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Londoners score tasty result off the field in Wellington

28 July 2014

Londoners score tasty result off the field in Wellington

While visiting West Ham fans from London were left grasping for a result on the field during the recent Football United Tour to New Zealand, they certainly made up for it off the pitch.

A pre match brunch in Wellington prior to their game with Sydney FC featured the Blackball Salami Company’s range of products including pepperoni salami, black pudding and dry cured bacon.

Fan group leader, Chas Sturton of London, said the Blackball bacon and black pudding was probably the best he had ever tasted, “we have travelled a fair bit with the team over the years to friendlies around the world but the food and hospitality in New Zealand was something else.”

Mr Sturton was among a group of English supporters who followed their teams to New Zealand. His son Paul was also on the trip.

“It’s often said that God invented war to teach Americans geography,” Paul said. “We learn geography through football. We’ve followed West Ham through North America, China and parts of Europe we’d never have heard of otherwise.”

Both 40 man squads from West Ham and some visiting fans were presented with Welcome to New Zealand packs in London prior to departing, containing delicacies and luxuries provided by iconic New Zealand companies to give a pre-tour taste of Kiwi hospitality.

Blackball Salami Company products were included in the New Zealand presentations.

The packs contained Pure South lamb cuts from Alliance Group, olive oil from The Village Press, tomato sauce, peaches and baked beans from Watties, confectionery from RJ’s Liquorice in Levin, beer from Parrot Dog Brewery in Wellington, and Peter Yealands Wines’ gold medal sauvignon blanc.

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Other Welcome Pack goods included New Zealand books provided by the New Zealand Book Council via publishers Random House, VUP, New Holland and Penguin. Kathmandu supplied the 80 black backpacks holding all the goodies.

The packs also included DVT travel health socks from The Merino Company, essential to preserve the circulation of those star athletes en route. Also included was the July issue of Wellington’s fish head magazine, providing a profile of Wellington as pre-reading for the squad members for the July 26 double-header there.

Other Welcome Pack partners, Cathay Pacific Airlines and Mainfreight, provided assistance in getting goods and personnel to Britain for the presentation.

ENDS

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