Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2011 19:44:42 GMT
I went to yesterday’s FA Vase semi-final between Poole Town and Whitley Bay. Whitley Bay have won the competition for the past two seasons. I love this quirky competition but, for those who are not sure of the difference between the FA Vase and the FA Trophy, it’s easiest to think of the Trophy as being for the top 250-odd non-league clubs. The Vase is then for the next 500 or so teams. This means the fourteen leagues which are parallel to the Western Premier plus eligible clubs from the levels beneath (including, locally, the Peninsula League’s premier and first division). Floodlights are one of the eligibility criteria.
Although this was my first visit to Poole Town, I guess I could have seen Torquay United teams there over the years because the two clubs having been playing each other - admittedly more off than on - since at least the 1920s. The original Poole club was formed in 1890, slightly earlier than Torquay United, but – like ourselves – turned professional during the 1920s when they joined the Western League and, subsequently, the Southern League. Whereas we pushed on to the Football League, Poole hit trouble in 1930 and reformed – at a lower level – as Poole Town. The original club’s biggest day was an FA Cup trip to Goodison in 1927 when Dixie Dean was amongst the scorers for Everton.
Jon may correct me but it looks as if the only full first-team fixtures between Poole and Torquay (Western Counties floodlit games of the 1960s and 1970s notwithstanding) were played on successive days over Easter 1927. These were in the Western League during a season in which we also competed in the Southern League. Thereafter, during the 1950s and 1960s, our reserves would have played both Poole Town’s first team and their reserves in the Western League. Indeed, Budleigh has treated us to a couple of programmes from encounters between the clubs including this one:
More at:
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Poole Town are mainly associated with the town’s speedway stadium where they played from the 1930s until 1994. From the 1950s the club was often a decent Southern League outfit and occasionally pulled in big crowds for FA Cup matches. But they were always second-fiddle to Poole Pirates, one of the country’s most successful speedway teams (oddly, yesterday’s opponents were from a town probably better known for ice hockey). These pictures come from the Speedway Plus website at www.speedwayplus.co.uk/PooleSeventies.shtml:
After leaving the stadium, Poole Town led a nomadic existence and left the Southern League after a disastrous season when they lost forty-one of their forty-two games. The club never quite folded but managed to keep going, albeit as a diminished force playing Hampshire League football. More recently they’ve re-established themselves at a pretty basic ground at Tatnam – not too far from the town nor stadium – as one of the top clubs in the Wessex League. Poole now have plans to move up to the Southern league with an anticipated new ground at Bearwood on the edge of one of the large housing developments that have taken over the old heathlands.
Tatnam looked in pretty good shape yesterday, partly because the club has been busy making improvements in time for the imminent Southern League ground grading inspection. This has included putting up fencing on three sides of the ground with the fourth to follow. These pictures come from poolebaymedia.co.uk/pooletownfc/index.php?main_page=page&id=2
Today’s Sunday Sun – a sort of North East Sunday Independent – summed it up neatly by describing Tatnam as “... a tranquil setting more befitting a country fayre – there were picnic rugs, a folk band, funny little marquees and a man dressed like a pirate – than a semi of a national cup competition”.
The game itself reminded me of our 1st leg Sherpa Van semi-final against Wolves: the home side one up with a few minutes to go before the more-fancied (and outplayed) visitors score twice at the death. After Whitley Bay starting strongly, Poole took the lead after twenty-five minutes and played well enough throughout to deserve the second goal that somehow never came. The visitors equalised in the 88th minute and scored from a cracking free-kick in stoppage time. Poole may be the headquarters of the RNLI, but that organisation would have been hard-pressed to stage a better rescue act. The second leg is this Saturday.
Oh yes, lastly, the Poole assistant manager is Steve Cuss, a man with strong Torquay and Torquay United links:
Although this was my first visit to Poole Town, I guess I could have seen Torquay United teams there over the years because the two clubs having been playing each other - admittedly more off than on - since at least the 1920s. The original Poole club was formed in 1890, slightly earlier than Torquay United, but – like ourselves – turned professional during the 1920s when they joined the Western League and, subsequently, the Southern League. Whereas we pushed on to the Football League, Poole hit trouble in 1930 and reformed – at a lower level – as Poole Town. The original club’s biggest day was an FA Cup trip to Goodison in 1927 when Dixie Dean was amongst the scorers for Everton.
Jon may correct me but it looks as if the only full first-team fixtures between Poole and Torquay (Western Counties floodlit games of the 1960s and 1970s notwithstanding) were played on successive days over Easter 1927. These were in the Western League during a season in which we also competed in the Southern League. Thereafter, during the 1950s and 1960s, our reserves would have played both Poole Town’s first team and their reserves in the Western League. Indeed, Budleigh has treated us to a couple of programmes from encounters between the clubs including this one:
More at:
torquayfansforum.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=6070&thread=5010&page=1
torquayfansforum.com/index.cgi?board=5070&action=display&thread=5120
Poole Town are mainly associated with the town’s speedway stadium where they played from the 1930s until 1994. From the 1950s the club was often a decent Southern League outfit and occasionally pulled in big crowds for FA Cup matches. But they were always second-fiddle to Poole Pirates, one of the country’s most successful speedway teams (oddly, yesterday’s opponents were from a town probably better known for ice hockey). These pictures come from the Speedway Plus website at www.speedwayplus.co.uk/PooleSeventies.shtml:
After leaving the stadium, Poole Town led a nomadic existence and left the Southern League after a disastrous season when they lost forty-one of their forty-two games. The club never quite folded but managed to keep going, albeit as a diminished force playing Hampshire League football. More recently they’ve re-established themselves at a pretty basic ground at Tatnam – not too far from the town nor stadium – as one of the top clubs in the Wessex League. Poole now have plans to move up to the Southern league with an anticipated new ground at Bearwood on the edge of one of the large housing developments that have taken over the old heathlands.
Tatnam looked in pretty good shape yesterday, partly because the club has been busy making improvements in time for the imminent Southern League ground grading inspection. This has included putting up fencing on three sides of the ground with the fourth to follow. These pictures come from poolebaymedia.co.uk/pooletownfc/index.php?main_page=page&id=2
Today’s Sunday Sun – a sort of North East Sunday Independent – summed it up neatly by describing Tatnam as “... a tranquil setting more befitting a country fayre – there were picnic rugs, a folk band, funny little marquees and a man dressed like a pirate – than a semi of a national cup competition”.
The game itself reminded me of our 1st leg Sherpa Van semi-final against Wolves: the home side one up with a few minutes to go before the more-fancied (and outplayed) visitors score twice at the death. After Whitley Bay starting strongly, Poole took the lead after twenty-five minutes and played well enough throughout to deserve the second goal that somehow never came. The visitors equalised in the 88th minute and scored from a cracking free-kick in stoppage time. Poole may be the headquarters of the RNLI, but that organisation would have been hard-pressed to stage a better rescue act. The second leg is this Saturday.
Oh yes, lastly, the Poole assistant manager is Steve Cuss, a man with strong Torquay and Torquay United links:
