Friday 18th April 2025 ko 15:00

National League South

TRURO CITY 0

TORQUAY UNITED 1 (Jay 65)

Att 3,306

Advance Ticket for all games on the hop £55

Entry £15

Programme £3

Consider if you will the lot of the groundhop organiser. You’ve got plenty (believe me!) to worry about but one major issue is the middle game of just about any day. You know that there will be no end of competition for the groundhoppers’ attention at 3pm or thereabouts. Here the organiser Phil Hiscox had a real dilemma.

It was as simple as this, superficially. Truro City had moved into their new stadium, part of the Langarth Garden Village project on the city’s western edge at the start of the season, which meant the ground would be on every groundhopper’s to-do list. So with roughly 400 hoppers spending Easter in Cornwall and Truro being at home, what would you do if you were organizing a hop in the South West Peninsula League?

As I see it Phil Hiscox had two options. One was to ignore Truro altogether, and put two games on between the St Day and Wadebridge games, to encourage people to stay “On piste.” The alternative was to accept the draw of the new ground 4 divisions up the pecking order and embrace it. I must admit I did feel for Phil when the opposition ended up being Torquay, so at once the game was a local derby, former tenants versus former landlords, and top versus second too.

It was blindly obvious the game would sell out, and Phil pulled a masterstroke in managing to secure tickets for the game as part of his prebooked ticket. That probably pushed quite a few to prebook, and once bought it was simply a case of presenting the hop ticket at the Disabled Gate. If nothing else it was raining and the ticket bypassed some very long queues! Perhaps there was a real silver lining in Truro’s reserves playing in the Peninsula League in that it gave Phil a contact and some leverage!

A lot has been said about the Truro City stadium, and I do think the place does need to be placed in some context. Firstly the club left Treyew Road in January 2021, and had played out of Cornwall at the likes of Plymouth Parkway, Torquay United, and even Gloucester City. You can understand why they wanted to get home as soon as possible!

The ground, understandably is a work in progress, and I was very aware that were visiting in the pouring rain and the crowd was likely to be 3 or 4 deep. I got wet, and once I found a clear vantage point, there I stayed. It was obvious that the likelihood of getting food and drink quickly was pretty much nil! In the here and now I found the whole experience less than ideal, but do wonder what the place will be like in a couple of years time? The fact that the ground is next door to a park and ride is mighty handy, although egress after games will need to be better planned.

It didn’t help that the game was a tough watch. I remember Oxford United‘s last stint in the National League as being similar in style. Games then, like this one consisted of two athletic, well drilled sides who could cancel each other out but for the most part didn’t have the whit to make something happen. We had Steve Basham on the books, who had played in the Premier League for Southampton, and was heard to glumly comment,

“There are no footballers in this league; only athletes”

The irony that the son of one of his teammates was playing here wasn’t lost on me either. Basham played alongside John Dreyer at Oxford, and Sam Dreyer a real chip off the block was playing in defence for Torquay. And while we’re dealing with relatives, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s younger brother Christian was playing for Truro. Their father? Mark Chamberlain most notably of Portsmouth fame!

Our game was settled by a moment of magic from Torquay’s Matt Jay who’d scored for Truro when Robyn and I visited Treyew Road in 2016. His angled drive was out of keeping with everything else that happened before or after. It was Torquay’s afternoon, but it ended up being Truro’s season as they ended up winning the title and promotion on the final day of the season. Torquay ended up missing out on promotion in the lottery of the playoffs. The promotion will mean Cornwall will have their first representatives in English national football and I’m sure the likes of Carlisle and Gateshead will relish a midweek trip to Truro!

As for the stadium the club clearly have the means and motive to improve their new home, but for now the point is that finally Truro City are home- in Cornwall.