Post by Jon on Oct 15, 2022 19:42:41 GMT
We managed to get back in time for a first team 7.30 kick off Division 3 (League 1) game at Plainmoor, although I haven't got a clue who it was against or if we won or lost. Unlike today it was more likely to be a win! ⚽️
I absolutely love reading Steve's memories of his days playing for Torquay United reserves. Made all the more enjoyable by the knowledge that he is what I would call a "reliable witness". Whereas his contemporaries may cobble together a few misremembered facts and some flights of fancy and pretend they are facts, Steve can be relied on to come up with well-remembered details. It is almost as if he is a man trained in the art of recording everything he witnesses in a notebook so that he can recall detail that stands up to brutal cross-examination. Even if a glass too many of Sauvignon Blanc makes him mix up his Youngs and his Browns, he can be relied upon to recheck his work and correct any wine-induced errors.
The British Newspaper Archive has all the Herald Expresses from August 1970, so I was looking forward to reading how the Herald reported Steve's adventures in Bodmin.
Not a sausage. No mention whatsoever of any game against Bodmin.
Has Steve lost the plot and started imagining things?
You would hope that is the case. Otherwise, the Herald cannot be relied on as the reporter of all things Torquay United. Those who may try to construct a history of TUFC based on what was reported in the Herald, would only be able to claim to present a complete history of what the Herald bothered to report, rather than a complete history of what actually happened.
What about secondary sources? Well the BNA only has the Torquay Times up to 1962 and the Western Morning News up to 1950. Fortunately, it does have Bodmin's Cornish Guardian for 1970.
What a relief to see that Steve is indeed the reliable witness we knew him to be. Two for Rod Webber and one for young Chelstonian Tim Graham in a 3-2 win. Bodmin's more experienced team dominated the first half driven forward by their newly signed skipper Johnny Williams, an Argyle legend just short of his 35th birthday. To boost the young United team, United legend Don Mills - nine years Williams's senior to within a day - came on to conduct his young charges as they turned 0-2 to 3-2.
I don't have the starting XIs but the Guardian named those expected to travel. No sign of Rod Webber or his chauffeur. Steve's right back slot was pencilled in for a Scottish trialist named John Reynolds who had allegedly played for Hearts' reserves. George Potter and Ian Twitchin where pencilled in to play in midfield, but neither traveled in the end. Both Mal Lucas and Tommy Mitchinson were injured in a Monday night friendly against QPR, so Potter and Twitchin were needed to take their places in the first team in that Plainmoor game that Steve dashed back from Bodmin via Chagford to watch.
It was a friendly v Newport County that ended in a 0-0 draw - nowhere near the entertainment value provided by United's youngsters and the maestro Don Mills down in Bodmin.
