Torquay United at Christmas

I'll get back to you on that one, Dave.

Meanwhile which side would you have been on.....Torquay Town or Babbacombe?

C'mon, you Cooooooooooombe!!!

Well, this is Jon's area but I'm not sure if there were any reliable attendance figures prior to entry to the Football League in 1927. It would be interesting to get an idea of the respective crowds for Torquay Town and Babbacombe - both playing at Plainmoor, I believe, during 1910-1921 - compared with Torquay Athletic RFC. Not sure what the set up was in Newton Abbot in those days. Torquay United played Newton Abbot Town in friendlies in the early 1900s - as well as teams called Newton, Newton YMCA and Newton Juniors. I guess records were pretty sketchy and clubs came and went. I reckon you'd have been a rugby man chasing the autographs of the first-ever All Blacks team when they stayed in Newton Abbot in 1905:



timeframes.natlib.govt.nz

Christmas crowds: Strangely most of our Christmas Day games were away with return games played at Plainmoor on Boxing Day. Limited evidence suggests Christmas Day gates in the 1930s were usually above the average attendance for the season - but not by as much as the Boxing Day games. By contrast, Christmas Day crowds in the 1950s (but not those for Boxing Day) were below average. From what I can judge this was true of our opponents as well. Hence the decision to drop Christmas Day fixtures in the late 1950s.

Not only did the first All Blacks begin their tour at Newton Rec, but so did most touring sides up until the nineteen fifties and when I was a small boy I was in possession of a match programme for a game between Newton Abbot and South Africa together with a set of cigarette cards featuring everyone of the tourists.

The touring rugby sides - Australia, South Africa and New Zealand used to travel by sea and disembark at Plymouth,travel by train to Newton Abbot and stay at the Queens Hotel a short stroll from the station. They would then train at the Rec which was the exclusive home of the rugby club at that time (they lost it in a sealed bid auction to Newton Spurs and thus re-located to Rackerhayes, a gift to the club from their late president Mr John Watts of the clay company Watts, Blake; Bearne) in the early fifties. Thus the first fixture of many touring programmes was Newton Abbot v the tourists of the season!

My great grandfather on my mother's side played at the Rec for NARFC and they were one of the country's better sides and a real powerhouse in Devon.

When I was a boy, my second cousin from that side of the family-Alan Stephens; played for Plymouth Albion and Devon and I fondly remember going to the old County Ground at Exeter to watch him play at fullback for Devon & Cornwall against the All Blacks where his opposite number- the great and legendary Don Clark literally kicked them into submission that day.....................even managing to put a penalty over from his own half! He graciously presented his whole kit to my cousin and I duly became the proud holder of the great mans socks. Rather like a holy relic, they never got washed and much to my mother's chagrin they remained "rotting" in my bedroom until the day I departed, when I guess they were "disposed of" with all haste. I must admit that one foot had all but fallen off by then!

That heavy defeat brought about an end to my cousin's possession of the Devon County fullback position which he had contested with a fine Newton All Whites player, called Stuart Morris. I bet Alan would have preferred that Morris had played in his place against the touring Fijiians in the sixties at Exeter as well as he contracted a rather nasty eye injury from the waxed moustache of one of the tourists (ouch!) can you imagine that sort of thing happening nowadays?

Six years ago, I was honoured to be the driver of the South African Rugby Squad at the Manchester Commonwealth Games - a great set of people, and another great memory for me.

I inherited the family rugby ability and loved playing it at school but as soon as school days were over it was just football for me although I was a much better player with the oval ball; but I loved football so much.

Well BD that bought back a childhood memory to me, a Christmas Day game at West Ham with my big Sister, must been around 56, trains still ran on the day too, as an 8 year old it was a great day out except my Mother was furious at my Sis and it didn't sit well that we took off from the dinner table before pudding was served, didn't get any that day.
Best of all we won , took out Forrest I think, recollections are getting dim about games that far back.
Just as well they stopped doin them as Mother mad was never a good thing at that time of year.