Fine (Part 2)

Bashley  0  Cribbs  3

Southern League – Division One South

Admission / Programme - £10 / Online

It’s about January, and I’m telling Mrs H about the fact I’ve booked the Easter Weekend in Exeter, for myself, so I can attend the South West Peninsula Ground Hop, she’s fine with that, Mrs H does “Fine” very well.

But then, after a couple of moments of thought, back came the counterpunch…

“Ok, but I feel a bit left out now, and it’s ages until our Summer holidays, so why don’t we go away for the second weekend of Easter?”

I had to think on my feet, and in an almost tourette’s style response I simply blurted it out…

“Portsmouth!”

In a matter of seconds, after computing the question, I quickly thought of an area of the UK where I had a few grounds to visit, and, might be a half decent tourist destination. When I say half decent, when I went to Portsmouth as a kid it was a dump, but something in the back of my mind told me a renovation job had been done on the place and it was quite a good spot to visit.

Within an hour we had three nights in an apartment in Southsea booked, and with that I gulped in nervous anticipation. I mean, very little research had been done, I had thrown one in on a whim, and now we were going on a holiday to place that for all I know could still resemble downtown Beirut!

But, that aside, the choice of games was plentiful, it was still January, I had plenty of time to work out what we could do and hopefully try and justify the destination, which of course if it all went wrong, would be my fault, and my fault alone!

I felt a little more at ease having spoken to Steve, who in fact didn’t burst out into laughter and wish me all the best for the remaining days of my existence, in fact no, he said how nice it was nowadays around Portsmouth, he even recommended a restaurant!

So, the time had come, Devon had been a blast, it was then off to Wroxham on the Monday, back to work on the Tuesday, the Dutch visitors were in town on the Wednesday and then, finally, on the Thursday morning it was destination Pompey, which was duly arrived in around 11.30am.

You know what, it turned into a really good trip. Day one saw afternoon tea up the Spinnaker, a wander round the historic docks and then a few beers in Southsea which I have to say has some very nice bars and restaurants. Day two started with a bit of shopping action around the Gun Wharf Quay retail outlet, followed by the aforementioned meal at the impressive Brasserie Blanc, then of course, it was Saturday…..

My thinking around the football was driven by the awkwardness factor. In the sense that, which of the teams playing at home would be the trickiest to get to, and back, in a day from Derbyshire? We had a choice of Sholing, which is located in the East side of Southampton, Chichester City, which is a plastic option to the East of Portsmouth, and then slightly further along you’d also got Bognor Regis Town playing at home. But, the one that ticked the boxes was Bashley in the New Forest, about an hours drive from Portsmouth, set in a very scenic part of the World, and a bit of a swine to get to under normal circumstances.

The day started with a trip to Lyndhurst, an attractive small town in the New Forest, with an impressive Ferrari dealership as one of it’s main tourist attractions! We had a bit of an amble before taking a leisurely drive down through Brockenhurst, seeing more of the forest, before eventually arriving in the village of Bashley.

Bashley is a tiny place, and it’s pretty remarkable that they have a football club full stop, let alone a football club playing at Step 4. At one stage they even plied their trade in the second tier of non-league football when members of the Southern League Premier Division, but more on that shortly.

The club were formed just after the last War, starting life in the Bournemouth League before moving to the Hampshire League in 1983. They became founder members of the Wessex League in 1986, becoming inaugural champions, and then went on to win it twice more and in 1989 they found themselves promoted to the Southern League.

The first season in the Southern Division saw them crowned champions, and indeed gain promotion to the Premier Division, where they finished an impressive fourth in their first campaign, but after four seasons they were relegated back to the regional divisions again.

They spent eleven consecutive seasons at this level before a two season spell when they got moved to the Isthmian League which I’m pretty sure from a logistical perspective went down a treat! They came back to the Southern League though with a vengeance in 2006-07, winning the South Western Division with a stunning 102 point haul.

It was back to the Southern League Premier Division again where they spent a further seven years before relegation and two awful seasons in the South Western Division where they finished bottom twice, won a total of one game and over the two campaigns conceded 349 goals!

The Wessex League beckoned, and after a rebuild the club bounced back and won promotion at the end of the 2021-22 season thanks to a runners-up finish. The Southern League had been home since, and this season, relegation is unlikely, but mathematically they still have a little bit of work to do.

In the clubs first ever FA Vase season of 1987-88 they lost out to Emley in the semi-finals, drawing at home and then losing away, whereas in the FA Cup the greatest day came in 1994-95 when they won at Chesham United in the First Round Proper before losing 1-0 at home to Swansea City in the next round. 

So what’s the ground like? Very pleasant I have to say given it’s rural location. The entrance off the main road sees the Village Hall to the right and the turnstiles directly in front of you. The clubhouse sits behind the goal, next to the Village Hall, with the tea bar at one end. Moving round anti-clockwise to the garden centre side of the ground, you have a new hospitality area, next to a seated stand, with the dressing rooms behind.

Next to the stand is an area of covered terracing, and then another identical area of covered terracing which is out of bounds due to being used as a storage area, sits right night to it’s twin. Beyond that it’s hard standing behind the goal and then on the dugout side of the ground you have a couple of steps of terracing that run all the way back down to the turnstiles.

Bashley is a friendly club, and the whole place has a nice feel about it. On the day though that friendliness extended onto the pitch where play-off certainties Cribbs cruised a relatively comfortable victory against a home side that were pretty ineffective.

Harris Feltham gave the visitors the lead in the 23rd minute from the penalty spot, and then in the 53rd minute another penalty was despatched by Bailey Croome. The third goal came just after the hour mark when Jake Brown produced a lovely chip to the beat the Bash goalkeeper.

So back to Pompey we went, the little break almost over, but, one last thing.

When I said Mrs H does “Fine” very well, I meant it, and by that I’m referring to the parking fine I discovered on the Saturday morning slapped to my car! Seems she had inadvertently given my registration plate details, complete with a couple of letters incorrect, to the owners of the apartment, so the car ended up being wrongly registered! I’ve contested it, but I’m not holding my breath….

Revenge is best served financially, apparently!