For 50 years David Thomas has been the Torquay United reporter

Every Wednesday in the Herald Express, our Torquay United correspondent Richard Hughes takes a sideways look at what's going on in the world of the Gulls. This week, he talks about celebrating 50 years of David Thomas as the Torquay United reporter.

David Thomas, former Lord Mayor of this Manor, is celebrating 50-plus years as a Torquay United reporter with a do at Plainmoor on Friday night, during which he will be unveiling the Team of his Career.

David, of course, was the chief Torquay reporter for the Herald Express from the early 1970s until 2020 when he ‘retired’ and began writing for the Torbay Weekly.

READ MORE: Torquay United want to keep loan midfielder Will Jenkins Davies

READ MORE: Torquay United 2 Horsham 0 - Gulls progress in FA Trophy

There can be no one alive who has as much Torquay United knowledge in his bonce as David. He is a true journalist who has lived his life through the club for more than five decades.

I first met DT when I worked as the webmaster for the club in the early 2000s, and when I became the Torquay reporter for the Sunday Independent a couple of years later, I would gets lifts to away games with him – and pick his brains on how one should tackle the job.

I will always remember his advice that the first thing a reporter needs to nail is a good intro. It is advice that I have tried to follow ever since – though not always that successfully.

But it is his passion for football and Torquay United, displayed often on the press bench, or heard on Radio Devon, where he is an invaluable summariser, that marks David out as a really great journo.

David was the Torquay writer during the Golden Years of sports journalism, when the daily Herald would drop through your letter box in the early evening and you would devour the latest news from the club. I can only wonder at how many people have read his words in the Herald Express over the years!

Something has been lost since the spread of the internet, the invention of the mobile phone, and the viral growth of social media. Now, as a man of a certain age, I can remember a time when the Herald Express was THE place to read the latest TUFC news, and David was your man.

Youngsters these days wouldn’t cope. Not only was there no way of reading what was going on at the club minute-by-minute, but there was also no way of instantly shouting your opinion to the whole of the world – unedited and often from behind a mask of anonymity. The only mask DT ever celebrated was the one worn by Tim Sills when the striker scored that wonderful goal at Wembley in the 2009 Blue Square Conference play-off final.

The newspaper industry has changed so much since the internet and big business got to grips with traditional media. When I joined the Indy in 2002, there was just ONE ‘email machine’ in the office. The sports desk was busy and the phones were hot. I was too late for the hot metal print days but I bet that was a wonderful time to be a writer on a daily or a Sunday, too.

In 2024, I work at home and do the job perhaps 20 people did then, sitting at my kitchen table and tapping away on a laptop. To use a phrase I used to hear often in the old Grandstand press box: ‘The Game’s Gone’.

But let’s not forget, more than 10 years ago, DT started the first ever Torquay United podcast with fellow former Herald man Guy Henderson – and he still keeps his finger on the pulse of modernity when he guests on The Torquay United Yellow Army Podcast with Guy and I.

It will be a busy old do at Plainmoor on Friday, where lots of former managers and players will sharing their stories with DT, his guests, and those who have snapped up tickets for the event. A last announcement on the club’s website said Chris Hargreaves, Dave Caldwell, Les Lawrence, Willie Brown, Mike Green, Kevin Nicholson, Derek Harrison, Kevin Hodges, John Uzzell, Tom Kelly, John Impey, Paul Compton, Russell Musker, Sean Joyce, Kenny Veysey, Stuart Morgan, Phil Lloyd, John Turner, Paul Wotton, Mike Edwards will be joining David – with more still expected to have confirmed since then.

For more than 50 years DT has been a link between fan and club. And despite our journeys meaning we write for different newspapers these days, I will be raising a glass or two to the man, and a career that has been so important for so many. David doesn’t like too much attention, but on this occasion I’m afraid you are going to have to put up with it, mate. Cheers.