Club History Part 3 - 2018 - 2025

FLIGHT REFUELLING PETANQUE CLUB

2018 to 2025

As the club’s leadership passed from long standing chairman David Warhurst to Vernon Mitchell, a sea change occurred as our long-standing twinning partnership with Cherbourg PC on the Cotentin peninsula came to an end. It had run successfully for many years but the burden of running and hosting it was falling on ever fewer shoulders, and the cost was becoming a serious drain on our financial resources. Quietly and sadly, that chapter was closed.

Meanwhile, the New Forest League was attracting several new clubs who were driving up the standard of play. Southampton, Salmon Leap and Muscliff Park all joined and before long were forces to be reckoned with. But not to be outdone, the club again found league success. Captained by Adrian Gingell, the Falcons claimed the League trophy in 2018. This success was emulated, a year later, by the Harriers who won the Cup under the leadership of club captain Mike Gillingham.

Then, at the start of 2020, the Covid epidemic struck. Perhaps perversely, it was in some ways good for Flights. Our age profile suggested we might be more vulnerable, but we carefully observed all the health and safety protocols and continued to play in both morning and evening sessions, though the New Forest League cancelled its entire 2020 programme and ran a truncated programme in 2021.

As the world emerged from the disastrous Covid lockdowns, however, a major hiccup befell the league. Unable to countenance the higher standards and greater attention to ‘the Rules’, literally half of its twenty teams – basically the pub-based ones – seceded overnight at the start of the 2022 season. But within two years, the number of teams left in the League had increased again from ten to fourteen – clearly the flight to quality was working.

Rather to our surprise at Flights, it was during the Covid era that our membership levels – historically static in the 25 to 35 range – suddenly mushroomed to around 60. Most of our new members (many coming from bowls clubs) preferred playing in the new morning sessions rather than on club evenings, but they enthusiastically took to their new sport, appreciating the coaching we provided as well as our social activities.

This influx of new talent meant that for the 2023 league season, we felt able enter a third team – the Jets, led by Elaine Aldersey - into division 2 of the league where they acquitted themselves well. It was in this season too, that we introduced a new pre-season internal competition between our three teams – the Challenge Trophy – designed to sharpen us up for the season ahead. And in their very first season, the Jets won it.

In the 2023 League, the Falcons – now led by Peter Aldersey – claimed the League’s Plate trophy whilst notably, Flights personnel enjoyed a clean sweep of the silverware in New Forest tournaments – an unprecedented scoop of the Singles (Steve Bassett), Doubles (Leo Black and the evergreen Mike Gillingham) and Triples (Adrian Gingell, Hilary Annichiarico and Alan Cannard) titles.

2024 witnessed our first major silverware since 2019, the Falcons not only winning the Cup but also finishing as league runners up. In the 2025 season the Falcons went one better by reversing their success of the previous year – this time, winning the coveted League championship and ending as Cup runners up. Three trophies in three years.

The Harriers, too, got in on the act. Having been narrowly relegated in 2024, they bounced back emphatically a year later as division 2 champions under the leadership of Vernon Mitchell.

Away from the league, it was apparent by 2024 that with so many members we needed to expand our playing facilities. With a lot of volunteer help, led by Denzil Trafford and Mario Annicchiarico, we built a third floodlit terrain behind our hut. A year later we renovated all our boards and the hut, which is such an all-weather benefit compared with all the other club facilities we visit. We now have seven ‘lanes’, all of which are regularly filled with our annual programme of internal competitions and melees as well as league fixtures.

Sadly, but inevitably, the passage of recent years has seen the loss of more of our long standing and much-loved friends and fellow members. Phil Winfield – a relative newcomer but much loved by all – died in 2023 as did Alain Gastaldi, our resident Frenchman (strictly, as he loved to tell us, a Monegasque!). Late the following year Joy Watts, for so many years a club and league stalwart who never lost her smile, passed away after a long illness. And then in the closing stages of 2025, we lost Randy Durrette, a long-standing member and part of the title winning Falcons squad of 2018. All of them fondly remembered and sadly missed.

Off the terrain, a major change of emphasis meant that we began to focus all our social events around the excellent facilities provided by our landlord, Cobham Sports and Social Club, who now host our Annual Dinners and other social events. Masterminded meticulously by Elaine Aldersey, who also switched from her role as treasurer to taking the chair in 2024, these occasions and our annual barbeques and Christmas melees are regularly enjoyed by many members and their families.

All in all, Flights is in good shape both financially and on the playing front to face the future with confidence. Acutely aware of our age demographic, we have recently welcomed nearly a dozen younger members who are already making a positive difference to the atmosphere of our club evenings.

Now, with a stable base of over 60 members we are placing new emphasis on qualified coaching and, for the first time, have affiliated with our governing body, Pétanque England, on whose board our secretary sits.

Conscious that merely to stand still we must run fast in an age where there are so many other activities competing for people’s time, we believe our blend of friendliness and inclusivity together with a renewed quest for sporting excellence will stand us in good stead.