Basingstoke Town

Basingstoke Town FC is a non-league football club formed in 1896 following a merger of Aldworth United FC and Basingstoke Albion FC, who play in the town of the same name in North Hampshire, around fifty miles south west of London. The club initially played at the Castlefields ground.

The club became members of the Hampshire League in 1901; being placed in the North Division where they made a most inauspicious start over their first few years in the competition before being crowned champions in 1911-12.

A further North Division title followed in 1919-20 before league re-organisation in 1929 saw ‘The Dragons’ being placed in Division One. A new ground on land belonging to Lord Camrose was opened in 1945 with the venue initially being called Winchester Road.

Town reached the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup in 1959-60 before finishing as league runners-up in 1965-66 and 1966-67. The Hampshire League title was secured in 1967-68 before ending in second spot the following season.

The excellent spell continued as further championship seasons arrived at The Camrose in 1969-70 and 1970-71, which led to election to Division One South of the Southern League. The 1971-72 season saw Basingstoke reach the first round of the FA Cup before going out to Northampton Town.

League restructuring in the summer of 1979 saw the club placed in the Southern Division of the Southern League from where they won promotion to the Premier Division in 1984-85 following a title winning campaign.

The 1987-88 season saw Basingstoke make the move to the Premier Division of the Isthmian League. Their debut season in new surroundings ended in relegation, but an Isthmian top flight spot was secured with promotion at the first time of asking.

In 1989-90 Town reached the first round of the Cup once again; defeating Bromsgrove Rovers before going out in round two at home to Torquay United. They returned to the first round the following campaign, eventually beating Wycombe Wanderers on penalties after a replay.

The Wycombe tie attracted a record home gate of 5,085, before the second round tie against Northampton Town went all the way to penalties in a Camrose replay. The Cobblers went on to win the shoot out.

The 1998-99 FA Cup run also reached the first round. AFC Bournemouth defeated the Dragons at The Camrose. In the meantime, the teams league form had been steady in unspectacular; with third place in 2000-01 their best return.

Non-league football was restructured at the end of the 2003-04 season. Town lost a play-off to Lewes for a place in the newly formed Conference South. However, the club was still promoted after Hendon declined a place in the new set up with Ernie Howe as head coach and striker Sergio Torres starring.

Howe departed in April 2006 after a spell of thirteen years with the club with Francis Vines replacing him. In 2006-07 Town defeated Chesterfield at Saltergate in the first round of the FA Cup before going out in the next stage in a local derby replay to Aldershot Town.

Vines resigned in March 2008 before former Leeds United and Scotland star Frank Gray coming in as permanent manager arriving in the close season of the same year. Gray departed in February 2012 after another FA Cup first round appearance; this time ending in defeat at Griffin Park to Brentford.

Jason Bristow took over from Gray, with the new man taking Basingstoke on a tremendous run to reach the play-offs in 2011-12 where they were defeated in the semi-final by Dartford. The play-offs were reached again in 2014-15 before being beaten in the semi-final by Whitehawk.

In 2015-16 saw Bristow being replaced by Michael Gilkes as Town lost to Cambridge United in round one of the Cup, in a season that ultimately ended in relegation to the Southern League with Gilkes departing a couple of months before the drop was confirmed.

Experienced boss Terry Brown was unable to save the side from relegation, but he reignited enthusiasm at the club as a young vibrant squad was introduced. However, long standing chairman Rafi Razzak announced plans to leave the club at the end of the 2016-17 season and reclaim his investment through the sale of The Camrose.

Razzak was to be frustrated as Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council turned down a plan for the club to leave their home and move to a proposed new stadium at Old Common Road. On the pitch, Brown’s side finished in twelfth place in 2016-17 in the Southern League Premier Division.

Meanwhile, the Hampshire FA looked to develop a site at Winklebury to include a stadium to enable Basingstoke Town to become anchor tenants and to redevelop The Camrose. The plans were given the all clear by the local council.

Razzak had become an unpopular figure by this time among supporters who didn’t want to leave their spiritual home. Plans for the club to become community owned were drawn up in readiness for the ground move and Razzak’s departure.

The Dragons finished in tenth place in 2017-18 as Brown moved to a Director of Football role before the club was placed in the Premier Division South of the competition for the 2018-19 season. Bristow returned for a second spell as boss before departing in November 2018.

Brown had a spell as caretaker before the appointment of experienced Football League midfielder and coach Martin Kuhl in December 2018. The side was relegated at the end of the 2018-19 season to Division One South of the Southern League.

The club was forced to leave The Camrose as former owner Razzak tried to press forward with plans to redevelop the ground. The club decamped to share the City Ground with Winchester City, as Kuhl departed to be replaced by his assistant Dan Brownlie not long into the season.

Basingstoke returned to their hometown and moved into Winklebury Sports Complex for the 2020-21 campaign, before the club was transferred to the South Central Division of the Isthmian League in 2021-22. They reached the play-offs but were defeated by Chertsey Town in the semi-final. 

The previous club crest

However, the league title was lifted in 2022-23, prior to the club being moved once again to the Southern League as members of Premier Division South.

Basingstoke Town FC will play in the Southern League Premier Division South in the 2023-24 season.

My visit

Basingstoke Town 2 Hendon 1 (Saturday 8^th December 2018) Southern League Premier Division South (att: 283)

The fixtures fell nicely for me during my spell of night shifts, with Basingstoke being one of the nearer Southern League destinations for Hendon. Lee Cousins offered me a lift, coming straight back after the game, so all was good.

Bob was already waiting at Harrow-on-the-Hill as I arrived just before 12.30. Lee was not long after as we chatted about the usual football stuff and rumours. Our mood was good after the Dons fine home win the previous week.

While some of the away match distances were a bit of a pain, we were visiting some proper football grounds by way of compensation. I was looking forward to seeing The Camrose after seeing images and hearing good reviews from mates who’d been in the past.

The journey down was smooth and easy, arriving in the car park well over an hour before kick-off. The fella on the car park immediately heightened our good mood with his repost to Lee jokingly telling him that we were the team when asked for £1 to park up.

The clubhouse was outside the ground with friendly fans manning a pop-up real ale bar just outside serving a selection from two local brewers. The choice was three different bottles from Andwell Brewery or Longdog Brewery Red Runner from straight from the box, which we opted for, at £3 a pint.

The spacious area inside was showing the live lunchtime game and we joined other Hendon fans to discuss the decline of local Sunday football among other subjects. I had a chat with the host real ale gents about their club.

They confirmed that the fans were to take over and they were to leave their ground at the end of the season. They were sad about it. As one said, “It might be a s**thole, but it’s our s**thole.” The feeling was that they thought that they had been let down by the current owner.

Admission was £12. We’d already bought our programmes in the bar for a quid and once inside I opted for a good portion of chips and curry sauce for £3. The weather was beginning to get worse, with a strong wind and rain beginning to fall.

The Camrose had certainly seen better days; though in mitigation the end had been on the cards for a few years, so any investment would have been dead money. It was certainly large and offered three sections of covered standing as well as a raised seated Main Stand.

My only criticism was that the standing areas down the sides were a bit of a way from the pitch, with flat open standing in between. Nevertheless, the areas proved to offer us good protection from the biting gusts. The pitch had a slope from side to side.

My fear was that Town would profit from the boost of a new manager, which was a regular occurrence at clubs. Unfortunately, at least for Hendon supporters, this proved to be the case. After a tight opening the Dragons looked to take the initiative

Dean Stow put in a dangerous cross which nobody could get on the end of before Basingstoke went ahead on seventeen minutes. Sam Deadfield crossed following a short corner for Dan Bayliss to rise unchallenged at the back post to head home.

A couple of minutes later Ricardo German capitalised on a home error to get through on goal, but Colm McAdden made a good stop. Half way through the opening period it was 2-0 when Deadfield whipped in a corner. It somehow found its way into the net via the hands of keeper Danny Boness.

There was a suspicion about how weather worn and dogged one or two individuals were in the Hendon squad. The sort of non-league equivalent of how would a ball playing foreign star go on a Tuesday night in Grimsby, in old parlance. Here was an opportunity to find out.

Basingstoke continued to look dangerous when attacking before the Greens were given an almost comical lifeline on thirty seven minutes. German latched onto a pass. From our angle he slightly overran it and fell over the diving keeper McAdden.

Remarkably, referee Adam Baker, pointed to the spot. We were howling with laughter at the decision. It’s fair to say that the home fans were not as amused and rightly so; at least from our angle. The man in black conferred with his linesman and stuck with his original decision.

German stroked the penalty home down the middle of the goal to make it 2-1. I reasoned that it made up for the stone wall penalties Hendon had turned down at Dorchester and Salisbury. Surely, they would grab their fortunate opportunity of a leg up?

Approaching the half time whistle Zidan Akers cut inside from the left and sent a curling shot past the beaten Boness which came back off the post and away from danger as Town came desperately close to restoring their two goal advantage.

As a man of nostalgia, I was grateful for a trip into the gent’s toilets underneath the stand at the break to take me right back to my primary school years. A Basingstoke fan mentioned that he feared that Hendon would take advantage of the conditions after the break.

While I’m no Pep Guardiola, as my past record as a Sunday League manager would testify, I thought it was fair enough to mention to the subs warming up that getting some shots in might be an idea if they got on, considering the increasing wind and rain at their backs?

Lee Chappell obviously agreed, but his thirty yarder went high wide and not so handsome. At the other end Ben Wright had an effort deflected for a corner. The game was stretched as Hendon pushed forward with Sam Argent seeing an effort closed.

Diminutive striker Sam Smart had impressed throughout and was now having an increasing influence on the game. Half chances continued to fall to the Dragons who were managing the conditions the better of the sides.

With fifteen minutes remaining Akers somehow headed wide when set of beautifully by Smart. Seven minutes later German missed a guilt edged opportunity when he headed a fine delivery from substitute Shaun Lucien over the bar when unmarked.

I must confess to becoming more and more frustrated at some of the decisions made by certain Hendon players. The conditions were poor but were there to be taken advantage of. Smart ran full back Taishan Griffiths ragged to earn a penalty just before the board went up for stoppage time.

Stow sent his spot kick over the bar, to offer a final possible hurrah for the visitors. It wasn’t to be. We left the ground extremely frustrated, but ready to dust ourselves down for the visit of Metropolitan Police to Silver Jubilee Park a few days later.

The Basingstoke fans forum match reporter described Hendon’s performance as dismal, no fight, no character, no ability to handle the conditions and an ill-deserved goal. Probably a bit on the harsh side but certainly along the right lines on the day.

The Dragons fully deserved their win. Hendon had a "bad day at the office", but they'd come again. All the home fans I came across were fair, friendly and knowledgeable and I certainly wished them all the best in their forthcoming adventure in new surroundings as a fans owned club.

Our particular adventure was far from over, as the back left tyre of Lee’s car punctured the London side of Fleet services on the M3. Our pilot sprung into action with Bob on the jack and me on torch to run repairs in the dark and cold. It probably wasn’t Ferrari F1 standards, but bloody impressive under the circumstances.

We were deposited back at Harrow in time for me to take a siesta before night shift. Some sensible Tweets from Hendon team boss Jimmy Gray put things into perspective. Bring on the Met and car park duties. Up the Dons!