Stoke Gabriel & Torbay Police Football Club is a

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

Stoke Gabriel Stoke Gabriel is a village and parish in Devon, England, situated on a creek of the River Dart. The village is a popular tourist destination in the South Hams and is famous for its mill pond and crab fishing (known colloquially as ''crabbing'') ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, established in the early 1900s as Stoke Gabriel AFC. In June 2021, the club merged with newly promoted Devon League club, Torbay Police FC, administrated by police officers and staff of the Devon & Cornwall Police, originally founded in 1969. The newly merged club, nicknamed "The Bees", competes in the and currently plays at the

G.J. Churchward George Jackson Churchward (31 January 1857 – 19 December 1933) was an English railway engineer, and was chief mechanical engineer of the Great Western Railway (GWR) in the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1922. Early life Churchward was born at ...

Memorial Ground. The club has two senior teams and multiple youth teams.

History

Stoke Gabriel

Formed in the early 1900s, Stoke Gabriel Football Club had relied on the generosity of local farmers to provide a ground during which the changing rooms remained in the village where both the school room and an old army hut were utilised. In 1981 the club purchased land in Broadley Lane and developed a sloping field into their current home, the G.J. Churchward Memorial Ground, named in honour of the Great Western Railway Chief Engineer who was born in Stoke Gabriel. The ground was officially opened in 1984 with a visit from

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the , the fifth tier of English football. They have played their home matches at Plainmoor since 1921 and are nicknamed ...

. The opening of the new ground coincided with the most successful era of the club during which the South Devon League Premier Division, The Herald Cup and the George Belli Cup were won. Stoke Gabriel were founder members of the

Devon County League The Devon County Football League was a football competition based in England. It consisted of 20 clubs and sat at step 7 (or level 11) of the National League System. History The league was formed in 1992 in order to form an intermediate level bet ...

in 1992, and were champions in 1994–95 and 1996–97. After struggling in the league during the early 2000s, they were founder members of the South West Peninsula League in 2007, playing in Division One East. Runners-up three times in four years, they won the championship in 2013–14. They were demoted to Division One East at the end of the 2017–18 season after failing to install floodlights by the required deadline. The club installed floodlights prior to the 2019–20 season, in order to comply with the conditions imposed upon them to enable their promotion back to Step 6. During the 2020–21 season, Stoke Gabriel received national media attention after losing their opening ten games of the season, scoring twice and conceding 122 goals. The season was eventually curtailed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, with Stoke Gabriel having conceded 207 goals, scoring seven times, in 18 matches.

Torbay Police

Torbay Police Football Club was originally founded in 1969 before eventually folding in 1989. During this period the original club competed in the Police Divisional Cup, Wednesday League, East Devon League &

South Devon Football League The South Devon Football League, known under a sponsorship arrangement as the TCSSDFL, is a football competition based in England. Its top division, the ''Premier Division'', sits at level 12 of the English football league system. This league ...

. The club, in its new guise, was formed on 15 October 2010 by two local police officers; Dave Thomas and Lee Langley. It was set up at this time to play in exhibition matches in aid of local charities and children with life limiting or changing conditions. The club hosted and played in a number of high profile events, taking on the likes of

Tottenham Hotspurs Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

Legends,

Arsenal FC Arsenal Football Club, commonly referred to as Arsenal, is a professional football club based in Islington, London, England. Arsenal plays in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The club has won 13 league titles (inclu ...

XI,

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

XI,

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XI to name a few. Torbay Police were re-entered into the South Devon Football League after more than two decades' absence. The club rose through the divisions eventually gaining promotion to the Devon Football League (step 7) in 2021. The club was nicknamed 'The Bees' mainly due to the club home colours, and also established a youth set-up.

Merged club

On 2 June 2021, Stoke Gabriel had announced they had merged with Torbay Police to create Stoke Gabriel & Torbay Police. Lee Langley, founder member of Torbay Police FC, took on the Chairperson role with Tim Perrin as Secretary and David Thomas as Head of Youth; during the somewhat difficult transition to the newly formed organisation. Langley had previously guided the Torbay club from Division 7 of the South Devon Football League to the Devon League (Step 7). After the initial transition period, Langley stood down from the role of Chair; succeeded by Daniel Muirden, a former Stoke Gabriel player and coach, who was unanimously voted into the post. Perrin and Thomas retained their roles and Langley is now Club President.

Former players

1. Players that have played/managed in the Football League or any foreign equivalent to this level (i.e. fully professional league).
2. Players with full international caps.
3. Players that hold a club record or have captained the club. *

Kieffer Moore Kieffer Roberto Francisco Moore (born 8 August 1992) is a professional footballer who plays as a striker for club AFC Bournemouth and the Wales national team. Moore started his career with Conference South club Truro City, having as a tee ...

Richard Hancox Richard Hancox (born 4 October 1968) is an English former professional footballer. He has held various roles at Torquay United in his career. Career Hancox was born in Stourbridge and first joined Exeter city in 1985, he was not offered a contr ...

* Kevin Wills

Honours

League honours

South West Peninsula League The South West Peninsula League (SWPL) is a football competition in England, which was formed in 2007 from the merger of the Devon County League and the South Western League. The league is restricted to clubs based in Cornwall, Devon and West D ...

Division One East: ** Winners (2): 2013–14, 2016–17 ** Runners-up (3): 2009–10, 2011–12,

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

: ** Winners (2): 1994–95, 1996–97 ** Runners-up (3): 1993–94, 1995–96, 1999–2000

References

External links

Official website
Football clubs in Devon South West Peninsula League Football clubs in England Devon County League South Devon Football League Association football clubs established in 1905 1905 establishments in England Police association football clubs in England {{DEFAULTSORT:Stoke Gabriel and Torbay Police F.C.