IT HAD poured, almost non-stop, with rain more than three-quarters of a century ago.

There was so much water about it had to pumped away but for the crucial hour the skies cleared and the Duke of Kent was able to declare Southampton’s new Sports Centre open in the dry.

It was 1938, the year before the start of the Second World War, and years of planning and hard work finally came to a successful conclusion as local people were able to use the Sports Centre which more than seven decades later still plays a vital part in Southampton life.

The official ceremony was performed by the Duke, together with the Duchess of Kent, in rather damp conditions.

“It rained the whole of the night before and in the morning men were there pumping the water out of the marquees which were to receive the Royal party,” reported the Daily Echo at the time.

“When they arrived in the afternoon, it was clear for an hour and the sun shone. As soon as the ceremony was over there was a deluge.”

The first football to be played there was by a team of small boys from St Nicholas School.

Just 15 months later war was declared and the then Sports Centre manager, Eric Ryder, wrote: “Not then could it be foreseen that perhaps some of the greatest pages in the history of the Sports Centre were to be written in the ensuing years, when it became the great playground for the men and women of all the services over a wide area.

Daily Echo:

A crowd of 10,000 turned up at the Southampton Sport Centre to see the AJ Miller Trophy final in 1954.

“Not then could it be foreseen that its landscape was to be scarred by bombs, with barbed wire, trenches and fortifications and that guns were to roar in action within its boundaries.”

The first troops to arrive were a small party from the Hampshire Regiment who set up an anti-aircraft gun on one of the cricket wickets while large posts were driven into the ground on the football pitches and golf course to stop enemy aircraft using them as landing strips.

There were 2,953 football matches, 1,252 cricket games, 442 hockey matches, 57 athletic meetings and 40 cycle events as well as 243 netball challenges staged at the Sports Centre during the conflict.

Even enemy air raids did not stop events at the Sports Centre and at one stage Bren and Lewis guns were positioned by the pitches to ensure the games were able to continue.

“On many occasions ships’ crews came straight from the pursuit of German U-boats and action in the Channel to fight a more peaceful battle on the football field,” said Mr Ryder.