Fareham Town FC ‘doing all we can to fulfil our remaining fixtures, resolve the pitch issues and ensure the team has a future’

The Creeksiders have been hit harder than most by one of the wettest winters and springs in living memory.

Incredibly, they have only played three Wessex League Premier games at Cams since mid-October – on November 25, February 6 and March 23.

They have had to switch their last two home games to their opponents’ grounds – at Brockenhurst last Saturday and Stoneham last night – and are doing the same for tomorrow’s fixture against Blackfield & Langley and Saturday’s game against Bournemouth Poppies.

The squad – managed by ex-Pompey boss Graham Rix – still have 10 league games left, more than a quarter of their 38-game seasonal programme, and the FA insists the season has to end this month.

Fareham committee members met with Wessex League officials Bob Purkiss and Nick Taplin last week at Cams, with the latter due to return this Friday to see the state of the pitch and decide a way forward.

Providing the rain ever stops, Fareham are hopeful some of their remaining home games can be played.

If that is the case, the club can earn sufficient money to improve their pitch over the summer months.

A statement given to The News reads: “Fareham Town FC has been part of the local community since 1947. We are currently in the Wessex League and have a new committee as of this season. A handful of volunteers, who all have full time jobs, are working hard to also run a football club that is struggling to play its home games due to drainage issues with the pitch.

“A professional groundsman does a fantastic job as 95% if the pitch is in fantastic condition and playable. However, there is a small section of the pitch down the changing room end that has drainage issues and the water is just sitting on the pitch and not draining away.

"We have had a drainage company in to clean out the drains under the pitch but it will take a few dry days to take effect. We then need to spend £8-£10k post season to dig up the troublesome part of the pitch and install some soakaways to sort the drainage issue.

"That’s assuming we can get some home games in before the end of the season to have the finances to do so.

“Since January 1 until the end March, we have had (source: MetOffice) a total of 389.9mm of rain, compared to 271mm in the same period last year. And last year was higher than previous years.

"As you can see from the stats, its an unprecedented amount of rainfall and there have been very few gaps between rainy days in order for the pitch to recover.

“Other clubs in the Wessex League and Isthmian League are having similar issues to us and have received letters from the league stating they need to find alternative pitches to play on for the remainder of the season.

"This brings us two issues. Firstly, all other grass pitches are suffering, so we are really struggling to find alternatives. We have even tried 4G pitches like Havant & Waterlooville, but due to the situation, they are fully booked.

"The second issue is the finances of the club if we can’t play at Cams. The club relies on the income on matchdays to survive (gate, bar, food etc). If we have to reverse the fixture, we lose this income as we have to pay to book the likes of H&W or we have to play at our opponents’ pitch.

"We have been very lucky as our opponents have recognised the extend of our troubles and have bent over backwards to helps us and accommodate us however they can.

"This week Stoneham, B&L and Poppies have all agreed to let us play at their pitch. Some are allowing us to control the gate to help us generate some income, so we would like to publicly thank them for all their help.

“We have an excellent bar manager at V-Bar who has been putting on extra events to try and generate more money, but there is only so much we can do without having football there.

"We have only managed 3 home games at Cams since October and this is not enough to generate enough money to run the club.

“The league have seen we are doing all we can to fulfil our remaining fixtures, resolve the pitch issues and ensure the football team has a future.

"They have agreed to work with us to ensure we both play our matches and can financially survive.”

Due to the wet weather, Fareham have had the reschedule their annual Jon Gittens memorial fundraiser, from this month until May.

They also cannot host any local league cup finals – always a good revenue earner with the bar open and two games planned on the same day – until after the 2023/24 Wessex season is completed.