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Flamingos Cricket Club - Formed 1959
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Potted history
The Flamingo Cricket Club was formed at a meeting held at the Crown Hotel, Eastleigh on December 7th, 1959. Those present included a few members of the Eastleigh NALGO Cricket Club who were unhappy with the direction the club was going. Of those present, Stan Brambley, current President, is the only one still actively associated with the club. The years have taken their toll.It is interesting to note that the meeting set the annual subscription at 10/- (50p) for senior members and 5/- (25p) for juniors. It was also agreed that a sum of five pounds should be set aside as the start of a future development fund and that an invitation be extended to the ladies of the club to form their own Ladies Section to run "off field activities and fund raising". This proved to be a very shrewd move, as after more than ten years of playing at the Bishopstoke ground, the Ladies Section raised sufficient funds to enable the club to obtain the lease of a ground of their own, recommended by a former player, Sam Crook, at The Holt, Upham in late 1973.
Up to that time, the club played in the Eastleigh & District Evening League, had an extensive programme of friendlies and from 1961, enjoyed 22 successive years of annual week long tours to Sussex, Somerset, and Devon.
In 1973 the club became a founding member of the Hampshire League and entered the South-East Division.
With the acquisition of The Holt, extensive efforts by members of the club, like Alec Bennett, Joe Todd and Peter Lynham saw them build a new pavilion and develop the playing area sufficiently for them to start playing friendlies there in 1975 and league fixtures in 1978. In those early years at The Holt, there was no water or electricity at the ground. The supply of electricity was acquired as soon as possible, but water had to be brought to the ground in large containers for many years until the mid-1990’s, when a grant from the National Lottery enabled the club to sink a bore and procure their own supply of water. Continued improvements, both on and off the field, saw the club presented with the 'Ground of the Year' in 1998.
Steady progress by the Flamingo Club through the divisions of the Hampshire League saw them eventually win the County Division 1 Championship under the captaincy of Stuart Shapland in 2000 and gain promotion to the Southern Electric Premier League Division 3.
The Club formed a Colts Section in 1978 and it flourished for ten years. After a brief period of dormancy, it was revived in 1995 and is proving to be a very successful programme and a productive source of players to the two senior XI’s. There are three Colts teams at U-11, U-13, and U-15.
As well as the County Division 1 Championship in 2000 and the Ground of the Year Award in 1998, the Flamingo Club won the Tichbourne Trophy in 2000 and been runners-up for the Noel Fisher Memorial Cup in 1978 and 2001.