Bobby Gray and Norman Gilbert

A poster on here Jon will be able to help when he sees your post as he is very much our reliable club historian. I was in the Torquay United youth team and occasionally the reserves as an amateur when Bob was at the club in 1969/70 and played with him quite a few times. I remember him as a pleasant quietly spoken man. We were both 17 at that time. He was indeed a goalkeeper but in an FA Youth Cup tie against Plymouth Argyle which went to three games he played in goal at Plainmoor in the first game, and then at Home Park he played as centre forward in the replay and second replay. The two first team games he played in were at a lot higher standard than the present club is at, being in the old Third Division (now called League 1) where Torquay at that time was one of the better teams in it. Bob was one of 3 youth team players to play in the Third Division that season the others being Phil Sandercock and Ian Twitchin, and another of the youth team Robbie Robbins later played for the first team (Robbie was the goalkeeper when Bob played up front a couple of times).

I am afraid I do not remember Norman Gilbert but it was a long time ago. It was quite normal at the first July training session each season for there to be several new faces from across the UK. They would normally get some game time for Torquay's nursery club of that time Newton Abbot Spurs in pre-season friendlies.

Hopefully Jon will be able to dig up more information for you. ⚽️