Claret & Blue vs. Claret & Blue
March 13, 2022 at 10:18 am Leave a comment
This Sunday afternoon we’ll watch West Ham hosting the team from which – according to a common, but also disputed story – they got their first claret and blue kits around 1900.
The story is that the kits were won in a bet at a Birmingham fair. William Belton, a well known London based sprinter is said to have beat four Aston Villa players in a race, and when they were unable to pay the bet, a complete team’s football kits where handed over and finally given to the Thames Ironworks team where Belton was involved in coaching. Subsequently claret and blue was also used in addition to the original Oxford blue colours of Thames Ironworks.
The club was reorganised and named West Ham United in 1900 and moved into their “Boleyn Ground” near Upton Park tube station in 1904. In 1903 the Hammers permanently adopted claret and blue as their home colours, using them until today.
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EXTRA TIME 
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