Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2008 10:05:54 GMT
A rare reserve game for me just a few days before my 13th birthday. Some names on the Torquay team sheet... Paddy Roche (future Man U and Ireland keeper), Ian Twitchin (later to play over 400 first-team games), Fred Binney (not too many goals for Torquay but plenty for Exeter, Brighton and Plymouth); John Knapman (ex-Torquay Grammar, England Amateur Youth, FA Trophy winner with Bishop's Stortford); Phil Sandercock (300 games for Torquay, Huddersfield and Northampton). There's also John Rowlands (not too many games for us but more for Barrow, Workington, Stockport and others) and Frank Matthews (a few games for Torquay after arriving from Southend). On the Welton side it's good old Geoff Cox in the "left half" position that still existed on the programme if not on the pitch.  And here's the final Western League table for that season:  |
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Nov 29, 2008 10:16:30 GMT
Great to see this programme Barton, having a proper reserve team was so much better, as first team players could keep match fit and also use such games to help in their return from injury etc.
I see Porland had a team in the league, did they play their matches at the ground that you put a picture up of the other day.
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Post by weathergull on Nov 29, 2008 11:17:12 GMT
I must be bloody old! I remember John Rowlands. He was so tall he didn't even need to jump for the ball at corners. The corner taker just aimed for his head!  |
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merse
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Post by merse on Nov 29, 2008 11:26:43 GMT
 Of those you didn't mention................ no 2 Barrie Lewis was a Torquay lad who was in fact an apprentice on the Plainmoor staff together with Ben Murphy.
no5 Phil Crawford was a big centre half who played for Newton Spurs and Teignmouth FC and in fact came from Teigmouth - the type who would have easily been a YTS these days but never got the opportunity in those times. No6 Alan Barker is a name I cannot recall, perhaps he was a "trialist" ? and no 7 Terry Kingon was a very talented winger rather like Danny Stevens but with much more toughness and physical aggression......................Hells Bells, he needed it as he came from Londonderry to which he returned and starred for Derry City for many years in the Irish League when the club played in their national league rather than in the League of Ireland (more their spiritual home) as they do now. No 9 for Welton would have been Chris Skirton, younger brother of former Bath City, Arsenal, Blackpool, Bristol City and Torquay winger Alan Skirton - until recently Commercial Director of Yeovil Town.
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Post by ohtobeatplainmoor on Nov 29, 2008 18:35:43 GMT
It was a decade before I was born but recognise a few of those players - real old skool Torquay stalwarts.
Didn't Paddy Roache play for Newton FC / Spurs? Sure one of the posters on this or .net used to play in the same team..........
I remember Paddy turning-out for Halifax town in the opening fixture against us in 1988/89. In goal that day for us was a young Paul Crichton (I think he was on loan from Forest)- who only hung his gloves up professionally last summer.
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Nov 29, 2008 19:23:13 GMT
I'm sure Merse has made a post about him on this forum, there was me thinking he was a wrestler who was in the ring with Big Daddy ;D
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2008 19:45:48 GMT
Dave, Portland United played not far away from the quarry site at Grove Corner. This was their home from 1922 until moving to a new ground in 1994, this being just along the road on a reclaimed quarry site (as you'd probably expect in Portland).
Portland were quite a force in their day playing in the Western League from 1925 to 1970. They've played in Dorset football for much of the time since, save for a short spell in the Wessex League. Last season Portland won the Dorset Premier League but - for whatever reason - did not take promotion to the Wessex League.
Portland's biggest day may well have been the FA Cup 4th qualifying round tie against Yeovil in 1965 which ended in a draw at Grove Corner (Yeovil winning the replay).
To appreciate Portland's status remember that, back in 1968, the Southern League was the only competition that South West clubs could join between the Western League and the Football League. Apart from the SW's Southern League clubs - Weymouth, Yeovil, Poole and Cheltenham in the Premier; Bath, Gloucester, Salisbury and Trowbridge in the First - the Western League clubs would have been the stongest in the region. Other than that it was local and county football - even Tiverton played in the Devon & Exeter in those days - with the exception of Tavistock and Newton Abbot Spurs who played in the Cornish-dominated South Western League.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2008 20:05:13 GMT
Merse, thanks for filling in the details of some of the other players from that reserve team - the local players were always a bit of a mystery to me. Each first-team programme had a list of appearances and goals for both the firsts and reserves. Here's one from the back end of that 1968/69 season showing just how many played for the club's two teams that year:  |
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merse
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Post by merse on Nov 29, 2008 23:10:21 GMT
Merse, thanks for filling in the details of some of the other players from that reserve team - the local players were always a bit of a mystery to me. Fascinating looking at that huge number of players who played for the Western League team at a time when there was no formal youth set up save for a couple of apprentices Jon (Joey) Dunn and Barrie Lewis and a pair of Irish "ground staffers" (their nationality prevented them being fully blown apprentices) Pat Roche and Terry Kingon.I can see over thirty players in that list who would have been on the books of feeder club Newton Spurs that season, I joined them around the time of that game incidentally) including a significant "one who got away" much to our pain in later years.............. Derek Rickard! Pete Godfrey would probably recognise a lot of those names and Eddie Stentiford and Jon Hearne being Newton Grammar boys too. Jon Hearne also trialled for England Schools and Tottenham Hotspur. The "Calland" listed would have probably been Ralph's youngest son Bobby, if not his eldest, Arnold.............a real Plainmoor dynasty! The "Charleton" signed for Chelsea, the "Sullivan"was a Saltash lad, the younger brother of Argyle's Colin who played for England U'23s and the "Loram" was Billy, the father of Mark. Add them to the Twitchins, Sandercocks, and Morralls of the era and you can see what a tragedy it was for English football as a whole (not just in South Devon) that more formal set ups weren't the norm at small clubs in those days - many of whom ( Exeter, Brentford and even Portsmouth) weren't even running reserve teams either due to enormous financial constraints at the time! As a total contrast, I took my little lad to his football club for training and assessment session at lunchtime today where there were over a hundred talented players all under the auspices of Arsenal from under 8s (his age group) up to under16. All in groups of twelve, each with their own dedicated level two coach (again all on the Arsenal rota) and on a full size, properly floodlit state of the art 3G pitch (Whittington Park, N19) they couldn't ask for any more! |
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