HAMPSHIRE LEGEND GRAHAM LEMMON

A legend of Hampshire youth soccer, Graham Lemmon is the proud recipient of a meritorious service award from the English Schools Football Association.
Graham has been involved in local sport – he’s a keen lawn bowler at Cosham Park and still loves his cricket – for half-a-century carrying out numerous administrative roles with the Havant & District Schools, the Portsmouth Lads League and the Hampshire Schools FA.
He recalled: “It all began back in 1947/48 when a group of us founded Mayles Sports FC, which later sprouted a successful cricket section.
“Two years later I became Registration Secretary of the Lads League and roughly about the same time qualified as a referee, officiating in the Sussex County League while I was away at college.”
Educated at Portsmouth’s then Southern Grammar School, Mr Lemmon went on to teach maths at Cowplain for many years.
“In 1958 I began my work in schools football on the Havant Schools Football committee – a role which lasted a mere 35 years !” he chuckled.
“I worked with some excellent team managers, lead local footballers Sandy Baird, Robin Sykes and Ally Unitt among them.”
One-time Saints centre-half Malcolm Waldron and Pompey duo Billy Eames and Liam Daish were among a host of quality players to play for Havant Schools under Lemmon’s tutelage.
A host of others played for Havant Town and Waterlooville.
In 1973/74. the Havant Schools representative team reached the quarter-finals of the English Schools Under-15 Trophy, a highly prestigious competition in those days.
“We drew against Swansea at the Vetch Field, but lost the replay,” recalled the then coach Robin Sykes.
Almost single-handedly, Mr Lemmon ran Havant Schools’ football for two decades.
Following his retirement from the teaching profession in 1990, Mr Lemmon was able to make an even greater commitment to local youth soccer, acting as treasurer of the Lads League for 17 years and ten as Deputy Chairperson, also running the representative teams.
He later became involved with Hampshire at schools level, and ran the successful Under-14 team which won the South West County Cup.
Two seasons later he became involved with the county Under-16 side which, in 2005, reached the ESFA final at Bolton’s Reebok Stadium, drawing 2-2 with Greater Manchester and sharing the trophy.
Now into his Eighties, Mr Lemmon is still involved with the Hampshire Under-16 side which has progressed to this season’s ESFA Trophy quarter-finals and will host Sussex in the new year.
He also loves his cricket, nowadays more from his armchair, but in his playing days he formed and later helped Mayles Sports reach the final of the Portsmouth Lord Mayor’s Knockout Cup.
After hanging up his cricket boots, he umpired for Hambledon and Portsmouth Civil Service.
But his passion for bowls lives on and he regularly plays at Cosham Park.
His present involvement in football is as a Vice President of Hampshire Schools FA and Minutes Secretary of the Portsmouth & District FA.
There are many hundreds of men, some now in their fifties, who will remember Graham Lemmon with affection and gratitude for running Havant and more subsequently Hampshire Under-16 schools soccer.