Amber Nectar

"Amber nectar" is also an advertising name for Fosters lager

Amber Nectar is a fanzine for the Football League Team Hull City A.F.C., created in 1998 by Tigers supporters Les Motherby and Andy Dalton.

The pair decided to create a fanzine after the end of Tiger Rag (1994-97) and its predecessors Hull, Hell and Happiness (1988-92), On Cloud Seven (1990-92), From Hull To Eternity (1990-92), Last Train To Boothferry Halt (1993) and Look Back In Amber (1992-94). Described as 'an uncensored forum for the Tiger Nation', the first issue was released on February 21st 1998. The hardcopy fanzine has not been published since February 2003 and Amber Nectar now exists primarily on the Internet.

Amber Nectar first appeared online in March 1998 via a crudely-designed website hosted by the free webspace provider Angelfire, but moved to a commercial hosting platform and the domain www.ambernectar.com in late 1999. Difficulties with the web host forced a move to a new domain, www.ambernectar.org in July 2006.

Motherby and Dalton are members of the Fans Liaison Committee (FLC), a fans task force that regularly meets with Hull City chairman Paul Duffen to discuss supporter issues. The FLC is responsible for many changes in club policies regarding ticket allocation, merchandising, stewarding and policing. The forums on the Amber Nectar website are used to post questions and topics that are taken to the FLC meetings for discussion.

Both Motherby and Dalton have represented Amber Nectar in the media, appearing on television (BBC Look North, ITV's Soccer Night, Sky News and Sky Sports), on radio (BBC Radio Humberside, BBC Radio Five Live, Viking FM, Yorkshire Radio and KCFM) and in print (The Independent, The Guardian, Yorkshire Post and Total Football magazine) to give opinions on Hull City affairs.

The pair also penned regular columns for the Hull Daily Mail newspaper from mid 1998 till May 2004. An article criticising the performance of the Tigers (and in particular defender Marc Joseph) in a 1-0 home defeat to Mansfield raised the ire of then manager Peter Taylor in late 2003 and led to the club banning the Hull Daily Mail from the training ground and KC Stadium press facilities for a time. Adam Pearson, Hull City's chairman at the time, later told the Amber Nectar editors that it wasn't the main article that caused offence, but the format of the fan written pieces which featured a 'pub team moment' section. This, Pearson felt, was disrespectful to professional footballers and an inappropriate feature for a newspaper covering it's local team to run.

The website has garnered praise in the football press and was listed as an example of a well-written fan site in the May 2007 issue of When Saturday Comes. An Amber Nectar article criticising a change in the Hull City crest was translated into Finnish and appeared in the magazine 'Tenun Vasen Jalka' (Tenun's left foot) in 1999.

Amber Nectar's forums are not bound by rules or regulations concerning language, argument or respect and therefore is known among Hull City fans for being forthright and unrestricted in its opinions. However, the forums are renowned for a high level of articulacy and have a policy of reprimanding members who use "text speak".

In 2006, the site offered free lapel badges to registered forum users, these badges bore the legend *PALC, an oft used abbreviation on the forums which means Perfectly Acceptable Lifestyle Choice.

Other terms unique to Amber Nectar and offered as gifts to the English language are 'meffotrons' and 'jenk'.

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