Forget rows about VAR, just avoid the goalmouth cowpats | Nostalgia

The oddest thing about this league was that many of the pitches appeared to have been loaned by a farmer and some hours before a match was played the field had a herd of cows grazing on it. Cowpats were a feature of the pitch!

Not all of them of course.

Most of the games were played on recreation grounds but wherever the games were played it always seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, somewhere deep in the Hampshire countryside.

There was of course, nowhere to change and definitely no showers, but I am sure all that is very different today.

The reason I ask is that a book celebrating the first 100 years of the league has been produced by John E Tull. It contains many records plus photographs of teams who competed.

At one time more than 1,000 players were registered. There are now three divisions, one and two, and Veterans’ Division 1.

The book is available from New To You Books, High Street, Cosham, at £5.

The Swan, Lake Road, Portsmouth

A popular pub at 211, Lake Road, Landport, it closed in 1981 and became a Ladbrokes’ bookmakers.

Look past the pub, which then stood on the kerb of Lake Road. Looking farther along Lake Road on the left of the photograph, we can see many of the shops that once lined this popular street. The shops were all demolished in the late 1960s, the road re-aligned and the Charles Dickens’ Activity Centre built on the site.

The Tricorn – a town planner’s dream

I must thank Andy Bartholomew for sending me this artist’s impression of the Tricorn as it was hoped it would look in its early days.

I must admit to not knowing it ever looked as smart as this.The infamous car park towering around all sides had made plenty of space for shoppers and I believe it might have been free at one time, but stand to be corrected. The Tricorn Club’s main entrance can be seen. Above the entrance was the lift to take clubbers to the upper floor.