Question mark still over season tickets after end of football.
Give credit where credit is due so congratulations to Dom Mee for his recent informative and entertaining series of interviews with the manager and players posted on the club’s website. In times of trouble it’s reassuring to hear from those at the top, as leadership is so important and the Queen’s VE Day message last Friday was a big morale boost. Following on from that lead it would be good then, if Dom could pin down Chairman and owner Clarke Osborne for a conversation. Boreham Wood’s Danny Hunter, for example, gives his club’s supporters his heartfelt opinions, keeping them well informed. One question Mr Osborne could be asked, on behalf of the club’s season ticket holders, as now the season is over, is does the club have a policy about the lost five remaining home fixtures. There may well be some fans who have sadly lost their jobs or been furloughed who would welcome a refund. To be clear we, at TUST, agreed at a recent board meeting that where possible season ticket holders should be encouraged to ‘donate’ the remainder of their purchase to the club. For those in need perhaps the club could ask them to get in contact so as to discuss the issue on a case by case basis. When there is clarity about when the 2020-21 season will start the club could ‘reward’ those existing season ticket holders, who donated, by reflecting this in a discount on their renewal. ************* In the A-Z series being featured in the Yellow Army podcast, last week’s letter H reminded me of two others not mentioned. One was Gordon Hines, who was the paper’s Torquay United correspondent when I first started following the Gulls; he was always approachable, keen to chat, and I used to enjoy reading his columns.
The other is Kevin Hill’s dad, Bob, who used to sit two seats from me in the Family Stand. He was always vocal in his opinions and on one famous occasion, after Kevin had had no protection from the referee, at the end of the match Bob raced from his seat down the steps, before vaulting the wall behind the goal and running to the nearest corner flag, wrenching it out of the socket before a couple of stewards ‘rescued’ him from doing any harm. We all sat open mouthed but laughing at what was a mad, surreal moment. After Mike Bateson had a word we didn’t see Bob for a while! ************* I’ve always felt there’s a strong connection between sport and music and this has been reinforced with recent revelations. We’ve had manager Gary Johnson duetting with his wife, Caron, singing their rendition of ‘ We’ll Meet Again’ and then our very own Sports Editor’s ‘Gulls Flying High’ on last week’s podcast. Both these reminded me of Dick Edwards’ album, ‘Big City Boy’, in my LP collection. Edwards joined United from Aston Villa in 1970 and swiftly became a fan favourite being Player of the Season in consecutive years. And more recently local singer Torbados who sang ‘Torquay Torquay’ to the tune of ‘New York New York’ on the pitch before a home match. ************** Finally there’s been some cracking ‘Three Word Fun’ suggestions but I thought I’d leave the competition open for one final week. To enter you need to send your three words to show what you’re missing about football to: fanszone.tu@gmail.com Recent entries: ‘Bring Back Football’, ‘The Gulls Nest’, ‘Null and Void’ and one optimistically missing ‘Play Off Final’. As always to fellow Yellow Army fans, stay safe.
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Nick Brodrick, TUST board member and Supporter Liaison Officer, writes a weekly column for the Herald Express under the heading "Fans' Zone". Keep an eye out for next weeks edition in the paper on wednesday.
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