To celebrate the season...

This was a nice little find...from the promotion winning 1965/6 season...looks like a pub darts trophy but hey its the thought that counts...

As Gullone says, this looks like a pub darts night memento. Were it not carrying a football motif of course. Purchased, you imagine, from one of the town's sports "outfitters" such as Fletcher's or Lillywhite's.

And as Stefano asks, what did the "D" stand for? Assuming, of course, it's Harry Topping and not some additional family support he received during that campaign. Mrs Harry perhaps?

Not that Torquay United didn't have an earlier "D Topping". That was Dave Topping who played for the club immediately after WW2. He would have been aged around forty in 1966 but had left to play for Yeovil Town in the early 1950s. All the indications suggest that, upon moving to south Somerset, Dave Topping lived there for the rest of his life. This comes from Ciderspace, a Yeovil Town website, shortly after Dave Topping's death only last year:

"We're sorry to learn of the death of former Yeovil Town full-back Dave Topping, who was a mainstay of the club's first team during the 1950s. Dave passed away this week aged 87 years old, having lived in Seaton Road in Yeovil. Born on March 9th 1926 in Shotts in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, he initially started his career playing for Clyde, before moving down to the South West to play for Torquay United. There he made 151 appearances, scoring three times for the Gulls between 1948 and 1952.

Dave signed for the Glovers at the start of the 1953-54 season, shortly after the arrival of Ike Clarke as manager, and yet was still turning out in a Glovers shirt in the 1966-67 season at the age of 40 years old! He made 245 appearances for the first team, scoring 5 goals, mainly under Clarke's management, but stayed on at the club even after he began to drop down the pecking order under subsequent management.

His final first team action came during the 1960-61 season, but continued to stay on the clubs books, clocking up over 100 appearances for the Reserve Team, before finally hanging up his boots around 1967. Having married his wife Barbara midway through his first team career, he continued to live in the area throughout his life.

Unusually, Dave was given two testimonial matches by the club. The first was a match against Bournemouth during 1958-59 that was abandoned eight minutes before the end due to fog. He then got a second one during 1963-64 when a Derby County side came down to Huish to benefit himself along with Dave Jones, Roy Lambden and Len Harris."

But we're focusing here upon Harry Topping who was associated with the club in the 1960s. Previous descriptions of him in these columns suggest Harry possessed a rather uncompromising attitude towards football, footballers and - quite possibly - life in general. One of our correspondents has even described him as "our psycho physio".

Timbo, as often, has come up trumps with a 1969 programme which contains a "pen portrait" of Harry Topping. We're told Harry was a player with Swindon, Manchester City and Bristol Rovers. And as a "trainer" - which covered a multitude of sins in those days - he served Feyenoord, PSV Eindhoven and Norwich. It appears he came to Plainmoor as trainer around 1962. That would have made him an Eric Webber appointment. Then, once Frank O'Farrell arrived on the scene, Harry switched to becoming physio. Indeed the programme pays tribute to his skills as a masseur.

Venture on to Wiki and you discover at least three different Harry Toppings who played in the Football League. Each was born in the North West of England between 1908 and 1915.

Our Harry Topping, at least I think I've the right one, was born in Kearsley near Bolton in 1913. This would have made him a rather wizened fifty-three at the time of our promotion in 1966. Wiki has Harry playing, but not very much, for Manchester City, Exeter City, New Brighton and Bristol Rovers. It also has him managing the two Dutch clubs in question as well as being coach to Norwich City's 1959 FA Cup semi-final side. I'm assuming he may have lived in South Devon after his time at Plainmoor but can't be sure of this.

The "other" Harry Toppings include one who apparently played alongside "ours" for Stockport County during the war. Both of the other Harrys may actually have been Henrys. Where our Harry's "D" came from I'm still not sure. There are books which may reveal the mystery but I don't possess them.