Fareham Town

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Ground: Cams Alders Football Stadium, Cam Alders, Fareham, PO14 4DH

Telephone: 01329 823487

Chairman: Bob Ralls

Secretary: Bob Ralls

Manager: Louis Savage

Directions to ground: Leave M27 at Junction 11 and follow signs on A32 to Gosport. After passing under viaduct, leaving Fareham Creek on your left, follow A32 to Esso Garage, on your left. Fork right onto B3333, signposted to Lee on Solent for 366M pass over hump backed railway bridge, turn right into Palmerston Business Park, follow signs to ground.

Club history:

The present Club was formed in 1946 following the amalgamation of three clubs and some of their history can be traced back to the 1800s.

Initially the Club joined the Portsmouth League before election to the Hampshire County League two years later.

During their stay in the Hampshire League, Fareham won every honour within the County including the League on eight occasions, the Hampshire Senior Cup three times and all other Senior County competitions at least once.

The Club also ran a Sunday side, which won the FA Sunday Cup in 1974.

Fareham remained in the Hampshire League until 1979 when an application to join the expanding Southern League was successful.

Initially playing in the Southern Division, the Club gained promotion to the Premier Division when the League was re-organised in 1982 and stayed there for 7 seasons until relegated to the Southern Division in 1989.

In National Cup competitions the Club has reached the First Round Proper of the F.A. Cup on four occasions; the closest the Club came to progressing beyond that was in 1988-89 when drawing 2-2 at Torquay United after surrendering a two goal lead with only five minutes to go; the replay ended in a narrow 2-3 defeat.

The Clubs most successful run in the F.A. Trophy came in 1986-87 when they shocked the Non-League Football World by reaching the Semi-finals before losing 0-2 on aggregate to the eventual winners Kidderminster Harriers.

During the run to the semis the Club played 10 games and beat Vauxhall Conference sides Scarborough and Barnet on their own grounds. At the end of the season Scarborough were promoted to the Football League as Conference Champions and Barnet were Runners-up.

The Club also shook Hampshire football in 1993 by inflicting a 4-1 defeat on odds-on favourites Farnborough Town in the Hampshire Senior Cup Final.

Over the years a number of notable Fareham players have moved on to Football League Clubs including Ray Hiron and Ron Newman (Portsmouth), Darren Foreman (Burnley), Domenyk Newman (Reading), Kevin Bartlett (Cardiff City), Paul Moody (Southampton), Dave Leworthy (Tottenham) and John Hold and Steve Claridge (Bournemouth).

Although only playing a handful of games for Town, Claridge became the first and so far only ex-Fareham player to feature in a million pound transfer when moving from Birmingham to Leicester for whom he scored in the League Cup Final.

Two former England internationals, Ray Crawford and Mark Chamberlain have managed the Club.

With the cost of running a Southern League increasing every year the then Board of Directors lead by Chairman Chris Solen made the sensible and realistic decision that, if football was to survive at Fareham, then the Club would have to compete at a lower level and in 1998-99 the Club joined the Wessex League and entered the FA Vase for the first time.

The Club was taken over in April 2001 by the Ralls Building Group who wanted to take the Club further with the ambition to do well in the Wessex League.

After a difficult start to life in the Wessex League, things began to pick up when they finished fifth in the 2002/03 season and then seventh the following year under new manager Jon Gittens.

In 2003/04 the Club also reached the Final of the Hampshire Senior Cup at St Mary’s, Southampton and were rather unfortunate to lose after two very debatable refereeing decisions in the closing minutes gave Conference side Farnborough Town a 2-1 victory.

Gittens departed Fareham in the summer of 2004, with Louis Savage and Louis Bell taking over at the helm. Several new faces on the field gave Town a good start to the 2004/05 campaign before a disastrous run of results left the team languishing in the lower half of the table, finally ending the season in a disappointing 16th position.

Club honours: to follow

Information courtesy of Creeksiders , an unofficial Fareham Town website.

Fareham Town also have a fanzine, which is run by Paul 'Splodge' Proctor. It is called 'Up The Creek' and is produced around four times a season.

If you interested in obtaining any copies they cost £1 plus an A4 size sae or £1.75 without an sae. They are available from this address: Flat 1, 144 Elm Grove, Southsea, Hampshire, PO5 1LR.

Or alternatively you can email Paul at PAULPROCTOR05@aol.com .