Jim Fryatt

It was Philadelphia Atoms that Jim Fryatt and Andy Provan played together for in the NASL in 1973 and 1974.

Atoms won the title in 73 with Fryatt and Provan both included in the "NASL All-Star Team".

Loads of stuff available on google.

www.nasljerseys.com/Rosters/Atoms_Rosters.htm

www.philadelphiaatoms.com/history2.htm

home.att.net/~nasl/all-stars.htm

Those all-star teams are brilliant. I see our Barry Lynch (no relation to Bet) was a near-miss in 1971. That is our John Rowlands taking Fryatt's place in the 1974 team, before losing his place to Pele in the 1975 team. Bruce Rioch is there in 1980 alongside a couple of blokes called Beckenbauer and Cruyff.

James Edward Fryatt: the finest header of a football I ever did see (Tim Sills' Wembley winner was trade mark run of the mill stuff from Big Jim), the only player I have ever seen score a goal in a professional football match with his head from outside the penalty area; and father of professional golfer Edward Fryatt.

Such a shame for us fans that he came to depart Plainmoor in a hurry due to personal issues (and no, StuartB; don't detail them please) and a pity that he ever came back to play as a shadow of himself in a second spell in a struggling team.

It was strange, but in the days when he first signed for us he was known as just about the only professional footballer who sported a beard, and certainly the only one I recall having one in those days would have been Jimmy Hill who had retired some 6 years previously.

Disappointingly, for us boys who cared about such things; Big Jim took the opportunity of a move south from Southport to shave it off and so appeared in his debut for us in a pair of gigantic "Mutton Chop" side burns..................nevertheless he still had that "Piratical" look about him and rendered opposing defences as shaky as if they were facing up to being boarded at cutlass point ~ especially once genius winger Tony Scott was esconsed in the side for his pin point crossing, and sometimes the little man would sensationally cross with the outside of his inside foot whilst on the run down either wing in order to get that ball in that split second earlier ~ another hugely individualistic character!

"Come on without, Come on within; You've ain't seen nuthin' like The mighty Jim"

I remember seeing Jim Fryatt’s debut for Torquay United against Workington on Saturday, 4 March 1967, when he scored the first two goals in Torquay’s 5-1 victory. He also laid on a goal for Robin Stubbs, whose expression clearly indicated his pleasure in finding the quality striking partner he had lacked since the departure of Tommy Northcott.

The partnership might not have arisen as the programme notes for the Workington match state that an offer was made by Swindon Town for Robin Stubbs, and other clubs, including Brighton, were interested in signing him.

Torquay now had an excellent forward line and in 1967/68 they soared to the top of division 3 with an unbeaten run of 10 matches. Unfortunately, Fryatt was unsettled and moved to Stockport County in October 1967 having scored only 2 goals in 13 league games. However, he did score six goals in five league cup matches.

He quickly recovered his scoring form with Stockport and finished the season with 22 goals from 32 league matches. If only he had scored these goals for Torquay we would surely have secured promotion. Our leading scorer for the 1967/68 season was Robin Stubbs and he only managed nine league goals.

Fryatt’s goals helped Stockport become genuine promotion challengers and they visited Plainmoor on Saturday 9 March 1968. Debutant Trevor Shepherd gave Torquay an early lead with an excellent right foot shot and soon afterwards Fryatt had a great opportunity to equalise when he broke clear with only goalkeeper Andy Donnelly to beat. Donnelly advanced towards the edge of the penalty area to narrow the angle only for Fryatt to lob the ball over him. I was standing behind the goal at the Babbacombe end, and it looked for the entire world that the ball would land in the net. Fortunately, it hit the bar and Donnelly gratefully gathered the rebound. Torquay went on to win 3-0 and Stockport’s challenge floundered.

At the time of Fryatt’s departure, it was widely reported that he was unsettled in the Torquay area but it would appear there may have been further problems according to the posting by Merse on 20 January 2010. I would be pleased to know what the situation was and wonder whether Stuart can reveal more. Merse states this has been discussed several times before but I can find no reference.

More on Fryatt here:

www.torquayfans.boards.net/thread/9431/crewe-alexandra-04-09-74

I'm taking the third international to be John Knapman who played for England Youth as a Torquay United player.

Strictly speaking Knapman played for England's amateur youth XI in the days when there were separate fixtures for amateurs and professionals. I'm sure we've previously discussed how Knapman went on to have a decent career as a semi-professional footballer in the South East.

I suspect John Knapman was a Torquay BGS lower sixth former at the time of that reserve game. Later, when he was in the upper sixth and I was in the first year, it was quite an event when he played for England. I've always assumed he left the area in 1968 either to go to university or move away to further his career. I did a bit of online research about John Knapman a while back and wondered if he was the person of the same name who was involved in local politics in Essex.

Yes - Curtis, Evans and Knapman.

Absolutely no idea if there's a link between Jim and Matty Fryatt. Jim originated from Southampton, Matty from Nuneaton so you can't easily get a hint of a connection from that information.

But is Jim related to Captain Charles Fryatt, a Southampton man who used his ship to ram a U-boat in 1915?

Captain Fryatt's middle name was Algernon. Now that's a name I'm sure I've heard in a Torquay United context.