Our biggest win ever - 100 years ago

Good to see Jon's plea for information on the Herald Express site tonight.

I guess it's one of those cases where the club was mentioned in the local press only because of the efforts of somebody associated with it. I doubt there was a Dave Thomas employed to cover the club's matches. When did this start to happen? Professional football and evening papers arrived in Torquay at almost the same time so perhaps coverage started to change around about then.

It's interesting to speculate on the whole nature of press coverage. How soon did the Western Morning News start covering our games amongst all that Rugby Union and point-to-point racing? I guess the nationals carried FL results but did they do many Div 3 (S) reports before the war? It must have made following the affairs of the club very different to now.

Radio started in the 1920s with regional programming increasing in the 1930s but you get the feeling it didn't touch too much on subjects such as Torquay United. I suppose it's quite possible the club received very little "air time" until the arrival of Westward Sports Desk in the 1960s.

Another thought is the nature of the interest shown by spectators in that first season in the Football League. We've touched on this before but they probably keenly expressed opinions on the ability of players - "that Wellock's bloody useless" and most likely red-faced Albert Bartlett, the old soak of a drayman from the brewery, was on hand to bellow "sort it out, Mackrill, you baaas...."

Did they talk tactics? - "get the ball out to the wings, United!" - and what of formations? No 4-1-4-1 talk in those days but formations were changing in the wake of changes to the offside law.

Maybe they only showed interest on match days -or did they talk football throughout the week like we do? Perhaps the "United boys" eagerly discussed the forthcoming visit of Southend United during the tea break at the marble works.

And, lastly, what about off-the-field matters? I wonder how much interest our predecessors showed in the actions of the board. I bet they thought the board was only in it for their own ends - "it's a business to them, you know!" And what of the rumour mill? No doubt there were plenty of stories about old Alf having his hands in the till and on the office girl.

Who was on the board anyway? I confess I know little of the boardroom history of the club prior to the 1960s.