Hamble United
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Hamble United
FOOTBALL CLUB
Hamble United FC’s season has not been without difficulty this season but
they have worked hard to overcome the adversity and are now looking
forwards to the future. Football Focus Magazine recently caught up with
Chairman Gary Curtis to find out more about the club.
Involvement Present
He told us, “I started the club in 2005; I
had been with another club and had tried
to get them to adopt the FA’s Chartered
Standard but they refused to even
consider working towards the award. So
I decided that I would start my own club;
I worked with Hampshire FA to ensure
our club, even though it didn’t have any
players, had all the infrastructure in place
to ensure we could provide a well-run
and sustainable future for our players.
The most rewarding part of my role
is seeing the faces of our young players
on the training ground, the determinate
on match days and the pride of them and
their family members on presentation
nights.” “We have had a very tough year; in
August last year thieves set fire to our
storage containers while trying to break
in causing the total loss of all our grounds
maintenance equipment and our kitchen
causing damage of over £20,000. At
that time I thought we were finished - I
honestly didn’t see a way back.
But following articles in the press and
footage and interviews with myself on
TV we have managed to raise some funds
with the support of local people and
companies like Pentalver who gave us a
new shipping container, Selco who gave
us a kitchen and Harrods who supplied us
with a new line marker and paint.
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We still have a way to go to replace
everything but we are getting there slowly;
we are in need of a good Tractor mower
but funding is still tight so it’s going to be
a while. Things are looking up though; the
support of the local community has been
brilliant with the volunteers in the club
working tirelessly to ensure we move
forward and we have again grown in size
for the coming season.”
On the Field
“In a football sense we have done well,
all our teams have finished in the top half
of their tables. We have had our U15’s in
a cup final and our men’s first team has
won promotion. All the mini soccer teams