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We asked the Kiwi Hammers to tell us about their supporters group. They had this to say...
The Kiwi Hammers were founded in February 2012, by Joe Foale and Nick Daly, after a chance encounter at the Wellington Regional Stadium to watch our local club Wellington Phoenix. With nowhere, and no-one to watch the ever likely playoff final, we decided to market the idea of meeting at the Four Kings. We started off quite small with around 40 people at the Blackpool game but soon thanks to word of mouth we had a few signed up to the created Facebook group.
However, thanks to one moment where fortune did not hide from us (and probably as a desperate attempt to retain the Maori Monster) it was announced that West Ham would be touring New Zealand in 2014. Kiwi Hammers were (in conjunction with the Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne Hammers) given preference by West Ham for all organizing all events for the Hammers fans, and thanks to some aggressive advertisement through newspapers, internet forums, word of mouth and radio and some plain old hard work by Joe, Nick, Fiona Watson & Andrew Quinn our Kiwi Hammers faithful grew from around 70, to well over 600+.
Whilst the results did not go our way after a stunning 3-1 loss to Sydney & 2-1 loss to Wellington Phoenix, our legacy lives on with the the latter team adopting our rendition of Twist & Shout which we sung loud and proud for well over 2 hours during the two games.
Due to the time difference, bars being closed for live games & lack of on demand option this season it has been difficult for us to continue our regular meet ups however we remain active on Facebook with the odd large meet up for the games where there are venues available, we've begun to get some great momentum & exposure with some Kiwi Hammers merchandise to wear our colours loud and proud from the other side of the world.
The Kiwi Hammers is the Official West Ham supporters club for New Zealand.
COYKH