Face from the past

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hector
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Post by hector »

I had wondered the same thing about Lew Pope recently.
westyorkshiregull
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Post by westyorkshiregull »

Did he buy the club from webb...what was his involvement during webbs reign ...please you historians fill me in....no doubt some of you have seen my youtube channel which is northdevondutchy ...thats me ...the one with some of the edited torquay matches from the 1980s ..
The sherpa van trophy stuff ect ect
...I've stated on the other forum a few months ago I've some more footage to go on ...I'm just waiting for all of it to be edited down for me from original archives ..it's from the 1970s from plainmoor...it's not loads but it's going be fascinating I promise...watch this space
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Post by merse btpir »

KeithMalone wrote: 31 Jan 2017, 19:49 If you want to blame someone for the relegation blame Adebayo Akinfatwat who made it pretty well known he was off despite the fans voting him player of the season.
What a stupid statement to make..........like every other footballer, Bayo is a self reliant worker in a time constricted profession.

What did he do to deserve that accusation ~ seek to maximise his earning potential within the time limits that his body allow him?

Players are NOT supporters, cannot afford to be swayed by emotion and are always aware they are regarded as disposable by their employers and indeed heading for that very fate from day one of their contract.........when they are no longer considered advantageous to employ they will be disposed of.

Bayo has been earning a living from the game for sixteen years now ~ a period of time almost three times the norm for his counterparts ~ and that is because he has always kept himself fit, employable and been prepared to move wherever the next dollar presents itself........a journeyman footballer prepared to live away from his North London roots and indeed uproot himself and his family whenever the need demands.

How the heck was he to blame for Torquay United's relegation ~ because he moved on with his career? Do me a favour!
hector
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Post by hector »

Akinfenwa also scored plenty of goal that season. It was largely because of him that we only narrowly went down. Had we not had to rely on the likes local league players like Bond, Gosling and Story plus the ridiculous saga with keepers, bayo's goals would have been enough to keep us up.
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Post by merse btpir »

westyorkshiregull wrote: 31 Jan 2017, 21:47 lew seemed a quiet bloke and more of a fan....any memories anyone or anything to do with lew pope I'd be interested
I worked for the club when Lew was a director and quiet he wasn't!

He could be irritating, irascible, combustible and unpredictable; but he loved the club with a passion and could never be found wanting in his one hundred per cent commitment to it. Hence his willingness to step forward as chairman when Tony Boyce decided to call it a day, during a time of ever deepening gloom for the club as a business, the game of football and the country.

Those were tough days struggling under government legislation that was punitive in the extreme, in an economy that was depressed and with the resulting spectacularly decreasing gates. I would equate those days with those of the Dave Phillips regime and whilst all around him were haranguing Lew for 'selling out' to the David Webb consortium he knew only too well that it was the only option on the table for a club facing closure and extinction.

I was gone by then, had seen it coming and with a young family to support wanted no part of it. Through contemporaries in the game, I knew what the Webb years would be like but knew they would have to be like that in order for the business to survive. Very close parallels to today I would say; which leads me to view the current situation in the manner that I do: that it is inevitable, will be unpleasant but necessary.
Last edited by merse btpir on 31 Jan 2017, 22:38, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by merse btpir »

hector wrote: 31 Jan 2017, 22:26 Akinfenwa also scored plenty of goal that season. It was largely because of him that we only narrowly went down. Had we not had to rely on the likes local league players like Bond, Gosling and Story plus the ridiculous saga with keepers, bayo's goals would have been enough to keep us up.
Indeed; he scored fourteen that season from 37 games (better than one every three games) he did his job, and moved on to a better deal at Swansea.
Last edited by merse btpir on 31 Jan 2017, 23:29, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by westyorkshiregull »

merse btpir wrote: 31 Jan 2017, 22:34 I worked for the club when Lew was a director and quiet he wasn't!

He could be irritating, irascible, combustible and unpredictable; but he loved the club with a passion and could never be found wanting in his one hundred per cent commitment to it. Hence his willingness to step forward as chairman when Tony Boyce decided to call it a day, during a time of ever deepening gloom for the club as a business, the game of football and the country.

Those were tough days struggling under government legislation that was punitive in the extreme, in an economy that was depressed and with the resulting spectacularly decreasing gates. I would equate those days with those of the Dave Phillips regime and whilst all around him were haranguing Lew for 'selling out' to the David Webb consortium he knew only too well that it was the only option on the table for a club facing closure and extinction.

I was gone by then, had seen it coming and with a young family to support wanted no part of it. Through contemporaries in the game, I knew what the Webb years would be like but knew they would have to be like that in order for the business to survive. Very close parallels to today I would say; which leads me to view the current situation in the manner that I do: that it is inevitable, will be unpleasant but necessary.
Thanks merse for the response. I'm a bit of a observer on here than a contributer and remember you on the original forum 10 plus years ago. Would love to pick your brains the 1980s was my era and it's really interest me.I could listen all day about your memories ... Spent my youth in the mini stand smelling cigar smoke ...glory days as a kid ...remember some fatish bloke with a beard always shouting witty things all the time in that mini stand. ( surly no one knows who he was ) used to sit in the middle and alwsys shouting stuff...loud voice and quite distinctive. ..
So lew was a director...sold to webb and then again back as chairman as I remember in the dog bite year....
Did he buy his share back...did webb actually sell in the end...

I'd love to know I'm fascinated
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Post by merse btpir »

Don't know if Lew actually had to hold any shares other than the ones he already held to be the chairman once the Webb gang got hold of it and when he was a director on the Boyce board, the problem was the inequality between Mr Boyce's financial commitment and the sum total of all the rest put together. I'm pretty sure that when Tony departed the share holding status quo remained; just that he withdrew from the very onerous, time consuming and personally expensive role as chairman because he wanted to be the chair of the local health committee (which he became) and there wasn't room in anybody's life to be both.

Anyway, Tony Boyce had done more than his personal share in keeping the club afloat for many more years than was personally beneficial for him; and that cannot be argued with.

Weren't those benches put in the Mini Stand as a result of seats being lost in the Grandstand fire?

Lew owned a hotel on the road that leads from Torre Station to the sea front, was a builder by trade and employed his next door neighbour and fellow hotelier 'Neville' as the Plainmoor handyman. Bullied the poor sod rotten he did and many a quiet morning was punctuated with Lew bellowing at the downtrodden Nev as if he was Baldrick! =D

Do you remember Lew being up on the roof one windy day, hammer in hand desperately trying to avoid a game being abandoned because of high winds with some corrugated sheeting coming loose? Silly old sod; I bet if they'd breath tested him they would have got a result. But downtrodden as Nev was; he wasn't daft and Lew had to do it himself !

My last memories of Lew Pope are of him performing in his Druid role at Stonehenge. :whistle:
hector
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Post by hector »

I'm not sure if it is just an urban myth, but I seem to recall the crowd shouting to Pope to jump. I had forgotten about the benches in the Mini Stand. When I started to watch TUFC, the Mini Stand was where the more youthful, skinhead element would stand, until they gravitated to the Pop Side. Crowds in the early 80s weren't any bigger than recent years but somehow the atmosphere seemed less flat, especially the 79/80 season, with Cooper/Lawrence being supplied by Donal Murphy. One of my favourite sides, until it all went wrong in the Spring of 1980.
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Post by westyorkshiregull »

Thanks merse and hector I'm fascinated with your memories...I could listen all day long. I personally can't remember those benches not being in mini stand but I started going in the 1985/86 which was just after the fire. Which was the blue kit which started with no sponsor and ended up rotolok on there during season

So in a link to this conversation ...I won't google his name but I remember there was talk of the owner of rotolok being a director or even buying the club. He owned plymouth afterwards and a island .was he called Dan ??
Info or memorys anyone ...honestly just remembered his name...Dan mccauley ..I know times were hard during the 1980s but I wonder if the right people if things could have been different ?? Could have been worse !!!
How did webb and his circle of people end up leaving ...did they get brought out or did they do some dealings where they effectively ending up leaving with there poctets lined.
Did webb own club out right..were there other directors or company involved. How did they ever get involved. We all know the history of them 2 years but what was it like on the terraces. I was a young kid and my main memory was the lanky mario walsh and the magical mark loram. Who for years after we would be in awe at his skill. My dad's mate was manager of brixham villa where loram played before going to tufc. We used to holiday twice a year with them and got some lovley stories to tell.

Sorry to waffle on but I'm really interested.
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Post by MF68 »

Hector is definitely the right person to ask about TUFC facts from the eighties onwards.
The all blue kit was reminiscent of Chelsea/Dave Webb and I remember one Christmas or just before going to Leyton Orient for an FA CUp tie and we only had the bare 11 which included a front line of Webb and one of either Dean Mooney or Benny Laryea.

My recollection of Bateson was when we refused to sign Jason Roberts for a reported £100k when it looked for all the world like money in the Bank at a later date.

I was a ballboy whilst Merse was Club Secretary and I seem to remember Martyn Goulding (Excellent local cricketer) also being there. That was the era of the yellow and blue squares on the front of the programme, priced 12p
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Post by westyorkshiregull »

Cheers mf68 this is great stuff.

I've been in contact with south weSt film and television archive over the last 6 months. They are currently searching and editing down footage from the 1970s and 1980s era. Footage from grimsby from 1978 when one of our forwards handballed it in the net is included.

They are run by volunteers and I'm making a contribution for there efforts in all this. They do charge for this service and it's money worth spent.
It's taking time bit soon will be available if anyone fancy clubbing in a bit of money then it would be a great cause. The guy I'm dealing with is called mike and I'm sure they would appreciate it. It's time consuming but if we could raise a couple quid I'm sure it would speed the cause up.

Either way I'm excited and going to enjoy all what they find for me to share with you guys...

Search northdevondutchy on youtube. Thats me

I'm very interested from the years 1975 to around 1987



I've permission to share with fellow gulls on this forum
merse btpir
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Post by merse btpir »

MF68 wrote: 01 Feb 2017, 08:58 I was a ballboy whilst Merse was Club Secretary and I seem to remember Martyn Goulding (Excellent local cricketer) also being there. That was the era of the yellow and blue squares on the front of the programme, priced 12p

I was never club secretary ~ Dave Easton was throughout my time at Plainmoor ~ but became Business Manager after the commercial department was split in two to allow Alex Jackson to focus one hundred per cent on the all important lottery operation.


Dave's brother Neil was a colleague and his late father Fred was the person I replaced as he was suffering from a terminal illness. Martyn Goulding was not my immediate successor but came in further down the line.

Those programmes were part of the incredibly heavy workload we incurred as they were wholly produced, designed, printed and assembled in-house until such time as I was able to devise a commercial project once again utilising a commercial printer (Duplex Litho of Newton Abbot) that depended on a high amount of advertising revenue and on utilising every single unsold copy to be exchanged for other club's unsold programmes and earn revenue in the club shop........very few small club's programmes made money in those days!

All that advertising was sold 'in-house' too and one of those clients was Mike Bateson who then expanded to becoming a pitch perimeter client too and after I had left joined the board as a director soon buying out the other board members to achieve the autonomy he wanted to drive the club forward into being more business like.

Not surprisingly, I remain of the opinion that a hard working and successful commercial operation will in turn benefit the club through attracting like minded people like Mike Bateson who ~ whatever criticism that has been thrown at him ~ DID very definitely save the club from going out of business during another depressed and unsuccessful period in it's history but I think would back me up when I say that not only is an ethos of hard work and energy essential in running a small football club, but that those concerned need to retain the ability to recognise when their batteries are running down; their energy spent and the need comes to move on.......you cannot keep pulling the same rabbits out of the same hat!
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Post by tomogull »

hector wrote: 01 Feb 2017, 06:37 I'm not sure if it is just an urban myth, but I seem to recall the crowd shouting to Pope to jump.
No urban myth, Hector - it is fact ! My recollection is that it was a typically grey, windy winter's day at Plainmoor and as Merse has posted, Lew was up on the grandstand roof trying to hammer down a sheet of corrugated iron that was flapping around. I don't remember who we were playing but it was a boring match and the best 'entertainment' was watching Mr Pope on the roof and the caring fans on the Pop side chanting 'Jump Lew'.

It has always been my understanding that Lew Pope did a great deal of unpaid maintenance work around the ground, but after reading Merse's post, it seems he sent out his mate, Neil, to do the work. That's what I like to hear. Don't do the work yourself. Delegate. ;-)
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Post by westyorkshiregull »

Wow so interesting. Lew brought Cyril in I guess....anyone know how there relationship was. And did stuart morgan leave willingly or if so why. Seemed to do a good job with what he had and went on to manage in lower divisions.

Merse may know this one. Could you buy replica shirts back in the day...I don't remember many being around...my brother had the yellow rotolok one but before that never remember them blue ones being seen much
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