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Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2009 23:06:25 GMT
I've been out and about today dodging the monsoon although, judging by their bedraggled state when boarding the train for their Saturday night in Newton St Cyres (what goes on there I wonder?), it seems the flower of Yeoford's youth weren't quite so lucky. And, if there's been a cyclone in St Cyres, there seems to have been a torrent of postings on here. I've not much to add suffice to say our conversation in the car last night revolved around a possible lack of a "killer instinct", Lee Hodges' excellent form and how, once again, we'd just seen a game which spoke well for this league. We didn't touch upon - but could have done - the disappointing attendance. As somebody said on here recently we could debate this for ever - and fill the board with reasons - but, nonetheless, it's something well-informed fans of other clubs always comment to me about. What can you say? Well, before the match, Jon and myself had a fair stab at putting Torquay's crowds since the Norman Conquest into a historical context....
Last night's journey home didn't feature a discussion about any perceived lack of emotion in Paul Buckle. Maybe that's because we're Buckle Backers but also perhaps we can distinguish his demeanour from "lazy body language" (to use Merse's expression). Passion and emotion are important in football - of course - but they're not the only qualities and ingredients, are they? To be truthful, I must confess the word "passionate" is getting on my wick these days - teachers saying they're "passionate about learning" makes me want to ask for the vomit bucket at education conferences - and I suspect its perceived lack is sometimes used against people in football (but not in Dave's case against Paul Buckle, I hasten to add). Somebody I bump into around Exeter (not a City fan) - who I'd expect to know better - hasn't a good word to say about Paul Tisdale purely because of his "lack of passion." And - even in this week's North Devon Journal - there's people saying the same about Owen Pickard at Barnstaple.
Speaking of the NDJ, I shall immediately deny I visited North Devon today because I'd read about the revival of Morris Dancing in Winkleigh (membership has soared from six to fifteen over the last year, including the enrolment of a twelve-year-old girl). Instead I'm claiming I saw the FA Vase game between Bideford and Scarborough Athletic. Bideford won 1-0 with a goal just before half time from Nick Barker (who apparently lives in Torquay). Ellis Laight, Robbie Herrera and Ian Down also played. The game was played in a high wind - the rain didn't come until the final whistle - and Bideford rarely ventured out of their own territory in the second half as Scarborough attacked with the elements behind them. Bideford held on which, until the right moment at least, was what the bereaved family of an ardent Bideford supporter was desperately trying to do during a touching ceremony after the game. It had been Keith Prouse's wish that his ashes should be scattered over Bideford's pitch. In today's wind he probably made it to Appledore, Barnstaple and Ilfracombe as well.
Good to see football in Scarborough is on the way back. Scarborough Athletic, the new club formed by the Seadog Trust, is now in its second season and storming ahead at top of the Northern Counties East Division One (same standard as Buckland Athletic and Dartmouth). Scarborough probably had 100-150 fans at today's game - total attendance 570 - many of whom had travelled down by coach on Friday. There was one of those lovely little conversations you overhear: Gateman: "You've come a long way. How long did it take?" Father and son: "Oh no, we've not come from Scarborough. We've only travelled from North Wales." There seemed to a good spirit amongst them and a close relationship with the players. Good luck to them.
So Bideford move on to the last sixteen of the FA Vase, a competition everybody still appears to take seriously, in which you get plenty of teams playing opponents of whom they've never heard and know little about. And, with over 750 entrants from fourteen or so parallel leagues, there's usually a hundred clubs with a chance of winning it.
And, lastly, a reference in the programme to Bideford's FA Cup run in 1973/74. How about this?
1Q PENZANCE H 4-1
2Q NEWQUAY A 1-1
2Qr NEWQUAY H 6-1
3Q FALMOUTH TOWN A 3-3
3Qr FALMOUTH TOWN H 1-1
3Qr2 FALMOUTH TOWN A 2-2
3Qr3 FALMOUTH TOWN H 2-2
3Qr4 FALMOUTH TOWN N 2-1 @ Plymouth Argyle
4Q TROWBRIDGE TOWN H 2-2
4Qr TROWBRIDGE TOWN A 1-1
4Qr2 TROWBRIDGE TOWN N 1-1 @ Yeovil Town
4Qr3 TROWBRIDGE TOWN A 3-2
1 BRISTOL ROVERS H 0-2
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Jan 18, 2009 0:04:57 GMT
You never cease to amaze me Barton, where you are going turn up to watch your next game and what an interesting read you have provided again. I have a fondness for Bideford as I have a few customers there who are fans of the club and I really enjoy my chats to them. One customer is right next to the ground ( Bideford Tools) and the guy who works in the shop has been there since he left school.
He still lives with is now very old mother and he has only a few teeth and they look nasty, but he is a nice bloke and loves his football. I have been given an insight into Bucks the person tonight and maybe now understand why he does not celebrate in the way I would expect. We are all different in how we react and as long as he keeps doing the right things with the team, I'll have to learn not to expect to see him jumping around like I do on the popside. ;D
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bbcgull
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Post by bbcgull on Jan 18, 2009 1:51:50 GMT
Again super posting from Barton. You are creating a legacy on here now and what an honour it is to read your posts.
Your unending source of info from all the books you seem to have in your collection has as you know got me trying to find cheap books online and elsewhere to add to my good but minimal amount of footbnall reference books.
Purchases on ebay within the last week include, Supporters Guide Directory to Step 3 clubs, to add to my League and Step 1 & 2 books, for £1. My beginning of collecting the Rothmans starting with 93 for £2. a supporters Guide to 1985 Non League football for 45p and a nearly new and wonderful hardback of the Guinness Non League Football Fact Book by Tony Williams from 1991 and it with 300 pages is a damn good ref book, and it was only £2 from a RRP of £13 back then.
Cheers Barton...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2009 10:08:12 GMT
I have a fondness for Bideford as I have a few customers there who are fans of the club and I really enjoy my chats to them. One customer is right next to the ground (Bideford Tools) and the guy who works in the shop has been there since he left school. Bideford Tools had an advert at Home Park for years - at the Barn Park open end, I think. I like Bideford as it's a proper town football club - a decent-sized ground right where a football ground should be. A fair amount of success over the years - nine Western League championships, a couple of good Vase runs and, many years ago, FA Cup games against Colchester, Bristol Rovers and Portsmouth. Bideford was really Devon's fourth club until Tiverton came along. Certainly they held that place back in the 1960s and 1970s when the Western League was worth winning. Then the club tried the Southern League back in the 1970s, got its fingers burnt, and hasn't been interested again (at a time, now, when a club like Dawlish has been making noises in that direction). The irony is that, because of restructuring, the Southern League is nothing like the league Bideford were in all those years ago. Nor is the Western League. Maybe - with luck, finance and desire - Bideford could have achieved the same as Tiverton. As for the present, Sean Joyce has been there for a long time - and always with a healthy number of players from South Devon in his squads. Also listed in yesterday's programme were Sam Churchill, Clay Bond, Kenny Griffiths, Reece Moseley and Tom Stocco. This is as high as the club has been - Southern League Div 1 (S) 1972/73 - alongside some sizeable outfits:  And, from Kerry Miller's book, a picture of the Sports Ground (there's also a covered stand, with some seating, off to the left next to the main road):  |
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merse
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Post by merse on Jan 18, 2009 10:33:07 GMT
...................as Scarborough attacked with the elements behind them. Bideford held on which, until the right moment at least, was what the bereaved family of an ardent Bideford supporter was desperately trying to do during a touching ceremony after the game. It had been Keith Prouse's wish that his ashes should be scattered over Bideford's pitch. In today's wind he probably made it to Appledore, Barnstaple and Ilfracombe as well.  You reminded me of a poignant conversation I once had with my late mum who, whilst always one of life's eccentrics; became downright comical in her last years as dementia set in. MUM: "I've bin thinkin' about when I die and what to do with me" ME: "Yes mum, like me you want your ashes scattered from Haytor Rock" MUM: "But I've bin' thinkin' ...............it's awful windy up there" ME: "................and?" MUM: "Well, I don't want to end up in Moretonhampstead - that's where your Uncle Bert was born (me:  ) I think you can bury my ashes with your father" ME: "Perhaps the wind will be blowing the other way mum" MUM: "Then I could end up in ruddy Plymouth" ME: "On second thoughts I think I'll have a rethink too!" NB: Mum's in the Totnes Road Cemetery in NA with my dad and his parents and brother in the family grave..................I'm sure of that - it was me who was able to place her in there. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2009 10:48:09 GMT
.....and a wonderful hardback of the Guinness Non League Football Fact Book by Tony Williams from 1991 and it with 300 pages is a damn good ref book, and it was only £2 from a RRP of £13 back then. I once had a copy of that one - bought in a cheapo bookshop a few years after publication - but moved it on in a "cull" a while back (I had most of the content in other books). That was before scanners so I imagine there's a number of good images of grounds, teams, players, etc! Tony Williams is the "doyen" - to use a good old-fashioned expression - of non-league publishing. He's an ex-top flight amateur player who got involved in some of football's first sponsorship deals in the 1970s. He did the first Rothman's Annual in 1970 and then started producing his Non League Annual in the late 1970s (starting as a small-sized Playfair-type publication). Then, after moving to Somerset, he got involved in producing monthly non-league magazines (such as " Team Talk") and a whole selection of yearbooks on football and rugby. He also produced books on grounds and the FA Cup as well as the Guinness book. Before long rivals came on the scene - there were two competing non-league magazines for a while - and, eventually, some of his own collaborators went off in different directions. For a time you had Tony Williams producing his (red) Non League Club Directory from North Curry in Somerset and - from two miles away - James Wright and Kerry Miller compiling their equally-thick (green) Non-league Football Yearbook from East Lyng. James later set up a magazine called Non-League Newsdesk (now defunct) and continues to produce the Non League Newsdesk Annual (he's started work on the new one - usually available mid-July) and the bulk of the results for the Non League Paper. Meanwhile, Tony Williams' big thick red directory - now carrying a Kingsbridge address - is in its 31st year (picture of Sillsy at Wembley on the current cover) and, as of this week, we're back to just one non-league newspaper with the apparent demise of Non League Today. |
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jamie
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Post by jamie on Jan 18, 2009 14:47:45 GMT
I can't add anything to your post barton, as ever they are a pleasure to read. thank you and "keep em coming"
Not sure what goes on in newton St Cyres these days, when we were youner we used to go to the Beer Engine, cracking days, live bands in the basement and they brewed their own beer. Happy days but I thought it had all changed now?
merse - My grandad is in the totnes road cemetary, he was my hero as a kid (you may even have seen him with my dad watching games from the touchline? who knows?) he died more than 20 years ago now but I still go to his grave from time to time. More recently I have been going reguarly because I visit an office opposite weekly for meetings. Let me know if you ever want me to put some flowers on your loved ones grave.
jamie
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Jan 18, 2009 14:54:51 GMT
My Granny Best, uncle ted, antie Win and my dad, plus a few more are there as well in that cemetary, we are all linked and not just because we love TUFC  |
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Jan 18, 2009 15:24:08 GMT
I'm in Bideford every Tuesday and Friday around 9am for about 30 Min's, it really has some great old and narrow streets, that feel the same to walk up as the main street in Kingsbridge. I have up to six places I will call on, most only if they have requested me, or I have a tool to return to them.One call I always call on is Prance Tool Hire, Alan Prance once worked for Bideford Tools, but left and set up his own hire shop, it is opposite the entrance to a place called Butchers Row Butchers Row  After I leave his shop and I have to say it is more like a juke shop, as he has everything all over the floor and will often say, he has a tool to go for repair, but he can't find it ;D I go across the old Bideford Bridge. A few weeks ago some fools have decided to put a traffic light controlled pedestrian crossing right on both ends of the bridge, causes all sorts of problems as each end of the bridge also has a small roundabout. Everyone who knows Bideford cannot but know Bideford Bridge for its very soul around which the town, as a body, has organised itself The Long Bridge was begun c1280, when tradition has it that Bishop Quivel of Exeter was granted indulgences to raise the money for its cost. It was certainly there in 1327, when Bishop Stapleton left forty shillings to "the bridge of Bydeforde". The original structure was wooden and there was a chapel at each end. In 1459, the Pope granted indulgences for the repair of the "Bridge at Bideford... there flows a very rapid and dangerous river, in which on account of the faulty structure of the said bridge, which is of wood, many persons have been drowned, and that on the said bridge there are two chapels, the one of St. Mary the Virgin and the other of All Saints, which are also in great need of repair". The Bideford museum has two items relating to Bideford's famous bridge: the model of the Bridge at various stages of its development, constructed by Mr. Frank Whiting in 1945, for the Bridge Trust. Mr. Whiting, a notable architect, designed the original Burton Art Gallery. The oak beam from the original Bideford bridge was discovered during repairs to the later, stone bridge. It has a mortice and tenon joint at one end, and a scarfe joint on the other, suggesting that it was a diagonal supporting timber. A Model by Frank Whiting F.R.I.B.A of Bideford Bridge at various stages of its history from 1280 - 1925.  A more modern look  |
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merse
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Post by merse on Jan 18, 2009 15:55:05 GMT
My Granny Best, uncle ted, antie Win and my dad, plus a few more are there as well in that cemetary, we are all linked and not just because we love TUFC I reckon the ratio in "Boot Hill" of Gulls fans  to Aar Ghouls  and Egg Shitters  is more in our favour than in the so called Land of the Living in NA  Thanks for the offer Jamie, very nice of you - my 83 year old Auntie Kath - the last of the generation before me, still does that! But the offer is much appreciated.
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Jan 18, 2009 16:26:24 GMT
A bit more information on the bridge and a photo of when part of it collapsed on the 9th January 1968. Bideford Long bridge, which spans the River Torridge connecting the East and West of the town, was built out of timber in 1286. In 1460 it was decided to construct a multi-span masonry bridge, built around the timber bridge, allowing people to use it while it was undergoing construction. It is thought that the 24 arches of the bridge are different sizes because they were paid for by local businessmen, the larger arches costing the most. However, records of the bridge do not go back far enough to confirm this. In the first decade of the 17th century, the bridge trustees were taken to court by the people of Bideford for feasting and seeing plays with the trust funds. The people won the court case although it is unclear whether the trustees were forced to resign after the scandal. In the 1820s there was talk of converting the bridge so that it could be raised and lowered to allow boats and ships to pass under it. During the 1840s three companies tried to build a railway track over the bridge, but the trustees would not agree to any of the offers, although a temporary track was laid across the bridge during the first world war. During its history the bridge has undergone several widenings, the last in 1925, in order to compensate for the increase in traffic using the bridge. The Bideford Bridge Trust held responsibility for the long bridge up until 1968 when the west arch of the bridge collapsed.  A picture of the new Bideford bridge built nearer the Appledore estuary  |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2009 16:58:26 GMT
We often visited Bideford when I was a kid because one of our neighbours, a fire fighter, moved there. I certainly remember the bridge collapsing - it was big news at the time - and you get a clear view of the new estuary bridge from the football ground stand. From that time I also recall being taken to see the old railway line near Westward Ho! It wasn't until I did some delving a few years ago that I realised the line - the Bideford, Westward Ho! and Appledore - was not only short-lived (1901-1917) but also detached from the main system. Take a look at this:   Devon Railway Stations (Oakley); Railways of Devon and Cornwall (McCarthy) |
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) I think you can bury my ashes with your father" 
