at the Victoria their rivals still met. Support was instantaneous and in the current era of armchair viewing it seems incredible that more than 500 supporters trudged to the ground at the top of the hill. Success was instantaneous, too. In their first few friendlies their only defeat was against Paignton before a crowd of nearly 2,000. Halfway trough the season it was obvious that Athletic and Brixham would be contesting the section final for the Devon Junior Cup. This was split into four divisions with the top team of each being drawn in the semi-finals. In the Torquay section
upset Athletic’s ambitions, but town enmity was forgotten and Brixham scraped through 3 – 0. To stay in contention for the cup, Athletic had to win their last three matches. They beat Newton Abbot 6 – 3 after another tempestuous struggle in which Chase was knocked out again and they finished with only 13 players.
Coincidentally, the last two
games were against their opposite Dartmouth numbers. The meeting of the clubs had been savoured for some time but these circumstances gave it extra flavour. A battle of brawn sparked off early in the first
‘The next season the two rival clubs combined, but it was odd that unity did not bring the same degree of success. Divided they prospered; united they fell’
were such powers as Paignton, Brixham, and Torquay. At the halfway stage Athletic and Brixham had played four games each and had not lost, so when Brixham were due to do battle at Jawbones more than 250 of their fans made the trip across the Dart. They were not disappointed. A drop-goal gave them a 3 – 0 victory. That seemed to be the end of the ambitions of Athletic – or so thought their rival Dartmouthians, but a few weeks later the club were back in the reckoning. This time 300 made the return
invasion to Brixham. In a hard slog, fullback Chase was knocked out and Athletic were content to be on pointless terms at half time. Brixham only needed to draw to make sure of heading the group, but six minutes from the final whistle they, too, were defeated by a drop-goal, landed by Carnochan from 30 yards at an awkward angle. Dartmouth was back on the pot- hunting trail again. Brixham lost no more matches and their final qualifying game was against the old Dartmouth side.
Some predicted that this would be a gift for Brixham, if only to
half when the referee ordered off a Dartmouth forward for striking an Athletic player. Two Athletic men were knocked out and worse followed when a touch judge ruled out one of their tries, but against the 14 men of their “working class’’ rivals, Athletic ran out 12 – 0 winners. The return was an anti-climax; in the mildest of games Athletic achieved a 9 – 3 victory, so they were bracketed with Brixham at the head of the Torquay group. The county rugby union ordered a play- off and even in this decision there was controversy. Foreseeing there would be a large ‘gate’ the county ruled that the clubs should be paid only expenses and that the gate money should go to county funds. Both clubs’ protests were rejected. Came the day, came the crowds.
The ferry had to make three trips to transport 750 Dartmouth fans to Kingswear Station. From Brixham, 500 made the journey and all received a warm welcome at Paignton for they had a grandstand view of a fire raging in a monastery alongside the Queen’s Park ground. The battle raging on the field was hot too. Langmead would
have been Dartmouth’s man of the match, if there had been such an award in those days. He secured all their points with a try and a dropped goal, but in the dying minutes Brixham came back with a try by Lamswood which was converted by Ash. In desperation Brixham hurled the weight of their pack at Dartmouth’s line, but it held to the end and for the third match of the season between theses rival towns a dropped goal was the decider.
In the weeks before the semi-
final against St Chad, winners of the Plymouth divisions, Athletic relaxed and took two thrashings, but on semi-final day they were well tuned. Both sides were tied down in midfield tussles and at half-time there was no score; at full-time there was no score either. A minute from the end of extra-time there was no score still; then Dartmouth’s forwards heeled sharply. Pepperel fastened on to the ball; a quick pass was sprayed out to Langmead, who in turn passed on to Carnochan. There followed one of those memory-making tries which rated with the famous Twickenham runs by Obolenski before World War II. Carnochan spurted through the centre; two St Chad three-quarters closed in on him, but he dummied to go round them and jinked through the gap between them. There was no-one between him and the line now. He tore on and with half a dozen players trailing in his wake raced into the centre and touched down under the post. Pepperel had seconds to convert to give Athletic a 5 – 0 victory. So the scene was set for the final
against Exeter at Newton Abbot. Athletic were trying to set a record by winning the cup in their first season and to bring an additional record by making Dartmouth the first town to win the trophy three times. For Bill Ellis there was a chance of a personal record. He had appeared in Dartmouth’s team which took the cup in their halcyon days and here he was 12 years
contd. over 39
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