Stones

Bemerton Heath Harlequins  2  Larkhall Athletic  1

Southern Football League – Division One South 

Admission / Programme - £10 / Online

After two weeks of relatively local ventures on a Saturday, the shackles, once more, were off!

The quest for the 410 or so (I’m not sure on the actual total number cos I can’t be arsed to work out ground shares and all that shite), is now down to just 26 grounds to complete the top eight tiers of English football.

I reckon by the end of the season I could be down to 20, but anything from 10 to 15 will go back on again due to promotions, so working on some basic maths, I reckon I’m probably two more full seasons away from being able to pop the champagne cork and announce to Mrs H that I am done, for the time being anyway!

Ok, Guernsey and potentially Jersey could be a right arse to sort out, but we’ll worry about that when the time comes, I mean, we got to the Isle of Man without any hitches didn’t we!!

I fancied Bemerton Heath Harlequins, a newly promoted team to the Southern League Division One South at the start of the season, after finishing runners-up in the Wessex League. I’ll be honest, while before this season I’d heard of the club, where they were actually from was a mystery to me. Yes, they were obviously from Wessex, which apparently is a fictional County made up by some bloke who wrote books and that, but that aside, it was Google Maps time.

Well I never, they were from Salisbury, the West side of the City, so that in turn meant along with the recent visit to Salisbury FC, I would be making two journeys to the place in relatively quick succession. When I set the route out, an added tinge of excitement unfurled when it became apparent that I’d be driving right past Stonehenge on the A303 to allow me to enter from the West. I’d never seen Stonehenge before, a Stonehenge virgin if you will, but we’ll not open that can of  paganistic worms….

While it’s probably shorter in terms of distance, bearing in mind I was approaching from the East, I’d been advised by every man, woman, child, animal and indeed Russian Secret Agent that if I drove into the centre of Salisbury, it could be a very long time before I appeared out the other side again (that’s because of traffic, not Russian shenanigans I might add). So rather than risk that, it was to be a journey across the top.

A very pleasant journey it was too, all the way down to the A303 and then despite warnings I’d be queuing for quite some time as road went down to one lane when Stonehenge was in the proximity, they proved to be unfounded and while things did slow down, the hold up was minimal. Stonehenge by the way is a pile of stones, people stand and look at them, after walking a fair distance from the car and coach parks, then presumably after staring at them, they go home again. That’s my input to the local tourist board sorted anyway, you can double your admission prices now!

Bemerton Heath (or Bemmy as the locals call it) is a large housing estate and to access the ground you have to meander your way through the streets before following a driveway which takes you down into a dip on the very edges of the estate where the ground (Moon Park) is located.

Moon Park is a tidy, and attractive tree lined location, and upon arrival a small car park greets you that sits behind the goal, with the large clubhouse and changing room block adjacent. The clubhouse serves the community and I got the feeling that many of it’s inhabitants had no plans to attend the game, although once you got to half time you could walk freely between the clubhouse and the ground without having to worry about things like handing over a tenner!

The top floor of the clubhouse leads you to an open viewing area filled with seats, right above the goal, but with a large net in front of the seats for safety reasons, presumably serving two purposes. One being to stop occupants being hit by stray shots, and the other reason being to stop people from falling off the edge!

The tea bar sits in what is effectively a tunnel that runs from pitch side behind the goal to the clubhouse building, and with a kids team acting as mascots for the game, it looked to be doing a roaring trade as the kids munched burgers and chips while grown ups necked pints!

Two areas of cover sit on one side of the ground, one being a terraced area, the other being seats, both of which are elevated slightly above pitch level to give excellent views. The rest of the ground is hard standing but what makes it a homely enclosed venue are the tall trees that surround the stadium on the two sides where no furniture resides.

The pitch was in great nick as well, I was mostly very happy with my surroundings!

What’s the story with Bemmy as a football club then? Well, it’s a merger of two clubs, one being Bemerton Athletic, and the other being Moon FC who were a Sunday side. They got together in 1989 to form BHH, being immediately accepted into the Wessex League, after Athletic had previously played in the Wiltshire League.

They had a long unbroken spell in the Wessex League, having a successful spell from 2009 to 2014 when they finished runners up twice in the Premier Division, but in the season before Covid struck they found themselves relegated to Division One.

They bounced back in 2021-22 by winning the title, and then in their first season back in the top flight, last time around, as we know they finished runners up and got promotion to Step 4 for the first time.

They have also had a couple of good runs in the FA Vase, reaching the Fifth Round on two occasions, losing out to Clitheroe and Spennymoor Town, both times away from home.

What about the big game against Larkhall Athletic then, could Bemmy get the win they needed to maintain their hopes of a play off place?

It started well enough, Daniel Young headed home firmly from close range in sixth minute and then five minutes before the break Remus Nixon produced an excellent free kick to leave it 2-0 at half time.

A goalkeeping error saw a looping effort from Jack Goodall find the net ten minutes after the break to reduce the arrears for Larkhall, but despite periods of pressure, Bemmy ran out deserved and relatively comfortable winners.

Pre-match, I did wonder if Mrs H had stitched me up. The tannoy bloke announced to those in the ground about a visitor from Derbyshire who had come to watch the game, I froze on the spot with fear waiting to be outed, but it turns out it was some chap from Buxton called Edward who had come on the train! I don’t know Edward, I never met Edward, I wonder if Edward has got home yet?

Anyway, the escape was an easy one, the traffic around Stonehenge had thinned significantly, I did think about calling in but there was a really interesting advert on Talksport so I didn’t bother, and before long the road back to the Midlands was being eaten up.

25 to go….I will eventually miss all of this you know!