Search: 'Cornwall'

Brian Simpson reports on the growing problem of violence against referees in amateur football

The odds against newspapers as diverse as the Oldham Evening Chronicle, Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung and the Buckinghamshire Examiner reporting similar local football stories over the same few days are pretty slim. Yet that is what happened in mid-October, when all three covered attacks on referees in amateur and lower-league football.

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Cornwall’s flagship team have risen quickly through the football pyramid. James Taylor reports on the challenges Truro City now face

Cornwall has never had a Football League team but this season sees Truro City playing in Blue Square South, just two steps below League Two. Since chairman and local property magnate Kevin Heaney started investing in 2004, the club have won five promotions in six seasons, collecting an FA Vase at Wembley along the way and the nickname of “the Chelsea of non-League”.

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Gareth Nicholson reports on interesting developments in the south-west football scene

A footballing summer in Devon and Cornwall is generally a sleepy affair, punctuated more by tutting about the poor fare offered by pre-season friendlies than talk about player arrivals and departures. Not this summer, though, as the region’s teams reflect on seasons of highs, lows and future uncertainty.

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Clubs such as Plymouth need new fans to grow, but regulars don't always welcome them. Josh Widdicombe reports on the divisions a Cup tie caused

Like any fan of a club that has no chance of winning the FA Cup would be, I was delighted when Plymouth Argyle were drawn away to Arsenal in the third round this season. While no one more than me enjoys saying they have little time for the Big Four and their smug world of Super Sunday’s and big European nights, I was soon getting excited about visiting the Emirates, with all its leg room and upper-circle views. It felt like being asked out on a date by someone unspeakably annoying but unbelievably attractive; you know it is wrong but you just can’t help but be delighted.

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Dear WSC
I have read and reread your comment in Newswatch (WSC 254) that “almost every­where else in the football world, the tackle is largely considered a last resort” just to make sure that it wasn’t a misprint. If I have nothing else to do on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening, I may just watch the utterly compelling drama that I’m told is the Champions League. I see any number of ugly, mistimed and malicious challenges and plenty of good honest physical challenges. The idea that everyone else in the world is neatly passing in balletic patterns while we clog seven shades out of each other doesn’t withstand any sort of scrutiny. Furthermore, let’s not forget one other thing. We love tackling in this country. The one thing guaranteed to get a crowd going during a dull game is someone deciding to crunch in with a couple of hefty challenges. Pardon us for being unreconstructed, but it’s an intrinsic part of a game whose charm is that it combines skill and grace with physical prowess.And the cause of all of this breast-­beating ? The collective assaults of Keane, Rooney, Carvalho, Gerrard and Essien as they jump into challenges with both feet off the ground and their eyes not looking at the ball? Oh, no. An incompetent, mistimed tackle, ending with disastrous results, from a player who has made only a handful of Premiership appearances – because he’s not very good. It ill behoves a publication like yours to jump on this particular bandwagon – and, incidentally, there is no “reinvention”: his nickname has always been “Tiny”, it has been a constant source of irritation to Birmingham fans that a man with his build never “puts himself about” and the fact that he’s studying for a degree should be something of an example to be applauded rather than the object of the sneering dismissiveness you afford him.There may be plenty of things wrong with the game at the top level, but to put Martin Taylor’s tackle at the centre of the argument is to miss the point.
Jon Berry, St Albans

* Though there was room for confusion, the reference to Taylor being “reborn” referred to his being cast as “a victim”, rather than the perpetrator, using those facts.

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