FA Cup hat-tricks

That would have been for Southend where Gerry Fell moved after a pretty successful spell at Brighton. Torquay v Southend games had an edge for me in those days because an old friend from school was Southend-born. We made it to Roots Hall that season for a Friday night game when Derrick Parker scored all their goals in a 4-0 win. Ah, but we've since got better memories of Southend, haven't we?



The first one would be that 7-1 victory over Northampton in 1959 (Graham Bond and Ernie Pym).

The second required a magnifying glass and a history book before coming up with a certain Mr Kellock who scored hat tricks in successive FA Cup ties against Coleford Athletic and Trowbridge Town in 1923/24. Programmes, Timbo?

Well done to Stewart and to Barton.

I am quite sure you both knew the Northampton one straightaway (all local goals from local people) but you did both have to look up Billy Kellock's exploits against Coleford and Trowbridge, didn't you?

I also needed to look up the answer, being far more impressed by the quality of the question as opposed to my efforts to respond to it. It's heartening to know there's somebody out there who knows the questions to ask.

Now then, which Coleford? I assume it's not the one near Crediton which means it's either the Coleford in Somerset or the one in the Forest of Dean. From what I can work out, it's most likely the Coleford between Shepton Mallet and Frome. Members of the Western League - briefly - in the 1920s (and again in the 1930s) and now bobbing along in the Mid-Somerset League.

That was quite a cup run in 1923/24 starting with Newtons & Taunton in the Extra Preliminary Round and continuing past Green Waves, Coleford, Trowbridge and Yeovil & Petters United before ending at the hands of Football League (but not for much longer) opposition in the shape of Aberdare Athletic in the 4th qualifying round.

Which begs a question: who were Newtons & Taunton? At first I thought this might be an amalgamation of clubs from Taunton and the nearby villages of West Newton and North Newton. Now, with a bit of research, I've decided it was a works team associated with Newton's electrical works in Taunton. Maybe it was Newtons of Taunton FC?

Whether Newtons evolved into the Taunton United, which joined the Western and Southern Leagues the following season, is another matter. This was a club which did the double over us in 1924/25 and knocked us out of the FA Cup (although we had our revenge the following season). Always a good quiz question for friends in that neck of the woods: when did Taunton have a better football team than Torquay?

Well, it was for one season only before the two clubs went their separate ways: Torquay into the Football League; Taunton (later becoming "Town" rather than "United") into oblivion by the mid 1930s. Was Taunton's entry into semi-professional football in 1924 an attempt to replicate what had been achieved in towns such as Torquay? Why did we succeed - and we did, didn't we? - and Taunton fail?

My guess is that - even allowing for the two sports being played in opposite seasons - Taunton simply wasn't big enough to support a professional football club as well as a county cricket club (although to have called Somerset "professional" in those days may have been stretching a point). To an extent, the same can be said about Chelmsford, Worcester and Canterbury and I'd also contend that the cricketing fraternity - and the people who pulled the strings in the town - much preferred rugby in the winter months.

Consequently, Taunton's efforts at becoming a "football town" probably bit the dust as long ago as the 1930s. Yeovil, by contrast, had put down markers before WW2 and the football dye was cast in its favour. By that time any interest in watching football in the shared hinterland of Chard, Ilminster and Street was most likely being tapped by the wonderfully-named Yeovil and Petters United.

Indeed, a new Taunton club - the one which currently carries the name of Taunton Town - didn't get on the field until 1948, playing at first in Somerset Senior League before joining the Western League in the mid-1950s. Given the size of the town you can argue they've been a pretty moderate success and, having lived in Taunton for the best part of twenty years, it's always struck me as a place where football is at its' biggest when it's on TV. In fact Taunton often reminded me how fortunate I was to grow up in a town with a Football League club. But I wonder what it might have taken to have gone the other way with football becoming more successful in Taunton than Torquay?

In light of the reference's to Taunton Town I thought it apt to post this on here, although I may put it on its own thread in the History Room as this is way off the topic of FA Cup Hat-tricks!

It is a season ticket for Taunton Town for the 1932/33 season allowing entry for their games at Priory Park in the Western League, Southern League, 'English' (FA) Cup and Friendlies. It's interesting for United supporters in that it shows our four fixtures in the two local leagues.

Note it also allows entry for games played by Weir Rovers.

Note that Taunton won the FA Cup Preliminary round against St. Philips, Bristol 3-1 (on the 7th of September, not the 17th as shown on the ticket fixture list), after a 2-2 draw. Then won 4-1 away to Dartmouth United in the 1st Qualifying round (on the 5th of October, not the 1st as shown), before losing away to St. Philips Marsh Adult School (a Bristol club formed in 1892) in the 2nd Qualifying round 2-1 on the 15th of October. How often would a club expect to play twice in cup matches against relatively minor non-league teams with such similar names and close proximity in one season?

A picture of the grandstand at Priory Park having become the home of the rugby club...