Post by Budleigh on Jun 16, 2010 18:22:39 GMT
During the war-years many teams continued playing matches in various ‘leagues’ and cups. One exception was Torquay United who gave up on competitive football until the season 1945/46, the first before normal league action resumed, when we played in the Third Division South Cup.
This was not so much a cup but a league/league/cup competition in that the first half of the season was a ‘mini’ league of Third Division South (North region) teams and another of South region teams that stopped at Christmas. It then started again from scratch for the second half of the season being of the same format excepting that at the end the two top teams of each ‘league’ went through to the semi-finals and then final of the cup competition. A sort of Champions League template!
This is the programme for one of United’s games in that second part of the league, the game away to Swindon Town on Monday April the 22nd 1946.
It's an interesting line-up as all the players, excepting numbers 10 Vallance and 11 Lavers, were in the starting eleven that played the first game of the following league season, the first normal one after the war, away to Exeter City in August 1946.
These two players, Vallance & Lavers, were registered with United and not 'guesting' as happened with many players during the war years, and at first nothing seems to be recorded as such about them.
This seems true of G. Lavers of whom I could find no mention except in the Rollin book on wartime football where it states he played twice in this Third Division South Cup competition but doesn’t appear for United, or any other team, before this season and doesn't seem to appear for any first team afterwards.
But of Tommy Vallance? That’s a little different as he was a player with pedigree and one who I think who should have his name in the United records, as can be seen below.
Tommy Vallance was the son of the Stoke City trainer Jimmy Vallance and grandson of the Glasgow Rangers player and first captain, Tom Vallance, who was also one of the ‘founding-five’ who set-up Rangers. This Tom was to become one of Scotland's great poets & artists and was also known as a fine restaurateur.
During the first few years of the war Tommy actually played for Stoke City in Northern League competitions before being transferred to Torquay United. At Stoke he was great friends with a certain Stanley Matthews and it is said that they would play head tennis in exhibitions to gain a little extra money. This was because Stanley Matthews had married Betty Vallance, Tommy’s sister, in 1934, making them brothers-in-law.
Tommy played six games for us in the Third Division Southern Cup during this 1945/46 season and that appeared to be that. There is no record of him playing a ‘proper’ first team game and none of the record books put him down as a United 'first-team' player as such.
But there is a chance he actually played in the second leg of the re-vamped FA Cup in this season, when matches were played on a home-and-away basis. United played Newport County over these two legs during November, drawing 1-1 at home and losing 1-0 away therefore going out in the first round.
So surely Tommy Vallance should be recorded as having played in the Torquay United first team, if it was only for one FA Cup game. Or does that years’ competition not count for the records?
He went on to play a handful of games for Arsenal before moving out of top-class football.
And is there any connection with local contractors T. Vallance & Son of Liverton who even now sponsor their local Devon team?
This was not so much a cup but a league/league/cup competition in that the first half of the season was a ‘mini’ league of Third Division South (North region) teams and another of South region teams that stopped at Christmas. It then started again from scratch for the second half of the season being of the same format excepting that at the end the two top teams of each ‘league’ went through to the semi-finals and then final of the cup competition. A sort of Champions League template!
This is the programme for one of United’s games in that second part of the league, the game away to Swindon Town on Monday April the 22nd 1946.
It's an interesting line-up as all the players, excepting numbers 10 Vallance and 11 Lavers, were in the starting eleven that played the first game of the following league season, the first normal one after the war, away to Exeter City in August 1946.
These two players, Vallance & Lavers, were registered with United and not 'guesting' as happened with many players during the war years, and at first nothing seems to be recorded as such about them.
This seems true of G. Lavers of whom I could find no mention except in the Rollin book on wartime football where it states he played twice in this Third Division South Cup competition but doesn’t appear for United, or any other team, before this season and doesn't seem to appear for any first team afterwards.
But of Tommy Vallance? That’s a little different as he was a player with pedigree and one who I think who should have his name in the United records, as can be seen below.
Tommy Vallance was the son of the Stoke City trainer Jimmy Vallance and grandson of the Glasgow Rangers player and first captain, Tom Vallance, who was also one of the ‘founding-five’ who set-up Rangers. This Tom was to become one of Scotland's great poets & artists and was also known as a fine restaurateur.
During the first few years of the war Tommy actually played for Stoke City in Northern League competitions before being transferred to Torquay United. At Stoke he was great friends with a certain Stanley Matthews and it is said that they would play head tennis in exhibitions to gain a little extra money. This was because Stanley Matthews had married Betty Vallance, Tommy’s sister, in 1934, making them brothers-in-law.
Tommy played six games for us in the Third Division Southern Cup during this 1945/46 season and that appeared to be that. There is no record of him playing a ‘proper’ first team game and none of the record books put him down as a United 'first-team' player as such.
But there is a chance he actually played in the second leg of the re-vamped FA Cup in this season, when matches were played on a home-and-away basis. United played Newport County over these two legs during November, drawing 1-1 at home and losing 1-0 away therefore going out in the first round.
So surely Tommy Vallance should be recorded as having played in the Torquay United first team, if it was only for one FA Cup game. Or does that years’ competition not count for the records?
He went on to play a handful of games for Arsenal before moving out of top-class football.
And is there any connection with local contractors T. Vallance & Son of Liverton who even now sponsor their local Devon team?
