Torquay United Fans Forum

Great tales of dedication, by all means keep them coming

I used to live and work in Leeds and a colleague of mine turned out to be a Torquay fan. For a few seasons we used to drive down from Leeds for most of the weekend home games - sometimes we'd do a day trip, sometimes we'd stay over and come back Sunday as I have relatives in the area. We'd generally make the final arrangements on the friday in work.

After about a year my colleague's boss - a french guy - who had heard pretty much every other week that we were travelling to Torquay, asked us which UK airport we flew to Istanbul from to watch the football.

There is a story - possibly an urban legend - that Exeter were playing Hartlepool on a winter's Tuesday evening. Supposedly the Exeter City supporters coach broke down, so the official attendance in the away end was two people. One exeter fan and one Torquay fan that had come in then hope of seeing Exeter getting beaten.

Thanks for the support Jordan. Ive never been to Macclesfield, maybe I can tick that one off next season, fingers crossed.

I went to Gateshead away last year. From memory it was Easter weekend or maybe a week later - 800 mile round trip. Not sure why I did it or if I will again; seemed a good idea at the time. Started out around 05.ooam and got home 02.15. My boy was ok, he slept just about all the way home, but I drove and was knackered.

All the best with your project.

Good evening Gulls fans,

My name is Jordan Davies and I'm a Macclesfield Town fan and final year journalism student.

For part of my major project I'm writing a series of articles on certain aspects of non-league football, one of which is a piece on the astounding distances some fans go to in support of their team.

Torquay obviously clock up more miles in a given season than most other fans could imagine, often at short notice, I remember two FA Trophy ties between yourselves and Macc last season which were both hastily arranged mid-week affairs.

Would any of you be interested in sharing some of the tales of travelling so far just for 90 minutes of football? Why you do it? The greatest lengths you've gone to just for a game? Any particular memories of postponements late in the day, moments you've wondered what the point of it all is? Etc.

If so feel free to email me at [email protected]

When complete these articles will be posted online and I'll be sure to keep you posted as and when.

Thanks in advance and all the best for Saturday's crunch game, I should also add that I have Nicho on Facebook and find him to be extremely open and honest with the fans and genuinely hope you survive, which I'm fairly sure you will given the last two results.

Thanks again,
Jordan