There are good and better days to visit Torquay and I could not have timed it more perfectly. The train rolls into a station bathed in summer Bank Holiday heat, as if the sun is determined to give it everything it has to daytrippers one last time this year. The town’s beaches are a mass of parasols, towels and children skipping into the sea.
A mile-and-a-half away, via a punishingly sweaty walk up St Marychurch Road, you can find roughly the same atmosphere. Torquay United’s fan zone is open to all local residents rather than just matchday supporters. The grassed area has become an extension of the beach: ball games, picnics, sun-soaked revelry.
Eighteen months ago, Torquay United were in dire straits. They had been a Football League club for 79 unbroken years until 2007, but a second relegation into non-league in 2014 caused a once unthinkable fall into the National League South.
On Boxing Day 2004, Torquay won 3-1 away at Brentford in League One. In less than two decades, they had become a comparative irrelevance.
Torquay United were bought out by a fan consortium in 2015, but with money tight they were forced to take a loan from Gaming International, a company headed by Clarke Osborne, who could take ownership of the club if it was not repaid in time. That is exactly what happened.
Osborne’s ownership was a disaster for Torquay United. He admitted that he had little interest in football, but he had previously had interest in moving sports teams out of their homes. Bristol Rovers were evicted from Eastville and grounds were closed in Milton Keynes (greyhounds) and Reading (Speedway). In the case of the final two, no new one ever materialised.
Osborne, who left the day-to-day running of the club to chief executive George Edwards, made no secret of his intention to move Torquay United to a new stadium, but that ambition came hand in hand with on-pitch decline.
When this suffocation and lack of meaningful communication resulted in concerted protests, including by the Supporters Trust, Osborne accused them of being troublemakers and conspirators, singling out Trust chairman Nick Brodrick by name.
On 22 February 2024, I wrote an article detailing Osborne’s history, Edwards’ mismanagement, Torquay United’s lamentable decline and the deep concerns of supporters that called for Osborne to sell the club. Later that day, Osborne did the unthinkable: rather than agreeing to a sale he put Torquay United into administration.
Administration caused an immediate 10-point deduction that made relegation to the Southern League a distinct possibility, but it also brought into focus the potential for the club to go bust. Brodrick spoke openly of scenario planning for liquidation and a phoenix club. I’m happy to admit that I was pretty apprehensive.
Instead, Torquay United got their shot at something new. A consortium of local businessmen and supporters of the club (Bryn Consortium of Michael Westcott, Tom Allen, Mark Bowes-Cavanagh, Matt Corby, Rob Hawes and Simon Robinson) were able to acquire the club via the administrator.
The Bryn Consortium was a nod to Torquay’s own history. Bryn was the name of a dog who, in 1987, bit Jim McNichol in a match that Torquay had to draw to secure their Football League existence. The incident caused a large period of stoppage time, during which Torquay scored the goal they needed.
Paul Wotton was appointed as manager. Neil Warnock, a hero here for keeping Torquay up during a short spell in 1993, became an advisor after a chance meeting with co-chairman Westcott.
Westcott coincidentally sat in the same train carriage as Warnock and his wife with the club wanting some experience to guide everyone through the process and plucked up the courage to make the request.
In the aftermath of Torquay being saved by Bryn, fans and the Supporters Trust reached out and invited me to spend the day here when the dust had settled. It allows me to tell a happier story than one of decline and desperation. That is why I am here.
Brodrick is my guide for the day. As we walk up the stairs of the club offices, he points out that the entire place has been repainted thanks to the volunteer efforts of supporters who were desperate to show their gratitude for the opportunity to leave the miserable recent past behind.
I spend the next two hours having lunch with several of the club’s owners, discussing how Torquay United has changed over the last 18 months. I am sat next to Warnock, now 76 but with a glint in his eye and a love for English football that is only matched by his propensity for telling anecdotes from his last 40 years in the game. I’ve not always been a Warnock acolyte (Sheffield United, play-offs, heartbreak), but he is glorious company.
At 2.30pm, Warnock leaves to go down to the dressing room and spend time with Torquay’s manager and players. Wotton is the manager and calls the shots, but Warnock is prepared to offer his experience whenever asked.
Midfielder Dylan Morgan talks of his inspirational qualities. Before Torquay, Morgan had only seen Warnock’s team talks in viral clips on social media.
For my part, I politely decline the offer to take part in the half-time crossbar challenge competition. I’ve seen my trainers. I’ve seen them watering the pitch. I know how this ends and I’ve got plenty enough anxiety dreams without ruining a sunny day with another.
The Supporters Trust has done a huge amount of work to help Torquay United’s rebuild and secure the club’s long-term future. After a share issue raised close to £250,000, the Trust were able to gain a minority shareholding and two seats on the football board (Brodrick and Danni Wyatt) that guarantee the club can never move ground, change the colour of the home strip or the club’s nickname without agreement. They have paid for ground improvements, grow lights for the pitch and will help to fund a new large digital pitchside screen.
Helpfully, I am treated to the full Torquay United experience. They go 1-0 down against Dover Athletic to a wonderful curled free-kick and then 2-1 down after half-time as both teams exchange penalties.
At the break, Warnock ponders for a moment or two inside before dashing away – “I should be down in the dressing room”. The man is hopelessly addicted to the game that has been a backbone of his adult life.
Torquay equalise through the excellent Jordan Young, but Dover are killing the game and seeking a surprise victory on the break.
As the fourth official prepares to raise his board and indicate six added minutes of stoppage time, there is chaos from a Torquay corner and substitute Matt Jay is able to deflect a winner beyond Dover’s goalkeeper. “Never in doubt,” says Brodrick next to me, with a smile. Fifteen minutes earlier he had predicted a late Jay goal.
What stands out more than the result is the mood at Plainmoor. The club’s average home crowd so far this season is higher than eight League Two clubs and 20 of the 24 teams in the National League above.
They are also 50 per cent higher than they were here two years ago. Last season, Torquay United had more home fans than in any season over the last two decades. This is a sixth-tier club.
The first priority of the new owners was to reconnect the elements of this club that had become disparate: town and club, club and local businesses, supporters and team. There is an initial rush of goodwill, but it takes time too. Too many people had grown accustomed to drifting away from something they couldn’t be proud of.
Despite being favourites to win the game and twice trailing, there is never any negativity in the stands (OK, the referee gets some stuck because: football). There’s no way of saying this without it appearing accidentally patronising, but you can absolutely sense that the people, the players and the framework of the place are at one. They’re genuinely enjoying having something to believe in.
It is 20 minutes after full-time and I chat to some of Torquay’s co-chairs in one of Plainmoor’s hospitality areas. Stood at the bar are Warnock and Young, deservedly selected as the game’s best player. The former has a few more nuggets of advice for the latter, who listens intently. Torquay United have moved up to second in the National League South.
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Torquay may or may not go back up to the fifth tier this season. Supporters obviously want to and they are favourites to win the title having missed out by two goals on the automatic spot in 2024-25. Truro’s own early-season experience suggests that rapid ascent can be hard to cope with.
That also misses the point slightly. Of course the point is to aim to compete at the highest level you can, but there is such a long list of things to do here that there is no rush. When a club is allowed to decay it only makes double the work for those who come next and there is not an unlimited budget. The club must find non-football revenue streams to increase financial sustainability. That only gets easier as the community rediscovers its football club.
That is the headline here: a club that could not be broken beyond repair, a group of local people who saved them and a Supporters Trust that worked tirelessly to get the best deal and to give the fans the power to avoid having to fight so hard again. Let it be sunny in Torquay forever more.
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