THE SPORTS GROUND AT WAR
On Sunday morning the annual remembrance day parade will pass along Southampton Road, just a few yards from the Sports Ground. This is quite fitting because, while we know that many Lymington cricketers served in the armed forces during the two world wars, it's probably not so well known that our beloved home ground also played its part during the conflicts. In this article we look at some of the events that took place on our small patch of grass in those wartime years.
It might be worth mentioning that many years before World War 1 the Sports Ground had hosted war-related events. Way back in 1856 the ground (known then as the 'Cricket Field') played host to festivities to mark the end of the Crimean War. A procession of around a thousand children, led by the Lymington Town Band, left the Cricket Field on its way to the town hall (then in the High Street) where the children were 'regaled with tea and plum cake'. Then it was back to the Cricket Field for a 'Variety of rustic sports and pastimes' before the festivities concluded with fireworks followed by God Save the Queen.
World War 1
In August 1914 the world was thrown into turmoil. Britain's declaration of war on Germany saw hundreds of thousands of men head to the recruiting offices. Sport understandably took a back seat and the activities of Lymington Cricket Club virtually came to a standstill. However, over the next four years the Sports Ground would stage many other events and activities related to the war effort.
With every green space requesitioned for agricultural use for the war effort, cattle were allowed to graze on the ground during the war, and it is said that the new pavilion (opened only in 1913) was used as a cow shed.
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| The Lymington Company of the Hampshire Volunteers |
A photograph taken somewhen between 1916-18 shows the Lymington Company of the Hampshire Volunteers in front of the pavilion which, by this time, appears to have had its windows and doors boarded up, presumably to prevent the cattle escaping. The Volunteers, a sort of WW1 version of the Home Guard, were commanded by Herbert Cullin Heppenstall who would later become president of the cricket club. An important figure around the town, Heppenstall was joint founder of Lymington Hospital and became Mayor of the Borough in 1922. The photo includes several other faces well known to Lymington CC, including Fred and Frank Totterdell and a young Leonard Hoare who would go on to be secretary of both Lymington cricket and football clubs.
As well as the Hampshire Volunteers, other military units used the Sports Ground at times, but some sport did take place. Towards the end of the war a number of baseball matches were staged to provide entertainment for American servicemen. For one such match the ground and pavilion were described as being ‘gay with flags’ and HRH Princess Christian (daughter of Queen Victoria) presented a silver challenge cup and prizes to the winning Naval team who had won the fixture by 4 to 3. The American Hospitality Committee later arranged a football match for British soldiers at the ground, and in November the British Soldiers Hospitality Committee provided entertainment in the form of a football match for a number of RAF men stationed at the nearby East Boldre aerodrome. The match was followed by tea at the Literary Institute and an evening concert at The Lyric.
On another occasion a fete was held on the Sports Ground in connection with the War Hospital. The town band was in attendance and there was dancing later in the evening.
However, despite the odd moments of merriment, thoughts were never far from those who had been fighting for King and Country, and in August 1918 the town held a Day of Remembrance ‘for those who had made the supreme sacrifice’. A procession to the parish church in the morning was followed by a large gathering on the Sports Ground in the afternoon. Lymington CC would no doubt be remembering its members who had done their bit, not least Lieutenant Cecil Abercrombie who had been killed aboard HMS Defence at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. Before the war Abercombie had been a superb all rounder for Lymington and went on to make 126 for Hampshire on his First Class debut in 1913.
World War 2
Just 21 years after the Armistice had been signed the country was at war again, and over the next six years the Sports Ground would once more be used for military purposes with regular Home Guard parades and ARP drills taking place at the ground. Fortunately, unlike the previous conflict, the Borough Council voted 12-9 against allowing cattle to graze on the ground (Pennington Sports Ground wasn’t so lucky), but the war years proved to be difficult times for all the various sports clubs who used the ground.
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| A Home Guard parade at the Sports Ground |
The football club completed the 1939-1940 season but thereafter opted to suspend activities for the duration of the war. However, the football pitch was used by Home Guard unit teams, and Lymington Rovers remained active. It was during one of Rovers’ wartime matches that Ken Savill scored an amazing ten goals. Speaking in 2007 Ken recalled, “I was stationed in Portsmouth and I came home to play in the match against an Army XI. We won 12-nil and Mushy Drodge got the first two goals and I scored the rest. We had four or five very good footballers in that team and they just laid the goals on for me to score. After the match I was coming off the field and I remember a lad coming up to me and saying: “Well played Joe!” It was actually a young Norman Gannaway and he was referring to a footballer called Joe Payne who had scored ten goals for Luton Town in a match against Bristol Rovers a few years earlier.” No mean bowler, Savill would after the war go on to take all 10 wickets for Lymington in a match at Pylewell.
Lymington Rovers also played host to a Czech Army XI at the Sports Ground, while towards the end of the war there are stories of large crowds attending matches at the ground between local teams and prisoners of war from the camp at Setley. A football match as part of Thanksgiving Week was held at the Sports Ground in October 1945 with admission set at 7d and 4d.
The bowls club kept going during the war years but petrol rationing and transport difficulties made it tough to organise fixtures. A bowls tournament held in July 1945 attracted 32 couples from Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire. Prizes were handed out by the Mayor Alderman E. Knight who congratulated Lymington Bowling Club for “putting the Borough of Lymington on the map of the bowling world”.
It's not documented how many, if any, Lymington cricketers lost their lives during World War 2. It is known that one member, Dick Marshall, was captured in North Africa and spent the war in a POW camp. But perhaps the greatest legacy of World War 2 for Lymington sport, and the town in general, was the impact of the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers. The 2nd Battalion RNF arrived in the town after being evacuated from Dunkirk and many stayed on in the town after the war. Characters such as Jack Telford, Tommy Forrest, Dick Crook, Maurice Farrar and Fred Swinney, to name but a few, became well known around the town, and it is estimated that more than a hundred Northumberland Fusiliers ended up marrying local girls. Many of the Fusiliers would go on to represent the various sports clubs in the town. One of them, Joe Brash (pictured), was an exceptionally skilful inside forward for Lymington FC, and also a keen supporter of the cricket club in his later years.
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