Post by Budleigh on Jun 6, 2010 20:09:22 GMT
A rare programme this one for the away Southern League game on the 4th of November 1950, and one that means something to me as it was played on the old Angel ground at the bottom end of the High Street. I moved to Tonbridge the year, 1981, it was demolished and it was to my eternal regret that I never got to see a game there, although I did stand under the original covered terrace as it was moved up the road to the new ground at Longmead Stadium. I also visited the ground every Friday evening as it became a Sainsburys supermarket and I did me weekly shop in there buying my fillet steak from where the centre circle was once positioned!
In the Tonbridge line-up is a player who became a legend on the South Coast but who was making his senior football debut in this match, goalkeeper Eric Gill (see also the paragraph on the Club Notes page). It is a little-known fact that he played this game for Tonbridge as it has always been assumed he started at non-league side Broomfields before moving to Charlton Athletic in 1951 for one game and onto Brighton & Hove Albion the following year where he made 280 appearances for the Seagulls over the next eight years. Not only that but he played bowls for the Sussex county team.
By coincidence he is in the line-up of the programme posted by Timbo yesterday for the Torquay game against Brighton in September 1954.
The Torquay United reserves line-up included a smattering of well known first team players as well as the less notable, including Ellis Stuttard who, having previously played a few games for Argyle went on to manage them in two spells either side of managing Exeter City.
Interesting to also note the outrage caused by Trevor Ford’s hugely expensive £30,000 move to Sunderland from Aston Villa and the writer’s idea of curtailing such extravagant behaviour in the future. (The one-and-same Trevor Ford who I have written about elsewhere as meeting in an hotel in which I worked in Teignmouth)
I haven’t as yet looked up the result of this game but I’m sure someone who goes by the name of Jon will fill in the details.
Line-up enlarged
In the Tonbridge line-up is a player who became a legend on the South Coast but who was making his senior football debut in this match, goalkeeper Eric Gill (see also the paragraph on the Club Notes page). It is a little-known fact that he played this game for Tonbridge as it has always been assumed he started at non-league side Broomfields before moving to Charlton Athletic in 1951 for one game and onto Brighton & Hove Albion the following year where he made 280 appearances for the Seagulls over the next eight years. Not only that but he played bowls for the Sussex county team.
By coincidence he is in the line-up of the programme posted by Timbo yesterday for the Torquay game against Brighton in September 1954.
The Torquay United reserves line-up included a smattering of well known first team players as well as the less notable, including Ellis Stuttard who, having previously played a few games for Argyle went on to manage them in two spells either side of managing Exeter City.
Interesting to also note the outrage caused by Trevor Ford’s hugely expensive £30,000 move to Sunderland from Aston Villa and the writer’s idea of curtailing such extravagant behaviour in the future. (The one-and-same Trevor Ford who I have written about elsewhere as meeting in an hotel in which I worked in Teignmouth)
I haven’t as yet looked up the result of this game but I’m sure someone who goes by the name of Jon will fill in the details.
Line-up enlarged
