Plenty to peruse in Timbo’s selection of programmes against Northampton. A few random historical thoughts:
- Never realised the importance of
Colin Rawson to the side around that 1960 period. He was in his early ‘thirties when he signed from Millwall having previously played for Rotherham and Sheffield United. Eventually moved on to good old Taunton Town.
-
Brian Handley and
Peter Laraman seems an interesting tale of two strikers. 32 goals in 80 league games for Handley and 5 goals in 9 games for Laraman (including three in his first game and two in his fourth). What was the Laraman story?
- A reference to putting out an
“experimental defence in a much-changed side at Bournemouth in Wednesday’s Football League Cup match”. A reminder that the League Cup had a slow start before reaching its zenith later in the 1960s and through to the 1980s. A competition with a chequered history in many respects.
- Mention of a “festival week” at Torquay Athletic RFC (and of
Larry Baxter being a mate of Dickie Jeeps). I guess Tics were a reasonable force in those days - in contrast to now when the gap between Athletic and United is more like a chasm.
- Quaint references to “the club’s medicos and masseurs” and ticket details for England v Ireland in the days when – in football terms anyway - “Ireland” meant “Northern Ireland”.
- References also to Torquay United being mentioned in the “national press” when, I suspect, coverage was rather different to now and less-concentrated upon the top flight. Even in the 1960s and 1970s I remember the national papers (several of which “regionalised” their sports pages) regularly carrying reports of our midweek games. Note too reporting of our efforts to join the
London Combination in the late 1950s.
- And how about another
Ken Brown playing for Torquay United? A winger signed from Bournemouth who played less than a dozen league games.
- A call for builders to “undertake repairs and decorations” on “properties held by the club”. Further, I assume, to our recent discussion about club houses.
- Fascinating profile of
Harold Dobbie, a name which crossed my mind when I was in “the Smog” on Monday. Signed from Middlesbrough with an upbringing that included a few years in Corby (possibly to do with the opening of the steel works there) and service as a “kilted warrior” in India. Those old profiles are fantastic even if certain old favourites are featured over and over again.
- An advertised trip to the
Festival of Britain in one of the 1951 programmes – I wonder how many people from South Devon visited that great event? - along with a reference to a Polish player appearing for Northampton: Felix Staroscik who died last year aged eighty-nine. There’s more about him at
www.ntfc.co.uk/page/InMemoriam/0,,10425,00.html
And, lastly, nothing to do with any of Timbo’s programmes. Flicking through
Football Nation by Andrew Ward and John Williams, I did the usual thing of looking up Torquay United in the index. This is what I found. I read it that the test case took place around 1954. Can anybody add anything?
Pete Laraman's son, Carl; is an Arsenal Academy coach having previously worked in the same capacity for Charlton Athletic (his dad's old club) and before that managed Dulwich Hamlet.