Portals Athletic F.C.

Portals Athletic

Full name	Portals Athletic Football Club
Founded	1927
Dissolved	1987
Ground	Portals Ground, Batts Meadow, Laverstoke Park, Nr Whitchurch, Hampshire.
Home colours Away colours

Portals Athletic F.C. were a successful works football side from the Portals paper mill based in Laverstoke between the north Hampshire towns of Overton and Whitchurch.

Club history

Portals Athletic FC were founded in 1927 as a works team and initially played in the local Basingstoke League where they had plenty of success.

In 1967 Portals were elected to Hampshire League Division 3 where they finished in a respectable mid-table final position before being placed in Division 3 West, where they finished 3rd before clinching promotion as runners-up in 1969–70. Portals quickly adapdted well to life in what was then a highly competitive Division 2 as they clinched a final position of 3rd which was enough to secure a second successive promotion.

Life in the top flight was tough for Portals and they were relegated straight back again to Division 2 where they remained until the 1983–84 season when they bounced back as champions. Portals enjoyed numerous cup successes during this period and quickly consolidated themselves in Division 1 for two seasons until in 1986 they (along with the league's top clubs with the required facilities) broke away to form the new Wessex League.

Demise

In the league's inaugural season Portals finished in a steady 12th position but at the end of the season the parent company suddenly withdrew their support forcing the club to sadly withdraw from the competition and disband just after celebrating their 60th anniversary. Another sad loss to non-league football.

Famous Ex-Players

Brian Clifton, worked and played for Portals, and a number of other local teams before joining Southampton in 1953 where he was a regular until joining Grimsby Town in 1962, later playing for non-league Gainsborough Trinity and Boston United.

Ian White, the ex-Leicester City and Southampton player was Portal's player-coach in the early Seventies.

Stadium

Located alongside the B3400 between Whitchurch and Overton, the venue had a superb playing surface and remains in use today. During the 1999–2000 season it was leased to the short-lived Hampshire League side AFC Basingstoke.

Honours

• Hampshire League Division Two^[1]
  • Champions 1983/84
• Hampshire Intermediate Cup
  • Winners 1939/40 and 1980/81
• Hampshire Junior 'A' Cup
  • Winners 1936/37
• North Hants Senior Cup
  • Winners 1979/80, 1980/81 and 1982/83
• North Hants May Cup
  • Winners 1947/48

References