightmare, with me pacing up and down our wooden kampung house alternately praying and swearing (a la no.10 ) and hoping that the battery wouldn't suddenly die. The penalty shoot out was even more of a nightmare. When Tony Parks saved the final penalty, I went wild......... screaming my head off and jumping up and down with joy..........ending up crashing through our wooden floor (it was a traditional style wooden Malay house on stilts), having jumped up and clean through a rotten floorboard. My screams of delight changed to screams of agony as blood poured down my very badly gashed shin. Naturally enough this woke the whole village (actually most were awake already) and before long I was surrounded by a crowd of curious onlookers and goats. Yes, goats. They used to sleep under our house. The rest of the morning was spent at Kota Bahru Hospital, getting my shin bandaged up and I was off work for week. Ah the pain and the glory!

I have photos of both events but they're back in Oz.

It's never dull being a Spurs fan.

Terrific stories Ozspur.

Brilliant OzSpur... you should write a book one day!

OzSpur, those stories are priceless.

The best I can do is going to WHL in 1986 with a broken leg - plaster, crutches, the works. My seat was in the Upper East somewhere. No lifts, just stairs. I struggled up the first set of stairs fighting my way through 100s of people streaming through. Thankfully a bunch of guys took pity and raised me high above the crowds and literally carried me, head high to my seat. Like some triumphant cup winning hero. I think we played Derby, I think we won 2-0. Well worth it.

Another time, 2 friends and I set off to watch a pre-season friendly at Brighton on a random summers evening by train. We'd just signed Dumitrescu and Popescu and anticipation of watching the famous 5 was peaking when the train broke down about 50 miles outside Brighton, in the middle of nowhere. Faced with the option of turning back or continuing by taxi to make it in time for kick off we chose the latter. The 6 pints of stella we'd downed before hand helped. It cost about 120 quid. We made it on time. Result? 0-0. Dumi and Pop didn't play. Gutted and well out of pocket.

Oz, brilliant stories.

ezza wrote:

We'd just signed Dumitrescu and Popescu and anticipation of watching the famous 5 was peaking when the train broke down about

Ezza, should it be Dumitrescu and Klinsmann? If I recall correctly, Popescu joined in the middle of the season so if it was a pre-season game, it might be Klinsmann and Dumitrescu?

John, I look foward to reading your biography!

James wrote:

Ezza, should it be Dumitrescu and Klinsmann? If I recall correctly, Popescu joined in the middle of the season so if it was a pre-season game, it might be Klinsmann and Dumitrescu?

He did mention he had 6 pints of stella...

Exactly!

James wrote:

ezza wrote:

We'd just signed Dumitrescu and Popescu and anticipation of watching the famous 5 was peaking when the train broke down about

Ezza, should it be Dumitrescu and Klinsmann? If I recall correctly, Popescu joined in the middle of the season so if it was a pre-season game, it might be Klinsmann and Dumitrescu?

Didn't the so called famous five consist of Klinsmann, Sheringham, Anderton, Dumitrescu and Barmby ? Barmby ?? How did that happen ?

How about the Fab Four ?

Barmby was very good back then. We had such a strong team playing attractive football. It was at the end of that season Spurs made a post-season tour to HK. Won 7-1 if I recall correctly.

7-2 - of course we had to let in at least 2 goals, wouldnt be tottingham otherwise!

21-May-95 Friendly 10,514 A Kitchee/Eastern XI W
7 - 2
Anderton, Klinsmann (2), Barmby (2), Kerslake, Dozzell

Kerslake and Dozell, blimey. Strong team eh James?

Oz, I echo the sentiments. Great stories!

Nethercott and Kevin Scott were also of that era, but that is a great team....upfront!

Jeez, thanks for the comments guys I have others but they mostly involve smashed trains (on the way back from Derby where we had just lost 5 - 0), being arrested at Stamford Bridge (I was innocent - honest), seeing the gooners win their double at WHL from the seats at Paxton Road, having got in free by sheer chance as the crowd surged through the turnstiles, being given free tickets up by the directors' box by Derek Dougan when I asked him for his autograph (I was 12 at the time), being attacked by a group of Millwall fans at London Bridge station and much more. Hopefully, in time to come, there will be more memories for all of us.........maybe a SiHK trip to the Lane. This is something we must do in the not too distant future.