Every Wednesday in the Herald Express, our Torquay United correspondent Richard Hughes takes a sideways look at what's going on in the world of the Gulls. This week, he looks back at the extraordinary last week and says whoever buys Torquay United needs to be reminded that it is our club, not theirs:
The response to the end of the Clarke Osborne era at Torquay by the fans saw the kind of change of atmosphere that creates memories.
Having been gently shoved into a seat next to my dad, sometime in the mid 1970s (I remember crying because he wouldn’t take me with him a couple of times), the Saturday ritual of being at Plainmoor when I was in the bay, or thinking about Torquay United when I was not, became a lifelong one – like many of my friends.
I have a wonderful Paul Levie photo of my family sitting in the away end at Swansea City’s Vetch Field in 1988 – because we had got dodgy tickets from a club insider that ended up being in the home end! Many of my weekends were spent on the road – as my parents drove my brother Kevin and me to away games.
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So to be the ‘Torquay United correspondent’ when Clarke Osborne decided to walk away, was, well, weird. The job of TUFC correspondent has changed since David Thomas left the newspaper, and I would never for an instant claim to stand in the shoes of such a complete reporter, one that grew a contacts list larger than the Eiffel Tower.
But together, as Torquay fans, we have all gone through bad times before – but maybe none of them came as quickly out of the blue as this. Torquay really needs a full-time football club. It has had one since the 1920s, despite falling out of the league, twice, in recent years.
Forget Fawlty Towers. Even before that the number of people who knew of Torquay because of the BBC’s football results on a Saturday afternoon was immense; the amount of money the club has brought into the bay during its 125 years on the back of that is incalculable.
The kids it has coached, the players it has paid, the fans it has supported! I have so many friends whose lives would not have been the same without good old Torquay United. And we all have our favourites: Ian Twitchin, Kevin Hill, David Graham, Robin Stubbs, Jamie Reid, Matt Hockley, Don Mills, Alex Russell. Whatever your era, you love Torquay United because it has always been a shared experience.
Which is why this last week was so extraordinary. Along with my Torquay United Yellow Army Podcast mucker Guy Henderson, I went along as usual to the Thursday morning press conference with the manager Gary Johnson, and all seemed completely normal.
Admittedly, Torquay had not won a game in six and there were serious questions about that – but there was absolutely no hint that anything more was wrong (or right, according to certain fans). But within a couple of hours, after I had edited that Thursday’s podcast, the news came out that Clarke Osborne was walking away.
We had to record a new podcast on Friday morning – Guy and I almost holding our heads in our hands. But there is life in Torquay United that cannot be denied. That crowd and that reaction to the team coming out on Saturday afternoon; that sound, that noise, that atmosphere, that feeling, that love.
Torquay United is more than some bloke who put some money in, it always has been. It is more than me and you. And, despite the amount I backed him, if there was one thing that I disagreed with Gary Johnson about, it was his comment about a club not being “ours”.
Torquay United is actually not “ours”, it is yours! Wherever the club is, whatever happens, it is your club, and my grandad’s club, and your sister’s and my dad’s, and your mate’s neighbours. Whoever buys Torquay United, make sure we all remind them, it is our club, not theirs – from now on.
