Ellacombe Football Club was an
English football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
club based in
Torquay,
Devon. The club existed until 1910, before merging with the original
Torquay United to form
Torquay Town. A further merger between Torquay Town and
Babbacombe
Babbacombe is a district of Torquay, Devon, England. It is notable for Babbacombe Model Village, the Babbacombe Theatre and its clifftop green, Babbacombe Downs, from which Oddicombe Beach is accessed via Babbacombe Cliff Railway. Frequent bu ...
resulted in the formation of the current Torquay United.
History
Ellacombe were one of a number of football clubs formed in Torquay around the turn of the 20th century. They were founder members of the
Torquay & District League in 1903, a competition which they won in its inaugural season and again in the 1905–06 season. Ellacombe played their home games at
Plainmoor from 1904 onwards after the current residents, Torquay Athletic RFC made a switch to Torquay's Recreation Ground.
[Holgate, Mike (1999). ''Torquay United Football Club 1899–1999''. Tempus Publishing. ] The move left fellow football club Torquay United homeless and helped fuel a rivalry which was fast developing between Ellacombe, United and the third of Torquay's most prominent football teams, Babbacombe. By the 1907–08 season, all three sides were playing in the Torquay & District League with the championship always being won by one of the three sides during the league's first six seasons in operation.
By 1910, Devon's two most successful football clubs,
Plymouth Argyle
Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park, ...
and
Exeter City, had turned professional and there was general feeling in Torquay that the three rivals would need to amalgamate if the town was to have a professional team of its own. Although Babbacombe were firmly against any kind of merger, Ellacombe and Torquay United agreed to join forces and a new club, named Torquay Town was formed. Torquay Town existed until 1921 when Babbacombe finally succumbed to a merger, whereupon the three local rivals were joined together at last to (once again) become Torquay United.
[Edwards, Leigh; Gibbes, Jon; Lovis, John (1999). ''Torquay United, The Official Centenary History, 1899–1999''. Yore Publications. ]
Honours
*Torquay & District League
**Champions (2): 1903–04, 1905–06
Seasons
:
References
External links
*
*
*{{cite web, url=http://www.tufchistory.ulmb.com/ , title=TUFC History , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512082229/http://tufchistory.ulmb.com/ , archivedate=2008-05-12
Torquay United F.C.
Defunct football clubs in Devon
Defunct football clubs in England
Association football clubs disestablished in 1910
1910 disestablishments in England
South Devon Football League