So, whats your story?

[The Great Mass Debater]

Have you seen "One night in Turin"? 

I have just finished watching this on your recommendation - thanks, was a great watch  

Struck by Lothar Matthaus, whose first thought whilst the rest of his team was celebrating was to console Chris Waddle. Respect - to someone I've always thought was a bit of an ar*e. 

Also reminded od what a gentleman Bobby Robson was, and how sad it is to see Gascoigne in that era, looking so healthy with his whole life ahead of him and what has happened to him since

 

[morty]

Ah glad you liked it mate, yeah its a great film!

 

[morty]

Another recommendation, have you watched Gascoigne?

 

[morty]

copied from http://swindoncanary.wix.com/swindoncanary

Why SwindonCanary ?
It's because I live in Swindon and support Norwich City Football  Club,  nicknamed 'The Canaries'
Known throughout the internet as 'SwindonCanary' I even get mail through my door addressed to
Mr S, Canary !  
My real name is Martin James. I was born in deepest darkest Cornwall. In a little village called St. Keverne (look it up) but I was not alone, I had a twin brother !  It came as a complete surprise to my parents and they had decided that if it was a boy he would be called 'Martin Paul James' instead the first born (Me by 5 mins.) was be called Martin James and the 2nd born Paul James neither of us were given a middle name and I like it like that.
My Dad, Bryan Morris James, joined the Royal Air Force, so throughout my childhood we moved from one R.A.F. Base to another we lived in Bedfordshire, Yorkshire, Somerset and Germany. Then when I was 11 years old, my Dad was posted to RAF Coltishall, Norfolk and we lived in Sprowston, Norwich, somehow dad wrangled it so he stayed at Coltishall for over 6 years, meaning we had a settled education, my 'informative' years were spent in Norwich and as soon as we arrived, I started supporting the local football Club, Norwich City, in those day they were a second division team who's only claim to fame was an FA Cup semi final.

After leaving school I decided to follow my dad and join the forces,  I didn't fancy re-visiting  all those RAF Bases, and as a young 16 year old, I fancied travelling a bit more, so I joined the Royal Navy, and had a great time visiting ports all over the world, and doing very little work, all on the governments money. (thanks to all you tax payers out there !)  
After 11 years in the Navy, I decided to leave the service and settle down somewhere,  I ended up in Swindon because I managed to get a job at Rover Cars Pressing Plant, later to become 'Plant BMW Swindon', pressing body panels for the mini car.  I worked there for 29 years then two years ago they were trying to reduce the workforce, offering early retirement to anyone over 55, I was 55 years old, and after studying what was on offer, I found out that my monthly retirement income would be only £120 less than I was actually picking up in wages ! A no brainer,  I took the retirement at 55 years old. I now get work during the winter Sept-March at Honda UK  (just to top up the funds) and take the summers off -- I'm loving it !

We have something in common there, I started supporting Norwich City when I was posted to RAF Coltishall in the early 90's!

 

[KeelanforEngland]

• I was born in Thorpe and raised in Gt Yarmouth (someone had to live there) , first game was in 1965/66 season against Northampton which we won 1-0  , most of the last 50 years have been the usual tale of ups followed by downs and some gloomy times followed by terrific highs like Wembley last season (watched whilst on a break in a pub in Jersey with a family from Dereham and a lad from Wymondham ,as well as 3 Boro lads  what a great day) I have learnt over the years that supporting our club is a labour of love ,you have to enjoy the good times (such as now ) but assume that at some point they will end and we will have our patience tested again as we go through the downturn .I now live in a village outside Ipswich (I view it as missionary work)  and only occasionally can get tickets for the odd game at Carra ,and have seen us away as many times as at home in recent years ,but feel that we have a special club and supporters and in some ways we are a bit of a throwback to the way all clubs were before the Premier league and Murdoch spoilt the game . I always joke that I have followed the club through thin and thinner but would not swap anything with one of the top 4 sides and their legions of prawn sarny followers. Hoping that we can show a few of the metrocentric media that there is life outside the London and North West clubs this year but am resigned to staying up till the last game on MOTD to see us this season OTBC !

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

Another recommendation, have you watched Gascoigne?

Thanks, I'll try to check it out 

 

[Indy_Bones]

Born in Sheffield in 1978 and lived in Rotherham for the vast majority of my life, I'm one of those unusual fans that has absolutely ZERO link to the area or the club before choosing to support them.

In truth, during my early childhood I was never that big of a football fan, I enjoyed playing it in the playground, but was never one of those to religiously check teletext at 4:45 for the final scores before begging your dad to record MOTD later on. This complacency towards the sport however started to become pretty obvious to the lads around me who wondered why the hell I didn't support a team, so just to keep things smooth from a social perspective I decided to pick a team and start following them (I was about 8-9 at this time).

Strangely this lead to the aforementioned request to record MOTD (and similar) for a period of about 6 weeks (along with various other research tools such as 'Match' and 'Shoot' magazines), with selection criteria including style of play, colour of kit, notable players, quality of support and most importantly - lack of glory hunting, which meant that teams like Liverpool and Man Utd were out from day 1.

Once the dust had settled, Norwich were the chosen club and I've been a faithful supporter ever since (even if my visits to CR have been sporadic), and I would have probably moved to the city had I not met my beautiful wife and settled down for the long term in my home area instead.

I've held a variety of jobs over the years, from junior basketball coach to US kids in their summer camps, to Travel Agent, to Team Manager and now my current role as Househusband (whilst my wife finishes her teaching degree) and sometime blogger.

I'm sure I'd have met a few of you guys if I'd been able to get a ticket for the Rotherham game in the season just gone, but I never even got close to one due to the excellent uptake from the season tickets holders and away travel regulars.

My main regret is that my mother chucked my classic long-sleeved 92/93 'Canary Dropping' shirt away some years back (I'm still fervently hoping they bring it back for a 25th anniversary edition in 2017)!

Hope to catch some of you on the terraces one day

 

[eatonparkboy]

Born in Norwich in 1951. First game in 1960, the Blades at home 1-1. Not allowed to go during the 58/59 Cup run as it was simply to dangerous at times. Not good enough to play football at any level I decided that watching City was far more entertaining and hardly missed a game in 14 years and went to many away games during that period.

I was an apprentice at Jarrolds Printers but emigrated to NZ in 1974 with wife and 10 month old baby son. Mum used to send me the Pink Un. It took eight days to get there. I was a t City's furthest away game in 1980 when they beat NZ 5-1 in Auckland and got to speak to many of the players who were shocked to see someone wearing a City scarf at the match. I worked on a newspaper fora few years but ended up the National Secretary of the NZ Printing Union. And my greatest claim to fame is that I was the person who introduced Paternity leave into peoples lives via wage agreements with employers. In fact NZ is where the welfare state began.

Came back to UK in 1980 and Maggie and technology ensured I had no chance of a job back at Jarrolds so I ended up at a printers in Cornwall. (And No you can't come and stay with me, I get enough visitors as it is!).And with the roads the way they were in those days, it was probably easier to get to Norwich from NZ than Redruth!

I retired a couple of years ago and to earn a bit of cash before the state pays me the pension, I cater for a local Rugby club. That means I can't watch City as much as I would like to now they will be back regular on the internet.

My wife has a catering business and my eldest son and his wife are partners in the business. My second son is a Sergeant in the Coldstream Guards.

Apart from City, my main interests are golf and long distance running. I have 9 grandchildren and four great grandchildren. Three years ago I took two of the grandsons to Carrow Road and we toured the ground and met the players and sang OTBC on the pitch before the first home game of the season against QPR. In fact, one of my grandsons is called Keelan (for obvious reasons) as I think his Dad is more of a nut about City than I am.

I think if it wasn't for City, then I might not bother too much with football any more. It is becoming a farce of epic proportions and thank goodness my club has people at the helm who whilst they make some howlers at times, have the right attitude when it comes to the club and its supporters.

 

[ZLF]

born within a mile of the ground in late '66 was inducted as a canary from a young age standing in the river end to start (great use of milk creates) in the early 70s;   cant recall what my first game was.  Earliest memories are a few years later of the manu roof match and an impressive QPR team with the excellent Tony Currie losing 3-2 to us.   One of two daughters is now a avid season ticket holder.

Greatest moments were promotion at hillsborough,  wembley x2 and that 92-93 team;  jam packed with quality and newman & goss.

Season ticket holder for many years though not currently (finances) cant wait to cheer us on at the stadium of light in 12 days time.

My best xi

                           Keelan

Culverhouse  Polston Watson Bowen

Eadie       Crook      Peters      Huckerby            

                   Drinkell Sutton

 

[the jarrold]

Born about a mile the wrong side of the Norfolk Suffolk border just north of Lowestoft  in April 1954. Money was tight in our house so none spare for football tickets. My father wasn't a big football fan, claimed to be an Arsenal supporter because he did national service at Woolwich I believe. 

It was my grandfather, a keen Norwich supporter who took me to my first game as a 10 year old. Driving there in an old Morris 8. Huddersfield 0 NCFC 0, dreadful game but I was hooked. I stood on a box specially made for the terracing in the river end.Some in the crowd had wooden football rattles, I was to make one as a project in woodwork  when I got to 'big school'.Kenny Foggo  was my favourite player.

I briefly had a 'second team', Manchester city of Colin Bell, Lee, Summerbee et al in the 70s,what a team that was. I remember going to portaloo road to watch them beat the Scum. But NCFC was always my first love and I never strayed far or for long.

To cut a long story short I've attended as a casual supporter most seasons since then. Some years going to every game, other times none at all. Bought my first season ticket when we dropped into League 1 and had one ever since. And I've lived in Suffolk all my life never more than 10 miles from the tiny cottage I was born in.

My attendance at Carrow Road may not have been the fullest over the years for one reason or another but that doesn't matter. A Norwich supporter is part of who I am, it defines me in some small way and has done ever since I stood on that stool in the river end in 1964

 

[It's Character Forming]

I was born in west London but my parents moved to High Wycombe, a commuter town, when I was 2.  Wycombe Wanderers at that point were a non-league side so I grew up not supporting any team but watched football on TV a lot - this was when you had MOTD too late for a kid, but ITV's the Big Match on Sunday afternoon was regular viewing.  It was the '78 World Cup which hooked me on football in general but I still didn't have a team to support.  In the mid-80s I left college and went to work in London, living in Highbury, so in walking distance from the Arsenal ground but I never went - just didn't appeal.

In the early 90s I moved to Norwich because there was an opening for a job and I wanted to get away from London, knew nothing about the City but loved it as soon as I arrived.  Friends invited me to a couple of City games, in Mike Walker's final season in the Prem, but oddly it was the following season when we'd been relegated that I started going regularly to home games and before I knew it, I was a City supporter !  The year after I got a season ticket.  I kept my season ticket until I moved again with my job in the year 2000, since then I've followed City regularly at away games.

When we went down to L1, I decided to try to go to as many away games as I could becuase there were plenty of grounds I hadn't been too before - and I got to most of them, which was an inspired decision and while you couldn't say it has never been a dull moment since then (e.g. away at Reading under Hughton) but overall it has been a fantastic few years since Lambert jointed us.  This year I expect to get to fewer games than last season because there aren't as many fixtures that are handy for travel from the Midlands (and I have mixed feelings about the big Prem teams and their fans with their sense of entitlement but that's a matter for another thread).  Anyway, I'm going to Sunderland.

 

[Canaryboy]

Hope to catch some of you on the terraces one day

You live very close to me Indy_Bones, so if you fancy meeting for a pint or two to watch a Sky game this season and becoming the first Norwich Talk member I've met..... 

(active member that is, I know a few signed up people who don't post). 

I'm in the Barnsley council area, but about 2 miles away from a 'Welcome to Rotherham' sign. 

 

[gerryinromania]

From Kings Lynn. As a very young lad, my uncle would hand crank his old Ford, say to me ' Git in the caar bor' and off we'd go to Norwich Speedway track or to watch Wolverhampton play, late 1950s so a good team to watch, or to watch the Linnets, never the Canaries. Joined Royal Navy 1960 and saw my 1st City game 1963 on return from Singapore. That was my baptism, no more Wolverhampton. I used to enjoy the antiquaited facilities on offer at the Carra. From then, my eldest sister sent me the 'pink'un' to wherever in the world I was. I remember an air drop from the RAF in mid Atlantic,and getting 10 pinkuns, we were at sea a long time on that ship,based in Gibraltar but not seeing the place for months.Joined Norwich Police in 72 and got housed in Thunder Lane, Thorpe St Andrews. used to have to check players homes when they were away. Spent 2 seasons in the Barclay, rough in those days. Moved to Canada and got the pinkun sent out again.Moved back to Kings Lynn, worked 20 years for a chemical company, attending every game that my shifts allowed. Now, I am Gerry in Romania, only get to see live games in January. I guess that now I am a 'plastic' swearing and cursing at my puta or the tv every game, whisky in the glass and my partner, Dana, ignored for two hours. She has been to the Carra with me, so knows wass goun orn

 

[Keckers]

My mum is from Sprowston, and we moved to Norfolk when dad left the army in 1977. Went to my first game that season, I think it was Wolves. I remember Martin Peters and Justin Fashanu played. Never been any other team for me.

Moved away in 1979 and lived all over (16 years in Scotland which I hated) and I moved back to England (London) in 1997.

Went to occasional games over those years, but not many.

Decided in 2006 to get a season ticket despite living in London still. Had just split from first wife and decided that I wasn't going to let anyone else stop me from doing the things I wanted.

Moved back to Norfolk in 2009 and now live about 100 yards from the stadium. Moved here because of proximity to the stadium which is probably a bit sad but it's fantastic after winter home games as I'm home in under 5 minutes. Bit different to the 3 years I spent driving back and forth from London in a car with no heating.

Have two season tickets. My wife comes with me and is an adopted Norwich fan. Getting that "wife" thing right second time around has been brilliant for my love of the footie!!!

 

[morty]

I love this thread, its really nice hearing peoples stories

Oh and Keckers, I bought my house because of its ten minute walk to the stadium, nothing sad about it!

 

[Matt Gascoine]

I was born in London and only my grandfather was into football (spurs fan), and when i was 9 we moved to Norfolk a tiny village called Oulton (not the one in suffolk). i cant remember the year but the first match i went to we played Spurs my Grand father took me so he could see his team they had Gazza and Lineker and i could have become a spurs fan but as a young boy i was awestruck by the noise and bright colours form the Norwich fans. so my obsession with Norwich started. 

I had a season ticket for about 9 seasons but then uni got in the way and then work and just as i had got some dispossiable income and thought i would get another one my wife told me she was expecting so thats kind of put a freeze on that for a while.

I cant really go to that many games as the prices are just to much I do go to the cup games with my kids and they both love it and i still get that buzz when i walk up the steps and see the pitch

 

[Brian Fantana]

I was born in Kings Lynn but at the age of 4 my Dad was offered a job in Weston-super-Mare and so off we went. I grew up there and was a Norwich fan because my family were, and being a contrary little sod I didn't want to be a Liverpool fan like the rest of my friends. I remember my dad taking me to the Burtons in Kings Lynn to buy my first Norwich kit (the bird poo kit) and I still own the full kit and intend to put my son in it as soon as he is big enough! When I was a lad we didn't go to see any live football, my Dad has always followed Norwich although not as avidly as I have but he had no interest in going in person.

I left Weston to go to University in Kent, went back to the West Country for a year and then went back to Uni for another year. I applied for a job with the Civil Service and having selected London as my preferred location ended up in Maidstone (close I guess). I spent ten years living there working in Maidstone for a while and then commuting to Whitehall for 6 years - fun to begin with and then a chore after a while. Whilst working in London I took the opportunity to go to as many games as possible - Leyton Orient in our L1 season and Watford on a Tuesday(?) stand out.

My long suffering wife is now a City fan too, the pressure made it inevitable. I had tickets for a lot of our games in our L1 and Championship years and I secured two for Portsmouth expecting a great game. One week before we found out my wife was pregnant and, having recently had a miscarriage I suggested she skip the game. I was told to do one and when the goal went in I celebrated for the first five seconds before trying to calm Mrs HA done enough to stop her jumping around - whilst also trying to celebrate. So, I, Mrs HA and Master HA have been on the pitch at Fratton Park to celebrate a Norwich promotion (he'll love that when he is older).

In April of this year I left the Civil Service and went to work with a friend of mine in Norwich, I now live in Taverham and have use of a season ticket for most matches. We all love the area and it feels fantastic to live here. Long may it continue.

 

[SussexYellow]

Born and bred in East London by rights I should be a West Ham fan. My dad tried hard enough! My first game was the 1963 Youth Cup final in which West Ham overturned a 2 goal deficit to beat Liverpool. The West Ham team featured Harry Rednapp but the golden boy was John Sissons who went on to play for us briefly. I also went to the 1965 European Cup Winners Cup Final at Wembley to watch West Ham lift the trophy beating Munich 1860 2 - 0. Now if ever there was an occasion that should inspire you to support a team then surely it was that. But I just did not feel the love.

I went to UEA in 1969.  In October of my second year I finally got out of bed in time to go to a Saturday game and I thought I would pop along to Carrow Road as a been there, done that, got the tee shirt experience whilst in Norwich. Little did I imagine what effect it would have. Getting up in time for games was now no longer a problem, and I immediately became a regular passionate supporter at Carrow Rd. 

Moved away from Norwich in 1973 and have been an exile ever since. Distance, life, marriage, kids, career, divorce, second marriage and choosing to play competitive sport intervened and effectively then made me a plastic for a long time, just getting to the odd away game. But the passion remained, my mood affected by City's results. When you only see the odd game and a bit on TV it is hard to keep in touch, so I got a lot from these forums when they started, particularly the pink un. However I never felt qualified to contibute in those days.

A weekend in Norwich in September 2010 gave me the opportunity to get to Carrow Road again. The Barnsley game which we won 2 - 1. As we left our seats I looked around and said to my wife I want to do that again. Retirement soon after has given me the time and opportunity to get to games again which I did increasingly regularly after that Barnsley game and I am now proud to be season ticket holder sitting in the Jarrold. Now in my 3rd season as a season ticket holder. I live in Horsham, West Sussex and it is a 320 mile round trip home games. But I love my trips to Carrow Road and love visiting the City.