Torquay United F.C.
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| Full name | Torquay United Football Club |
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| Nickname(s) | The Gulls |
| Founded | 1899 |
| Ground | Plainmoor |
| Capacity | 6,500 (Seats 2,950) |
| Chairman | David Phillips |
| Manager | Kevin Nicholson |
| League | National League |
| 2015–16 | National League, 18th |
| Website | Club home page |
Torquay United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The club participates in the National League, the fifth tier of English football, having been relegated from League Two in the 2013–14 season. They are based at Plainmoor and are currently managed by player-manager, Kevin Nicholson.
The original Torquay United was formed in 1899 by a group of school-leavers under the guidance of Sergeant-Major Edward Tomney. The newly founded club played its inaugural match against an Upton Cricket Club XI on one of farmer John Wright's fields, which was situated at the top of Penny's Hill, on Teignmouth Road on the site of modern Parkhurst Road.
After a season of friendlies the club joined the East Devon League and moved into the Recreation Ground, their home for the next four years, Plainmoor being occupied by Torquay Athletic Rugby Club at this time in a reversal of the current situation. In 1904 Athletic secured the lease on the Recreation Ground from underneath United and Torquay and District League rivals Ellacombe took over the lease of Plainmoor leaving United homeless for the first time in their existence and facilitating a return to the farmers fields on Teignmouth Road, however the club was on the move again when the fields were sold to be developed into what would later be known as Parkhurst Road. United soon found another home, sharing with Torquay Cricket Club in nearby Cricketfield Road (a site still used for football in the modern day by South Devon League side Upton Athletic) for four years and during that time won their first honour, the Torquay and District League title in 1909.
Following this breakthrough for the club, the club merged with local rivals Ellacombe in 1910, adopted the name Torquay Town and finally moved into Plainmoor where they would remain to the modern day, during this period the ground was shared with the team's remaining local rival Babbacombe. Both sides were playing in the same league, the Plymouth and District League alongside the reserve teams of Exeter City and Plymouth Argyle, Torquay Town would later win the league in the 1911–12 season.
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