Post by Budleigh on Feb 9, 2010 23:28:01 GMT
Many Torquay United supporters, especially those interested in the history of the club, will have seen an example of the following photograph from the 1931/32 season. One appears in Mike Holgate’s ‘Images of Sport, Torquay United’ for starters and includes such names as Ralph Birkett, Jimmy Trotter and Jack Butler. But no other, it seems, has mention of the player stood at the far right at the back, amateur Alexander ‘Alec’ Adrian, marked with a cross.
And this would’ve probably been the end of the matter if not for his wonderful autobiography ‘Dunkirk Sportsmen’, from where this photograph is taken, which Adrian wrote at the end of the Second World War and in which he recounts his sporting history from schooldays, Cornish football, and on through the army, including a spell at Torquay United, ‘The Magpies’, the pages of which I’ve placed below. What I have posted on here is only a small part of this fascinating book.
In one match he describes against Saltash Town, Adrian is the only player in the team not to have played a first team game for United at some point. And the referee of that game was Mr C.J. Pound (Plymouth), Charles Pound, who was secretary, and later honorary Vice-Chairman, of ‘The Plymouth & District Football League’, as well as author of the history of that league, a book I have and of which I’ll post at a later date.
How interesting to read about the relationship between United and ‘nursery-club’ Dartmouth United, and the various games against other, local sides as well as a contemporary, first-hand account of a few of the well-known players at Plainmoor.
But to be honest, that small chapter on Torquay United is just a snippet in a wonderful story written in the most enthralling way and tells us so much about local football, and sport, in that pre Second World War period, especially the involvement of the various ‘services’ teams that were the mainstay of the Plymouth sporting scene, and then the Devon Wednesday League, and associated teams, that sprang up to allow players to compete on their afternoon off work.
I shall leave the rest to Alec Adrian himself to tell….
A mention of Don Welsh
Time at Plainmoor
Torquay United v Saltash Town
And this would’ve probably been the end of the matter if not for his wonderful autobiography ‘Dunkirk Sportsmen’, from where this photograph is taken, which Adrian wrote at the end of the Second World War and in which he recounts his sporting history from schooldays, Cornish football, and on through the army, including a spell at Torquay United, ‘The Magpies’, the pages of which I’ve placed below. What I have posted on here is only a small part of this fascinating book.
In one match he describes against Saltash Town, Adrian is the only player in the team not to have played a first team game for United at some point. And the referee of that game was Mr C.J. Pound (Plymouth), Charles Pound, who was secretary, and later honorary Vice-Chairman, of ‘The Plymouth & District Football League’, as well as author of the history of that league, a book I have and of which I’ll post at a later date.
How interesting to read about the relationship between United and ‘nursery-club’ Dartmouth United, and the various games against other, local sides as well as a contemporary, first-hand account of a few of the well-known players at Plainmoor.
But to be honest, that small chapter on Torquay United is just a snippet in a wonderful story written in the most enthralling way and tells us so much about local football, and sport, in that pre Second World War period, especially the involvement of the various ‘services’ teams that were the mainstay of the Plymouth sporting scene, and then the Devon Wednesday League, and associated teams, that sprang up to allow players to compete on their afternoon off work.
I shall leave the rest to Alec Adrian himself to tell….
A mention of Don Welsh
Time at Plainmoor
Torquay United v Saltash Town
