Portsmouth, situated on the Portsea Island,70-miles south-west of London, in Hampshire is home to 205,400 people. Portsmouth is said to have been existing during the Roman civilization too. Portsmouth for many centuries has served the Royal Navy as well. During the French invasion of 1545, Portsmouth is said to have served England as a line of defence. It is also known as the oldest dry dock of the world.
Portsmouth became the first to go into mass production. As such it also came to be known for being an industrialized city. The Portsmouth Blitz, during the Second World War, claimed 930 lives, as a result of bombing by the Nazi forces. The troops deployed to liberate the Falkland Islands in 1982 were from the Portsmouth’s naval base. When Hong Kong, the last British colony, was to be transferred, The Queen’s yacht Britannia left to Hongkong from Portsmouth.
Literature
‘Pompey’, a novel by Jonathan Meades, shows Portsmouth as the home of many criminals.Fanny Park, the lead character, in Jane Austen's novel Mansfield Park, is a resident of Portsmouth. Incidentally, many of Jane Austen’s made sure that her novels came to end in the Portsmouth city. In his novel, ‘The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby', Charles Dickens has portrayed Nicholas and Smike getting involved in a theatrical troupe in Portsmouth. The Aubrey-Martin series by Patrick O’Brian mostly saw Captain Jack Aubrey’s ships sailing from Portsmouth.
Many crime novels such D.I. Faraday/D.C. Winter novels by Graham Hurley and the Heartsone by C.J.Samson were set in Portsmouth.Published in 2014, the ‘Portsmouth Fairy Tales for Grown Ups’, had locations in its stories that were from around Portsmouth.
Sport
The Fratton Park is the home ground for Portsmouth F.C. The team has been victorious twice winning the Football League titles in 1949 and 1950. The team was victorious in the FA Cup in 1939 and 2008. The team once again started playing the Premier League in the 2003 season. 2010 to 2012 was a period of great difficulties for the team. They went down to the Championship level and then to LeagueOne by 2012. 2013 saw them further relegated to the fourth tier of the English Football, the League Two. Pompey Supporters Trust, in April 2013, purchased the team and made it making it the biggest fan-owned football club in the history of English Football.
Yet another football club has been the Moneyfields F.C, which based in Portsmouth has played in the Wessex Football League Premier Division since 1998.
The Wessex League Division One has two teams playing from Portsmouth which are - United Services Portsmouth F.C (formed in 1962 and known as the Portsmouth Royal Navy earlier) and Baffins Milton Rovers F.C.(formed in 2011).
It is at the United Services Recreation Ground in Ports in Portsmouth is the place where the matches between the two teams, Royal Navy Rugby Union and United Services Portsmouth RFC, are held.
The United Services Recreation Ground was home to first-class cricket since 1882. It was in 1895 that Hampshire County Cricket Club also played their matches at the same ground for the next 105 years (i.e. till 2000 AD). In 2000 AD, Hampshire moved to the Rose Bowl cricket ground in West End. Portsmouth also plays host to a number of hockey clubs such as
- United Services Portsmouth Hockey Club,( Burnaby Road)
- the City of Portsmouth Hockey Club, (University's Langstone Campus)
- Portsmouth Sharks Hockey Club, (Admiral Lord Nelson School)
- Portsmouth & Southsea Hockey Club (Admiral Lord Nelson School)
Portsmouth also plays Golf. An 18-hole parkland course, the Great Salterns Golf Club, was established in 1926 and has two holes. The game is played across the Lake Saltern.
The following golf courses are also present in Portsmouth:
- the Gosport and Stokes Bay Golf Club
- near Langstone Harbour in the east
- Hayling
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