Where was this post-war football game in Portsmouth? | Nostalgia

Clare Ash, who sent me the photograph, tells me the shop or office on the extreme right is that of the builders Southcote.

They had branches at 12/14 Chichester Road, North End and at 11/15 Great Southsea Street, Southsea.

Clare studied at Portsmouth College of Art and Design. She has a Diploma in Professional Photography from the Polytechnic of Central London and also a BA from the University of Westminster.

- Some weeks ago I mentioned the ghost of a girl picked up in the pouring rain along Hulbert Road, which runs from Bedhampton to Waterlooville.

I have now received a letter from a woman who I shall let remain anonymous.

She told me that about 1958 she and her husband lived in Hulbert Road and one rainy evening left home to drive to a friend’s house in Waterlooville.

When they were a mile or so along the road they saw a girl in a raincoat hitchhiking, so they stopped to pick her up. The girl sat in the back.

When they arrived at London Road, Waterlooville, the woman’s husband said that as it was still raining they would drive on and drop her off at home and the girl gave them her address.

As they approached the turning to the road the woman turned around to ask the girl where the house was only to discover the girl had disappeared.

The girl had told them the house number so they went and knocked on the door.

A woman answered the door and after being told what had happened, said: ‘Oh, that was my daughter. She’s trying to get home.’

It would appear that her daughter had disappeared some years before and nothing of her had been heard since.

Several other motorists had picked her up and done exactly as our couple had done – knocked on the woman’s door telling of the same experience.

I wonder if this tale has jogged any more readers’ memories?

Has anyone else picked up this girl while travelling along Hulbert Road?

- The Woodlands crossroads picture on the Horndean to Emsworth Road I published on May 16 was seen by George Barrett.

He says: ‘I was delighted to see a reference to Skull and Crossbones Corner in your column the other day.

‘It's still called that in my family and it's nice to know we're not the only ones who still use the old name.

‘My late father told me the name had its origins in the early days of motoring when car brakes were notoriously ineffective.

‘Before the junction was realigned it was a simple crossroads with poor visibility, and there were numerous accidents there, some fatal.

‘At some point a notice was put up on the approach to the junction which stated the following – “slow, blow or..." and there was a picture of a skull and crossbones.’

- To the many readers (14 at the last count) who e-mailed me with details about the ships alongside at HMS Vernon in last Monday’s column, I cannot name you all of course but a big thank you.

Here is what you said… The outboard ship with the pennant number M443 was the Algerine-class minesweeper Marvel. She was launched in August 1944 and completed in April 1945. She was in the Vernon Squadron from 1950 to 1956.

The middle ship was another Algerine of the Vernon Squadron, probably Pluto. She was launched in October 1944 and completed in October 1945. The inboard ship was the diving trials ship Deepwater. She was based at Vernon from March 1946 until 1960 when she was broken up.

She was formerly the German torpedo trial vessels Walter Holtzapfel and was seized in August 1945 at the end of the Second World War.

More than 100 of the class were built between 1942 and 1944 in the UK and in Canada by Redfern. They were steel, 900 tons and 225ft overall. They had a four-inch gun and four single or twin Oerlikon cannon. The ship's company numbered 115.

They were ocean-going and could also be used as convoy escorts. Their range was 5,000 miles at 10 knots. Marvel was scrapped on May, 7 1958. Of the 110 built, six were sunk.

- Rita Muston, of Waterlooville, sent me this country tale about the last frost. From the first blossom of the blackthorn (sloe) bush until the blossom dies we will receive unsettled weather, rain, hail, snow and thunder. Country people used to call it a blackthorn winter. You have been warned...