SPRINGHILL DADS - HISTORY

    Formed by teacher, Georgio Columbi in 1987 with the objective of promoting fair play in the true Corinthian spirit and, at the same time, enjoy the odd half of shandy. The Dads played their first game against St John's Dads of Portsmouth at the Mountbatten Centre. Needless to say, true to form, the Dads lost 9 - 3 and also lost the quiz in the bar. Goals from Brian Medway, Terry O'Farrell and Richard MacMillan.

    Besides Georgio, the original squad comprised: Brian Newman, Alan Webber, Paul Hanvey, Steve Deadman, Terry O'Farrell, Brian Medway, John Keenan, Ken Jones, Mal Barton, Ian Wolfe, Ian McTaggart, Peter Gough, Dave Ivory, James Trant, Mike Smears, Kevin Barnett, John Willis, Dave Shiers, Nigel Rose, John Gallagher and Frank Winter. If you care to look at the photo of the team on the home page, it is the one which played the Ex Saints XI in 1997 to celebrate ten years of Dads Soccer, and you'll see one or two faces from the original line-up. The original Dads squad played together for a while and eventually managed a sterling 5 - 4 win against Simon's Wine Bar right at the end of their first season - goals from Dave Ivory (2) and an own goal.

    Then, in 1990 Georgio managed to escape by getting promoted to head of St Mary's in Portsmouth - he must have been desperate to get away. It's all his fault, he shouldn't have started it in the first place. Terry O'Farrell aided and abetted by Clive Young were persuaded to take over. The games began to start getting a little more regular and the players would have liked to win the odd match. The Dads managed a run of four games undefeated before being taken to the cleaners by arch rivals Auto Heat in a 3 - 4 reversal. In their desperation the Dads recruited Emilio, Mad Mal's nephew from Spain, in Southampton to do his A levels, to go in goal. Things began to look up, he even saved a penalty in his first game against St Vincent de Paul XXV. The Dads went on to win 9 - 1. Clive Young was now running the show. Terry was spending more and more time with his amateur dramatic friends and he didn't have any time for his old chums (sob!).

    Then, calamity, half way through the 1991/92 season Clive's knees gave way. He just couldn't hack it anymore and somehow the mad Taff, Mal Barton found himself in the hot seat. How did that happen? About this time, the fixtures and results slip began to grow from a tear off strip to both sides of an A4 sheet. The Dads must have begun to wonder if they'd found a repressed fantasy writer for a Manager.

    The games were getting even more regular now, from 8ish in the 92/93 season to a regular 20ish in 93/94 season. However, the Dads were sticking to their Corinthian ideals as set out by Georgio, ie they were still losing a lot but the shandy was flowing like . . . . shandy. The most memorable achievement of the 93/94 season was the defeat of arch rivals No 2 Primary Schools (Mojos) three times, 4 - 2, 5 - 2 and 6 - 1. But the Mojos did get their own back by beating the Dads 3 - 2 and dumping them out of the Springhill Dads Cup.

    The beast was really getting out of control, now. The knock out competition began in the 93/94 season. The Dads true to their sporting origins never get anywhere near the silverware. The 94/95 season was a reasonably good one, although no trophies - they did enjoy a terrific 11 - 2 win over No 3 arch rivals Maples Sport and picked up the Wooden Spoon.

    The 95/96 season began with a football trip to Ireland where the Corinthian spirit was shared with Bunclody United who, in turn, shared their Guines with the Dads. That season, beyond any Dads wildest dreams, the Dads found themselves in the League Trophy play-offs and they also collected a Dads Cup Runners-Up medal - presented by Reubin Agboola at the Pub-in-the-Park. Their first trophy? In their 10 year history.

    There is now an annual Dads awards presentation to the players: 'Golden Boot', 'Player of the Year' , 'Own Goal of the Year' and an occasional 'Special Award'.

    On the auspicious occasion of the Dads 10th anniversary a charity match was arranged with the Ex Saints XI which included such greats as Jimmy Case, Ian Turner, Roger Dry, Keith Vine - The Echo had great sport taking the mickey out of the Dads secretary getting Forbes Philip -Masterson’s name all mixed up. He is categorical that that he faithful reproduced it as supplied by Roy Beazley. It was no suprise that the Ex-Saints went on to give the Dads a rare old footballing lesson but Dave Hedges managed to get a consolation goal. After the game all the players went into the club house for refreshments and the raffle. All together £650 was raised for play ground equipment for the school and a cash donation was sent to The Round Table Children's Wish Appeal. Things have gone on from strength to strength since then. The annual footballing and cultural week-ends continue - last year the Dads spread their own brand of footballing diplomacy in Royal Leamington Spa. And also managed to land the first honours in their history; THE SPRINGHILL DADS LEAGUE TROPHY and THE SPORTS AND LEISURE CATEGORY OF MARALAP99.

    To mark the millennium and to raise some charity cash this year the Dads have invited Hampshire County Cricket Club to a game of Soccer.

    Surprisingly enough they do have one or two handy footballers - the Dads are not going to get an easy ride. However, they do have a surprise of their own in the person of Ruben Agboola who has a score or two to settle with the Cricket Lads.

Hampshire Cricket Club XI