Newton Abbot

It looked good the way I spelled It to me Merse, anyway you know I meant a friend, someone who would agree and share my views, that you were a rude and horrible man, but then I remembered I love you really and the sun only shines In South Devon, problem Is the balloon Is white and reflects It Into my eyes.

Some extra detail, and thoughts, about football in Newton Abbot.

The town currently has three teams in the SW Peninsula League (= step 6 of the non-league pyramid). This is a level of football best described as "regional" (rather than "local"). At this level players are normally paid but few are on contracts. Usually £3 or £4 admission charge, programmes issued, floodlights often a requirement, decent facilities.

Newton Abbot Spurs - founded 1938. As Merse has initimated, Spurs were the main force in the town for many years playing in the old SW League (covering Devon & Cornwall) in the early 1950s and again from 1959-71. During this period I guess they would have been the biggest non-league club in the southern half of the county. Stepped up to the Devon League in 1996 (joining the SW Peninsula when it was formed in 2007)

Newton Abbot - founded 1964. Entered SW League as Newton Abbot Dynamoes in 1977, changing name to Newton Abbot in 1979 and remaining in that league until 1989. Joined the new Devon League in 1992 - champions 1994 - continuing until foundation of SW Peninsula in 2007. Have probably been the town's main team since the 1980s (until recent emergence of Buckland Athletic).

Buckland Athletic - founded 1977. Joined Devon League in 2000 and the new SW Peninsula in 2007. Now the coming force in S Devon football with, as has been pointed out, superb new facilities at Decoy.

(see the excellent www.fchd.info for more)

The situation of the town having three teams at this level is unlikely to last. Newton Abbot seem on the brink and Spurs, I believe, need floodlights by next season to remain in the Peninsula Premier (not sure of the likelihood of this). Sharing Merse's belief that the town could/should have a club at a higher level (Bridgwater being another example of what can be achieved), Buckland seems the main hope at present (the next step for them being the Western Premier).

Unless, of course, there was a hidden agenda behind the Newton Abbot/Dawlish tie-up which now seems to have hit the rocks. Dawlish have been talking about the Southern League for the past 12 months and have seemed well on course. Would this be sustainable at Sandy Lane on gates of 80? Was a Teignbridge United, taking advantage of Dawlish's team and Newton Abbot's facilities, playing Southern League football at Coach Road on the cards?

Look at the SW Peninsula message board and you'll see vitriol from the NA end towards Dawlish. But something is going wrong at Dawlish - see the release of Kevin Wills and two other players. They're still getting the results but you sense Dawlish will not be going upwards just yet.

So will Spurs investigate Coach Road in an attempt to resolve their lack of lights and stay in the premier division? Excellent facilities at Coach Road but always the issue of renting from the Devon FA and the ongoing state of the pitch which has become a millstone. Or will Spurs stay at the Rec and float downward to the SWP Div 1 (East), best described as "county" football?

As someone who likes to see floodlit football in S Devon I hope use can be made of Coach Road. In the meantime I'd recommend an evening at Buckland Athletic. With midweek crowds of 150+, a smashing club house and neat new stand, it's starting to become a proper football-watching experience. Good luck to them.

Excellent post bartondowns

I don't think TUFC would be able to enter a reserve team as they would be going into the pyramid system and therefore the probabilty in time they could reach BSP & then that would create a problem,hence why the premier league have a reserve league that is seperate to the pyramid system I'm pretty sure that the Peninsula league wanted Plymouth Argyle in the league when it was to be formed but i think the FA at Soho didn't agree to the request for those reasons.
They are many players playing in the Peninsula premier on contracts, there is nothing to stop TUFC loaning players to play in the Peninsula Premier but in all honesty I don't think the league is competitive enough for a full time pro to step down into it, maybe an idea for the youth team to enter the league though.

In the SDL they would be expelled from the league when they don't fulfill 5 fixtures & then they would have to re-apply next season to start at the bottom in Division 6 & they would then have to win promotion back to the SDL premier in order to apply for election to the Peninsula league.
Nothing to stop someone from forming a new club called Newton Abbot 2008!

Thanks for the comments, Dave, and thanks for the site.

I think there is something special about The Rec being a town centre ground and can quite understand Spurs opting to stay there. It may also be the case that a lower level of football - without lights or the hassle of getting midweek teams together, paying players or travelling to Falmouth - might suit some clubs more.

As for a Buckland name change, I've no idea. I guess clubs take on their own identities - no such place as Port Vale or Heart of Midlothian after all - and being named after a small part of a larger entity (Everton, Chelsea, Tranmere or wherever) seems not to harm. And, of course, Millwall FC play the other side of the Thames to the district of Millwall (I hear the Thames is almost as big a geographical divide as the Penn Inn roundabout, although I'm not convinced myself).

I think a lot of this ties in with your original observation about whether players at this level should be paid, something that relates to the expansionist nature of the non-league pyramid.

The English football pyramid is a wonderful thing that makes our football unique in the world. Look at the Non League Paper and, thanks to James Wright's efforts (usually after he's been to a game most evenings), you'll see the results of hundreds of games played under lights up and down the country. In which other country does this happen on such a sustained level?

Just as significantly our leagues are bigger than most other countries, typically 20, 22 or 24 teams. And we also love our cup competitions.

Consequently a NA, NA Spurs or Buckland player might play 38 league games plus Throgmorton Cup (SWP league cup), Devon Bowl and, should the club enter, FA Vase and FA Cup matches as well. Let's say 45 games a season, several thousand miles travel. Serious stuff, so they want paying!

But are there too many clubs being forced to play at this level? Although the pyramid is a great innovation have we created a monster?

The emphasis is on progression, progression, progression (it's a competitive sport after all) but there's not enough room (nor players nor money) for all to progress successfully. Progress brings pressures: to change name? to move ground? to commit to travelling to the Cotswolds on a Tuesday night? Perhaps Buckland is an example of how it works and Newton Abbot (and maybe Dawlish) how it doesn't. You could understand a club like Spurs showing caution.

A lot of this stems from the creation of four extra leagues higher up the pyramid. This has changed the balance of who plays in the FA Trophy (the really serious semi-pro side of the game) compared with the FA Vase . A few years ago around 175 clubs played in the FA Trophy - the Conference, its three feeder leagues and their lower divisions (eight divisions in total). Now, according to Tony Kempster's site - www.tonykempster.co.uk - 263 clubs are in this year's competition (from twelve divisions).

That's 90 extra clubs (Chipstead being an example) playing at a higher, more intense level than they once did (with extra costs, travelling, etc) - and another 90 clubs needed to replace them further down. Someone once described this as the clubs getting promoted and the leagues getting relegated.

Consequently at every level of the game clubs are stepping up simply because the opportunity is there. Whether it's appropriate or affordable is another matter. Whereas it might be sustainable for, say, 300 non-league clubs to pay players we've now got 500 clubs caught up in the process. It's a bit like the Emperor's New Clothes: an illusion of standards rising but, in reality, it's the same clubs playing the same football against each other at, say, level 4 rather than level 5. Better facilities - and more midweek football for the likes of me (good) - but for a unsustainable financial outlay (not so good). It's also a situation that attracts the Mr Bigs - good and bad - and all that entails.

Torquay United Reserves. Once upon a time, until the early 1950s, we had a team in the Southern League, the top competiton outside the Football League. Just imagine TUFC Reserves travelling to play Colchester's or Gillingham's first team in the late 1940s! Then for many years we had a team in the Western League or the SW League.

Now things have changed. I don't think any Football League club has a reserve team playing in anything other than a midweek reserve league. Although this is partly due to most pyramid leagues being restricted to club first teams, the main reason is that professional clubs prefer to play reserve games when the first team aren't playing.

The Western League would be a complete no-no for Torquay. On the other hand the SW Peninsula did accept Truro City Reserves this year who won one of its feeder leagues (and it also took the Royal Marines as a completely new club). But surely the midweek reserve league is a better idea? 10 clubs this year so we'd get around 20 fixtures. That's enough?

BBCGull. Yes it's an odd one that suggests the idea of TUFC Reserves playing in a competiton such as the SW Peninsula might be theoretically possible . You've the measure of current examples - Histon and King's Lynn are probably the most notable. On a point of detail I read that Truro City Reserves could only be accepted by the SW Peninsula if the first team were promoted to the Southern League. This suggests there must be a certain gap between first and second teams.

The reality is that most clubs, above a certain level, are not interested in Saturday reserve football. If you're fielding a Saturday morning youth team - and you've got 5 players on the bench for the first team in the afternoon - what's the point of a Saturday reserve game? Who would you play? Far better to play midweek, if there's no first team game, and field last week's subs, some youth team players, a triallist or two, players returning from injury, etc.

I'll confess to have seen the odd Exeter reserve game recently and Paul Tisdale uses them as a quasi-first team fixture playing in the same style as for normal league games (and, of course, the management are able to watch). Our game against Team Bath was similar and I think that's the way to do it these days.