Bemerton Heath Harlequins Football Club is a football 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, the ...

area of

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. 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 six seasons in a row, the club moved up to the

Wiltshire Football League The Wiltshire Football League is a football league in England, formed by amalgamation in 1976. All clubs are affiliated to a County Football Association. The area covered by the competition is the county of Wiltshire and 15 miles beyond the co ...

. 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 is an English association football league formed in 1986, with its premier division currently at the fifth step of the National League System, or the ninth tier of the overall English football league system. The part ...

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 knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

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. After winning the Wessex League Cup in 2009–10, Bemerton were Wessex League runners-up in

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

, also winning the Senior Cup for the third time after a 2–0 win against Bradford Town. The following season saw them finish as league runners-up again, as well as winning the Hampshire FA's Russell Cotes Cup, beating

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

2–0 in the final. In 2021–22 the club were Division One champions, earning promotion 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 The club runs Women's and Men's teams and has a fl ...

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 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 tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in the spring ...

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