I guess i am a 2nd generation, i was introduced to Argyle by mother in the late 50's, my grandfather was a season ticket holder at Torquay, so it would be Argyle one week and Torquay the next, with my grandfather coming down to see Argyle about once a month. If my grandfather was coming down to see Argyle he would get us tickets for the grandstand, if it was just my mum and I it was the Devonport end. By the early 60's i often went to the games on my own, but my mum would go if there were going to be crowds i guess to protect me. Yet she allowed me to go on my own on the Pilgrim Express up to London, my first trip would have been around 61/62 can you imagine today allowing a 11 or 12 year old to go on a train to London by themselves, the train only got you to Paddington so i had to figure out by myself how to get to Charlton or Fulham or wherever Argyle were playing, also remember the train did not leave Paddington to come back to Plymouth until around midnight, so i would wander around get on the tube on the circle line and ride that for an hour or 2, even walked around Soho, which was very educational?????.
The 2 most memorable games i remember were the 2 games against West Ham and Tottenham in the FA Cup in the 61/62 season, over 27,000 for the West Ham game and 40,000 for the Spurs game. Ialso watched many Combination games and even went to i think it was SWPL games, i remember one game my friend Roger Clarke and i went to see Argyle play Newquay because one of the Newquay players was our science teacher at Tamar Mr. Barker, Roger and I were the only spectators at the game and we spent the whole game cheering Mr.Barker, at the end of the game all the players from Argyle and Newquay came over and shook are hands.
In 1964 my mother and I moved to Canada, it was very hard to get the results over there maybe 2 or 3 days later, i ended up buying a short wave radio so i could get the BBC sports service. We moved back to Plymouth in 66 and i resumed watching Argyle, unfortunately this did not last long as in 68 we emigrated back to Canada and for about the next 10 years i would fly back one or twice a year for holidays always making sure it was during the football season, i would stay with my gran and purchased a Brit Rail pass so that i could travel around to see Argyle, remember going to Halifax and Mansfield. Once my gran passed away the trips across the pond became very infrequent.
As time went by i got married and eventually we ended up having 2 boys as soon as they were old enough i introduced them to soccer (football), my family knew not to disturb me on saturday mornings when i would listen to the radio and then eventually to Argyle world where i could listen to Sparksy. Eventually we decided the boys were old enough to take them to England and to introduce them to Argyle. So in the 2004/05 season we came over and thanks to Steve (GOS) he arranged for tickets for us to see Cardiff away and Sunderland at home, we also went to see Yeovil away, Steve also arranged that i was interviewed by Sparksy along with Steve Davey at HT at the Sunderland game, Steve took a couple of pictures of the family with the boys and myself wearing our Argyle shirts, these pictures are still on the GOS site .Unfortunately the boys never got the Argyle fever. Since then the only time i have seen Argyle live was when i went over to watch Argyle at Wembley against Wimbledon. Thanks to Ifollow i can now watch every Argyle game live.
