For Hotspur Magazine

FYI. My report for the magazine. I have been asked to do a reportage style as if I am reporting live from the bar hence the style. It's a bit rough around the edges but I hope it's a fair reflection on the evening. By the way, they only want to know about our night for the first game of the season not all about supporters clubs in Hong Kong. I had to write from a personal perspective as it's the only real way to report the event. Remember this is for an overseas market that care little of our internal politics and wonder what it's like living and being in Hong Kong when Spurs are on. I have also used a bit of artistic license to paint vivid pictures and to create a bit of an atmosphere. Oh, and I had to give some background of how we started etc. I may have missed some things out but you can't please all of the people all of the time. It's the best I can do. I hope you all enjoy...

The first game of the season and a big night for Spurs in Hong Kong. In fact, it promises to be our biggest gathering yet. Spurs in Hong Kong was started in 2006 by two newly arrived expats in the form of Ezza and Daniel and one seasoned expat called Sean. Seeing as there was no supporters clubs set up for Spurs exiles we decided to do our own thing. Since our early days the three members of SiHK have now expanded to eighty people who have signed up to our website and we expect a packed house tonight. Our members, if you can call them that, are from all parts of the globe - Australia, America, local Hong Kong supporters and of course British people living and working in Hong Kong. It’s a mixture that makes me feel proud to be a Spurs supporter. Many of us have held season tickets and find ourselves here for career and personal reasons and Hong Kong right now is a very interesting place to live thanks to Chinas growth and the local thriving economy.

We started gathering in an organized unit towards the end of last season and this new season will be our first together as a group watching Tottenham. The 12:45 kick-off’s in the UK are great for us as, right now, we are seven hours ahead which means the Spurs Sunderland game is perfect as it will start at 7:45 in the evening. The exact amount of people that will turn up is unclear but there has been talk of flags and T-Shirts and real effort to make the evening special. It doesn’t disappoint. The bar is heaving and the flags are fluttering in the breeze. People who said that they would turn up do so and it’s great to put faces to the names after months spent communicating via our website. I estimate 60 people; men, women, Asians and westerners in one huge Spurs melting pot. It’s amazing.

7:00 Local time and the team news filters in. Injuries galore and the news that Dawson is out is the biggest talking point. The front two of Berbatov and Keane is confirmed. The words makeshift are heard in the bar and it’s a worrying phrase for the first game of the season. A few people have never been to White Hart Lane. They ask me if this is what it is like at the game. I tell them it’s better on a good day and they looked amazed.

7:45 – Kick off. Here we go. We have, by some weird osmosis turned the bar into a small part of White Hart Lane. It’s an incredible noise. The classic songs get a good airing and the Spurs go matching on, on, on…

8:00 – The football is pretty nondescript right now. We carry on signing. Half the fun of supporting the team is the camaraderie of other supporters so we can forgive the Tottenham players for their lack of endeavor for the moment

8:30 – Halftime. Was that it? Nothing much happened. Must be hot in the Northwest I reason. I guess after the summer the team is tired. Not many points to debate as there isn’t much happening. We’ll steamroller them second half is the popular opinion. Some people pop to the 7/11 for halftime food. It’s humid but vibrant in Hong Kong at this time of year and at this time of night. Puzzled tourists stumble into the bar completely unaware as to what the fuss is all about. Some of the local guys love the atmosphere and the expats think we are in Tottenham for a fleeting moment.

8:45 – second half. Big cheer. This is it. More singing.

9:15 – what is going on? Ok, we can understand a sluggish start but there is hardly anything happening on the pitch of any note. Spurs seem slow and a bustling Sunderland snuff out anything we do. This must change surley? Hong Kong has been waiting all summer for this moment.

9:25 – Disaster. They score. The bar falls silent. The singing stops the passion, the hope and the expectation drains. Some supporters leave instantly. I feel terrible. All summer I have convinced wavering neutrals that Spurs is the best club in the world and they should join us. Those that do must question if they have made the right choice. It’s difficult to find overseas supporters that are not enticed by the big 4. The odd few that have the vision and decency to support us look upset. The bar is silent as the final whistle blows.

People file out in dribs and drabs into the Hong Kong evening. The night is still young and the bars are heaving and the neon brightens up a now rainy night. Other supporters have their games to look forward to as the 3PM kick offs get underway. The Premiership is huge in Asia so every bar has a match on and the beer flows. I’m tired and upset and get a cab home. I still love you Spurs.

That was fcuking excellent..



Really good felt like an article in a magazine.

cheers Dan. Had to rattle it out at shirt notice.

Top article Daniel, love it.

Good job Dan, but Sunderland is in the North East.

Nice one Dan.

GDG wrote:

Good job Dan, but Sunderland is in the North East.

well...

Any plans to start your biography? It will sell papers.

You're wasted an architect Daniel, go into journalism.

Nice article Daniel, however ...

Slightly a touch unfair saying that there was NO expat supporter club presence here before you got here to be honest though. Whilst slightly disorganised, we have had a presence here for sometime, and many would testify to that.


Cheers,

Stew.

Great work, lets hope this Saturdays report will be a lot different!

thanks all, let's hope it gets into the magazine

really well done Dan... very diplomatic over criticism of the team performance, they should like that.

StewHK wrote:

Nice article Daniel, however ...

Slightly a touch unfair saying that there was NO expat supporter club presence here before you got here to be honest though. Whilst slightly disorganised, we have had a presence here for sometime, and many would testify to that.


Cheers,

Stew.

yeah, sorry about that. Is this the organiser?

He looks familiar...


Is that our defensive midfielder? Or perhaps our Left winger?

So I've sent off all the pictures and it looks like we are going to make it into the magazine. As we didn't have a group shot for the Sunderland game I used the one from the Daaaaarby game. And, in a crazy twist of fate, it features Hung and Louis and some other of the spurs.hk crew so everyones a winner baby as Hot Chocolate once sung

Blinding mate ! !!

Just one thing, can you add Gibraltar to that list of countries you just mentioned ? ... Cheers !

Gibraltar's not a country - it's a colony.

Really? I thought it was a rock.

Did you bring us back some rock ?

GDG wrote:

Gibraltar's not a country - it's a colony.

Actually it's no longer a Colony, but an "Oversea's British Terrirory"... I'll eleborate further if you like when we next catch up, but nevertheless, Dan's intro mentiones " parts of the globe", not countries, which surely means Gibraltar would be eligable for a mention, no ?

It's the same comparison as a Scot is British, but he is also a Scottish. Same goes for the Welsh and N. Irish and Faulklanders.

What's the big deal GDG... you got friends at the Spanish Foeriegn Office or somefink ? !?!? !?

"from all parts of the globe - Australia, America, local Hong Kong supporters and of course British people living and working in Hong Kong. It’s a mixture that makes me feel proud to be a Spurs supporter."

14 wrote:

Really? I thought it was a rock.

It is 14.

Only some 3 miles in length and 1.5 miles in width. Population 30,000. Spurs has always been one of the Top 5 best supported Clubs in Gib (despite the past 15 years of tripe.)

300 Spurs fans recently travelled up to Seville in coaches to get behind Spurs and witnessed a typical example of Spanish flith, cheating f*cking c*nts ...displaying for all what these bastards are really like to deal with 24/7 365 days a year....

You must be joking if we would want to give up our British civility to be ruled by that Mob ! !!

Hairy wrote:

typical example of Spanish flith, cheating f*cking c*nts ...displaying for all what these bastards are really like to deal with 24/7 365 days a year....

why dont you say what you really feel................

Hairy wrote:

GDG wrote:

Gibraltar's not a country - it's a colony.

Actually it's no longer a Colony, but an "Oversea's British Terrirory"... I'll eleborate further if you like when we next catch up, but nevertheless, Dan's intro mentiones " parts of the globe", not countries, which surely means Gibraltar would be eligable for a mention, no ?

It's the same comparison as a Scot is British, but he is also a Scottish. Same goes for the Welsh and N. Irish and Faulklanders.

What's the big deal GDG... you got friends at the Spanish Foeriegn Office or somefink ? !?!? !?

"from all parts of the globe - Australia, America, local Hong Kong supporters and of course British people living and working in Hong Kong. It’s a mixture that makes me feel proud to be a Spurs supporter."

Mate, I love the fact that it's stuck there at the bottom of Spain, annoying the shit out of the Spanish with its extreme Britishness. It's probably far more British than most of Britain these days, and whether it's a colony or an overseas British territory it should be protected in perpetuity by the British government. You have every right to be proud of your BDT!

You tell em Hairy. It's staying British, as is the Falklands.