04/04/80: Stoke Gabriel v Teignmouth: Herald Cup

Are you sure Paul Cayless came around to do your mums hair and not yours Justin

:DFunny you say that........i was sat in his shop as a 10 yr old for what seemed like hours waiting for Mum one day totally bored.......and as my hair was such a long mess he suggested it was time for me to have a hair cut, he explained that he normally only ever did women's hair and as mine was longer than most of his lady customers he would make an exception with me.
As i had a major aversion to having my hair cut......i made for the door sharpish, only to find it locked and was dragged into the dreaded chair.
He started snipping through the jungle and then suddenly stopped and shrieked......and proclaimed "that is why i dont do boys hair!".........and stormed off in a huff telling me to leave the shop straight away..........seems he wasn't that keen on knits ;D

Probably one of the most contriversial Herald cup final in modern times. Teignmouth were awarded the winning and only goal late in extra time when it appeared the the only person who thought it was a goal was one of the linesman. The ball hit the stanchion on the side of the goal and never went in the net. Spectators came on the pitch to demonstate, players were taken off the pitch to the dressing rooms, and when sorted out they then came and played last few minutes. Some players did not go up for the presentation for their tankards and programmes were thrown at the officials when this took place. After that more mundane things the ref was the brother of our ex chirman Mervyn Benny

I was at that game and well positioned to see what happened..................further along the touchline from linesman John Gould who had struggled to make ground on a ball played forward down his flank (and that's NOT a criticism of him, it happens) the shot hit the top stantion that supported the top of the side netting and bounced down with Ted Benney the ref unsighted and there was a big shout for a goal. He looked over to his right and got a confirmatory flag from his linesman, blew for a goal and all hell let loose.

In my opinion it was clearly NOT a goal but a goal kick, in the linesman's opinion it was a goal...................in my opinion, HIS opinion was wrong; but HIS opinion was the only one that the ref could refer to wasn't it.

It's all very well all those arseholes who caused all the trouble saying this and saying that, what about the "big shout" that went up for the goal then...................from whom and from how many did THAT come from?

Strangely, I had a decisive Premier League game to ref on that very same pitch one evening a week or two later and had asked the SDL for official linesmen but got rejected. I then suggested they appointed a young German referee I was accomodating over here on an exchange visit to one I had made to Lower Saxony a previous Easter, and one "KeyberryGull", ( a very good young referee) and my two teenaged linos did a very good job too; despite the Newton Spurs club being very upset that they wouldn't be using the services of their regular club linesman!

Blow me if during a very fiercely contested and tight game we got a very similar incident at the very same end that itself caused all sorts of mayhem.....................

At this stage I would add that the one thing I had noticed when I had reffed in Germany was the reluctance of the officials to run around a lot and true to form my young German assistant was way off the pace as the ball broke forward and was lashed towards the roof of the net and bounced down onto the goal line to be hacked clear.

Was it a legitimate goal, or was it a "goal" such as the one given to England against West Germany by the "Russian Linesman" all those years before? Did I know? Did I feck...................after what seemed an age of mayhem and getting jostled and pushed from pillar to post by screaming players I managed to find an "excuse" to blow my whistle (as the ball was still in play remember) by spotting a "shirt pull". Another age to coax my young assistant onto the pitch well away from the gathering possee of "experts" behind him and a clear question but not before I made it quite clear he was to neither nod nor shake his head.

" A goal, Tomas..............Yah or Nein?" (and don't move your bloody head son) "Yah" came the answer ~ ' did you see it clearly?' ~ "nein"
His bottle had been there now it had gone..............after all he had those ruddy spectators and the proximity of the club house behind him, and he was only fifteen after all.

I disallowed it, telling the many dissenters that neither I nor my linesman had clearly seen all the ball cross all of the goal line. That was the the truth, but was it the correct decision? Well yes it was because the Law says only if in the opinion of the referee................etc, etc; but whether that was a FACT that all of the ball failed to cross all of the line I cannot tell you.

I see that Stoke's goalie is Tony Tillbrook.

Torquay United played a benefit match for him against Stoke Gabriel at Plainmoor early in the 1986/87 season.

Does anybody remember the circumstances?