Devon/Derbyshire connections

You may need to wait because I'm back on the old economic and social history trail at Abbeydale industrial hamlet. You can only hang around the Millhouses pub for so long waiting for Jessica to drop in for a glass of wine.

I understand Jon has impeccable Derbyshire connections - and possibly also an appropriate spreadsheet - so I'm sure he'll be up for the challenge.

I was going to nominate Higger Tor, near Hathersage, for its quite brilliant Dartmoor impersonation until I realised it is within the City of Sheffield. Dartmoor in Sheffield? It's a bit more plausible than the temporary seaside next to the town hall. I mean, where's the cliff railway for starters?

Oh yes, discovered Endcliffe Park cafe several years ago. Was considering it today but got waylaid disposing of a large quantity of the aforementioned Soccer Star in the Oxfam skip at Tesco. Now only have the classic green and orange covers from  1965-67.

A decision has been postponed on the 75-part Book of Football. They are worthy of being revisited but, should anyone be interested, please get in touch.

 

You are allowed, Stuart. And Burton on Trent is almost as close to Derbyshire as Higger Tor. I'd be surprised if you don't also have ancestry around Swadlincote and Church Gresley.

A couple more obvious ones:

John Sims (Derby/ Plymouth/Torquay)
Don O'Riordan (Derby/Torquay)

BD. Don't do it! If you are thinking of chucking those Book of Football issues away I'll happily take them off your hands and then give them another life with my exiled friend in London.
I recommend the Blue Moon cafe, by the way. They have scones there which are good enough to impress even a Devonian.

You seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that Plymouth Argyle are based in Devon, wildebeeste.

Any Torquay fan will tell you that they are from Cornwall.

We did list a few Derby County connections here:

www.torquayfansforum.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=7348&page=1

Nico was born in Derby.

There is a Chesterfield-born goalie who played for Torquay United and England but I don't think he ever played for Chesterfield.

I could list out Derbyshire-born TUFC players, but I might get accused of cheating.

Of course! What was I thinking of? On the other hand, Jon,
it is a truth universally acknowledged that Sheffield is actually the capital of Derbyshire. According to local TV Yorkshire consists of Leeds only, although they did remember Sheff for a few days the other week when Jessica Ennis won her gold medal.

Abbeydale Park has been used as a home ground not only by Sheffield FC and Sheffield RUFC but also by Yorkshire and also Derbyshire Cricket Clubs, since it was in Derbyshire 100 years or so ago before the city went on one of its occasional border raids. Sheffield FC now play on the Coach & Horses ground that used to be the home of Norton Woodseats FC. Norton Woodseats itself is in Yorkshire but used to be in Derbyshire and the Coach & Horses is in Dronfield, which is also in Derbyshire but had to fight off an attempt to colonise it for Sheffield in the 1970s.

Today's entry: Tim Ward (manager, Exeter/Derby)

Now a quick and easy quiz for football/geography historians. Apart from Derby County which is the only Derbyshire club to play in the top Division of the League?

I've had a quick scan of the player list in the centenary history - complete to 1999 - and, as you can imagine, a fair number of players with Derbyshire connections have played for Torquay. Rather more, I would suspect, than Devonians who have appeared for Derbyshire clubs.

I won't go through them all but there will be those who remember Creswell-born John Brewster from the 1960s. I'm assuming that's the Creswell in Derbyshire; we did get him from Sheffield United after all.

I probably saw Brewster but can't remember him. Brian Greenhalgh, Chesterfield-born, had a short spell with us in 1974 as did Steve Kendal in 1986. You probably remember him more than we do.

Colin Rawaon, a member of our 1960 promotion team, was born at Shirebrook and played for Welbeck Colliery before joining Nottingham Forest (some boundary crossing there?).

Go back to the 1930s and you'll see we signed a couple of players from Mosborough Trinity, one of whom was a Chesterfield lad called Albert "Bob" Keeton. I believe Mosborough was in Derbyshire before being annexed by the avaricious Sheffield.

We signed David Mercer, ex-Sheffield United and England, from Shirebrook during the late autumn of his career. He remained inTorquay and you can see his memorial plaque in the church yard at St Marychurch.

Wilf "Baggy" Whitfield apparently hailed from Chesterfield. And who can forget the hugely-popular Dick Edwards from forty years ago? The record books say he came from Kirkby-in-Ashfield but I'm sure that's a mistake.

Somerset cricket? How about Ian Blackwell?

That's the one. And you need a hot meal inside you, vegan or otherwise, before you'd go and watch a match there.