QK Southampton v Infinity

The welcome sign at QK.

Star Date 2019, and HAH is still going, eight years on. And where was I this week? At the nearest ground to my home that I've not previously featured, QK Southampton. QK were formed in the Queen's Keep building in central Southampton in 1972 by my ex-union rep at my workplace, and he's been there ever since. They used to play at the old Civil Service ground in Shirley, but moved to their current ground in Lordshill when the Civil Service buildings shut down around twenty years ago (Boo! No more cheap beer for the hard-working civil servants of Southampton and their special guests!).

QK's ground was quite isolated until recently. There are a few old houses nearby in the area known as Hillyfields, but over the last couple of years, two to three hundred new houses have been built over the road on a new estate. Nearly finished now - you can see the concrete silos and unfinished roofs behind the changing rooms. As part of the deal to build on the fields where the local travellers and their horses used to dwell, Bloor Homes were to help QK upgrade their ground.

It's looking a lot smarter now than it did a few years ago. The highly-graffitied equipment container has been painted; another container has been placed next to it for the ref's changing room; the teams' changing rooms and cafe are also made out of containers in a U-shape on the halfway line; then there is a small new toilet block, painted bottle green like the ref's changing room.

A new entrance with a car park is currently being built. Unfortunately, a dump truck was left there overnight recently, and had disappeared by the next morning. Like a lot of clubs, QK suffer from the fact that some local people have no respect for others' property and will try to ruin all their hard work.

Talking of ruining hard work, the club erected a homemade stand during 2017, but the council didn't like it, so they had to take it down again. The concrete base is still there, so they might try again if planning permission is granted.

The competition on Saturday was the Southampton Divisional FA Intermediate Cup, which is open to clubs in the area which compete at Hampshire League level, plus the two senior divisions of the Southampton Saturday League. QK are struggling in the Hampshire Premier this season, although their form had been reasonable going in to the match against one of the Hampshire League's "Big Three", Infinity, who were clear favourites to win.

And so it proved. QK's young team conceded from a corner after just two minutes, as Mitch Fear rose highest at the back post to nod past Mike Adams in QK's goal. The experienced players of Infinity (most of whom have played at higher levels) controlled the game from that moment on, scoring three more before half-time. Danny Phillips ran QK's defence ragged, setting up two for Jamie White (ex-Salisbury and Blackfield & Langley), with Wayne Boud scoring the other from a tight angle.

At the break, Infinity looked like they could score an infinite number of goals, but QK improved as the game went on. They couldn't quite manage to get a consolation, but they'll be pleased to have kept a clean sheet for the second 45. 4-0 to Infinity, who progressed to the quarter-finals.

You can see the changing rooms and cafe on the right.

Details:
QK Southampton FC (0) 0 v 4 (4) Infinity FC
Saturday 19th January 2019
Southampton Divisional FA Intermediate Cup Second Round
Attendance: c30
Admission: None, but I bought a 50/50 ticket for £1 (failed to win, as usual)
Programme: No
Colours: Yellow / black / yellow v Dark blue & red / dark blue / dark blue
National Grid reference: SU3715

The view from the cafe entrance.

There's a match report from Infinity's perspective on their website here. I'm hoping to be back with another report in two weeks. In the meantime, there will be another 40 or so photos from Saturday's game on the HAH Facebook page.

The homemade stand in 2017 before it was forcibly taken down.

Mitch Fear (number 5) opens the scoring after two minutes.

QK's management team and subs look on as their full-back wins this tackle.

Goal by Infinity's number 21, Jamie White.

Concrete silos across the road on the new estate.

The new toilet block.

QK improved in the second half on this gloomy January day in Lordshill.

Millbrook Towers (in the background) is also visible from nearby Bush Hill and Team Solent.

Infinity's subs following the game from inside their dugout.

Awww!

Clanfield v QK Southampton

The welcome sign at Peel Park, home of Clanfield FC.

I'm in a rush. There's no time. Places to go, people to see...

It's a short one this week. Just a ground description and a perfunctory match report. I hope you don't mind too much.

No seats at Clanfield. Unless you bring your own bicycle saddles.

Details:
Clanfield FC (1) 3 v 2 (0) QK Southampton FC
Puma Engineering Hampshire Premier Football League Senior Division
Saturday 8th October 2016
Attendance: Varied throughout the match as dads and lads came and went - generally around 15-20
Admission: None
Programme: None
Colours: Blue and black stripes / black / black v Yellow / black / yellow
National Grid reference: SU7016

QK Southampton on the ball.

I promised I'd visit a few Hampshire Premier Football League grounds this season, and this looked like the most interesting game in the league this week, as second-placed Clanfield entertained fifth-placed QK Southampton.

Clanfield is a village at the furthest point of the Portsmouth / Havant conurbation, protruding finger-like in to the South Downs National Park, which gives it a very rural feel. On three sides of the ground, there are hills visible - the reds, yellows and oranges of autumn just beginning to mix with the different shades of agricultural green and brown to make the backdrop to this game a veritable riot of colour.

To the east, Chalton Windmill looks down on proceedings with a slightly saddened air. A windmill without sails is like a daddy long legs without any legs - it's just wrong. The club feature the windmill on their badge, but with sails, making it look much more chipper.

A close shave for QK.

Clanfield's ground is basic, as you'd expect at the 11th tier of English football. Set on the local recreation ground, the pitch slopes in every direction all at once, but generally downwards from the entrance towards the far end.

There is a small car park provided for users of the recreation ground, which was almost full even with less than twenty people watching the game. Next to the car park is a pavilion which houses the changing rooms and a small room with a tea hatch (half-time tea and a Mars Bar at only £1 was my only expense of the day). There are tables in this room, one of which had a bowl of Frazzles placed upon it at the end of the match for hospitality purposes. I was so tempted to take one on my way out, but I kept my discipline and left them all alone.

The local kids watch the match from their elevated half-pipes.

The pitch has a rail along the right-hand side, with a tarmacced path running parallel to it which joins the entrance with a skateboard park at the far end. The local kids were enjoying their Saturday afternoon, blasting out Nirvana whilst the match was going on, like an errant tannoy announcer who's forgotten to turn off the half-time musical entertainment. Here we are now, entertain us!

The top end and the left-hand side are roped off, with the far end open. Beyond the rope on the left is another pitch, with a playground beyond that. No dogs are allowed on the recreation ground, so no photos of contented pooches this week.

Chalton Windmill up on Windmill Down. It's lost its sails.

I missed photographing the first goal, as I wasn't ready (lucky I don't get paid for this...). Ashley Fisher ran through on goal and slotted the ball home from 18 yards after only two minutes. At this early stage, it looked like it could be a tough afternoon for the visitors from the Millbrook area of Southampton, but they weren't to be overwhelmed. Indeed, they were arguably the better side for the rest of the first half. More possession, but with little penetration, leaving the home keeper with little to do.

The arty pic.

In the second half, there was little to choose between the two teams as the entertainment level went up a notch. QK got their equaliser after 50 minutes, Joe Griggs firing home after the ball wasn't cleared properly from a corner. They extended their lead 15 minutes later, George Callard latching on to a sloppy back pass to race clear and whack the ball beyond goalkeeper Tim Jackson's reach.

Then it started raining. And raining. I retired to the pavilion, where I stood beneath the overhanging eaves. Other, more hardy souls, put their umbrellas up and carried on watching in the downpour.

Kicking downhill in the teeming rain, Clanfield had their chances, but with ten minutes to go, it looked like QK were going to hang on to record a surprise victory. However, it wasn't to be, Mike Newman equalising for the home side. A win for Clanfield would put them top if leaders Hayling United faltered, so they kept looking for another goal.

I'd been joined under the eaves by some of the skatepark kids, one of whom asked his friend what was the best atmosphere he'd ever experienced at a Clanfield match. He replied that it was the game against United Services, to which the first boy agreed. It was as he spoke that the home side won the game, Lucas Lothian smashing in the 92nd minute heartbreaker for QK.

With no time left for QK to make a comeback, it was time to celebrate for the villagers. Later on, they found out that Hayling had only drawn, so Lothian's last minute strike had indeed put Clanfield on top of the league.

Time to tidy away the corner flags. Until next week.

I shall visit another club from the same league next Saturday. If the match is half as entertaining as this one, it will be a happy day.

There will be another 40 or so photos on the HAH Facebook page shortly.

Enjoy your next match, wherever that may be.

One Photo From Each Club: Hythe & Dibden to Romsey Town

The highest point at Hythe & Dibden.

Part three of the "one photo from each club in alphabetical order" series takes us from Hythe & Dibden to near-neighbours Romsey Town, along an inefficient petrol-guzzling route through the county of Hampshire.

Hythe & Dibden are intending to move from their home in a public park, and understandably so, as they share with the local cricket club and their property is an easy target for ruffians and vandals after dark. However, I do like their current quirky ground very much. I chose this photo of the top corner of their ground as my favourite of a pretty good set of pictures. It's the angles, you see. I very much hope they take their spectators' bits and pieces to their new ground and arrange them in a pleasing way for all us amateur photographers to enjoy anew!

Picturesque Lymington Town.

Another excellent set of pictures came from Lymington Town (if you look at the photo behind the blog title, that's from Lymington). A picturesque ground in a public park on a day when the winter sunshine shone just for me. The photo I've chosen from the derby match with New Milton Town features the clock tower from the Church of St Thomas in the background.

Luxury seating in the dugout on Moneyfields' second pitch.

Saints fans had a whale of a time with my pictures from Moneyfields on their Saintsweb message board. I visited the Wessex League club from Portsmouth just as it seemed that Pompey might be going out of business. Saints fans were almost unanimous in saying that their rivals should start again by sharing at Moneyfields, with the picture featured above receiving a lot of virtual guffaws (and hits). Pompey are now owned by their fans and Saints are wearing a terrible kit for the second season running, so let the teasing and ribbing begin again for season 2013/14...

Preparing for a wedding reception after the match at New Milton Town.

Moneyfields got a lot of visits from the links on Saintsweb, but the most-viewed page on HAH is New Milton Town, with 620 hits* at time of writing. I don't understand this at all, unless I explained how to make a bomb in the match report (I didn't!), in which case, the NSA must have been reading  with interest. Or perhaps someone really really likes the photo above, with the marquee held down by bar chairs?

*Saints are second with 546, Romsey Town third with 415, United Services Portsmouth fourth with 394, and Moneyfields fifth with 352.

Petersfield Town's old stand.

Another favourite set of photos came from Petersfield Town's old ground. I liked their ramshackle and charming old stand so much that I sat in it for over ten minutes in the first half - for a fidget like me, that's good going! My seat was just out of shot to the left on the top row in the photo above. I tipped my camera slightly to one side to make the angles a bit more arty in this picture. I believe it's only a matter of time before my work is recognised by the artistic cognoscenti and hangs in a gallery in that there London.

Waiting to enter the fray at AFC Portchester.

AFC Portchester are relatively new to the Wessex League, but they don't want to stop there, they want to move on up and then up some more. Maybe they will, maybe they won't. I went there on a gloomy day in November 2011 to watch a nine goal thriller against their then-promotion rivals, Team Solent. The students kept Portchy waiting outside their changing rooms before the match started, as noted in the above photo. Signs warning people to keep off the pitch (or similar), usually make a good photo. In my honest opinion.

It was downhill all the way after this for Pompey.

My favourite Pompey photo wasn't taken at Fratton Park - it was taken at Wembley after the 2008 FA Cup final. I waited behind after the celebrations had finished on the pitch, not because I wanted to see all the winners' paraphernalia dismantled, but because I was desperate for the toilet, having been put off by the queues at half-time. As it happens, because I was hanging around waiting for the full-time toilet queues to disperse, the paraphernalia was dismantled and was taken down a tunnel right in front of me. I got this lucky shot and made it monochrome when I uploaded it to the computer. I call it "The beginning of the end", as Pompey's dishonest project began to unravel right there and then.

A snowy winter's day at QK Southampton.

I've not visited QK Southampton for a match (I was only seeing clubs from the top ten levels of the English football pyramid on my journeys - QK play in the next level down). However, their ground is local to me, so when it snowed this past winter, I popped along to take a few photos. I like this one of the dugouts best. Big dugout. Small dugout.

Sunset over Ringwood Town.

Ringwood Town was rather photogenic when I visited last November, giving me my only half-decent sunset of the season. I entered the above effort into a charity photo competition at my workplace, but it was beaten by a picture of a sheep.

Poplars behind the goal at Romsey Town.

My adopted Wessex League club is Romsey Town, who play a ten minute drive from my front door. I've seen them around fifteen times over the last couple of seasons. They usually lose, but very occasionally, they sneak a 1-0 win, such as on the night I took my camera along when they played Christchurch. I took this photo of the poplars behind the goal lit up by floodlights on that serendipitous evening. (Note to self: must look up "serendipitous" in the dictionary and check its meaning. Should probably look up "cognoscenti" as well...)

The final set of photos will run from Sholing to Winchester City (in alphabetical order, of course), and shall appear before the start of the new season.

QK Southampton's Winter Wonderland

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...

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.

Padlocked goalpost in the snow.

QK's dugouts.

Millbrook Towers, and what appears to be smoke rising from two fires on the estate.