TORQUAY UNITED V EXETER CITY 23/2/29

Another cracker!

Breaking News - the resignation of Percy Mackrill. A good potted biography; but did he jump or was he pushed? And what became of him afterwards? He wasn't yet thirty-five.

And what about this? "Exeter City cannot be compared with the Exeter of past seasons and this season they are faring just about as badly as we were this time last year". Well look at them now...

That's a useful service offered by Borough Motor Service Garage - "garage your car during match". Why? Was it not safe to park near Plainmoor with all those passing trams? Or perhaps going to the football wasn't quite like attending the "house of refined entertainment" that was the Electric Theatre.

I like the fact Pickfords were inviting supporters to "follow your team" to away matches. Proof that this has been something in the blood for nearly as long as there has been a Torquay United. There's a whole history of following United away waiting to be written. I think James missed a trick there when it came to the doctoral thesis. In time maybe?

HJ Steer, newsagents in St Marychurch, had a branch at "37 Barton". That's baffling. Fore Street, Barton? Barton Road? Barton Hill Road?

Gentlemen! Remember to put your hand in your pocket for the band. Or else there will be no music. Was that a promise or a threat?

The children's privileges piece is quaint. "Your boy" indeed. At no juncture is there any suggestion that anybody other than males would be present at matches. What would have been the reality?

And, finally, a blank space with no advert: "To let. Apply: P Mackrill, Plainmoor Football Ground". Percy's duties were clearly many and varied. It's possible he'd had enough of it all.

Plenty here to initiate a few minutes research.

A.H (Bert) Hoskins, the man who didn't manage Torquay United, was a Southampton man. He'd enjoyed a modest playing career - initially with Southampton and Wolves; later in Midlands non-league - before taking on an administrative role at Molineux. He became secretary of Wolves in 1922; manager in 1924; manager of Gillingham in 1926. His Wiki entry doesn't record any substantial involvement in senior football beyond 1929. It doesn't appear he snubbed Torquay United for greater glories.

Even though Percy Mackrill was born in South Africa, I wonder if he was pretty much a Yorkshireman? We're led to believe his first club was Bradford Park Avenue; his next Rotherham County. Place of death? Halifax. Strong White Rose credentials but the place of birth would have snookered his Yorkshire cricketing hopes (unless he was a very fine gentleman). Wynberg near Cape Town (there's another close to Johannesburg) was a garrison town. Perhaps Percy was from a military background; a son of a son of the West Riding.The online clues are conflicting. There are Mackrills in the Cape during the first half of the nineteenth century; several decades later there are Mackrills running pubs in the Halifax area.

Jon's cuttings record the bare bones of Percy's time at Plainmoor: Mackrill arrived at Plainmoor in 1925 and left in 1929. A slightly shorter run than Paul Buckle but certain parallels: the first two seasons outside the Football League; the third and fourth as League members. Percy joined us from Pontypridd who'd done better than Torquay in successive seasons. They soon fell away.

Percy's reasons for moving to Rotherham in 1929 are unexplained other than to say they were not of a footballing nature. With his earlier Rotherham connection it's possible to conclude that, if she existed, Mrs Mackrill hailed from those parts. Yet it appears Percy was soon on the move again. A reference on Malcolm Bull's Calderdale Companion (http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~calderdalecompanion/m.html) has Percy as landlord of the Globe in Halifax from 1931 to 1949 (which Wiki records as the time of his death. Did we know this already?). The Globe, apparently, was next door to the Grand Theatre and much-frequented by artistes. The Grand, as were so many Victorian and Edwardian theatres, was designed by Frank Matcham who hailed from Newton Abbot.

Well, that certainly doesn't rule out a military background, does it?

Guesswork involved. Father from the West Riding originally? Was he a Boer War casualty?

Here are a couple of photos that came with the programme that Stan Chamberlain had sent home to his family. I dont think a little dog would make it into a team photo these days !