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A Pompey bloke showing off about his team (after all they only won the Third Division) and it’s not a photo simply about football – it’s a picture about sporting passion for sure but also (equally?) about local pride. Imagine if Hampshire sorted themselves out and won the treble this year – would that be celebrated similarly somewhere down in West End?
I was chatting to some cricket people recently about County identities. Some said they did identify with their county beyond cricket but in every case they were people who lived in rural areas, villages or small towns. Sometimes perhaps ex-pats are more fervently loyal than locals but – far beyond sporting events – I feel far more Pompey than Hampshire and I will feel even more so at the next major event on Southsea seafront, the 80th anniversary of D-Day in about six weeks time, when my home city will once again (for the final time?) become a focus of attention around the world, before the events move to France.
So why Hampshire? When I was a kid and people wrote far more letters than today, most arriving at our house would finish the address with Portsmouth, Hants. Now most (all?) finish Portsmouth PO … (etc). Sometimes articles in the local press about Fratton Park name it only by its PO postcode. Is it a Hampshire club? Hampshire once had a half-decent rugby union side that often played at the US Ground, but now?
In my teaching days I did at one time work for Hampshire County Council but a good while ago so the US Ground is the other key element in my identification with Hampshire because for 41 years I watched Hampshire County Cricket Club play there. But now the organisation that runs first-class (etc.) cricket from Eastleigh is no longer strictly a County nor a Club entity, it’s a business that trades in a variety of things. That’s a reality, I’m not complaining, merely describing the way we are in contrast to the way we were. But maybe it’s one less reason to attach much importance to county identities (although try telling Yorkshire). And maybe for a few weeks each year, that makes it easier to sell the idea of Southern Brave as an identity, although I’m wondering what will happen to all those Southern Vipers shirts in 2025?
6 Comments
Hampshire Cricket History 
That post was long enough but there is a cricketing point to add. When I first watched Hampshire in the 1960s the COUNTY club played from east to west along the coast (Portsmouth – Southampton – Bournemouth, then in Hampshire) plus either the IOW or north to Basingstoke. In addition their Club & Ground side travelled around the county playing perhaps 30 matches on Hampshire club grounds every year, while the beneficiary would play Sunday games against Hampshire clubs. At some point in the season a Hampshire side would play somewhere near to where you lived and Hampshire had a number of regular players born in the county (Sainsbury, Gray, Harrison, Jesty, Lewis, Heath, Burden, Timms, Wassell, Barnard, Rice, Cannings, Herman). There aren’t so many these days.
Comment by Dave Allen April 29, 2024 @ 9:51 amI share your sentiments Dave, along the coast Bournemouth/Boscombe/Cherries/You Reds, names used by different generations of supporters to suit, are also having a good season. Cricket has badly managed taking its long-standing support with those who started more recently.
Comment by stephenfh April 29, 2024 @ 11:10 amBBC today – not irrelevant under this topic:
Counties have been given until 10 May to indicate if they accept a proposal from the England and Wales Cricket Board for the sale of teams in The Hundred.
The ECB will sell a 49% stake in each of the eight teams and distribute the revenue to the domestic game. That figure is up from a previously discussed 30%.
The remaining 51% will be given to the eight hosts of The Hundred teams, who will then have the option to sell some, all, or keep it.
The ECB will retain ownership of the competition itself, which began in 2021.
Comment by Dave Allen April 29, 2024 @ 12:26 pmI have always thought of myself as a Hampshire man, although in my experience, these days it would appear mostly to be the identity worn by the Cricket Club and the Constabulary? I still write letters with the address as Portsmouth Hants but only to family members. The identity was a bit stronger in Conan Doyle’s “The White Company” but that was based in the time of the Black Prince…
Bill Seager
Comment by wl4817686 April 29, 2024 @ 2:49 pmNice reference Bill.
Comment by Dave Allen April 29, 2024 @ 2:53 pmI would say that most cricket fans living in Dorset and Wiltshire support Hampshire.
I remember sitting next to two gentlemen at a Lord’s final who were born and bred in Swindon but had always followed Hampshire.
Comment by vern1970 April 30, 2024 @ 12:19 am