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Bloody Tourists

3 min read
by Paul Fellowes
After moving to Australia, Paul Fellowes discovered a whole new way of supporting the team we love. With an impending return trip to the Lane, he asks the question... Am I a "tourist"?

A 1-0 victory against Aston Villa on 24th December 2002 with Jamie ‘who’s got a lovely wife’ Redknapp scoring the only goal was the last time I sat in the stands at White Hart Lane.

My new adventure was starting and I would be 12,000 odd miles away from my beloved Spurs and the 35,000 mates I had on a regular basis. Before I left I went fairly regularly, did the odd away game and had the pleasure of seeing the likes of Hoddle, Hazard, Ardiles and Gascoigne in the flesh and now I’d be stranded, stuck in front of the box at 3am once a month, if I was lucky, no internet streams, no dodgy boxes to plug into the telly, nothing.

Fortunately a mate of mine pointed me in the direction of OzSpurs, at the time, an unofficial supporters group based in Sydney and a whole new Tottenham experience was about to begin.

What totally blew me away, the first time I walked into The Shannon pub in the back streets of Sydney was how many Australians there were, not born in London and moved out when they were 5 or something but proper dyed in wool Aussies, people who’d never set foot on Tottenham High Road, let alone the Lane and these Antipodean mentalists were up and about, travelling into the city, sometimes for an hour or more, to watch Tottenham, my Tottenham. There was a website and a forum, where we’d chat, arrange meets and as things grew fans from all over the country would start doing the same thing.

As you will have just discovered from the live show, a pub with 250 Spurs fans watching a game is truly an experience and I’ve had the pleasure at several nationals of doing this with Spurs fans from all over Australia. All this stuff only happens because of the drive and determination of a few people. On the committee of OzSpurs (or Australia Spurs, now they’re all official) sit ,and have sat a few expats but mostly Australians, including one who at 14 built the website and was one of the first to talk to me at 3am in the Shannon.

Yeah right, but what the hell does this have to do with football tourists?

Let’s start with Tottenham as tourists, for the past two years we’ve been lucky enough to have Tottenham visit Australia and many commentators, podcasters and journalists alike have conveyed their opinions on the pointlessness, money grabbing, tiring waste of time that these tours are, 80,000 watched Spurs in Sydney, the club recognised the efforts of the supporters club and allowed the supporters club to nominate children to lead the team out, helped the club arrange an evening with Ossie Ardiles and gain access to open training sessions.

People flew in from all over Australia and beyond to be part of this, hundreds of fans from all over the country met the team at the airport to sing songs and cheer them into the land down under, the Ossie night sold out, the open training was over subscribed and the kids that led out the team have a moment that they will treasure for the rest of their lives.

Personally, I was in intensive care on life support, whilst my children led the team out, I knew that despite my predicament, that they would regret it if they didn’t . My Missus, who knows the square root of sod all about football, was desperate for me to see the game, so despite the coma she had a TV wheeled into my room for me to “watch” and may have unplugged the life support a little bit to plug it in.

Fast forward 12 months and Spurs are in Melbourne, again people fly in from all over the country and beyond and despite the promoters naivety in trying to fill a 100,000 seater stadium for 5 nights, about 80,000 all up see Spurs games, we have a night with Ledley and one of the best weeks I’ve ever had supporting Tottenham.

And now? I’m coming home and I’m buying tickets for a game at the lane, for me and my kids, (who would frankly sell their mother for the chance). Am I a tourist? Is the 23 year old boy that came out to pubs at 3am to watch Spurs when he was 14 a tourist? Or the bloke from Adelaide that saved for 5 years to go to England and watch Spurs, is he a tourist?

We are all Spurs fans, we all have our Spurs stories and before you label someone as a tourist spoiling the game, maybe take the time to find out, you might be surprised.

All views and opinions expressed in this article are the views and opinions of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of The Fighting Cock. We offer a platform for fans to commit their views to text and voice their thoughts. Football is a passionate game and as long as the views stay within the parameters of what is acceptable, we encourage people to write, get involved and share their thoughts on the mighty Tottenham Hotspur.

Paul Fellowes

Tottenham tragic, expat & sometime songwriter

5 Comments

  1. neil
    30/01/2017 @ 4:25 pm

    Good on you mate totally agree with u .done same since watching spurs Chelsea 1967 fa final

  2. Borris
    30/01/2017 @ 5:35 pm

    Sod off you tourist 😛✌🏻️

  3. Tony Rogers
    30/01/2017 @ 6:15 pm

    Love this article. As a Spurs supporter living in Ireland since 1981 when I was 16 I could really relate to this. COYS

  4. toby4eva
    31/01/2017 @ 11:39 am

    Fabulous Paul!

    Great read.

    Apart from the intensive care and life support bits.

    Hope all is ok my son!

    I’m Sydney born and bred.

    As a young Aussie doing the UK pilgrimage I happened to be in London in May 1982.

    Fluked a ticket to the FA Cup replay against QPR at the old dame.

    Centenary Year.
    Falklands War.
    No Ozzie or Ricky.
    Glenn “God” Hoddle stokes the winning penalty.
    Iconic captain Steve Perryman lifts the jug.

    I’ll never forget walking back down Wembley Way to the home tube screaming…

    “When Steve
    Went up
    To lift the FA Cup
    We were there!
    We were there!”

    Wow – I still have goosebumps.

    Let’s do it this year for the Lane!!!

    PS – both my sons are converted to the cause but we are yet to experience OzSpurs.

    Next!

    COYS!!!,

  5. Steven Shaw
    02/02/2017 @ 9:44 am

    Gidday Paf,
    Well done, great to hear you back to The Lane. Treasure the time with you family.
    You a true Yiddo
    COYS

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