Cartography

Elmore  3  Cullompton Rangers  3

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This is going to sound a bit weird, but bear with me!

Back in the last Eighties I had two fascinations (alongside lager and girls), one was football, and the other strangely enough was cartography!

Cartography, or maps as it’s better known, became something that interested me purely because of my then Geography Teacher, John Featherby, who to this day I spot from time to time stood on the terraces at Belper Town, we always find time for a chat.

We were once looking at a map of Liege in a Geography lesson when John piped up “I find maps fascinating”, so I decided that I too would find maps fascinating, so I started buying them, loads of them, and I’ve still got them, including an old Street Map of Tiverton.

The Late Adam Stansfield Stand

Tiverton is an especially fascinating Street Map for one particular reason, the fact that at the time I acquired it, they had TWO senior football clubs playing in the Western League, Tiverton Town and indeed Elmore.

I decided back in 1989 that I wanted to go to Tiverton, to be fair, mainly because I’d developed a serious curiosity and indeed admiration of Tiverton Town who were pretty tasty in the footballing stakes, but at the same time, Elmore AFC, what was that all about?

I’ll be honest, I’ve never been to the town before now, and apologies to all at Elmore AFC but Tiverton Town has been in the top three of my UK ‘to do’ list of non-league grounds for an awful long time. But that said, I have always been very curious about the lesser of the two town clubs, so once I saw that the newly promoted Eagles had a friendly against neighbouring Cullompton Rangers, we were on our way via a brief sojourn to Bickleigh.

Clubhouse

Elmore were a Western League side from 1978 through to 2013, and in that time they recorded a best placed finish of second in the top division in 1995, losing only two games (have a guess who won it??). In all seriousness though, what a season that must have been for the town of Tiverton?

Following voluntary relegation to the South West Peninsula League in 2013, they lasted one season before withdrawing part way through the 2014-15 campaign. They have plied their trade in the Devon & Exeter League until this season where they have been accepted back into the Peninsula as Champions following going an entire 2017-18 campaign unbeaten.

Managed by Yeovil Town legend Warren Patmore, Elmore look a very well run club and play at a tidy ground on the East side of Tiverton town centre. The entrance to the ground is off the busy main road that leads to the bypass linking the M5 to North Devon, but once inside it’s a very tidy enclosure indeed. A smart clubhouse sits behind the goal alongside a car park, while once beyond the entrance gate a smart stand straddles the half way line, with the dressing rooms to the rear. Floodlights are in place from the clubs Western League days.

On another gorgeous day weather wise, it was Step 6 Cullompton from a junction down the 

motorway who looked the stronger side in the first period and took a two goal lead. A third goal followed just after half time, but the half time bollocking that a furious Patmore gave them seemed to inspire Elmore as they turned the tables completely on Cullompton and scored three goals to get a draw out of the game.

The Game

Very much a game of two halves, Cullompton looked good in the first period but based on the second half performance, Elmore can go into the season with an awful lot of optimism for what lies ahead.

The infrastructure is in place, they clearly have a team that is used to winning bearing in mind they only failed to win twice in the league last season, they also have the momentum that’s important if you want to progress, and I think they will.

Elmore AFC look to be back on the map, but as far as I was concerned, they were always on the map, just a very old one!

Rural Tiverton