East Devon League tables

I'm not sure how much more Jon now knows about the early days of the East Devon League than in 2009 when he started this thread. In the intervening period the Devon and Exeter League appears to have put this general history on its website:

defleague.co.uk/league-data/history/

With this list of league champions:

defleague.co.uk/league-data/history/premier-league-champions/

The Devon & Exeter League has been in the news recently for applying for Step 7 status. This would put it on a par with the SW Peninsula League Div 1(E). There's been discussion as to whether this is in rivalry to the Peninsula League or more as a means of accessing additional funding from the FA. The D&E is reminding potential applicants that, as per existing league rules, they can come from anywhere in Devon or within fifty miles of Exeter.

The first impact would be no reserve teams in the D&E's premier division. The Peninsula League is considering running a reserve section as a consequence. This could have the knock-on effect of attracting higher-grade reserve teams from the South Devon League.

Two military teams in that league from 1906/07. The centenary history has the 111th and 112th Batteries as components of the Royal Field Artillery. There appear to have been a lot of military teams in pre-1914 Devon football. I'm assuming this to have been army sides from Exeter, Plymouth and (possibly) elsewhere; naval sides from in and around Plymouth.

I'm no expert on such matters. The size of the military was considerable in those times which proved to span the aftermath of the Boer War and the onset of the Great War. I'm not sure if Devon housed a disproportionate number of military personnel, which would have skewed the armed forces influence upon local football, or whether it was a national phenomenon whereby most local leagues included military sides. Nor would I know if these teams were made up of full-time military personnel or reservists. The volunteer forces and yeomanry were certainly sizeable in Edwardian days and this was precisely the time when the new Territorial force was being established. Either way, you imagine the military had the organisational wherewithal to establish teams in a variety of leagues and the transport to take them to games. I suspect the military's involvement in Devon football somewhat declined after the Great War but, even in relatively recent times, we've seen Plymouth Command and the Royal Marines compete at a decent level of SW football.

A team too from Exmouth back in 1906. I always think that, for a large Devon town, Exmouth has a relatively low profile. Yet we've seen it has a decent rugby club as well as being a cricket stronghold. We've also discussed Exmouth's halcyon football days of the 1980s. Can these be recaptured following the recent appointment of Kevin Hill as Exmouth Town's joint manager? Hilly has a long association with the club; the Sunday Independent recently showed him pictured in their 1993 side.

Exmouth was much smaller in 1906 but still of some significance. The 1901 census records the town's population as around 10,500. The comparative figure now appears to be in excess of 30,000 with nearly 50,000 living in what the county council describes as the "Exmouth Town Area" (including Budleigh Salterton, Lympstone and Woodbury). Is this another part of Devon where rugby got in the way?

Interesting also from Jon's words that the East Devon League had something of an expansionist zeal in the Edwardian era taking in both Babbacombe and South Molton. I've been taking another look at the current Devon and Exeter League's rule that "clubs must be located within Devon or a 50 mile radius of Exeter". If that's a literal straight line it includes Looe and Bude; Weymouth, Dorchester and Sherborne; Glastonbury and Weston-super-Mare. And, if you're being really picky, Barry in South Wales.

Thank you, Jon. I'm honoured. Who knows what ripple of interest those league constitutions will cause amongst the wider Torquay United online community.

Exeter United and St Sidwell's United. What became of them? Did either ever make much impact? Perhaps they should have got together.

Belmont, I assume, would have played at Belmont Pleasure Gardens off Blackboy Road. That's just five minutes walk from the present Exeter City ground.

Not sure about Frienhay. There's a street of that name halfway up the hill which climbs to the city from Exe Bridges. A generally overcrowded part of Exeter in the past with no obvious room for a football pitch. I don't think Flowerpot playing fields, not too far away but on the opposite side of the river, came into use until much later.

St Luke's College had a long history from 1840 to 1978. The college was to feature again on Torquay United fixture lists as reserve team opponents in the 1960s and 1970s.