Finally, the Nomads can stop wandering – grassroots rugby club finds permanent home 44 years after forming!

Southsea Nomads RFC will play their first Hampshire League 2 match at St John’s College’s Farlington facilities against Stoneham next Saturday.

Formed back in 1978, the club were given the Nomads moniker due to not having a ground. They were to live up to their name with a succession of homes in the subsequent four decades.

Chairman Ken Walker believes the link-up with St John’s has prevented the club from folding.

‘It’s all about the survival of a club which has been going 44 years,’ he told The News. ‘Without this, it could all have fizzled out.’

Walker was one of the Nomads’ founding members along with Barry Bridgman, Colin Few, Terry Welsh, Nick Cadle, Neil O’Brien, Andy Mills, Dave Quade, Mick Hobson, Gary Barter, and John English.

The new club came into being after the demise of the Portsmouth Civil Service club, who played on the site of what is now Portsmouth FC’s training base at Roko in Hilsea.

Nomads’ logo is a snail with a scrum cap on and the Latin words ‘Relinque Numquam Mulsum Adiacentum, which broadly translated means ‘Do not leave your wine unattended’. ‘Or, in rugby speak,’ said Walker, ‘Do not leave your beer loafing.’

During Nomads’ debut season, 1978/79, they played at Rugby Camp - home of Portsmouth RFC - as the Farlington pitches the council had allocated were waterlogged to use. ‘We even took to training at Sainsbury’s car park at Farlington,’ Walker recalled.

In addition to playing at Farlington, the council moved Nomads to a variety of pitches at Alexandra Park, Eastern Road and Great Salterns.

For the last 20 years or so, Nomads played home games at the University of Portsmouth facility near Furze Lane.

In terms of clubhouses, Nomads have used a selection of drinking establishments - The John Barleycorn, The Royal Sailors Home Club, Watersedge Park Community Centre, Ye Old Oyster House and, most recently, The Old House at Home on Locksway Road.

Walker said it was his ‘personal mission’ to find Nomads a permanent home.

Back in the mid-1980s he wrote to St John’s College, but received a ‘thanks but no thanks’ reply.

As a result, he never bothered to ask them again - until recently.

John Titcombe, a Nomads player, wrote to St John’s asking if they would be interested in offering the club a home.

‘The Bursor, Julie Doyle, replied to the email saying come and talk to us. So that’s what I did and here we are!’

For a grassroots club, Nomads have had some success stories.

In 1991 they were the first club in Hampshire to field a women’s XV.

‘Sadly, this team disbanded at the end of the 1999-2000 season as we didn’t have a permanent home,’ recalled Walker. ‘So the ladies moved on to other clubs that had better facilities and resources.

‘We have run three sides for men in the past, including a veterans team, but are now reduced to one team as there seems to be a general reduction in the numbers of people playing rugby.

‘We have encouraged talented young players to go to the bigger clubs in the area and they have gone on to play some very good rugby, even at county level.’

Locally, Kevin Darnley of Portsmouth started with Nomads, as did Douggie Setchell (Gosport) and Robbie Allsopp and Tony Armstrong (Havant).

Aaron Beesley made his England Deaf debut in 2014 before moving to Portsmouth.

Walker added: ‘Hopefully this (move to St John’s College facilities) will start turning the tide in terms of our players moving on.

‘We’ve never had the strength in depth to survive at a higher level.

‘We’ve had nothing to offer players before.

‘Now they will be able to walk off the pitch, get changed, and go straight into the bar area.

‘Before, players have had to get changed, get in their cars and drive to a pub.

‘The club room (at Farlington) has a fully fitted kitchen which enables us to provide the after game hospitality which is synonymous with rugby.

‘They (St John’s) have allocated us and marked out specific training areas where we hope to install floodlights in the not too distant future.

‘As chairman I honestly believe we now have use of second to none facilities in Hampshire.

‘Whilst we have an appetite and commitment to winning as much as possible, a big part of Nomads’ ethos is to remain a friendly, sociable, family club, welcoming players of all abilities.

‘Being welcomed by St John’s College has provided the last piece of the jigsaw after 44 years.’