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West Country Football - Sad Goings On

Just thought for those interested in wider football matters, I would update you on developments in Devon and Cornwall's third and fourth biggest sides.

Since we were of equal status with torquay until the memorable last day of a season just a couple of years ago, Torquay have sadly been on a slide down the leagues and hovering on the edge of financial meltdown. They are now in Conference South and had to take money from a cowboy to keep afloat and are now owned by the same bunch who cheated Bristol R out of Eastville and a number of greyhound tracks around the country including Swindon and poole. The MO is always the same, promise a shiny new stadium, close the old stadium, sell off the land for building, forget to build the new one.

In Torquay's case the plans for Torquay's shiny new stadium were published recently
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/mayor-gives-backing-new-torquay-1831576
Impressive you may think.
Until that is you compare them to plans for Grimsby's new stadium
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-38414081

a remarkable resemblance you may feel - indeed close observers will even spot that in the logo on the right on Torquay's they forgot to fully airbrush out Grimsby's logo before overlaying Torquays. Oops. It is hard to see this ending well.

As it is sadly for Truro City. They reached for the stars with another difficult character, Kevin Heaney. Many shenanagins later, they have left Truro temporarily to ground share up the road at Torquay while a shared stadium with local rugby club is built. Of course build hasn't strictly started yet nor the financing arranged but hey surely that's just detail. Oh and when I say Torquay is just up the road, it is 120 miles up the road. Again it is hard to see a future here.

No real point to this tale apart from highlighting just what a hard world it is outside the league.

Comments

  • But @DevC the important things are have they strengthened properly for the upcoming season and have they made all their transfer dealings transparent to their fans? If not I would suspect something untoward was going on...

  • Real shame about Truro but it’s hard to see how teams that remote can ever afford to get beyond the regional leagues.

  • That overlaid logo is incredible.

  • That Truro story is unbelievable in that they announced it 12 days before their first game of the season

    One can only assume they offered refunds to fans who had already purchased season tickets

    One can't help but wonder if we'd be one of these stories had the Booker stadium been given the green light

  • Full refunds for all it would seem. Literally the very least they can do:

    http://www.trurocityfc.net/news/season-ticket-refunds-important-information-2328377.html

  • @eric_plant indeed. 'Sorry folks, someone lost the plans but we fully expect buidling to begin within the next couple of years...but it's not all bad news. The good news is: all the houses on Adams Park estate have been sold. Oh. You're still thinking about the bad news...'

  • "PS. we're ground sharing with Yeovil."

  • edited August 2018

    While Truro did indeed refund their own season tickets, they have done nothing to compensate or indeed even apologise to the (I understand) significant number of Billericay supporters who decided to combine a weekend or more in Cornwall with taking in the first game of the season and are now somewhat disappointed to learn that
    their accommodation is now 120 miles past the location of their first match.

    Indeed by all accounts Truro forgot to officially tell Billericay about the change - first they knew was when someone spotted the story on the BBC.

  • Wycombe did that in France three seasons back.
    No apology or refund to the Wanderers loyal followers, who only found out the evening by a fellow fans tweet that the match was being played 60 miles away from the hosts home ground.
    Absolutely disgraceful way to treat your own supporters.

  • Good research @DevC

  • Yes @ChasHarps I believe we would all have descended on the wrong ground had it not been for two Chairboy cyclists

  • Excellent work @DevC. Have you considered writing this up (with a bit more background on Osborne and Eastville etc.) and sending it in to Private Eye? Those two photos are extraordinary!

  • Is it just my imagination or has @DevC undergone some kind of spiritual transition? I can’t remember the last tangled outpouring of antagonistic legalese and I’ve been merrily tapping the thumbs up button under his posts (not easy on a tiny iPhone screen) for days on end.

    I nearly said transformation but transition is more fashionable I believe and carries a useful hint of possible reversion.

  • @DevC - Plus a version for publication in November's edition of The Wanderer!
    Seriously, please do!

  • @Micra- the drugs are finally kicking in!

  • These days I live purely for the pure adrenaline rush and surge of boundless pleasure that comes from receiving just a solitary thumbs up, Micra. Train fares are after all getting a bit expensive now... Those feelings though will now simply be exacerbated by just the merest possibility that that little collection of electrons may have emanated from your keyboard. I will have to leave you to enjoy your reversionary imaginings alone however....

    Johnny, I think Private Eye may be a stretch but I could knock something up for your mag if you wish. Let me know how many words you ideally want and can you extract pictures from links above - I think they are required to fully tell the story but copyright/technology may wreck that plan?

  • Sounds like a good article to send a shiver down the spine of any Wanderers fan who remembers the Hayes era in amonsgt the jokes in the fanzine @DevC. Also as well as @Jonny_King I'm sure Private Eye would be most interested in whatever form you supply it in. They will have a sub-editor and have to fact-check it anyway. You'll have to share the £1000 fee with me (consultant) and Jonny (original editor) though...

  • Tell you what, Wendover. I'll write the article for Johnny, he can forward it to Private Eye on the understanding that any fee received goes to Wycombe Homeless Connection. You can have 10% of my share.

  • @DevC damn you and do-gooding :-)

  • Sounds a good plan. I am only an occassional Eye reader, but they certainly do print stories about underhand football dealings and usually have a small section towards the back dedicated to sports stories.

  • Keep it simple @DevC . If thumbs up give you an adrenaline rush and boundless pleasure, I don’t think they can touch you for it, if that’s not a contradiction in terms, but I think “heightened” is the word you were looking for rather than “exacerbated” (= made worse).

    Good luck with the Eye.

  • what a sad state of affairs and demonstrates the smarts and foresight our previous boards had to ensure seperation of the Adams Park trust to the football club and trust. It's a good model. It always seems to be the stadiums or plans for new stadiums that bring lower league clubs down sadly as we learned under Mr LoanShark.

    Our board can't be criticised for their governance and protection of our assets and legacy in terms of stadia that's for certain.

  • Now Truro’s manager and assistant manager have resigned two games into the season.

  • its a sad state of affairs at both clubs that's for sure.

    Of minor interest is that truro replacement manager (at least temporarily) is old-boy Ben Harding. Wish him luck, he will need it.

  • He must be pretty young still. He was turning out for Gosport Borough in the Southern League last season.

  • Due to late work finishing time last night, and living in Oxford, I missed our game but went to watch Oxford City v Torquay in the National League South. Couldn't help but think, there but for the grace of god, the width of a crossbar and a certain Colin Daniel, it could have been us now playing at that level. Despite all their travails it was impressive to see some 300+ Gulls fans make the midweek journey, although their highly vocal support wasn't repaid, with City winning 1-0. Felt a like cup tie such was the atmosphere and tension, and City certainly saw it as a major giant killing achievement. Amazing to think Torquay are still full-time, but they don't have the skill to match their pace and energy.

    It's tragic to see such a great club fall so far, so quickly. I've always enjoyed trips down there for Wycombe games and have had a soft spot for the club since that incredible day - not least for the great way the club and fans treated us. I do wonder if there can be any way back up for them. On last night's showing their fans definitely deserve it.

  • I doubt whether too many of the 300 had travelled from Torquay. Puts our 414 travelling a similar distance on Saturday into a disappointing perspective if they did.

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