NOSTALGIA readers with long memories will recall the days when football was a winter game with matches between September and May.

Nowadays, it is only for about four weeks in June when players, officials and spectators get a break.

Many other aspects of the popular sport have changed since its inception as a national game in late Victorian times but, certainly at a non-national level, community involvement has been a hallmark of the success of teams.

Throughout most of the 20th century, villages and towns of all sizes organised competitive teams drawing young – and not so young – men to play weekly.

Petersfield Football Club was founded in 1889 and there was another, Dragons, but neither had a permanent ground until Petersfield builder William Mould arranged to lease two pitches at Love Lane to the club for two afternoons a week and the use of a lock-up shed for a changing room.

Mr Lothian Bonham Carter promised a donation towards the cost if it meant football would no longer be played on the Heath as he wanted that area preserved for cricket.

The club’s captain and secretary at that time was Frank Carpenter, who became editor of the Post’s forerunner, The Hants and Sussex News, in 1892, at the age of 20 – a post he held for 56 years.

Having been born in Petersfield and attending Churcher’s College, he spent his whole life in the town and was involved in many community activities, both professionally and personally.

Continuing the newspaper’s involvement with the club, its current chairman is the Post’s editor, Graeme Moir.

Love Lane was the venue for the first six-a-side tournament in the town, which took place on Easter Monday, 1908. It attracted 900 spectators and profits were donated to Petersfield Cottage Hospital. The Dragons and Petersfield football clubs shared the ground for a couple of seasons but in 1910 both were wound up and Petersfield United was formed.

In 1914, the club’s first president, Colonel HB Hanna, who had supported a number of town organisations, including the cottage hospital, working men’s institute and Petersfield Literary and Debating Society, died at the age of 75.

Either during his presidency or immediately after it a trophy called the Hanna Cup was contested between clubs in the area.

A photograph of the winning Petersfield team from 1920, taken by the Misses E and E?Pickering, of Lavant Street, lists some of the players and officials of that era.

They were linesman W Bennetts, who was described as a schoolmaster from Petersfield, trainer W Stevens and players F?Bridger, Dick Hughes, Cecil Mould, Albert – a farmer – J Hilton, C?Blewer, P Truckle, J Passingham, R?Chapman and W Stevenson.

The tradition continued with the Hampshire Telegraph and Post reporting that Petersfield won the cup for the fourth successive year in 1952, 3-0 against Liss.