Saturday, 11 May 2024

Ludgershall Sports - Ludgershall Sports Club


Ludgershall Sports FC
Ludgershall Sports Club
Astor Crescent
Ludgershall 
Wiltshire
SP11 9QE

01264 790693 (Social Club)





Ground Number: 1308
Saturday 11th May 2024
Ludgershall Sports 0-3 Kingsdown
Wiltshire League Premier Division







LUDGERSHALL SPORTS - A BRIEF HISTORY

The exact origins of Ludgershall Sports are not documented but the formation date is given as 1900, taken from the Wiltshire FA's records. In 1918 two existing village teams merged, to form Ludgershall Sports Football Club. The club’s headquarters were in the back bar of the Prince of Wales Hotel in the town and those who were too young to go in the bar waited on the pavement outside to see if they had been picked. Their first major league success came in the 1930s when they were runners-up in the Salisbury League and this was also the time that they moved to their present ground. Their first foray into Wiltshire Senior League Football came in 1976/77, the new league's inaugural season but they left after just one year after finishing second bottom.


Spells in the Andover & District and North Hants League followed. They joined the Hampshire League in 1993 and won Division 3 in their first season. Four unremarkable seasons were spent in Division 2 before the club resigned mid-season and returned to the Andover & District. They won the title in 2001 and a nomadic spell followed in various incarnations of the Hampshire & Wessex Leagues. They finally found a home in their own county in 2010 when they joined the Wiltshire Senior League. They were runners-up in Division 1 in their debut season behind FC Sanford. A sustained spell in the Premier Division followed including a record 4th place finish in 2015. They; 've struggled at times, especially during the pandemic seasons when they were saved by results being declared null and void. They were finally relegated back to Division 1 in 2022 but won promotion back from a six-team league despite only finishing 3rd. Local cup wins came in the late 1920s and early 1930s when the club won the Morrison Cup and the Faber Cup. They also won the Wiltshire Junior Cup in 1931 & 1963 as well as being finalists in 1930.


 Ludgershall (pronounced Lug-ər-shawl, with a hard g) is a town 16 miles northeast of Salisbury. It is on the A342 road between Devizes and Andover. After the building of Ludgershall Castle in the late 11th century, the village grew to its south and became a medieval borough. The village lay on the old Marlborough to Winchester road, an important route in the early 13th century. Later the village lost its importance and was damaged by fire in 1679. Among the oldest buildings are the Queen's Head public house, from the 16th and 18th centuries, and cottages on Castle Street from the late 17th. The town had a railway station up until the early 1960s when it was closed by the Beeching Cuts. The parish falls in the 'Ludgershall and Perham Down' electoral ward. The ward stretches southeast from the Ludgershall area to Perham Down. The total ward population at the 2011 census was 5,874. A common misconception is that the town is in the county of Hampshire rather than Wiltshire. This is compounded by the postal code of SP11 and telephone dialling code of 01264 which are both associated with Andover, Hampshire. However, it is a couple of miles over the border in Wiltshire.


MY VISIT

Originally on this date, I was going to go to long-term target Indian Gymkhana, something nice and local and with an attractive club building to boot, However, a lot of their games had been moved recently owing to cricket taking precedence. They had no reliable social media, so I decided to miss it. An alternative was sought and I took the lazy option to use Futbology. It threw up a decent option in Ludgershall Sports v Kingsdown Lions. It was a decent railed pitch, one towards the Wiltshire League which I was well on my way to completing and good value on public transport. It was a bus to Reading, a train to Andover and then a bus to Ludgershall. With the train fare being £8.15, it would come in at well under £20. It would also allow me to visit Basingstoke and both of their Wetherspoons as I had been to the Andover one. Later in the week, Colin decided to join me. That lucky basket would be getting his day out for £8.15 owing to his free bus pass. My only concern was sides pulling out of the game and I was hoping that they would give good notice if so as there were very few backups.
For that reason, I decided to wait until Friday before diving into the club's history. I shouldn't have been really apprehensive - the Wiltshire Senior League were going to complete all of their fixtures. Other leagues had walkovers, points deductions and forfeits galore due to the weather and failure to fulfil. It was a real credit to the league and Lusgershall had a decent pitch too by the looks of it. Not that the weather was going to be an issue with it being warm and sunny for once. Thursday was OK at work but Friday is always very busy and full of people asking daft questions. I stayed on for an extra hour until everything was done and went home and had a few drinks. The Wiltshire League site was an excellent help for my research although I was easily distracted. I aimed to get into bed by 10 PM and get a reasonable night's sleep for once.


The day of the game came and it was a bit of a lie in for me. I still woke up twenty minutes before my 7 am alarm. I got up and got ready, having breakfast before leaving at 7.30. I met Colin on Amersham Hill and we walked to the bus station, arriving at 8.50. Ten minutes later, we were on the 850 bus to Reading. The bloke adjacent to me had already cracked open a beer, fair play.  It was a lengthy 100 minute trip. I booked my train tickets just after 10, refundable if needed. We left later than I hoped, getting the 11.37 out of Reading. We were at Basingstoke shortly after 12, it was then a walk through a crappy indoor shopping centre to our first Wetherspoons, The Maidenhead Inn. It was a cracker too, all day brunch, black pudding and a pint of Black Dragon for £7.14. The pint was £3.75 alone, so it was a steal. Due to time constraints, we headed to The Angel, the second Spoons in the town. This was pretty crap with all draught products out of stock. Even so, I was able to get a pint of Thistly Cross Whisky Cask at £3.75 which was a bag in box in the fridge. ID Mobile was crap again, so I was glad of the free WiFi. From there, we were at the station well in advance of the 13:38 to Andover. It was disappointing to see neither team Tweet about the game, it's very much focused on the players at this level but there were two clubs that should be proud of their existence. The buses towards Salisbury appeared a bit erratic but it turned up more or less on time. It was a reasonable journey aside from the screaming brat down below. We were there around 2.30 and glad to see players warming up. I decided to get a pint of Thatchers Gold, along with a Yorkie for Colin it was £5.45 from the adjacent club.  
Ludgershall were rock-bottom and had won just three times all season. They'd lost their last 21 games, though the last one had been a respectable 3-2 reverse against Wroughton. Those prized three wins all came in the opening month of the season - 2-1 against Malmesbury Victoria, 3-0 against Shrewton United & 2-0 against Salisbury Development. When the two sides met on 13th April KIngsdown won 4-2.  The visitors sat in 11th and travelled around 28 miles from the Swindon area to today's game. They'd not won in four games and had drawn 1-1 at Larkhall Athletic Development last time out. It was a fairly equal opening. The scoring was nearly opened on 18 minutes when a Ludgershall defender headed against his own post. The keeper who had already made some decent saves kept it out though Kingsdown were starting to take control. Ludgershall had some chances on the break but Kingsdown took the lead on 36 minutes, a low shot into the bottom left corner. It was end to end but lacked quality, Kingsdown had a header against the post in a scrappy second half. A good ball forward and a decent header saw Kingsdown lead 2-0 around 70 minutes in. Five minutes later, Kingsdown confirmed the win, a free kick that hit the right-hand post on the way in.

That was it as far as scoring was concerned and you could see why the hosts were bottom. It was a nice visit though and it around 5 before the game was finished. We walked the five minutes to the bus stop and it was another five minutes until our bus. It was disappointing to see Luton almost relegated but there were not many matches on at this time of the year. The plan was to get back to Andover for the 5.38 back to Basingstoke, pop out to Londis as we had a tight connection at Reading. All being well, I'd get the 7pm bus to Wycombe and the 8.30 back home, getting in at 9.
THE GROUND

LUDGERSHALL SPORTS CLUB is a decent venue, railed three sides. The grass could do with a mow though. There is a smart bar which offers drinks at reasonable prices, plus shops and pubs nearby. Transport wise, there is plenty of parking or the half-hourly Activ8 bus runs between Andover, Tidworth & Salisbury. 
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