Darlington v Torquay United.21/05/66.

As one who can proudly boast "I was there" it is only now that I realise that one of the linesmen was none other than Arthur Ellis who later found household fame as the referee in BBC's "It's A Knockout" alongside that other archtypel Northerner Eddie Waring.

I supose there is only a fifty-fifty chance that he was the buffoon who flagged Ronnie Barnes as being offside AFTER he had crossed beautifully for Robin Stubbs to score the "winner" that never was and so rob us of victory and mathematically guaranteed promotion on the day.

He always had a penchant for comedy then!

I was also amongst the many united supporters who went north for the match.We went on coaches organised by the club,picked up at Newton Abbot station 7.30pm on the Friday evening and got back in the early hours of Sunday morning all for 0-0 but at least promotion made it all worth while.I agree with Merse could never see why Stubbs goal was disallowed.
One thing I always remember about that weekend was listening on a radio, when we stopped for a break at what I can remember was a service station, to Henry Cooper fight Muhammed Ali at Highbury for the world heavyweight title which he unfortunately lost with a cut eye in the 6th round. Happy days.

Remember that in those days just getting to Bristol took four hours on the A38 with another hour via Gloucester City Centre to the first bit of motorway ~ the M6 at Tewksbury. Then off again to go through Kidderminster, and Wolverhampton and back on the motorway system, this time the M6 at Penkridge in Staffs.

Via Manchester, Oldham and traversing the Pennines before dropping down through Huddersfield and a re-fuel at Wallace Arnold's in Leeds with a breakfast stop thrown in; I particularly retain images of street after side street running off the Leeds Road in Huddersfield and then the Huddersfield Road in Leeds with row after row of washing drawn accross from house to house and drying in the early morning sunshine. Then another travail up the Great North Road via Northallerton and Catterick Bridge to Darlington and a 10am arrival in time for that notorious improvised "match" on the Feethams pitch!

For the ground spotters, we had passed within sight of the homes of Bristol City, Kidderminster Harriers, Wolves, Oldham Athletic and Huddersfield Town with a glimpse of the very tall Elland Road lights in the distance in Leeds.

I recall listening to that boxing match too, but in a Moss Side pub that stood alone amongst acres of bomb or demolition wrecked housing in a boozer that only admitted women in the Lounge as the Bar was male only!

As I remember we got back to NA around 7am, tired , smelly, broke but very happy!

One year later and almost to the day we had to do it all again for an amazing experience at Ayresome Park and a 4-2 tanking from Middlesbrough that saw them go up at our expense in front of an almost thirty thousand crowd on a venue that had been a World Cup stadium that summer before!

The old England trainer Harold Sheperdson gave a small group of us a conducted tour of the dressing rooms and the roof void gymnasium above the seats in the old grandstand..................what an experience for a young lad and what memories to hold to this day.

That year we got back tired, smelly, broke but very sad..............oh well.

I was there and on the tour of the ground with merse as well. But I'm afraid merse that it was a real battering in the Northern sunshine. 4-0 and not a sniff at goal all game. May be the next week you are thinking about .... we lost 4-2 at home to already relegated Swansea. Happy days but the same result!!

The table after that game can be found here:

www.torquayunited-mad.co.uk/footydb/loadgen.asp?Day=21&Month=May&ssnno=95&teamno=525

1 Doncaster Rovers 46 59 1.57
2 Darlington 46 59 1.36
3 Torquay United 46 58 1.47
4 Colchester United 45 56 1.53
5 Tranmere Rovers 46 56 1.41
6 Luton Town 44 55 1.33

A win for Colchester (at Newport) and two wins for Luton (at Newport and at Chester) would have been enough to deny us. Newport beat them both to leave us in third. Luton drew at Chester to miss out on goal average - Colchester scraping up by the skin of their teeth.