Sholing Sports F.C.
| Full name | Sholing Sports Football Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Magpies | ||
| Founded | 1894 (as Sholing Athletic) | ||
| Dissolved | 2011 | ||
| Ground |
Birch Lawn, Sholing, Southampton | ||
| League | Southampton League Senior Division 1 | ||
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| |||
Sholing Sports F.C. were a long running Southampton based football team who for many years played with great success in the Hampshire and Wessex Leagues, who folded in 1994 after suddenly losing their ground. In 2005 the name was re-vived by some keen local players but folded again in 2011.
Club history
Originally founded in 1894 as Sholing Athletic FC they spent their early days playing in the Southampton League. In 1919-20 Sholing won the Senior League title and stepped up to the Hampshire League where they promptly won the East Division title. Playing in the County Division (later to become Division 1) Sholing soon settled and after finishing 6th and 5th they proudly won the Hampshire Senior Cup but after two tough seasons the club finished bottom of the league and returned to the Southampton League.
Now known as simply Sholing FC the club soon re-established themselves as a force. The Thirties were successful times for the club as they twice won the Senior league title as well as the Hampshire Intermediate Cup in 1937-38.
Sholing Sports FC
After World War II the club became known as Sholing Sports FC and returned to the Hampshire League in 1946 when they were placed in Division 3 East. Back in county football, Sholing quickly settled and won promotion as champions in 1952-53 before consolidating themselves in Division 2. After some promising seasons, Sholing were surprisingly relegated in 1964-65.
The 1970s saw Sholing Sports become a prominent force in the Hampshire League. In 1969-70 they were Division 3 East champions and in 1971-72 they finished runners-up in Division 2, winning promotion to Division 1 for the first time in their history. With the reserves now elected to Division 4, Sholing quickly became one of the top clubs in the league and began entering the national competitions, the FA Cup and FA Vase. They enjoyed several good runs in the latter competition.
In 1973-74 Sholing won their first Division 1 title as well as the Hampshire Senior Cup. The club remained regular title contenders, finishing runners-up three times before the 1982-83 season when they repeated their double success, again winning the Division 1 title and Hampshire Senior Cup. The following season saw Sholing again clinch the league title but were beaten finalists in the Hampshire Senior Cup. Sholing were again league and cup runners-up before becoming founder members of the newly formed Wessex League in 1986. Sholing were also winners of the Southampton Senior and Russell Cotes Cup's several times during this time.
Wessex League and demise
Life in the Wessex League was frequently tough for Sholing Sports. The club survived until the highly conterversial loss of their Birch Lawn home ground in August 1993, virtually on the eve of the new season, which tragically forced them to withdraw from the competition. The club continued to operate during the 1993-94 season with just an under 18s side playing in the Hampshire Youth League but the search for a new home ground was unsuccessful and the club inevitably folded.
Name revived
In 2005 the name was revived by some locals and the new Sholing Sports joined the Southampton League. After some encouraging seasons, they had reached the Senior section by 2009 and settled in at their new home ground at the Royal Victoria Country Park but sadly after a tough 2010/11 season the club again ceased to exist.
In the summer of 2010, successful local rivals VTFC (Vosper Thornycroft) changed their name to Sholing FC in a bid to attract more local support but they are not connected in any way to Sholing Sports.
References
- Sholing Sports (1) at the Football Club History Database
- Sholing Sports (2) at the Football Club History Database