It was 1968/69 we joined Merse. January and our first training session at Plainmoor was in the snow. I left Spurs half way through 1970/71 season when the grandstand was being demolished and we were changing in the adjoining Cricket Club changing rooms. I went to Brixham United and I think it was before you did as when I left I think you were still playing your football at Spurs when in Devon but had started flirting with your future lover London.
So are you going to help me and Keyberry out and point out which one in the photo is Frank Harris? 
I reckon Frank Harris
IS that guy on the far right in
that suit Stefano. What an absolute gentleman he always was, and I used to call him the
"UN Peacekeeper" as he was forever pacifying
"Andy" ,
Gerald Luxton and anyone else who seemed to tread on their often over sensitive toes. Boy, they went at it like
Punch & Judy at times those two. I remember often (as the junior player), being sent along with a couple of pound notes from Frank in case the credit was refused; before games to the chemists in Queen Street to collect the huge jar of
"rubbing oils" that the club always had on account from them...............they were concocted to Andy's recipe of embrocation cream and liniment thinned out with camphorated oils and whatever. When you put that on, you stunk for a week and my mother used to go mental at me for putting it on so liberally. You certainly never suffered from a blocked nose with that lot wafting up through your shirt and if you happened to get some on your dangly bits ~
WOW!!!!! 
you'd run around like a demented ferret to keep your mind off the fire down below! ;D
Was I really only sixteen and playing with and against experienced old pro's and ruthless semi professionals in the
South Western League? No wonder I learned to get my retaliation in first and became quite unpopular with opponents, referees and spectators alike when I later dropped down into South Devon League football via the equally "dogs of war"
Plymouth & District League !
Newton Rec was a vast, open and spacious ground with a huge pitch surrounded by it's cinder former cycling track banked at either end and I was told that it's excellent drainage was because the actual pitch was laid on the very same cinders that had been brought over the wall from the gas works next door.
The old ground did indeed run at a 90 degree angle the other way so that the two gas holders were behind the goal and the neighbouring, but entirely self contained;
South Devon Cricket Ground known as
Marsh Road, sat behind the
"Town End" where the car park is located these days. Apart from that old stand, the ground was completely open to the elements and apart from the occasional Sunday games in the South Western League, crowds were pretty sparse.
I have been in some pretty big attendenaces there though and can recall an FA Cup replay with
Barnstaple Town one evening in September attracting a massive crowd and the
Herald Cup Finals of course that were always traditionally held there every Good Friday with a small fun fair outside in the car park behind the main stand.
The redevelopment and conversion to a dual venue was a travesty and sop to the local traders who were lobbying the council for a town centre car park and the football aspect of it all came out a very poor second to the more influencial cricket club, and to this day NA has never had a proper town centre football ground worthy of the name.
I can also remember the old floodlight masts lying in the grass over on the far (Kingsteignton Road) side of the ground in the early sixties as once they were surplus to requirements at Plainmoor they were going to be put up at The Rec courtesy of George Gillin and in fact in
THOSE days, Spurs were the junior club of Exeter City and not Torquay United.................they never did get put up and ended up (I think) at the stock car circuit out at the rececourse.
That tie up with Plainmoor certainly did make for ever changing and evolving Spurs lineups and by the end of our first season
Stefano and I were probably only two of over forty or fifty players used by the club. Some of them were very very good and went on to play for clubs like Chelsea (
Tim Hayden), Man Utd (
Pat Roche) Exeter City and of course Torquay United. We had some gnarled old pro's there from the North East of England who had played for the likes of
Crook Town and
Bishop Auckland and of course old time Plainmoor favourites like
Tommy Northcott,
Ernie Pym, and the legendary
Don MillsTraining up at Plainmoor in the evenings under old school
Harry Topping and Jack Edwards would bring tears to present day player's eyes, and I think we were all more fond of
Don Mills and Geoff Cox and the loveable
Dougie Clark for their education and input.
I can remember
Frank O'Farrell appearing on the ground one evening and everything seemed to go up a couple of notches on the Richter Scale and recall praying that he would soon depart so that we could get back to normal!
Anyway, that old stand
DID sit on the Marsh Road side of the ground adjacent to the nissen huts that served as the schools dinner rooms for both Bearnes and Marsh Primary Schools. The club room was a dark and dusty old venue and I remember once
Frank Arundel pounding out Honky Tonk on the piano as clouds of dust rose from it's inside!
The forerunner of dried ice being used at concerts I reckon.
I also recall once when we had an end of season South Western League match on a sunny Sunday afternoon, and a certain younger member of the team went missing on the way back to the dressing room from the pre-match warm up that Don Mills had encouraged us to take part in out on the pitch (which was pretty unusual in those days) I remember Bill Anderson going mental as usual when he heard the sounds of female exortations coming from the ladies toilets and him giving the lad a good bollocking for
"using up all his strength" just before a game!
Happy days!
you'd run around like a demented ferret to keep your mind off the fire down below! ;D
