TT BLOG

Clive Hayward – @Byehorse

Clive blogs about the Gulls

DON’T MESS WITH MY 2-2’S

It’s late afternoon as I write this on Friday 27th December 2024, the first day of Twixmas. It’s already dark outside, and as we stare into the bleak nothingness of a blank football weekend, my thoughts turn back to Weymouth yesterday and other draws of yore.

In the world of ballet, as we know, a tutu is the ballerina’s dress. In politics it was the name of Desmond, the revered South African churchman who played his part in the overthrow of apartheid, whilst his name was taken in vain by generations of disappointed graduates who bemoaned their disappointing final exam results (“How did you get on, mate?” “Bit of a mare: only got a Desmond.”).

But you’re here for football chat, specifically of the TUFC variety, so I thought we would have a bit of fun with “Famous 2-2 draws”.

When I did my normal painstaking research for this article, one of the first things I thought was:

“I wonder how many times Torquay United have drawn a league match 2-2?” The answer I found, via the always-reliable Torquay Fan Stats, was quite surprising. It’s 224, which seemed like quite a lot. Mind you, that does go back to 1927. You will be relieved to hear I am only going to take you back as far as 1977, and I will leave 220 of them to your imagination.

So here they are: our 4 notable 2-2 draws of yore:

December 27th 2024: Weymouth 2, Torquay 2

A brace by Brandon Goodship-Lollypop melted our popsicles on Boxing Day, leaving us to rue two dropped points against the perennial strugglers.

Weymouth is a ridiculously difficult place to get to by train at the best of times, but with no services on Boxing Day it was a no-brainer for the Yellow Army to travel in good numbers by coach, car or paddleboard. Despite misty conditions there and back, making visibility as good as Ross Marshall’s on a sunny day, the game was very well attended by our away support, which is thought to have comprised almost half the disappointing attendance of 2200.

The Lyme Bay Classico ended in a draw which the home fans will have relished but with Torquay twice letting go of a lead we resembled irresponsible dog owners by the end. Neither of the goals we conceded were especially good viewing, with James Hamon making a hash of the first and our failure to stop a cross later on giving Goodship an opportunity for sloppy seconds.

February 24th 2024: Torquay 2, Aveley 2

An altogether more wholesome afternoon back in the days when Bryn was still better known as a police dog with a beer named after him.

Two weeks earlier, on February 10th, Gary Johnson’s Torquay had capitulated at home to Slough Town, conceding two late goals to slump to a 3-4 defeat in front of just 1700 people, some of whom stayed behind to demonstrate against the owner and his henchmen.

Just two days earlier, on Thursday February 22nd, Clarke Osborne had bailed, leaving the existence of the club in huge doubt. He was rapidly followed by Johnson, who did not stick around to see whether the ship would sink.

The public of South Devon and Torquay fans far and wide started to answer that question on February 24th. As money flowed from supporters determined to save the club, an extraordinary 3642 attendance saw the start of the fightback. The crowd was not really boosted by the 33 travelling supporters, but they were made welcome and for a while it looked as though goodwill alone would be enough to snap a horrible run of form.

First half goals from Brad Ash and Aaron Jarvis put Torquay in dreamland, but reality re-established itself with 2 quick Aveley goals either side of half time.

The result didn’t really matter: this was the day that everyone started to believe that if we stuck together better times could follow.

May 9th 1987: Torquay 2, Crewe 2

Another unforgettable day at a time of acute peril for the club.

The introduction of automatic relegation from the Football League had, all of a sudden, made finishing bottom of Division Four a pretty existential crisis after 60 years of knowing re-election would probably save us in poor seasons.

After some awful years under former Chelsea defender Dave Webb, Torquay were locked in a battle for survival with Burnley, who had reached their lowest ebb at pretty much the same time as us.

Most people will know the story of that hot, dusty Saturday afternoon, but it’s a tale that will be retold for as long as we have a football club.

Results elsewhere (Burnley won, predictably) meant that a point would be enough to ensure survival. Crewe weren’t taking it easy, though. Their famous youth policy has produced dozens of high-quality footballers, and future England internationals David Platt and Geoff Thomas featured in the visitors’ line-up.

At half time, Crewe led 2-0 and it looked as though it was all over.

Enter Jim McNichol.

First, our hard-as-nails Scottish defender smashed in a free kick from range to give the Gulls hope. Then he tried to tackle Bryn the Police Dog. It was a fight he was never going to win, but in days when injury time was still measured in minutes rather than hours the lengthy delay was just the ticket for the drop-dodging Yellows.

Paul Dobson pounced on some extraordinarily bad Crewe defending to poke a priceless equaliser past a bewildered keeper. Many miles away, Lincoln faces dropped as their transistors delivered the bad news, and they briefly dropped into non-league football.

Nobody will ever know quite how we got away with that one, but it was a springboard to a glorious few years sparked by Cyril Knowles, as we scaled previously unknown heights of play-off finals, Wembley appearances and wearing sombreros through the streets of Blackpool.

January 3rd 1977: Torquay 2, Cambridge United 2

Not Crewe but Kruse was the star of this, our final four goal thriller.

Centre-back Pat Kruse played nearly 300 league games. Most of these were for Brentford, after Torquay sold him to them in March 1977. But it is for the farcical events of one of his last Torquay matches that Pat is probably best remembered.

It was on a chilly Monday that Pat had his brush with immortality. I assume it would have been a Bank Holiday fixture (New Year’s Day having fallen on a Saturday that year).

Cambridge kicked off, and it took them just 6 seconds to go in front, courtesy of a bizarre own goal from our hero.

Pat recalled the events year later in an interview you can find on Brentford’s website. I will leave him to tell you the rest in his own words:

“(they) punted it forward. I was playing centre-half and could see their winger and centre-forward running towards me. The easy thing would have been to head the ball straight back out again but, at the last second, I thought I’d flick it back to my goalkeeper and we’d have possession. Unbeknown to me, I was standing just inside the box and Terry Lee, the goalkeeper, came off the line to come and catch it. Then he tried to shout for it, but he had a speech impediment and that’s when his affliction kicked in – he stuttered, but nothing came out at all. As far as I knew, he was still in his goal, but when he realised I didn’t hear, he tried to go back, slipped on the ice and as I flicked it back, I could see him lying on the floor as the ball went in. Unfortunately, it wasn’t caught on camera!”

I actually lived next door to Terry Lee, his wife Sheena and their two young children for a while. He was a lovely man. He did have a stammer, and also a bad knee, although he said that it was a lot better after he had discovered religion and faith healing. He died tragically young and he is greatly missed amongst Gulls fans of a certain age. I never asked him about Pat Kruse’s own goal, but I suspect he might have had a bit of a bum deal here!!

Anyway, not content with gifting Cambridge an early lead, Torquay notched another own goal later in the game, added two at the right end and thus scored all four goals in the game.

If you put that in a Netflix documentary, nobody would believe it!!