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Earlier this year the Bluebirds DownUnder(BDU)
website received its ten thousandth visitor. The Cardiff
City supporters' group's founder, Richard Jeffery, is quick
to add that for a short period the site counter was down
so the milestone was actually reached earlier. It's no surprise
that 'Captain Rich', as he is known within the group, is
excited about the Internet as it played a key role in the
creation of the BDU. "The internet has given us a huge
leg up", he says, reflecting on the club.
The captain is an avid story teller, and this quality becomes
apparent as he explains how the BDU began, really by chance.
After settling in Australia, Jeffery kept an eye out for
news from back home in Wales and about three years ago,
he began to notice that Cardiff City were improving and
had been promoted.
When they reached the old Second Division, he started following
their progress on the Internet and in the process, discovered
a message board for City fans.
Back in October 2002 he discovered that a small number of
the contributors, were living in Sydney. He contacted half
a dozen of them via email and eventually, after many suggestions,
they planned to meet up in a pub in Gladesville to get together
and watch videos of recent City matches.
The event was announced on the message board and on that
first night, at least fifty people turned up. Now, with
around 120 registered members throughout the country, the
BDU is one of the largest supporter groups for a British
soccer team in Australia.
The group's close association with the Internet is appropriate
on another level because like the world wide web, it defies
the boundaries of space and time, creating a valuable link
between Australia and Wales. This connection is appreciated
by both tourists from Wales and ex-pats who now call Australia
home.
The BDU has gained quite a following back in Wales helped
along by backpackers, the unmistakable BDU T-shirts which
pop up all over Cardiff and, of course, the Internet.
The captain has fielded a number of inquiries from people
back home planning trips to Australia. "I started thinking
I was a Travel Agent", he jokes. "One bloke wrote
to me and said, 'I'm coming to Australia. I'm landing in
Perth and then I'm coming to Sydney. Which bus should I
get?'" he fondly recalls.
But more importantly than lending a hand to confused backpackers,
the group is a sanctuary for its members who share a feeling
of mutual trust. Many of them now consider themselves Australians
but the BDU allows them to stay in touch with their roots
in Wales. "There's a large part of them that will always
be Welsh, that will always be Bluebirds," says Jeffery.
At the first meeting down in Melbourne, an elderly man approached
Captain Rich.. He had been living in Australia for over
thirty years without ever returning to Cardiff. He told
the captain it was one of the best nights of his life, being
able to meet up with his countrymen and discuss Cardiff
City once again on the other side of the world. "You
get a lot of pleasure out of that," he says.
The link between Wales and Australia
provided by the club has been enhanced of late by the Bluebird's
signing of Australian defender, Tony Vidmar. His first season
at the club saw him recognised as the Player if the Season
by supporters and sponsors alike and helped to boost the
profile of the BDU back home.
At the end of the season, Vidmar presented his shirt to
the Valley Rams, a City supporters group in Wales which
had sponsored his shirt. They in turn asked him to present
it to the BDU when he returned to Australia to play against
Turkey. He met up with the group in Sydney and after presenting
them with his City jersey he gave them the Australian shirt
he had worn against Turkey. In a powerful symbolic gesture,
they gave it back to him to present to the Valley Rams.
"That brings a lump to my throat,"says Jeffery,
"It makes you feel part of it - connected."
The BDU has always been centred on the football club it
supports. At its first meeting, the Organising Group determined
that the group's purpose was "To provide an opportunity
for Cardiff City Supporters in Australia to meet socially,
watch recent games and promote the best interests of the
club."
Five BDU members flew back to Cardiff just to watch the
playoff against Queens Park Rangers for promotion to First
Division in 2003 They left Australia on the Wednesday, arrived
in Wales on Saturday morning and on Sunday witnessed City's
1-0 victory in extra time at the Millennium Stadium. By
the following Wednesday, they had returned to Australia
and were back at work.
At the same time, the BDU means so much more to many people.
"The club is the focus point but it's also a catalyst
for something else," says Jeffery. "We have people
coming along now who grew up in Wales who absolutely hated
soccer and Cardiff City in particular because of the reputation
they had. There's no way they would ever go down to City
to watch a game of soccer."
In Sydney, the group catches up every six to eight weeks
at The Kauri Hotel in Glebe. At the gatherings - "meetings
are too official," explains Jeffery - the tone is kept
informal. "We don't want to make it too serious. In
the end the lads don't want anything special. We just sit
there, talk, watch the game, have a laugh and I try to flog
a few shirts to the boys," Jeffery says.
One of the members, now back in Wales, was so impressed
with the BDU that he wanted to represent them. So Dave Povall,
known as 'Pov', takes a Bluebirds Downunder flag to every
city match. He has photos of it taken everywhere he goes,
even in Red Square in Moscow, but it is never in the match
videos the group watches. "He never puts it in the
right place," jokes Jeffery. "He's got one position
where he always puts it and we can never see it."
'Pov' burst upon the scene at the first gathering ever,
wearing a Lenny Lawrence T-shirt and full of colourful language.
Apparently he had just found out about the event from a
mate back in Cardiff who sent him a text message. "The
guys a nutter. He's a brilliant guy," says Jeffery.
"If every member was like him we'd be dangerous because
he never stops!"
The Captain is proud of what the club has achieved and hopes
it will continue to be there for its members. "I'd
like to think that we'd still be here going the way we are
ten from now," he says. After a slight pause he adds
that he would like to see the messageboard on the group's
website being used more.
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