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| QK Southampton's snowy welcome sign. |
QK (or Queen's Keep) FC are my local Hampshire Premier League club. They used to play at the Civil Service Ground in Shirley, sharing the space with Ordnance Survey FC - however, when that open space was sold, they were forced to move. They now play at the Lordshill Recreation Ground on the edge of the large Millbrook estate, approximately a ten-minute walk from Team Solent's new sporting complex. The differences between the two clubs' homes are obvious: QK's ground is open for anyone to walk through, and attracts all the local vandals, thieves, graffiti "artists" and druggies (who use the dugouts as shelters when they're doing whatever it is that druggies do); whereas Team Solent's ground is safely enclosed and - so far - is untroubled by the local ne'er-do-wells.
QK applied for promotion to the Wessex League last season, but were denied on the grounds that they have no floodlights, no seats and no covered spectator facilities - all of which would cost a great deal of money, and would doubtless either be stolen, broken or set on fire within weeks of being erected anyway.
So, plenty of disadvantages playing here. One advantage for me, however,
is that it's easy to walk around and take photos, so when the snow fell
this weekend, it was the obvious destination for me and my camera. This
is what I found...
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| Snow melting outside the rock solid, burglar-proof, fireproof container where the groundsman's equipment is kept. Beyond that, QK's café/changing room area, equally well-protected. |
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| Padlocked goalpost in the snow. |
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| QK's dugouts. |
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| Millbrook Towers, and what appears to be smoke rising from two fires on the estate. |
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