Bemerton Heath Harlequins Football Club is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in the

Bemerton Bemerton, once a rural hamlet and later a civil parish to the west of Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, is now a suburb of that city. Modern-day Bemerton has areas known as Bemerton Heath, Bemerton Village and Lower Bemerton. History In 1086, th ...

area of

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, England. Established in 1989 as a merger of Bemerton Athletic, Moon and Bemerton Boys, they are currently members of the and play at Moon Park.

History

Bemerton Athletic

The Bemerton Club started as a boys' team in 1945 and after beating every other boys' team in the area, they changed their name to Bemerton Athletic in 1949. The club dominated the Salisbury & District Football League from the start through to the mid-1960s. In 1960–61 they were league champions with a 100% record, also winning the Wiltshire Junior Cup, Morrison Cup, South Wilts Charity 'A' and Lord Bledisloe Cup in the same season. After winning the First Division for six consecutive seasons, the club moved up to the

Wiltshire Football League The Wiltshire Football League, also known as the Wiltshire League and the Wiltshire Senior League, is a football league in England which was formed by amalgamation in 1976. All clubs are affiliated to a County Football Association. The area cov ...

. They won promotion to Division One in the 1965–66 season. The club won the Wiltshire Combination League in 1972–73 and 1973–74 and the Wiltshire Senior League in 1986–87 after being runners-up for the previous three seasons.

Moon

The club was started in the late 1960s by a group of schoolboys in their mid-teens who played friendlies. They played under the name Bemerton Heath until 1973, when upon entering the Salisbury & District Sunday League, they changed their name to the Conquered Moon. They won Division Three and Division One, the Supplementary Cup and the Sunday Cup on various occasions. They also set a record of playing in seven consecutive Sunday Cup Finals. During the nine years in the Salisbury League, the club made three appearances in the Wiltshire Sunday Cup Final but never won it. The club changed its name back to Bemerton Heath, only to revert to the Conquered Moon two seasons later, to then drop the 'Conquered' in the early 1980s. In 1982 the club moved to the Andover Sunday League and within five seasons, every trophy to be played in had been won at least once. During the sixteen years (1973–1989) of competitive football that the club had played in, they never finished below second place in any league.

Merged club

The two clubs merged in May 1989 to form Bemerton Heath Harlequins, also incorporating Bemerton Boys of the Mid-Wilts League.Club History
Bemerton Heath Harlequins F.C. The new club was accepted into the

Wessex league The Wessex Football League, known as the Velocity Wessex Football League for sponsorship reasons, is an English regional men's football league in southern England. Its members are primarily from Hampshire and Dorset, but clubs from adjoining co ...

for the 1989–90 season. In 1992–93 they entered the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

for the first time, reaching the third qualifying round. The season also saw the club win the Wiltshire Senior Cup, beating Wollen Sports 3–1 in the final,Wiltshire Cups summary
Football Club History Database as well as a third-place finish in the Wessex League. In 2004–05 the Wessex League was expanded to three divisions, with the original league becoming Division One. Two years later it was renamed the Premier Division. After winning the Wessex League Cup in 2009–10, Bemerton were Premier Division runners-up in

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, also winning the Senior Cup for the third time after a 2–0 win against Bradford Town. The following season saw them finish as Premier Division runners-up again, as well as winning the

Hampshire FA The Hampshire Football Association, also known as ''Hampshire FA'', is the governing body of football in the county of Hampshire, England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is loc ...

's Russell Cotes Cup, beating

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

2–0 in the final. In 2018–19 the club finished second-from-bottom of the Premier Division, resulting in relegation to Division One. In 2021–22 they were Division One champions, earning promotion back to the Premier Division. Their first season back in the Premier Division saw them finish second, resulting in promotion to Division One South of the Southern League.

Ground

Bemerton Athletic played at the

Salisbury and South Wiltshire Sports Club The Salisbury and South Wiltshire Sports Club (also known as the County Ground) is a sports ground in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, which is used for Hockey, Cricket and other sports. Hockey Salisbury Hockey Club runs Women's and Men's team ...

from 1945 to 1989. The merged club play at Moon Park on Western Way. The ground has a seated stand named after former chairman Steve Slade and a covered standing area on one side of the pitch and a clubhouse with some covered seating behind one goal. It currently has a capacity of 2,100, of which 250 is seated and 350 covered.

Honours

*Wessex League **Division One champions 2021–22 **League Cup winners 2009–10 *Russell Cotes Cup **Winners 2011–12 *Wiltshire Senior Cup **Winners 1992–93, 2010–11

Records

*Best

performance: Third qualifying round, 1992–93 *Best

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, also known as the Isuzu FA Vase for sponsorship reasons, is an annual football competition run by and named after The Football Association (The FA), for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English Nation ...

performance: Fifth round, 1998–99, 2012–13 *Record attendance: 1,118 vs

Aldershot Town Aldershot Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Aldershot, Hampshire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. The club was founded in the spr ...

Mike Williams & Tony Williams (2016) ''Non-League Club Directory 2017'', Tony Williams Publications, p549 *Most appearances: Keith Richardson *Most goals: Jack SladeJack's Back
Bemerton Heath Harlequins, 25 October 2020

References

External links

* {{coord, 51.0813, -1.8348, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Football clubs in England Football clubs in Salisbury Association football clubs established in 1989 1989 establishments in England Wessex Football League Southern Football League clubs