Bjorn Jonsson (Iceland)
As I've said before ,somehow Alan Hinton's shoes are my first recall of Derby County Football Club. At the time (1970 or so) we had 'English Game' of the week on television- one week after it was played. I quickly had to learn basic English because Hugh Johns was the commentator (later the rules were changed so we get Icelandic commentators babbling away in a studio and are none the wiser!)
Of course DCFC were the best team at the time and every kid remotely interested in footie up here has to pick a side to support (nowadays it's only Manu it appears)
A couple of years later i got my first "Derby shirt " a white shirt ,black collar on to which I sewed the Ram and a No 10. It's never been easy finding DCFC things up here, I became a shoot goal subscriber in 1973 and then during my years in secondary school and University I followed the English game by listening to the World Service.
As my own career in football went upwards so my beloved DCFC went downward and it became harder and harder to find any news . I moved to Norway and played there a couple of year and then back home enjoyed moderate success in the top division here (got a runner up medal in league and cup plus an ever so memorable European tie vs Dundee Utd in '91)
My first visit to England was in 1985 when my team went for a pre-season trip to London and I saw a couple of games -no Derby though.
Then in '91 in some Glasgow alley I found my first real Derby shirt in a street market - it was the bar code thingy !
Soon after I hooked up on the internet and joined this strange band of people called Ramsnet! This was in the promotion season .
I still haven't been to Derby ,PPS or anything like that .Some day I aim to meet up with the crowd at the Smithfield !
Finally a couple of points to think about
I studied English at University probably because of my obsession withthe English game
I wrote my BA thesis about some of DH Lawrence's short stories- even translated one for national Radio because he was from somewhere near Derby.
When returning from Norway I decided to join a footie club whose colours are Black and White i.e the Derby Strip
c2001 Ice- Bjorn