In the summer of 1997, a small band of ex-pats in the USA, decided to come together in a unique way to form a Fan Club. The way they went about it was over the Internet via the Watford Mailing List (WML). First Paul Green based in Connecticut and Gerard Gartside in neighboring Massachusetts emailed each other about the idea to start a US based supporters club. Aptly named New England Watford Fan Club or NEWFC for short, they spread the word over Internet Relay Chat( IRC); where Watford fans from all over the world get together in a "Chat Room", to listen to Radio commentary of a WFC game, typed in by a listener in the UK.

Over the coming months and years the group has conitinued to grow and now has members in 14 States, as well as Canada, Puerto Rico and Brazil. "We used the name New England, not only because of the area known by that name on the Northeast part of the US but also because a lot of town names are the same as towns back in the UK", states Paul Green. "We exchange programmes and Watford Observer match reports, along with the occasional video of Watford highlights and games shown on Sky Sports".

Currently Three Counties Radio (3CR), covering the Herts, Beds and Bucks area are covering Watford games "Live" via the Internet, using a Windows Media Audio feed. Anyone using the Windows Media Player software (available to download at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/players.asp) can listen to commentary by Simon Oxley of 3CR.To connect to "Live" commentary of a Watford game go to the Official web site at: www.watfordfc.com and click on "Match Live"

Any USA based Hornet interested in joining NEWFC can contact Tim Tweddell by e-mail at north4e@earthlink.net
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