I can see a moderate exodus of young people from Devon. Like Cornwall, it becomes attractive to rich, Tory finance w4nkers, who make their money, sell up in London & move to the country. Inflating property prices, (often with second holiday homes) beyond the means of young local people, whose career opportunities are already limited, by industrial decline & the corporatisation of commerce, tourism & agriculture. People literally priced out of their hometowns. It boils my bin juice..
Cornwall really is fecking miles away. We drove down to St Ives for a weekend in the autumn. Pretty soul-destroying when you stop for a break around Bristol after what already feels like months on the road and realise you're not even halfway there yet.
There were loads of them round town when they played Lincoln recently, and their accents really are absolutely ridiculous.
On my way home from Swillsbro, I had to change trains at Derby and the platform was full of happy Plymouth fans. They'd just beaten Derby with an injury time winner. I got chatting to a bloke and his 10 year old daughter, they left Plymouth at 7am and wouldn't be home till well after midnight (2 changes, Brum and Brizzle). Impressive, particularly considering the cancellation probability of any train at any point in the journey.
My in laws live on a farm near Launceston (just over Devon border) - been doing that trip 4-5 times a year for 25 years. When kids were little would leave 7pm from Leeds and get there about 0130. Daytime journeys- forget it. They are also (mainly armchair) Argyle fans. All travelled together to the 4-1 abandonment match. That was a fun trip back to the farm. On the spread of fans there are a lot scattered - a lot of that due to navy postings and getting affection for the team that way. They took 1500 to Peterboro the other week so I reckon maybe 2k. If the game goes on........
Devon and Cornwall - combined population of 1.3 million. League clubs - 2, plus Torquay. Nobody else in the vicinity. South Yorkshire - population 1.4 million. League clubs 5, plus very easy access to Leeds, Huddersfield, Bradford and Manchester. Plymouth should be an established top-flight club with gates of 30k every week.
Sure I've read somewhere it's the biggest city in Europe never to have had a top flight team. Used to be Hull until a few years ago.
