Portsmouth joy as SPL Cup sees them renew old rivalries again
Havant, Burridge and Hants Academy in same group
gave us best use of facilities, maximised player time, minimised travel and negated the C-19 risk by allowing us to control our own facility and distancing.
‘And most importantly in such a tricky time, it allowed us to have fun amongst
SPL chairman Steve Vear friends and put a few pounds over our own bar!’
Hook’s survey offered players the SPL Cup option, no matches at all, or the interclub tournament – and 85 per cent chose the latter.
The interclub trophy is named after Hook chairman Keith Lovelock and the club’s former Hampshire Seniors player Kevin
Poulter, who died two years ago.
Because three teams didn’t enter, three of the four League Cup groups are running with nine teams. That inevitably means one team from each of those groups will be left inactive on one weekend. Havant sit out the opening round of Premier/ Division 1 East games next of the SPL’s 40 teams are competing in nine-week League Cups weekend, while the top game locally is Portsmouth’s home game with Burridge – one of five (out of eight) games they will be playing at St Helens.
The last time those two 1st XIs met in the league was back in 2011 in a SPL Division 2 encounter that Burridge won by one run.
Overseas players won’t be taking part in the cups, with the exception of Burridge’s Hampshire-based South African Hilio de Abreu.
Portsmouth chairman
It has been a long road to get here, there were twists and turns we didn’t expect
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