The Portsmouth Dreadnoughts are an American football team currently based in Portsmouth, England. The club was founded in 2012.[1] The team is named after the famous battleship HMS Dreadnought that was built in Portsmouth in 1906.[1] The team play in the BAFA National Leagues South West Division.[2]
The Portsmouth Dreadnoughts were founded in April 2012 by three players, Pete Southwood, Ben Bell and David Bennett.[1] They had met whilst playing and coaching for the Solent Thrashers, but found that the travel considerations of a long drive to Southampton from Horndean were significant enough to make them look into how to keep playing American Football, but not at such a distance.[1]
The team's first game was played against the Plymouth Extreme.[3]
The Dreadnoughts were admitted to the National league for the start of the 2014 season. They failed to win a game in their first season which was brought to an early end when they were disqualified from the last 4 games of the season for bringing the game into disrepute by allowing unregistered coaches to participate and for permitting someone to participate in club activities whilst banned for safeguarding reasons.[4][5] The Dreadnoughts returned to the National Leagues for the start of the 2015 season, during which they recorded their first ever league win in a 48 points to 15 victory over the Hastings Conquerors[6][7]
Delighted Portsmouth Dreadnoughts are celebrating after securing their first success in the British American Football Association National League.