Front cover photo by pitchsidephotogrpahy.com

Chairman: Ken Jacobs Manager: Wayne Mew

Assistant Manager: Stuart Long Coach: Dave Smith

Coach: Andy Darnton Res. Manager: Francis Benali

Res. Coach: Craig Mew Treasurer: Paul Taylor

Secretary: Carolyn Mew Wyvern Secretary: Laura Hicks

Medical Staff: Paul Coffin & Dave Penny

Programme Editor: Cam Melling Safety Officer: Mike Garner

Youth Protection Officer: Laura Hicks

Home colours: White & Black Away Colours: Blue

First Team Midweek Games: Tuesdays Reserve Midweek Games: Tuesdays

Club Website: www.romseytownfc.com Founded: 1886

Ground: The Bypass Ground Last Season

Sydenhams Wessex Premier Division: 16th FA Cup: Extra Preliminary Round

FA Vase: Second Qualifying Round Hampshire Senior Cup: 2nd Round

League Cup: 1st Round

Welcome to the Bypass Ground - home of Romsey Town FC. We hope you enjoy your short stay here at our club.

Next Home Game: Totton & Eling 11/04/12 Next Away Game: Alton Town 28/04/12

Match Officials Referee: S. Saunders Assistants: C. Gunnell P. Cunningham

Kits by mustoe77 on sortitoutsi.net

Hello and welcome back to the Bypass Ground after five consecutive away games which have brought mixed re-wards. You can find out more about them later on in the programme. Today we welcome a Laverstock & Ford side who we will no doubt be wary of as Lavvy defeated us earlier in the sea-son. I am sure they will be doing all they can to maintain their position in the Premier Division so we can expect a difficult game today. A few players have signed for us (fairly) recently so I would like to welcome Lewis and Liam Robinson back to club for their second spells. Sam Wiltshire joins us from Fawley and even scored against his old club. So, I hope you enjoy the game today and cheer on you local team. Come on the Town!

By Cam Melling

Romsey‘s Leading Estate Agent

Buckinghams of Romsey 35 The Hundred

Romsey Hampshire SO51 8GE

Tel: 01794 511212 Www.bofr.co.uk

Proud to Sponsor Romsey Town

Established in 1956, Laverstock & Ford Football Club had always been a force in local football. In that opening season we came runners up in Salisbury & District league 3B and, of course, promo-tion to Salisbury & District Division 2. Unfortunately we were relegated in 1961-62 but during that season regained promotion back to Division 2 and were runners up in the Heseltine Cup. In 1962-63 we were again runners up, this time in Division 2 which gained us promotion to Salisbury & District Division 1 whereupon we came runners up in 1963-64, maintaining top positions in that league until 1969-70. In 1970-71 Laverstock & Ford FC won Division 1 and the following year came runners up and won the Morrison Cup. 1972-73 saw another blip being relegated to Division 2 where we re-mained for some 9 seasons, winning the Wiltshire Junior Cup and the Heseltine Cup along the way. In 1982-83 we were playing in Division 1 once again and in 1984–85 the club entered the Salisbury & District Premier league where we finished runners up and also won the Stonehenge Cup. Between 1985 and 1991 the Club participated in the Wiltshire League, gaining promotion to Division 1, but be-ing relegated in 1989 to Division 2. In 1991-92 we returned to Salisbury & District Premier League and finished 6th and the following year we entered into the Hampshire League where we remained for one season, returning to Salisbury & District Premier in 1993-94. Between 1993 and 1999 the Club achieved success in the Morrison Cup (2 years running), the Riley Cup and were Premier League Cup Winners twice. 1999-2000 saw us re-enter the Hampshire League again. During that season, we played in Hampshire Division 2, with a reserve side in Combination 1, we won the Wilt-shire Junior Cup again in 2000. 2001-02 saw the senior side narrowly miss out on promotion from Hampshire League Division 2 but achieve a remarkable series of victories in the Hospital Cup, beat-ing Salisbury City and Shrewton United before succumbing to Bemerton Heath Harlequins in the fi-nal. 2002-03 we won the Bledisloe Cup and were champions of Hampshire Division 2. 2003-04 saw us regain the Bledisloe Cup, win the Stokes Cup and came 11th in Hampshire Division 1. In 2004-05 we joined the Sydenham Wessex League Division 3, finishing a disappointing 11th in our first sea-son. In 2005-06 we finshed runners-up in Division 3, and with the reshapping of the Sydenham Wes-sex League were promoted to Divison 1. In 2006-07 in our first season in Divison 1 we finished a dis-appointing 12th. The 2007-08 season saw a vast improvement, we reached the Wiltshire Senior Cup Final for the first time in the clubs history and were promoted to the Wessex Premier League after coming runners up. Off the pitch in 2005-06 we played our first match under floodlights at Church Road. In 2006-07 we completed the hardstanding around the pitch. In 2007-08 we erected our 114 seater stands and bought the rest of the facilities up to the required ground grading requirements for the Wessex Premier League. Lost to Melksham Town in the final of the Wiltshire Senior Cup 4-2. 2008-9 saw us compete in the Wessex Premier League for the first time finishing 20th, we also en-tered the FA Vase for the first time, unfortunately we lost to Warminster Town at the first hurdle. Fin-ished 20th in the league. 2009-10 FA Vase First Round Proper lost 2-1 at home to Brockenhurst. En-tered the FA Cup for the first time, lost to Alton Town 3-1. Finished 21st in the league. Lost to Calne Town in the final of the Wiltshire Senior Cup 4-3 and lost to BHH in the quarter finals of the Syden-hams Wessex Cup 4-2. 2010-11. Finished 17th in the Premier league, our highest position to date.

Name: Laverstock & Ford Nickname: Lavvy Team Colours: Green and white 10/11 League Position: 17th 10/11 Most Appearances: Waters, Urry, Perrett (38) 10/11 Top Goalscorer: Eddie Perrett Last season‘s results: 3-2 & 5-3 to Romsey

Laverstock & Ford Lavvy may be second bottom but are off the back of an impressive 3-1 away win over Alton. Laverstock are without top scorer Daniel Western so their main threat will be last year’s top scorer Eddie Perrett who has 11 this season. They have scored an impressive 55 league goals which is better than 8 teams in the league. However they have conceded, in the league, over 100 which is the highest in the division. Lavvy have also lost the most and won the second least. Their biggest win was their game of the season - 7-3 over New Milton. Although, they have lost twice this season 6-1.

Matthew Brown – Position: Goalkeeper Good ‗keeper, has been solid every time he‘s been called on. Jake Long – Position: Left back Tough full back resigned last sea-son from Lymington after previously being at Romsey Richard Hayter - Position: Defender Solid defender who can play all across the back—ever present last season Gareth Batchelor – Position: Centre Back Skilful centre back who begins his second season with Romsey. Can play at the heart of midfield. Ross Gregory – Position: Centre back Captain spent many years at Romsey before signing for AFC Totton and is back at the heart of the defence Jamie Thoroughgood – Position: Centre back New defender in the heart of the defence. Signed from Guilford. Lewis Robinson - Position: Full back Adventurous full back who returns to Romsey after a successful loan spell last year. Luke Dempsey Position: Midfield Tough tackling centre mid who can also fill in at centre back signed from high flyers Sholing. Chris Hall – Position: Midfield Second season in centre midfield and an eye for a goal. Converted into right back this season. Chris Morris – Position: Midfield New midfielder recruited from Al-resford, very, very skilful and can walk past players. Shane Flooks - Position: Midfield New signing who joins us from Lymington. Grabbed his first for us against Christchurch. Liam Robinson - Position: Wing Winger who is back at the club on loan. Has an eye for goal. Macs Sampays – Position: Wing Third season at Romsey, never misses a game. Puts a good ball into the box and beats players. Callum Stanley – Position: Wing Very fast winger who can beat anyone. James Whitlock – Position: Centre back/ Wing Skilful winger who can fill in at the back. Will be in and out with the reserves. Simon De‘ath – Position: Striker The Assassin, Romsey legend, longest ever serving player and all time top goalscorer. Guaran-teed to score you goals. Ryan Long – Position: Striker Very quick striker who resigned halfway through last season after leaving for Gosport for 6 months. Can also use his pace on the wing. Ben ‗Chalky‘ White – Position: Striker New striker signed from Al-ton Town has scored over 30 goals in the past two seasons. Con-tributes much more than goals. Lee Burch - Position: Striker New signing from Hythe & Dibden where he scored 5 in just 10 games this season.

Jake Long

Richard Hayter

Gareth Batchelor

Luke Dempsey

Ross Gregory

Chalky White

Ryan Long

Simon De‘ath

Macs Sampays

Chris Morris

Chris Hall

League Table

Recent Results

Fixtures

Manager: Francis Benali Coach: Craig Mew League: Wyvern Combination League Division 1 West

Top scorer: Danny Longman (7) Top appearances: Scott Fellbrich (16)

First Team Watch

First team top scorer Simon De‘ath started for the reserves in their 8-3 win over Ring-wood Town which is his first game for the reserves this year. He grabbed a magnificent four goals which were all fantastic poacher finishes.

Ben White played in the reserves 1-0 loss to Verwood Town to regain fitness. The striker looked keen throughout and battled hard despite the 1-0 loss.

Date Opposition H/A Competition Result Scorers

12/08/11 Bournemouth Home League 1-0 Simon De‘ath

20/08/11 Brading Town Home FA Cup 0-1

23/08/11 Moneyfields Away League 5-6 Simon De‘ath 2, Ryan Long 2, Macs Sampays

27/08/11 Newport (IOW) Home League 1-3 Macs Sampays

29/08/11 Winchester Home League 2-3 Simon De‘ath, Ryan Long

03/09/11 Hayling United Away League 2-1 Simon De‘ath, Chalky White

06/09/11 Bemerton Heath Home League 1-0 Ryan Long

10/09/11 Bournemouth Away League 1-3 Simon De‘ath

13/09/11 Cowes Sports Home HSC 1st Round 7-3 White 3, De‘ath, Morris, Baker, R.Long

17/09/11 Lymington Home League 0-1

20/09/11 Blackfield & Langley Home League 4-5 Simon De‘ath 3, Chris Hall

24/09/11 Fawley Home FA Vase 1-3 Simon De‘ath

27/09/11 Moneyfields Home League 3-0 Chris Hall, Ross Gregory, Macs Sampsays

01/10/11 GE Hamble Away League 0-2

08/10/11 Rozel Rovers Home HSC 2nd Round 2-0 Ryan Long 2

12/10/11 Newport (IOW) Away League 2-0 Ryan Long 2

15/10/11 Hamworthy Home League 2-1 Luke Baker, Jamie Thoroughgood

18/10/11 AFC Portchester Away League Cup 1st Round 1-0 Ben White

22/10/11 New Milton Away League 3-2 Simon De‘ath 3

25/10/11 Fawley Home League 3-3 Macs Sampays, Simon De‘ath, Ryan Long

29/10/11 Fareham Home League 2-1 Own Goal, Chris Hall

01/11/11 Amesbury Town Away League Cup 2nd Round 5-0 De‘ath 2, Sampays, White, Long

05/11/11 Alton Home League 6-2 R. Long 2, White, Gregory, Hall, Sampays

08/11/11 Lymington Away League 2-3 Jack Vallis, Chris Hall

12/11/11 Hayling United Home League 5-0 Simon De‘ath 2, Ryan Long 3

19/11/11 Brading Town Home League 3-0 Simon De‘ath 2, Macs Sampays

22/11/11 New Milton Home League 1-0 Ben White

26/11/11 Winchester Away League 3-3 Simon De‘ath 3

06/12/11 New Milton Away HSC 3rd Round 5-0 Ryan Long 3, Jamie Thoroughgood, Gareth Batchelor

27/12/11 Totton & Eling Away League 1-0 Simon De‘ath

07/01/12 Blackfield & Langley Home League 1-1 Chris Hall

10/01/12 New Milton Home League Cup 3rd Round 1-0 Liam Robinson

14/01/12 Brading Town Away League 3-0 Chris Hall, Liam Robinson, Lee Burch

17/01/12 Eastleigh Away HSC Quarter Finals 2-3 Ryan Long 2

21/01/12 Downton Away League 1-3 Ross Gregory

28/01/12 Alresford Town Away League 2-1 Chris Hall, Ryan Long

31/01/12 Laverstock & Ford Away League 0-1

04702/12 Christchurch Away League Cup 1-3 Shane Flooks

18/02/12 Bemerton Away League 0-3

21/02/12 Christchurch Home League 1-0 Simon De‘ath

25/02/12 Alresford Home League 0-1

07/03/12 Fawley Away League 2-1 Ryan Long, Sam Wilshire

10/03/12 Fareham Away League 1-3 Liam Robinson

13/03/12 Christchurch Away League 1-2 Ryan Long

17/03/12 Horndean Away League 2-0 Ben White 2

24/03/12 Hamworthy Away League 1-1 Liam Robinson

31/03/12 Laverstock & Ford Home League

09/04/12 Totton & Eling Home League

14/04/12 Downton Home League

21/04/12 GE Hamble Home League

28/04/12 Alton Away League

Romsey Town: A brief history The club was formed in 1886 when a meeting took place at the Town Hall ―to consider the desirability of forming a foot-ball club in the town.‖ Initially they played at Alma Road and in 1889 began playing in local league football where they had successful spells in a number of competitions before joining the Southampton League as founder members in 1908. The 1920s were a good decade for Romsey Town and after winning the Hampshire Intermediate Cup and the South-ampton Senior League they gained entry into the Hampshire League but struggled in the West Division and returned to local football after just one season. In 1930, Romsey moved to Priestlands, which is now Romsey School, and returned to the Hampshire League where they were placed in Division 2. Here the club were better prepared as they went on to produce some of their best attacking sides, featuring well in both league and cup competitions. In 1956, they were relegated and moved to their current home, The Bypass Ground. Romsey continued in Division 3 but the early 1960s saw a further decline in fortune, eventually resulting in relegation from the league in 1964. Because the football pyramid was not yet in existence, the club were forced to drop right down to replace their reserves in Jun-ior Division 1 of the Southampton League and it was not until 1968 that they won promotion back to the senior section. By the 1970s, the club started to re-surface out of the doldrums of lower league football and after three successive pro-motions and a Southampton Senior Cup triumph in 1974. Romsey regained their Hampshire League status in 1975 where they promptly won the Division 4 title at the first attempt. Romsey proceeded to end the decade on a high note, again winning promotion and the Hampshire Intermediate Cup in 1978 followed by arguably their finest hour a year later when they won Division 2 title and unexpectedly defeated Farnborough Town 1–0 in the Hampshire Senior Cup final played at the The Dell. The 1980s saw Romsey consolidate in Division 1 before becoming founder members of the Wessex League in 1986. Here they soon became a strong force, and after some encouraging campaigns, they clinched the title in 1990 and en-joyed numerous good cup runs, most notably in 1990 when they lost 1–2 at home to Littlehampton Town in the 4th Quali-fying Round. A change of personnel saw Romsey fall into decline, and after a nightmare season in 1993 they were relegated back to Division 1 of the Hampshire League, from where they were again relegated. Despite these setbacks, Romsey bounced back and within two years they had won the Southampton Senior Cup and promotion back to the Wessex League. How-ever, they struggled in what had become a much harder competition. In 1998, Romsey were again relegated back to the Hampshire League and a series of managers and large turn-over of players saw them slip into the league's third di-vision. In 2003, the club hit an all-time low when they bottom but the club were re-elected, and since then they have en-joyed a remarkable upturn in fortunes. In 2004 the Wessex League absorbed the original Hampshire League and due to their facilities Romsey were placed in Division 1 and after some encouraging final placings they won promotion in 2007 back to the top flight, now known as the Premier Division. In the 2007–08 season with manager Glenn Burnett at the helm Romsey's team spirit was at an all-time high. The team were performing well on the pitch as well with two consecutive mid-table finishes really consolidat-ing Romsey's position in the Wessex Premier League. At the end of the 2009–10 season, Glenn Burnett decided to step down blaming his decision to leave on how much he had to do at the club. Assistant manager Lee Harrison soon fol-lowed suit. As well as a large percentage of the squad that Glenn had been crafting over the last few seasons. In the 2010–11 season, backed by the new management duo of Wayne Mew and Stuart Long, began with many trials as Romsey searched to rebuild a team. In the end Romsey finished in 16th position in the league despite a lack of players. One of the high points of the season was Romsey's longest-serving and most prolific player in their history, Simon De'ath, who finished with 25 league goals, placing him seventh in the goalscorer charts. Wayne Mew continued at the helm for the 2011–12 and managed to keep hold of striker Simon De'ath despite interest from numerous bigger clubs—including Winchester City.

Romsey Town: Honours Wessex League Champions 1989/90

Hampshire League Division 2 Champions 1978/79, Runners-up 1994/95 Hampshire League Division 3 Runners-up 1946/47, 1977/78 & 2003/04 Hampshire League Division 4 Champions 1975/76

Hampshire Senior Cup Winners 1978/79. Finalists 1948/49 Hampshire Intermediate Cup Winners 1926/26, 1930/31 & 1977/78 Hampshire Junior Cup Winners 1900/01, 1909/10 & 1923/24. Finalists 1898/99 & 1899/1900 Russell Cotes Cup Runners-up 1932/33 & 1988/89

Southampton Senior Cup Winners 1973/74 & 1994/95. Southampton Junior Cup Winners 1922/23 Southampton League Premier Division Champions 1980/81 & 1983/84

Southampton League Senior Division 1 Champions 1926/27, 1973/74 & 1976/77. Southampton League Senior Division 2 Champions 1972/73, Southampton League West Division Champions 1951/52 Southampton League Romsey Division Champions 1927/28

Southampton League Junior Division 3 Runners-up 1924/25 Southampton League Junior Division 4 Champions 1974/75 Salisbury & District League Champions 1898/99

South Hants League Champions 1900/01 Winchester League Champions 1921/22 Eastleigh League Champions 1922/23, 1923/24, 1928/29.

Sydenhams Wessex Premier Division (29/03/12)

Last Saturday‘s game was drawn with Liam Robinson‘s fourth of the season opener cancelled out by a dubious Hamworthy penalty. That draw made it two without a loss after the previous Sat-urday‘s 2-0 win over strugglers Horndean. A superb per-formance by Ben White who scored both goals and contin-ued to work hard throughout. The three games prior to these gave us a vital win but also two loses. We bounced back from our last home game defeat to Alres-ford by beating Fawley on the 7th March 2-1 with Ryan Long and Sam Wiltshire grabbing a goal each. However, this was followed up by a 3-1 loss to Fareham Town three days later in game which Liam Robinson grabbed another but it was nor nearly enough. On the 14th March we played fellow high-flyers Christ-church and despite a great battling performance and Ryan Long‘s 25th it was not enough and we were narrowly beaten 2-1.

Review of our last five games which have all been away

TUESDAY MARCH 27TH BEMERTON HEATH HARLEQUINS made it through to the Russell Cotes Cup final, with a 2-1 away win at GE HAMBLE. Goals from Thomas Roberts and Daniel Young booked Harlequins their place in the final, a game against fellow Premier Division side, Christchurch, at Hurn Bridge. Although Ashley Jarvis netted a soli-tary goal for the Planemakers, it wasn't enough and they have exited the competi-tion. In the Premier Division on Tuesday night, CHRISTCHURCH won 2-1 at home to struggling HAYLING UNITED. Ben Osborne put Christchurch ahead after just nine minutes before former Winchester City front man, Alex Easton, levelled for the Humbugs. Christchurch won the game 15 minutes from time when Russell Cook was on target. Chamal Fenelon and Louis Bell Junior were both amongst the goals as HORNDEAN won 3-1 at home to BOURNEMOUTH POPPIES. The Five-heads Park club made it four points from six in an impressive couple of days. Mi-chael Birmingham, Dan Gauntlett and Steve Hutchings all found the net as MONEYFIELDS won 3-1 at home to Jeff Softley's DOWNTON. Declan McGregor got the only goal in response for the Wiltshire club.

Romsey Goalscorers (L = League, C = Cup)

Simon De‘ath - 27 (23L, 4C) Ryan Long - 25 (16L, 9C) Ben White - 11 (6L, 5C) Chris Hall - 8 (8L, 0C) Macs Sampays - 7 (6L, 1C) Liam Robinson - 4 (3L, 1C) Ross Gregory - 3 (3L, 0C) Luke Baker - 2 (1L, 1C) (Left club) Jamie Thoroughgood - 2 (1L, 1C) Jack Vallis - 1 (1L, 0C) (Left club) Chris Morris - 1 (0L, 1C) Gareth Batchelor - 1 (0L, 1C) Lee Burch - 1 (1L, 0C) Shane Flooks - 1 (0L, 1C) Sam Wilshire - 1 (1L, 0C)

Matthew Brown (GK) Jake Long Richard Hayter Gareth Batchelor Ross Gregory (C) Jamie Thoroughgood Lewis Robinson Luke Dempsey Chris Hall Chris Morris Macs Sampays Sam Wiltshire Shane Flooks Liam Robinson Callum Stanley Simon De‘ath Ryan Long Ben ‗Chalky‘ White Lee Burch

Today‘s Teams

Romsey Town Laverstock & Ford Manager: Wayne Lockey Colours: Green & white shirts Green shorts Green socks Form: LWLLW Position: 21st

Manager: Wayne Mew Colours: White shirts Black shorts Black socks Form: WLLWD Position: 6th

Matt Wiltsher (GK) Bradley Strickland

Billy Maybury Pearce Farren

Graig Vigar Shaun Hartley David Midgley

Elliot Ward Eddie Perrett

Martin Warren Marco Zocchi Mason Brown

Kieran Malcahy Jamie Kay

Lukasz Labedzky Sam Pearse