Plants, animals and football

[Paul mabbott]

Writing as someone who campaigned for the greening of Leyton Orient (such as planting woodland in the visitors end at Brisbane Road), I have always been struck by teams' nicknames. Nowadays these seem to be made up but in the past they were either (a) allusions to local industries (the Hatters, Blades, Cobblers ...) or (b) to wildlife - not always for obvious reasons.
So Brighton, Cardiff, Newcastle, Kettering are known by names of animals and plants. Anyone got a list? Does your local team have something surprising?

[Kymba]

Wowwwwwwwww am impressed you actually admit to being an Orient fan!

Derby County are "The Rams"
Watford are "The Hornets"
Swansea City are "The Swans"

[Ollie]

My three nearest football teams are as follows

Scunthorpe United: The Iron. Scunthorpe was a town with a large steel making industry years ago.

Grimsby Town: The Mariners. Obviously as it was and still is a fishing port.

Brigg Town: The Zebras. No idea why they are The Zebras.
Roger

[jennyb]

Not my local clubs, but

Norwich - canaries
Bournemouth - cherries
Swindon - robins

Jenny

[Duke of York]

As I'm orgininally from York, I'm a York City fan (or should that be I am the York City fan ) and for obvious reasons we are the Minstermen

And your suggestion for planting woodlands sounds good Paul although I'd suggest York grow them in front of our goal and I thought you were a Spurs fan Paul given your comment the other night?????

[jennyb]

Here's a full list

List of English football club nicknames - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lots of wildlife names.

Jenny

[Kymba]

Tut !! Jenny thats cheating

[thunder]

Cambridge United are known as 'The Ewes'. Don't know why!

henrya

[brainfarmer]

huddersfield town are the terriers. not exactly wild but an animal

[svenrufus]

As Paul says, my home town Brighton is known as 'The Seagulls' along with probably many other seaside clubs. Of course, on recent form, Brighton is also called a lot of other things by its afficionados, most of which are not repeatable on a family forum

I grew up in Southend on Sea, who were the 'Shrimpers' - does that count? Bit of a cross over between industry and species there....

[Paul mabbott]

Originally Posted by Duke of York

......... and I thought you were a Spurs fan Paul given your comment the other night?????

Well, I've always supported my local team so, since I moved around a bit then I've picked up a lot of clubs (except when I lived in Highbury). Started off with Leicester (the filberts or the foxes) changed to QPR in Notting Hill (they don't have a sensible nickname - 'Super Hoops', I ask you ) .... ending up with the Blades. Often went to Tottenham - nice ground, usually good play - of course, the Hostspur is a fighting cock.

[Paul mabbott]

Perhaps they once had a relationship with Derby County ('The Rams')?

Originally Posted by thunder

Cambridge United are known as 'The Ewes'. Don't know why!
henrya

[eeyore]

what i dont get is when the mascots dont follow the name

okay leicester foxes - mascot, filbert the Fox this makes perfect sense

MK dons on the other hand - having allowed AFC wimbledon to have the womble mascot backrather than choosing a comic spanish don which would have been eminently sensible with the name the dons instead chose to have mooooey and donny the concrete cows

they also have the really dignified rule that when they score all the fans are supposed to shout moooooooooooooooooo mind you i've been to about 10 games this season and only had to mooooooooo once

[Paul mabbott]

Originally Posted by eeyore

...........when they score all the fans are supposed to shout moooooooooooooooooo mind you i've been to about 10 games this season and only had to mooooooooo once

Could have been even quieter if you supported Lancaster City - BBC SPORT | Football | Non League | Lancaster, you have nil points

[Paul mabbott]

Since Watford are called the hornets why do they have what looks like a reindeer on their badge?