Early Torquay team photo?

An early photograph that I am trying to research…

It looks like it should be a Torquay team, especially as it is part of a collection from Torquay and it has Torquay written on the back. But is it? And when and where was the picture taken?

Added note: The army figure is a Captain wearing a World War I officer's uniform and is probably before 1920 as that is when the cuff badges, as worn by him, were abolished, and after 1902 as that is when that style of cuff was first introduced

There are obviously eleven players shown, along with dignitaries and others crowded around, and would seem to be in celebration of winning the cup seen with the player at the front.







The cup resembles the Devon County Cup, as seen below top, right-hand (no.5). If so it is fairly early in it’s creation as it hasn’t got the additional plinths for later winners to be engraved on as seen in this 1934 picture. Or is it a different trophy altogether? Under an eye-glass it is difficult to tell although there may be some slight differences.






The only problem with this is that this trophy wasn’t won by Torquay at this time; indeed the first winners in 1900-01 were the soon-to-be-disbanded Exeter United, and then in 1904-05 the recently named Exeter City, formerly St Sidwells.

The trouble with black and white photos is that it is obviously impossible to tell the colour of the stripes in the kit, and although they resemble both types worn by Torquay in this period, with the centre stripe being either white or black, it is also very similar to Exeter City’s strip, even down to the same style of socks that both teams wore. Having said that Exeter’s strip nearly always only had the white stripe down the middle and not the dark one as seen on a number of shirts in this picture where the team are wearing a mixture of the two. One early Exeter picture does shows them with a kit having this different form of shirt but it appears to not be the norm for them. It is also worth noting that Exeter may well have still been playing in their original green kit at the time of winning the trophy.

Added note: Having researched further, it can't have been Exeter City winning this trophy in 1905 as they didn't play in red and white stripes until October 1911.

So is it Torquay? Or is it Exeter? Or is it another team altogether?

And is it the Devon County Cup?

Apologies for using this thread as a note book and adding bits as I look into this...
But I see that, if it is the Devon County Cup, then the winners immediately after the First World War and on resumption of the competition, were, for the years 1919/20 and 1920/21, Friernhay from Exeter who played near Priory Gardens, just across the river at Flower Pot fields. This view could well be from the higher part of the Bartholomew cemetary; looking over the catacombs toward Dinham, being the properties seen in the distance; with the trees on the right going along Bartholomew Street West and the arch just seen to the right of the hat on the man at the rear being the entrance that is still there, but now archless.

I still feel though that this is a Torquay side of that period.