Post by Deleted on Dec 11, 2008 20:56:22 GMT
This is a story of which I only know the very basics. If anybody can add anything I'd be delighted. It concerns the 1940s and 1950s cup exploits of Dartmouth United, the forerunners of the Dartmouth FC currently doing well in the SW Peninsula League. Back in the 1940s I'm pretty certain Dartmouth United played in the Plymouth and District League which, in those days, stretched as far west as Truro. Only later did the club switch to the South Devon League.
In 1946/47 Dartmouth entered the FA Cup for the first time and amazingly reached the fourth qualifying round by beating Plymouth United, Peasedown Miners Welfare (a team from the North Somerset coalfield near Bath) and Radstock Town (another coalfield side). Then, in the 4th QR, Dartmouth travelled to Yeovil Town where they lost 10-2. I wonder how many people travelled from Dartmouth for this game? And what was the crowd for the two home games in the run? Given this was a Golden Age for attendances, we can only imagine.
The club continued to enter the FA Cup until 1954/55, the next best performance being the 3rd QR in 1949/50. Opponents included the likes of Clevedon, Tiverton, Bridgwater, Bideford and a number of Cornish teams.
Dartmouth United also played in the FA Amateur Cup, something I only discovered from Bob Barton's history of the competition. The Amateur Cup, a sort of forerunner of the FA Trophy and FA Vase, was played from 1893/94 to 1973/74 and featured some of the country's biggest non-league clubs alongside much smaller fry. It was limited to those clubs which were registered as "amateur".
Whether these amateur clubs paid their players was quite another matter. Some of the major leagues - such as the Southern and various leagues in Midlands and North - considered themselves as honest "semi-professionals" and were barred from the Amateur Cup. Other big leagues - including the Athenian and the Isthmian (in the SE) and the Northern (in the NE) - maintained the pretence of being amateur. There was widespread questioning of their integrity giving rise to the term "boot money" and the description of their activities as "shamateurism". Needless to say, clubs from these leagues dominated the competition.
Winners of the FA Amateur Cup included Barnet, Middlesbrough (in the very early days) and Wimbledon together with a whole host - an unlikely mix really - of London suburban and Durham coalfield teams.
Dartmouth United first reached the 1st Round proper in 1952/53 when they played Histon Institute, predecessors of the current BSP team still known as "The Stutes". After a 3-3 draw at Histon, Dartmouth won the replay 3-2. Here's how that year's competition panned out. The winners were Pegasus, a combined Oxford and Cambridge university team. The final, as often in the 1950s, was watched by 100,000.
In 1953/54, Dartmouth lost at home to St Albans City (another recent Torquay United opponent) in the 1st Round. Then, the next season, Dartmouth faced Hendon, a club which was to go on to win the competition three times. Again I've no information of the crowd - or the scale or sense of the occasion - but the two teams drew 3-3 (with Hendon winning the replay 2-1). What, I wonder, of Dartmouth's big trip to London for that replay?
Hendon went all the way to Wembley only to lose to Bishop Auckland, the most successful club in the history of the tournament, in front of another 100,000. Here are the details for 1954/55:
And that appears to be it for Dartmouth United. Why did the club stop playing in both national competiitons at this time?
The FA Amateur Cup continued until the ending of the amateur/professional distinction in 1974 and was replaced by the FA Vase. The semi-professionals had finally got their own competition in 1970 with the introduction of the FA Trophy. In reality, rather than contest the Vase, the former senior amateurs played in the Trophy with ex-Amateur Cup winners Bishop's Stortford, Enfield, Kingstonian, Wealdstone, Woking and Wycombe Wanderers all going on to win the Trophy.
Incidentally, I draw much of my material from the excellent Football Club History Database - www.fchd.info - run by Richard Rundle from Bideford who is a familiar face on Westcountry football grounds. If you spot any mistakes on Richard's site you're doing well
Dartmouth United (to 1999): www.fchd.info/DARTMOUU.HTM
Dartmouth (from 1999): www.fchd.info/DARTMOUT.HTM
In 1946/47 Dartmouth entered the FA Cup for the first time and amazingly reached the fourth qualifying round by beating Plymouth United, Peasedown Miners Welfare (a team from the North Somerset coalfield near Bath) and Radstock Town (another coalfield side). Then, in the 4th QR, Dartmouth travelled to Yeovil Town where they lost 10-2. I wonder how many people travelled from Dartmouth for this game? And what was the crowd for the two home games in the run? Given this was a Golden Age for attendances, we can only imagine.
The club continued to enter the FA Cup until 1954/55, the next best performance being the 3rd QR in 1949/50. Opponents included the likes of Clevedon, Tiverton, Bridgwater, Bideford and a number of Cornish teams.
Dartmouth United also played in the FA Amateur Cup, something I only discovered from Bob Barton's history of the competition. The Amateur Cup, a sort of forerunner of the FA Trophy and FA Vase, was played from 1893/94 to 1973/74 and featured some of the country's biggest non-league clubs alongside much smaller fry. It was limited to those clubs which were registered as "amateur".
Whether these amateur clubs paid their players was quite another matter. Some of the major leagues - such as the Southern and various leagues in Midlands and North - considered themselves as honest "semi-professionals" and were barred from the Amateur Cup. Other big leagues - including the Athenian and the Isthmian (in the SE) and the Northern (in the NE) - maintained the pretence of being amateur. There was widespread questioning of their integrity giving rise to the term "boot money" and the description of their activities as "shamateurism". Needless to say, clubs from these leagues dominated the competition.
Winners of the FA Amateur Cup included Barnet, Middlesbrough (in the very early days) and Wimbledon together with a whole host - an unlikely mix really - of London suburban and Durham coalfield teams.
Dartmouth United first reached the 1st Round proper in 1952/53 when they played Histon Institute, predecessors of the current BSP team still known as "The Stutes". After a 3-3 draw at Histon, Dartmouth won the replay 3-2. Here's how that year's competition panned out. The winners were Pegasus, a combined Oxford and Cambridge university team. The final, as often in the 1950s, was watched by 100,000.
In 1953/54, Dartmouth lost at home to St Albans City (another recent Torquay United opponent) in the 1st Round. Then, the next season, Dartmouth faced Hendon, a club which was to go on to win the competition three times. Again I've no information of the crowd - or the scale or sense of the occasion - but the two teams drew 3-3 (with Hendon winning the replay 2-1). What, I wonder, of Dartmouth's big trip to London for that replay?
Hendon went all the way to Wembley only to lose to Bishop Auckland, the most successful club in the history of the tournament, in front of another 100,000. Here are the details for 1954/55:
And that appears to be it for Dartmouth United. Why did the club stop playing in both national competiitons at this time?
The FA Amateur Cup continued until the ending of the amateur/professional distinction in 1974 and was replaced by the FA Vase. The semi-professionals had finally got their own competition in 1970 with the introduction of the FA Trophy. In reality, rather than contest the Vase, the former senior amateurs played in the Trophy with ex-Amateur Cup winners Bishop's Stortford, Enfield, Kingstonian, Wealdstone, Woking and Wycombe Wanderers all going on to win the Trophy.
Incidentally, I draw much of my material from the excellent Football Club History Database - www.fchd.info - run by Richard Rundle from Bideford who is a familiar face on Westcountry football grounds. If you spot any mistakes on Richard's site you're doing well
Dartmouth United (to 1999): www.fchd.info/DARTMOUU.HTM
Dartmouth (from 1999): www.fchd.info/DARTMOUT.HTM
Referring to that map, the first Torquay Racecourse was located in the area bounded by Babbacombe, Furrough Cross, Reddenhill Road and Warbro Road with the grandstand being situated at the back of what is now Furrough Cross Cottages. This was from1854 until 1877 when Sir Lawrence Palk who owned the land, told the Steeplechase Committee that they had to vacate the land forthwith as he proposed to build a couple of substantial villas in what is now known as Cary Park.
"Oh ye young man, take my advice,
