of loyal Bears who are hungry to see their heroes take to the turf at
Sydney FC's ground on 25 July. It's likely to be a week to remember
and we fully intend to uphold the traditions of Rangers fantastic
away support.
The Kiwi true Blues (or KTB) is the umbrella supporters club for all
New Zealand based Bears. Founded in Hamilton in early 2001, the club
has members from Dunedin in the South Island to Mangawhai in the
North Island. The club has active branches in Auckland, Waikato,
Tauranga, Wanganui and Wellington, where Bears living in (or simply
visiting) NZ regularly turn up to watch live games.
Since its inception, the KTB has had its ups and downs, most notably
as a result of Sky TV dropping the rights to the Scottish game over
here. This led to an extended period of hibernation for the Bears on
these shores. There was a die-hard core who gathered to watch dodgy
Internet webcasts (and generally annoy the hell out of their
neighbours with raucous singing), but thankfully those days are gone!
Rangers' run to the Uefa cup final in 2007-2008 rekindled significant
interest in the KTBs and Bears have been drawn out to once more
support the club. As well as the active branches, we also get
interest from other areas around NZ where groups of supporters want
to form their own clubs. Thanks to Setanta (something I'm sure would
never be said in Scotland!) the lure of "live" football has enabled
clubs to attract new members, and we also get a fair number of
tourists popping in.
The Paddington pub in Auckland hosted the Uefa Cup final live and we
had a tremendous turnout. Following the success of this venue, the
President of the club at that time, approached the manager with a
view to it becoming the "home" for the Auckland-based Bears. We've
been there ever since.
Given our kick-off times are far from sociable, it's very handy that
the Paddington has a 24-hour licence and there are upwards of 50
regular members. For one particular Old Firm game, that had an ideal
kick off time of 11:30pm, we had over 100 loyal Bears in attendance.
We sang our hearts out from start to finish. The place was bouncing
and it was a great moment to see so many Rangers fans in Auckland
finally come together.
We now have an extensive email database and have been successful at
putting Rangers fans from all over NZ in touch with their local
branch. As always with Supporters Clubs, there's lots of hard work
to keep the club going and volunteers are always welcome.
2009-2010 was probably the Club's most successful season to date. We
had over 60 regular members, a stall at the Auckland Highland Games
(where the queues for our Scotch pies, square sliced sausage, tattie
scones and other gourmet delights were legendary) an Old Firm charity
match (which we won 3-0), a road trip to Wellington, where all active
clubs were represented, to watch Ian Ferguson's North Queensland Fury
in action, and finally hosting the Oceania Rangers Supporters
Association (ORSA) Annual General Meeting. This was held in New
Zealand for the first time ever. Oh yes, and there was the small
matter of 2 in a row being celebrated at some ungodly hour of the
morning!
If you happen to be a Bear in NZ looking for your local club, or are
simply down this way on holiday, look us up at http://
kiwitrueblues.webs.com/
Our contact details are on the web and we'd be more than happy to
catch up at our next event. We generally list any games that we are
showing, but if not, just drop us an email and we will get back to you.
We are members of ORSA and play an active role in all things Rangers
in the Oceania region. You can find out more about ORSA at their
site and they can put Bears in touch with their local club across
anywhere in Oceania. They also have details on all that's going on
in Sydney while the team is over. Look them up at http://
www.oceaniarsa.com/
Yours in Blue,
KEV