NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Sport / Football

Stuart Dye: Crazy fan's mad dash across the globe for 90 minutes of football

Stuart Dye
By Stuart Dye
Head of Print Content·Herald on Sunday·
13 May, 2017 05:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Stuart Dye is flying to the UK and back in a long weekend to watch the footy. Photo / Getty Images

Stuart Dye is flying to the UK and back in a long weekend to watch the footy. Photo / Getty Images

Stuart Dye
Opinion by Stuart Dye
Stuart Dye is NZME's Head of Print Content overseeing the Herald, five regional mastheads and 17 community titles.
Learn more
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

'What if your team loses?" This is the second thing people say when I tell them I am flying to England to watch a football match then flying straight back home again.

That's a round journey of, give or take, 36,648km and about 55 hours travel time, in exchange for fewer than 55 hours in London. All to watch 22 men kick a ball for 90 minutes.

And this isn't the national side, nor a top Premier League team. It's not even a team you're likely to have heard of. It's Tranmere Rovers. Yes, I know: "Who?"

Tranmere play in the fifth tier of English football - think, perhaps, whatever is below the Heartland Championship. It's the semi-professional division below the actual league - a footballing Hades.

The game on Sunday at Wembley Stadium is Rovers' chance to win promotion to the professional ranks, the heady heights of League Two.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

They earned the right to this game with a victory confirmed last Sunday at 1am NZ time. By 1.01am I was searching for flights online.

Since then, that ear worm has been playing a constant loop in my mind: "What if your team loses?"

Strangely, it's to the tune of The Final Countdown by Europe.

The first thing people say - often eyeing me with a mixture of fear and sympathy - is: "Are you mad?"

Football with Mum

The only thing more boring than listening to other people's obsessions is listening to their dreams.

Discover more

Football

Fan's 36,000km trip to see team lose

14 May 07:26 PM

So here is an extremely potted history of me and Tranmere Rovers: Club formed in 1884, me formed in 1975. We met in 1987. Rovers were a gutsy, unglamorous club in the shade of their Merseyside neighbours Liverpool and Everton. But they were on the up and I was an impressionable tween - long before the word existed.

My mother insisted on taking me to my first game for safety reasons. She, a Methodist minister's wife, and I were intoxicated by the sweaty, heaving mass of fans; the singing and yelling; the industrial language. I was hooked.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Mum's safety concerns must have been allayed. She certainly never came to another game.

Tranmere were just out of administration, which proved a turning point, and over the next few years went from bottom of the pile to the brink of English football's top league.

Thirteen-year-old me was convinced my presence had played a part in that. Actually, 41-year-old me still believes that.

Football at that time - and for many years to follow - was more important than family.

Moving to New Zealand in the early noughties did little to diminish my support. I couldn't go to the games, of course, but followed avidly online. In the middle of the night.

The slump years came soon after I left the country. Again, can't help but think my absence played a part.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Appalling managerial appointments and more money troubles and The Mighty plummeted. In 2015, the club dropped out of the Football league for the first time in 94 years.

Two years on they are poised to escape Hades.

Spiritual and tribal

I own 13 Tranmere Rovers football tops (3 signed). My car registration is TRFC. My twitter handle is @tranmere10. All my passwords are ... hmm. Better change them.

Football is often described as a religion in the UK - like rugby in New Zealand. But it always struck me as something more fundamental, spiritual and tribal.

Fans show incredible dedication. My global dash, ludicrous as it is, does not mark me out as unusual. A Sydney Tranmere fan has fundraised online to make a similar journey to mine. Others are coming from Memphis, Hanoi, Thailand and Perth.

I am not alone

Booking in the early hours was frantic. It doesn't take a maths wizard to figure out one delay would bugger up the entire plan. So, no pressure Cathay Pacific.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Franz Kafka wrote of obsession: "Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly."

Does obsession fade as one gets older? Of course, life gets in the way.

But Kafka also wrote: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Actually, that was Ferris Bueller.

And if Tranmere lose? It'll still be a dinner party story for years to come. Or perhaps I'll never mention it again.

• Follow the journey on Twitter @tranmere10

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Football

English Premier League

'Unique tribute': Liverpool to retire Jota's shirt in his honour

11 Jul 10:01 PM
Football|english premier league

Speeding likely cause of Diogo Jota car crash: Police

08 Jul 07:28 PM
New Zealand|wellington

‘Give it our all’: How Napier City Rovers' season hangs on crucial matches ahead

08 Jul 05:00 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Football

'Unique tribute': Liverpool to retire Jota's shirt in his honour

'Unique tribute': Liverpool to retire Jota's shirt in his honour

11 Jul 10:01 PM

Jota and his brother died in a car crash in northern Spain this month.

Speeding likely cause of Diogo Jota car crash: Police

Speeding likely cause of Diogo Jota car crash: Police

08 Jul 07:28 PM
‘Give it our all’: How Napier City Rovers' season hangs on crucial matches ahead

‘Give it our all’: How Napier City Rovers' season hangs on crucial matches ahead

08 Jul 05:00 PM
Billionaire-backed Western Springs stadium bid pulled from race

Billionaire-backed Western Springs stadium bid pulled from race

07 Jul 10:00 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP