09/05/88: Pioneer League Finals at Plainmoor

It's 1988 Dave.

The fact that Cyril's son is there narrows it right down and then you can check the days / dates on an online calendar. 1988 also ties up with dates of birth for Arron Davis and Toby Redwood - the only two, I think, to go on to play league football, although Impey, Lockyer and White all went close.

Note Dave Turner, who was basically running the club at the time, managing our under 12 team in his spare time.

Barry Redwood is Toby's father and a contemporary of Bruce Stuckey in that he was a product of Newton Spurs from their days before their affiliation with Torquay United and they were a development club for Exeter City................hence both young wingers achieved places on the Sid James's groundstaff . Indeed, such was their standing in the game that only a young Swindon youngster called Mike Summberbee was considered to be a better prospect in the whole of the South West of England at the time.

What happened to Barry next is a salutory tale and indicative of just what a precarious profession football can be. Following a clash of heads in training, he collapsed and was taken to hospital with a fractured skull but the resultant pressure on his brain caused various complications, the most serious of which was the temporary loss of his sight.

Although he never played professional football again, after a long and arduous re-habillitation he did re-establish his life and rearned a living as a taxi driver and played with distinction for a variety of clubs including Brixham United in the Western League, Taunton Town, and Foxhole United to name but three despite an ever increasing weight problem.

Anyone who watched him play, could see that he had exceptional technique and the awareness of a professional but it was all wrapped up in the explosive mix of a burning frustration of one who could have been ~ indeed one who would have been.