Supporters Club Handbook 1965/Northampton Trip.

Another cracking artefact from the Timbo Collection. Good man! (was Davybeat ever on the books of Topline Artistes?)

That list of United internationals is a fascinating one. We've discussed Ralph Birkett, Don Welsh and Gordon Astall in the past as well as Hugh Brown who was a pretty high-profile signing when he joined from Partick Thistle in 1950.

There would have been high hopes too of Len Graham who had won the last of his Northern Irish caps (v England) weeks before moving to Plainmoor in late 1958. His stay was a short one and he was soon off to become player-manager of Ards.

Goalkeeper Bill Hayes won his Irish caps playing for Limerick and joined Torquay from Ellesmere Port, who were then one of the bigger non-league teams in the North West. I'm pretty certain he's lived in Torbay since the 1950s and was introduced to the crowd at a home game within the last three or four years.

Harold Gough, another 'keeper, must have been one of Torquay's very first big-name signings even though he was in his late 30s when he arrived in 1928. He'd won a FA Cup winners medal playing for Sheffield United in the famous Khaki Cup Final of 1915 and, many years later, had his contract terminated by the same club after breaking a club rule by becoming the licensee of a pub.

The centenary history speaks of Peter O'Dowd being Torquay's record signing when he joined from Chelsea in 1937. Apparently injuries ruined his Plainmoor career and he soon retired.

Otherwise, I'm not sure of the completeness of that handbook list for there's no mention of David Mercer (two England caps in the 1920s), another FA Cup winner with Sheffield United (1925), who signed for Torquay in 1929 and is buried in St Marychurch church yard.

In the forty odd years since that handbook a number of other full internationals have played for Torquay United either before, during or after their international careers. Can you name some or all of them?

By my reckoning there are more than thirty....