Post by Jon on Nov 17, 2023 0:53:28 GMT
I have just been asked why our reserve team played Ilfracombe in 1925, so here is the full story.
The very first league in East Devon in 1899-1900 featured four teams including Newton YMCA but not the newly-formed Torquay United. United joined the East Devon Senior League in 1900 and played four seasons before dropping out for the 1904-05 season due to a lack of players. United returned for two and a bit seasons but quit in November 1907 as the train timetables made it impossible for players to work a half day and get to Exeter in time to complete a game in daylight. At the end of that season the Senior League folded with the Exeter and District League taking over the senior league changing its name to the East Devon League.
Due to United's mid-season withdrawal, the new league would not let United enter in 1908 without paying a bond which they refused to do. Babbacombe, champions of the Torquay and District League did join but stayed just one season before moving to the Plymouth and District League in 1909.
Torquay Town joined them a year later and the two clubs stayed put, other than a five-year wartime closure, until the new professional club was formed in 1921.
The new United entered their reserves in the Plymouth & District League - although a shortage of fixtures saw the first team fulfilling many fixtures. With first team now in the Southern League, United's reserves had a further two successful years in the PDL.
But in 1924, United and the league fell out over money. United's pulling power brought extra gate receipts to the Plymouth clubs, but the league still made United foot 50% of the cost of clubs travelling to Plainmoor. With United struggling financially, Charles Dear proposed that the travel subsidy be scrapped. Plymouth-based Green Waves made a counter-proposal, which was adopted, that the subsidy be increased to 75%. As a result, United withdrew.
The obvious alternative home was the East Devon League which in 1923/24 had thirteen teams - nine in the Exeter area, two in North Devon and two in South Devon - Newton Town and Bovey Tracey.
Five Exeter-based teams withdrew in the summer of 1924 with three new North Devon teams joining along with United, Newton GWR and the Royal Field Artillery. So the league United played in now had five teams in the Exeter area, five in North Devon and four in South Devon.
The North Devon teams had to subsidise travel for Exeter area teams by £2 a game. In 1925, the payments stopped. This led Heavitree, Exmouth, Royal Field Artillery and Newton GWR to withdraw. Bude, just over the border in North Cornwall rather than North Devon, joined. So we now had six out of eleven from the North. Newton Town folded during the season making it six out of ten. Not enough games and too much travel.
So in 1926, United reserves returned to the Plymouth and District League for the club's last pre-League season. For 1926-27, the East Devon League ran a separate Northern section with the Senior Division promoted en masse to join the three remaining Premier teams.
More about the Ilfracombe game when I get the time, but here are the league tables for United's two seasons.
defleague.co.uk/league-data/old-league-tables/
The very first league in East Devon in 1899-1900 featured four teams including Newton YMCA but not the newly-formed Torquay United. United joined the East Devon Senior League in 1900 and played four seasons before dropping out for the 1904-05 season due to a lack of players. United returned for two and a bit seasons but quit in November 1907 as the train timetables made it impossible for players to work a half day and get to Exeter in time to complete a game in daylight. At the end of that season the Senior League folded with the Exeter and District League taking over the senior league changing its name to the East Devon League.
Due to United's mid-season withdrawal, the new league would not let United enter in 1908 without paying a bond which they refused to do. Babbacombe, champions of the Torquay and District League did join but stayed just one season before moving to the Plymouth and District League in 1909.
Torquay Town joined them a year later and the two clubs stayed put, other than a five-year wartime closure, until the new professional club was formed in 1921.
The new United entered their reserves in the Plymouth & District League - although a shortage of fixtures saw the first team fulfilling many fixtures. With first team now in the Southern League, United's reserves had a further two successful years in the PDL.
But in 1924, United and the league fell out over money. United's pulling power brought extra gate receipts to the Plymouth clubs, but the league still made United foot 50% of the cost of clubs travelling to Plainmoor. With United struggling financially, Charles Dear proposed that the travel subsidy be scrapped. Plymouth-based Green Waves made a counter-proposal, which was adopted, that the subsidy be increased to 75%. As a result, United withdrew.
The obvious alternative home was the East Devon League which in 1923/24 had thirteen teams - nine in the Exeter area, two in North Devon and two in South Devon - Newton Town and Bovey Tracey.
Five Exeter-based teams withdrew in the summer of 1924 with three new North Devon teams joining along with United, Newton GWR and the Royal Field Artillery. So the league United played in now had five teams in the Exeter area, five in North Devon and four in South Devon.
The North Devon teams had to subsidise travel for Exeter area teams by £2 a game. In 1925, the payments stopped. This led Heavitree, Exmouth, Royal Field Artillery and Newton GWR to withdraw. Bude, just over the border in North Cornwall rather than North Devon, joined. So we now had six out of eleven from the North. Newton Town folded during the season making it six out of ten. Not enough games and too much travel.
So in 1926, United reserves returned to the Plymouth and District League for the club's last pre-League season. For 1926-27, the East Devon League ran a separate Northern section with the Senior Division promoted en masse to join the three remaining Premier teams.
More about the Ilfracombe game when I get the time, but here are the league tables for United's two seasons.
defleague.co.uk/league-data/old-league-tables/