1 – Big Ian’s Stag – March 2014
I’m not sure Big Ian’s Stag Doo was ever covered in the pages of Windmill Wonderland, but for those of you who weren’t there – it was epic! To summarise (in depth!), Lee organised a trip to Hamburg in Germany at the end of March 2014, taking in 3 football matches in the area between Friday to Monday, with the obligatory visit to the Reeperbahn for some, and copious amounts of Astra beer consumed all round by the group of 12.
After arriving on the Friday and familiarising ourselves with the area surrounding the handily placed Generator hostel (8 to a room in bunk beds with virtually zero air flow, plenty of bad smells, the worst snoring imaginable and ridiculous jokes at 2am in the morning) we made our way to the Hamburger Dom, a mahoosive fair which just happens to be located right next to St Pauli’s Millerntor Stadion, which was where we took in our first match. Greuther Fürth were the visitors for a Bundesliga II fixture and our tickets were in the away section, which looked pretty rudimentary in comparison to the rest of the ground, but the view of the pitch was still good.
St Pauli supporters have a long standing friendship with Scottish giants Celtic, and the game marked the annual visit of supporters of the Glasgow side. The atmosphere was electric, and all for 12 euros, roughly the same price we were paying to get into a Leamington game in the Conference North at the time.
Despite having a round trip of almost 747 miles there was a pretty healthy away support, their singers doing their utmost to make themselves heard. One thing that stuck with us all from the night was the intensity of the atmosphere – both sets of supporters barely paused for breath throughout the 90 minutes, and the stewards seemed quite happy to allow those leading the chanting to sit precariously on top of the perimeter fencing.
Another thing that stood out was that supporters were able to purchase beer and drink on the terraces, without a hint of trouble. The amount of plastic glasses on the terracing after the game had to be seen to be believed!
After witnessing an exciting 2-2 draw a brief sing song was had with some of the travelling supporters as we spread the Leamington word a little.
The following afternoon we ventured further into Hamburg to the Victoria-Stadion Hoheluft , home of SC Victoria Hamburg, to watch St Pauli’s Under 23 side take on SV Eichede in the Regionalliga Nord, roughly the equivalent of the Conference North. Having put one of our flags up on the fence prior to kick off we took up residence on the terrace behind the goal along from a small group of visiting supporters who proceeded to give their team some tremendous vocal support, along with an impressive array of flags.
Our first view of the Eichede supporters with which we were to become great friends..
Beer courage meant that the odd Brakes related chant slipped out but we were left to our own devices until just before half time, when one of the visiting supporters approached us and asked if somebody could help him. ‘We have bought you all a beer,’ he said, and so it began……
The second half of the game was spent learning each others songs, us waving the Eichede flags, and loudly helping our newfound companions get behind their team, who unfortunately slipped to a 2-0 defeat, not that you would have known it with the backing they received from these boys. Several of our group ended up swapping their stag doo t shirts with our new friends, to mild amusement.
The singing and merriment continued in the bar afterwards, much to the bemusement of the few locals that remained, and we parted ways promising that this would not be the last time we met.
A scorching hot Sunday saw us take a leisurely stroll through suburbia after a short journey on Hamburg’s excellent public transport network, to the Edmund Plambeck Stadion to take in Eintracht Norderstedt v BSV SW Rehden, again in the Regionalliga Nord. After the excitement of the previous two days it was perhaps inevitable that this game would come up short in the entertainment stakes, finishing 0-0 thanks to some poor finishing from the visitors striker. Despite that another cracking afternoon was had and our hostess in the Norderstedt clubhouse, while no doubt delighted with the unexpected extra revenue we provided, kindly provided us with various free shots, something which had also happened at the bar we visited after the match the previous day. Maybe it was their way of showing gratitude for the hundreds of euros we spent, who knows?!
Brakes on tour – 3rd stop – Norderstedt…..
We left Hamburg to embark on the journey home on the Monday with some great memories. Lee made two solo trips to further solidify the friendship, and we shared in the grief of our German pals as they mourned the loss of one of their number in December.
We welcomed Benni and Jonas to England at Christmas, where they were fortunate to witness one of Brakes’ best performances of the season as they trounced high flying Oxford City 4-0. They were then treated to the delights of Racing Club Warwick versus Southam United the following day. Unfortunately our scheduled fixture for the 28th December at Brackley had been played earlier in the season, so Jonas went off to Villa Park with Mr Holte to take in Villa’s game against Sunderland, unfortunately a 0-0, and Benni travelled with Simesy, JJ and myself to Tamworth to take in their game against Worcester City. It finished 1-0 to the hosts but the highlight was probably JJ berating Daniel Nti every time he touched the ball, after his snidey unpunished elbow robbed Leamington of Jordan Goddard for several games during an earlier fixture against Worcester.
Benny returned along with young Vassili for our trip to Stockport County on January 24th, and although Brakes were eventually to lose by 4 goals to 2 they gave it a damn good go, briefly dragging themselves back from 2 down in the second half as we again revelled in the surreal experience of watching our team in a stadium that had been hosting Championship fixtures in the Football League as recently as 2002.
Over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend we were visited by Benny, Jascha, Jonas, Malle, Micha and Johnny Marschner, one of the SVE players, as we travelled to Cheltenham to take on Gloucester City and then hosted Lowestoft Town on the Monday in two crunch games at the wrong end of the Conference North table.
We were also joined at Whaddon Road by our Swedish friend Martin Henriksson, one of the overseas Colchester United supporters who we befriended following our FA Cup tie there in 2005. He had previously attended 4-0 win at Cradley Town in April 2007 when we were on the verge of the Midland Alliance title. Sadly we were finding life at Step 2 just a teensy little bit tougher than it was at Step 5, and despite some tremendous support we were soundly beaten 3-1 by Gloucester, and then suffered the pain of a last minute defeat to Lowestoft on the Monday despite taking the lead through Jack Edwards.
It was disappointing that the lads were unable to witness a Leamington victory during their stay, hopefully we will have better luck when some of them return during this season.
Both sides continued to follow the fortunes of our respective teams as we looked forward to our return trip to Germany in May……..
Leamington FC's Independent Fanzine 
Doo? Do.
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Do do doooo!
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