Setanta Shield

I guess we have the Setanta Shield because it brings in sponsorship and prize money and because every league has its own cup competition (even though these seem to be suffering a lingering death at just about every level of the game).

As Dave says, there will be some clubs for which this will be the main chance of winning something (although we mustn't forget that Aldershot won it last year). Also, in the past, I recall Doncaster winning it (in front of 7,000) as a first step back to recovery after the club had imploded.

But, for most BSP clubs, the FA Trophy is more of a "real deal" and is, theoretically, just as winnable. The Trophy has pedigree: Wembley final, a good history (both of its own and as successor to the old Amateur Cup) and has the status of a FA-run competiition entered by over 250 clubs.

The Shield, in its various guises, has a more chequered history dating back to the league's foundation in 1979/80 (being known as the Bob Lord Trophy for many years) but has largely been uncontested in recent times. Given the BSP has only fairly recently introduced play-offs and expanded to 24 clubs, its re-introduction must surely be finance-led.

How you contest it is debatable - it's probably like the Johnstone Paints Trophy in that sense. Too strong a competition for too many youth team players but not quite something for your normal first team. The only certainty is that, if every club takes it entirely seriously, there will be a winner - and, if no club takes it seriously, there will be a winner! It probably only gathers momentum very late in the competition.

If the rules are the same as last year, clubs must name 10 of the 16 players from the previous league match in their squad. At its extreme this means five starters from the last game + the five subs + six others. In other words you can start with none of the starters from the previous game.

As for this week's news of the draw for the St Luke's Devon Bowl, I think the re-introduction of a proper youth set-up will allow the club to tackle this competition in a more thoughtful way. In recent seasons, without youth players, we've either been forced to win it or we've seen teams of pro players make undignified exits against the likes of Dawlish and Clyst. Now we can provide some youth players with the chance of playing decent adult opposition. A mixture of mainly youth players - with some pros- could set up a nice littlle run against some of the weaker teams and serve a definite purpose for a change.

Dave, I'm having to dust off the books for this one. Excuse the coughing.

The Devon Professional Bowl was played between Torquay, Exeter and Plymouth from 1922/23 to 1994/95 (but not every season). In my time watching TUFC it was played regularly up to 1974 before being revived for a short period in the mid 1980s and again in the mid 1990s.

The St Luke's Challenge Cup was played amongst Devon's Western League clubs from the early 1980s and was donated by the old St Luke's College when it merged with Exeter University.

Then, in the late 1990s, the Devon FA took the decision to merge the two competitions to create the present Devon St Luke's Bowl, the shape/size of which is pretty much in line with competitons in other counties. It's grown over the last two seasons to include SW Peninsula Premier clubs (but not teams from that league's lower division).

County FAs do a lot of the leg work on behalf of the national FA so I think it's right that all clubs support local competitions. But you're correct in saying it's less and less important for the bigger clubs and their fans. Several rounds spread over the season has probably left it as something of a millstone for these clubs. At least the Devon FA has the good sense to allow clubs to field whatever strength team they like.

On the other hand, its appeal has grown for those clubs who play their first teams and want to win it. Last season's final - Willand v Dawlish - was a cracker for this very reason.

Our almost complete record is here :

www.tufchistory.com

A couple of interesting facts :

Our team in the 1959 final included 10 players born in Devon, 8 of them born in Torquay! Nearly as impressive as Celtic's 1967 European Cup winning team!

Lee Sharpe made his first team debut in the Bowl - infront of a crowd of 30!

I like going to watch the Devon Cp games.
I went to watch us play in hte cup last season when we lost to Clyst Rovers and our Right-Back (Tuffy) played well.

I went to St. Fakes Park the year we went down and we won that game 2-0 with a goal from Darren James. Torquay fans taken over the Big Vault Stand (200 Torquay fans made the trip, with 600 total at the match). It was a good game and we borrowed 4 players from Newton Abbot (Dan Broadway scored the other goal).

I would have post a more detailed match report, but I thought you may get bored of me writing match reports now.

I think the competition will give people opportunities to show what they got or give a game to someone on the comeback from injury etc and even though it may not be the best trophy I always love to win the cup and knowing we are the best in Devon, though we already know that.

Well with a top prize Of £16.000, we really must make sure we pull out all the stops, only play our strongest team, even If that means we risk not getting promoted

scott, what a fool I am mate, how could I forget we would get the prize money from winning the other rounds as well.

I will be calling my vet tomorrow

I started work at 5.30am on Monday, was on here until gone 12am last night, started worked today at 5.30am, so yes may just be worn out mate.

If the forum needs me, I just have to be here