League Cup 2nd Round v Carlisle United.26/09/62.

Timbo’s latest programmes include fascinating portraits of a couple of 1960s players who may be pretty much half-forgotten even by those who saw them play: Ray Spencer and Bobby Webb.

To add to the information in the programmes, Ray Spencer played fifty-nine league games for Torquay between 1961 and 1964. The majority of those games were in his first season (of three) although he did get a good run towards the end of his time at Plainmoor. The centenary history records he moved on to Bath City. Earlier, Barry Hugman’s reference work shows Ray Spencer as a professional at Aston Villa from June 1950 to March 1958 - a remarkable length of time given he never played a league game for them. The programme quotes Ray as saying “we like Torquay. This is where we are going to settle”. I wonder if they did? There was certainly somebody of Ray’s name living in Padacre Road in the mid 1960s and, if he’s still around, he’d now be seventy-seven.

Bobby Webb was also born in 1933 and appeared in forty-nine league games for us spread over the 62/63 and 63/64 seasons (thirty-seven in the first; twelve in the second). Neil Brown’s site tells us he retired through injury. Did Bobby head back to Yorkshire or remain in South Devon? The 1965 Kelly’s records a Robert Webb living in Footballers’ Central - Frobisher Green.