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The HamburgHammer Column

Barges, Bournemouth and Bristol Rovers

You know us Germans: We like to plan ahead, we like our efficiency and when we make a trip we like to cram in as much as we possibly can. Only when it comes to West Ham more often than not unexpected things can and do happen and despite being German I tend to like the surprises that happen to me when I’m over for my West Ham trips.
This latest one was unusual insofar as it wasn’t a WHTID meetup which meant that I had to make my own arrangements to socialise with fellow West Ham fans – more of that later. At least I got to briefly meet our own Daveinnotts who quickly chatted to me in the concourse at London Stadium after recognizing me, cheers for that pal!

And of course it was my first game at London Stadium, so the beginning of a new era in my West Ham supporting career so to speak as well. Flying in early morning on Friday into Heathrow was tricky as due to various congestion related issues and also a malfunctioning passenger bridge to boot my plane rolled seemingly aimlessly up and down the airfield for 40 minutes which would also be a familiar theme for the return leg of the journey. At the airport I was immediately approached by passport control staff when they saw my West Ham jacket, leading to a quickfire conversation about the game and the new stadium – again, this would be a recurring theme on this trip as West Ham simply appear to strike up a chord with fellow football fans and draw some kind of reaction, much more so than a lot of other clubs I reckon.

Meeting up with Mr.BSB at Dagenham East noonish he promptly fulfilled his part of the bet he had lost against me (I seem to remember it was about the outcome of a Wales game at the Euros) – and we had a little (double) pie&mash eating contest, of course we both demolished it, although he was a lot quicker I have to admit, then again I can use the excuse that I had already eaten a little breakfast as a starter kindly provided by British Airways, so BSB must have had a bit of a headstart there. Later on we headed to the club shop at London Stadium so I could pick up some new gear and help out the club with its debt in the process.
BSB tried to sort out some business of his own with the ticket office and he got really frustrated with them over the issue of upgrading kids’ tickets, going into a right rant, but BSB will probably tell you more about this himself eventually and rightly so as he’ll be in a much better position to explain than I could.

The day ended with a nice drink (or two) at The Cow pub near the stadium with Nigel Kahn, guardian of the Boleyn and keymaster of the Cockney Inclusion Zone, and his West Ham supporting mate Paul. We had a good laugh – it was only later though I found out that Nigel had, in my absence while I was getting in the next round and without my expressed written consent, well, he had basically put on all the gear I had just bought and also took a photo of it which I dare not show to the public (but which Nigel himself was brave enough to release in one of his comments yesterday).

Let me assure you though that you will never catch me draped in a West Ham flag, wearing a Hammers basecap, new scarf and a polo shirt while holding a large crest pennant in one hand and a West Ham coffee mug in the other – all at the same time. It looked ridiculous, make no mistake about it.
If you ever do see me like that in real life I’ll give you my official permission now to give me a proper slap around the ears should that ever happen!

HH at Little Heath

On to the next day and BSB and I headed to Little Heath to watch the U18s play Spurs U18s. Or maybe the U16s against their Tottenham counterparts. As both games were being played at the same time on adjoining pitches with a narrow stretch of grass in between for spectators and scouts to watch, it allowed people to switch between the games at regular intervals or even try to watch both at the same time. BSB actually had to obtain written permission by email from the club the evening before in order for me to attend the game at all as for some reason I seemed to have been confused with a football scout of an unnamed German club by the good people at the West Ham Academy at Little Heath HQ (despite wearing my West Ham jacket when we were there enquiring about the upcoming game the afternoon before), but that was eventually all dealt with and we could watch the game without any hassle.

The idea of watching two games at the same time was unusual for me to say the least and I mainly focused on the U18s game as I knew at least a few of our players in that team, but I obviously got distracted whenever crowd noise seemed to indicate interesting things happening on the U16 pitch. I can’t claim having recognised all our players, but I’m sure I saw Matt Carter, Declan Rice, Joe Powell, Anthony Scully and Vashon Neufville. Both BSB and I were most impressed though by our little #7 dashing down the right wing time and time again, showing some nice dribbling moves in the process and despite young Dan Kemp missing a penalty he was my man of the match.
DO keep in mind the name DAN KEMP – I reckon we’ll be hearing and seeing plenty of good things from him in the not too distant future.
West Ham still won 1:0 on the day with apparently the U16s losing by a big scoreline against Spurs, but as I had focused on the U18s game all was good.

Or was it really ? BSB had planned to go to Woking to watch Dagenham&Redbridge play their away game there. As traffic was fierce we were unlikely to make it there in time and as we wanted to watch the entire game at Little Heath we had to make alternative plans to get another football fix. Out came the fixtures list and we decided that our best bet was to go to Southend United who were playing Bristol Rovers that afternoon. Lovely Jubbly!

Southend Submarine View

We found Southend to be a good day out, lovely weather, very friendly club staff, decent atmosphere and a ground that was extremly old-school, slap bang in the middle of a residential area, well-worn, rusty, in a “could-do-with-a-dash-of-paint” kind of way. The game was entertaining enough (it ended in a 1:1 draw) but the stadium was light years away from what I was likely to witness at the London Stadium the day after. Talking of light years away, let me just say that certain seats at Southend’s ground are VERY close to the pitch (see pictures), so chaps like Nigel Kahn may be happy with that, on the other hand quite a number of seats pose certain, let’s say challenges for the fan. Like this one.

Southend Roof View

Or how about this one which is the one we ended up sitting in as we were free to move about as the game wasn’t sold out.

Southend Restricted View

I have to say I liked the Southend experience. Just like The Boleyn it had character and you felt that it had served the club for donkey’s years and that fathers were taking their kids there after having been taken there by their own dads decades ago. You get the picture. But character and soul can only come with time. It’d be unfair to expect the same level of character from our new home with the ribbon having been cut only a few weeks ago.

Right, on to matchday! As I mentioned before I had made other arrangements before my trip as BSB had to look after his grandchildren and therefore couldn’t go to a pub.
As I also read the Hammers Chat forum and have posted there occasionally, also exchanging messages with the two main guys there, Gonzo and Geo (a chap from near Aberdeen who travels 10.12 hours by coach when attending games), I was invited by them to join them for pre-match drinks (and a hog roast) alongside three barges moored at a canal not further away from London Stadium than a decent long Antonio throw-in travels.

While we were drinking and chatting I found out once again that you don’t remain a stranger for long when you meet fellow West Ham fans. I could oversee the main bridge leading to the stadium from my vantage point and there was a constant trek of claret&blue clad fans, young and old, families, groups of overseas fans, lending the place a contant buzz of excitement and anticipation.

I reached my seat just in time for kickoff and was sitting there with mouth wide open in amazement (standing up shortly after for the rendition of Bubbles of course).
I knew the ground was huge, but you only believe all that talk once you are inside and see it for yourself. The sheer volume of Bubbles made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and when I looked slightly to the right I saw that massive East Stand, heaving with claret&blue. Despite the size of the ground it felt strangely intimate and I can see the potential of this becoming a proper cauldron in future.
If I can say just one slightly negative thing: Despite wearing my glasses I couldn’t even read the names on the back of the shirts, even when the players were running towards my end of the ground – the players are very small indeed once you are in the Upper Tier, on the other hand you can see all the running patterns of every player, so if you like analysing the play as it develops the views and sightlines are pretty perfect really.

As a major surprise I was asked to have a video chat/post game analysis with Gonzo and Geo from Hammers Chat straight after the game from their seats which are basically just two sections further to the right from my season ticket seat. I was nervous as hell and also a bit anxious in terms of understanding Geo’s pretty strong Scottish accent, but overall it was great I reckon although of course you can immediately think of another thing or two you might have wanted to say just a few minutes later.

I’d like to thank Gonzo and Geo from Hammers Chat again. Just like our own wonderful blog they are doing a stellar job with their forum and their kindness and willingness to welcome me goes to show that there is room for cross-blog co-operation, support and friendship. Talking of friendship I have to extend my gratitude (as usual) to Mr.BSB and his wife Karen for having me and spending so much of their valuable time in order to make this yet another very special weekend.

I had plenty of time to kill on Monday as my flight was in the evening, so I took the opportunity to visit the Newham Bookshop which unfortunately was closed as it always is on a Monday, should have checked that online beforehand. But this gave me the chance to have one final look at the Boleyn which still looks pretty much its usual self from the outside at least – not for much longer though as it will be blown up in the process of Pierce Brosnan filming some kind of action thriller there.
I suppose it’s a weird way to flatten a football stadium, but at least that should add some proper credibility to the demolition scenes in the film.

I also spent some time seeing some of my favourite places in Central London (St.James’s Park and the Horses of Helios fountain near Piccadilly Circus for instance) and had a final pint of London Pride at the Roundhouse pub near Covent Garden. Wearing my West Ham polo shirt I immediately found myself in an extended footballing discussion with the bartender who turned out to be an Everton fan from London. He also was son to a mother who used to work in an Irish Bar in Hamburg for a number of years.
He of course dished out the usual claims about the taxpayer paying for our new stadium, West Ham getting a free deal etc. while I in return gleefully reminded him of our 3:2 come from behind win at Goodison last season – we had a good laugh and I got on the tube to Heathrow in good spirits..

At Heathrow Airport I drew several West Ham related reactions again. One staff member just did the crossed hammers in passing me by, shouting Come On You Irons!
At security check in another fellow started chatting about the Bournemouth game, telling me he was a Hammer and had desperately wanted to go, but couldn’t get a ticket.
And finally when boarding the plane, a nice middle-aged lady at the counter looked me in the eye and said “I’m afraid Mr.HamburgHammer, I cannot serve you while you are wearing that shirt. Your team ruined my childhood in 1975!” Turned out she was a Fulham fan – I’ve met several of them now and never had a problem, in fact I like Fulham as a club.

So I smiled back and replied “Well, there are several clubs who have ruined my life as a West Ham fan over the years too, on several occasions!” We ended up wishing each other well for the season and back home I went. Bittersweet really! Whenever I’m over I realise more and more how much I miss London and West Ham, so much so that I may indeed try to move there again eventually. As for the present I shall be looking forward to attending a lot more games than I used to do in past seasons.

It’s a great time to be a Hammer and we are heading in the right direction! The future is claret and blue! COYI!

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